You Cannot Understand the Messiah’s Incarnation until You Accept the Necessity of Messiah’s Suffering
Jesus emphasized His impending suffering and death at the hands of the religious leaders more than any other aspect of His Messiahship. Comprehending the true nature of Jesus, the incarnation, is impossible if God does not reveal it unto you (Matthew 16:17). The incarnation is incomprehensible if you do not understand and accept your inability to save yourself.
At the same time, the suffering and vicarious death of the Messiah as a sacrifice for sin makes no sense if His nature is not divine. Jesus was intrinsically righteous by nature of the fact that He is God. We will discover in our study that the Messiah had to be both God and human if His sacrifice for sin would atone for our own. Many religious people stumble at this truth of the gospel. How can a man atone for the sin of another man? Why would God make Jesus pay for our sins? It doesn’t make sense and doesn’t seem just. Human reasoning tells us that we must pay for our own sins. The reason many do not understand nor accept the atonement of Jesus for sin is that they do not understand His righteous nature and the justice and love of God.
The Jews did not discern the necessity of a suffering Messiah and therefore could not comprehend the divinity of Jesus. They were going about to establish their own righteousness. The primary message of Jesus was calling the people of Israel to repent of self-righteousness and believe the gospel. The Jews wanted the glory of the Messianic Kingdom without the suffering the Scriptures so often foretold was necessary. Their desire for a physical Kingdom blinded them from their need for the spiritual. Without spiritual restoration, who will be the subjects in the physical Kingdom?
The Jews also failed to consider the implications that ensue the inauguration of the Messiah’s glory. When He comes in glory, He will come to judge and rule the nations with a rod of iron.
The Jews thought that righteousness was the product of the works of the law. They taught that God’s favor was earned by both birthright and behavior. Any honest self-evaluation would lead a person to conclude that if judged according to the perfect law, they would fall woefully short of the glory of God. When the Messiah comes to judge, even the chosen people of God are guilty under the condemnation of God. This is Paul’s essential argument in Romans 2 and 3. Jesus said as much when he preached:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” Matthew 7:21-23
Notice in this passage, many who believed in a messiah were trusting their own works to make them righteous enough for Heaven. They point to their works: prophesying, casting out demons, and other wonderful works. They claimed to do these things in the name of the Messiah but did not know the Messiah because they rejected the nature of the Messiah. They rejected the divine nature of the Messiah because they did not accept the necessity of the atoning sacrifice of a perfect lamb. They trusted in their own works and thought that simply attaching the name of the Messiah to their actions, God would be pleased.
The Blessing of Israel’s Rejection and the Hope of their Restoration
The nation of Israel was cut off because of unbelief, and through their fall, the Gentile world was given access to this grace by faith alone. Paul states, “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15).
How or why does a non-Jew receive the salvation blessing promised to Israel? First, we all, Jew and Gentile, are qualified, equal opportunity sinners. Because we come to God on equal ground as sinners, we stand on equal ground when we are made righteous by faith. God established Israel and made a covenant with them through the Law that He might testify to all mankind the holy and righteous standard He requires for someone to become a son of God.
Imagine the blessing of having been given a standard or a commandment to keep in order to please God and receive eternal life and be saved from damnation and wrath. The nation of Israel was given such a blessing when God sought out people and adopted them as His own. To His children, He gave a Law and promises and covenants and a service (priesthood). You, as a Gentile, are on the outside looking in. You are overwhelmed, not only by God’s standard (Law) but by a people that are completely dedicated to fulfilling the Law.
Your service and your commitment don’t even come close to the religious practice of the Jew. As a Gentile, you are not only on the outside of the covenant and promises of God, but you are an enemy. You are an alien of the commonwealth of Israel. You are not a son. You are not a part of the family of God. You are without God and without hope in the world. It appears that only the Jews will find favor with God.
But herein is the genius of God’s plan. A people dedicated to the way of Righteousness has not received the promises nor the inheritance. After all of their dedication to the Law and its righteousness, God concludes them in unbelief: “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32).
The word concluded means they are shut up from blessing. Why? Because of unbelief! God shut up His own people from salvation because of unbelief. But this cutting off opens the door of mercy to me. If the chosen people of God are under that same penalty as me, who was on the outside as an enemy, then their salvation must also be available to me! If it is by grace and not work, then I also can approach through grace, because grace is accessed by faith! Jesus suffered for all mankind because he suffered being the righteous Creator of all things.
In our next lesson, we will discover that the Bible overwhelmingly points to the necessity of the suffering and death of the Messiah.