THE BAPTIST FAITH AND MESSAGE, Article Four

This is part four of a continuing series of articles examining the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. This statement of faith was adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting on June 14,2000 “to set forth certain teachings which we believe.”

God the Son

“Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.”

Genesis 18:1ff.; Psalms 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.; Isaiah 7:14; 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5,21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21;8:9; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-22; 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; Titus 2:13-14; Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 12:2; 13:8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; 1 John 1:7-9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9; 2 John 7-9; Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.
(Baptist Faith and Message, 2000)

Bethlehem was not the beginning of Christ, the Son of God. That marked the entrance of the Eternal Son into this temporal sphere as a Being of flesh. The Man, Jesus, was born in a manger, but there was never a time when Christ was not. He is God without beginning and ending—Alpha and Omega.

Yet the Infinite became an infant. When He stepped out of the Celestial City and into time and space, Jesus laid aside the prerogatives of Deity and took upon Himself the limitations of humanity. He was just as much God as if He were not man, and just as much man as if He were not God. He is the Godman—not God-man—not a demigod, half god and half man, but fully God and man.

Nearly two thousand years ago, the Spirit of God wrought a miraculous conception as Jesus the Unique, Only Begotten Son of God was implanted in Mary’s womb in a one and only kind of event—a virgin young lady nurturing God within her. In doing so, He became man that He might die for us—while still God to make His death sufficient for all mankind to be forgiven of their sins. By this miracle, God brought One into the world who was untainted by the pollution of Adam’s race, yet still a member of that race. You have never met a perfect person—but there was one—Jesus Christ. Tempted like we are and yet without sin—we have a spotless sacrifice. He was subjected to all the toils, trials and tears of this terrestrial plane, so that we have a sympathetic Savior. Only Jesus could qualify to deal with our sins.

Having fulfilled all the righteous demands of God, Jesus became our substitute on Calvary. He became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. When He cried from the cross, “It is finished!” He meant that the debt was paid in full.

Yet, that death would have only been a grave miscarriage of justice, a horrible tragedy, had the tomb been the end of the line for Jesus. But He arose—literally, bodily—glorified humanity! Because He lives, we can live also.

Hundreds of people saw Jesus alive from the dead. Skeptics have tried since the first century to undermine the credibility of the Gospel accounts, but there is no other explanation for the transformation in the disciples except that they actually saw Jesus resurrected. For forty days He demonstrated His conquest of death by many infallible proofs.

Then He ascended into heaven before the eyes of the startled and saddened onlookers. Rising up into the clouds, He was received into glory with the promise that He would come again. There—at the right hand of the Father—He waits for the word which will send Him back for His bride, the church. Meanwhile, Jesus is not idle—He ever lives to intercede for us. His death on the cross purchased our salvation; but His mediation in heaven preserves it. He died to save us and ascended to secure us.

One day, perhaps soon, the trumpet will sound and the authoritative voice that summoned Lazarus back to life will call the sleeping saints to awaken from their graves. Those who are alive when Christ appears in the clouds will be transformed and given bodies like unto His glorious body. Together, we will rise to meet Him in the air.

This will begin the final countdown to the end of the age. Judgment will be meted out. The One who will judge, as well as the criteria by which humanity will be judged, is Jesus Christ, who in that day will be acknowledged as King of kings and Lord of lords. Before Him every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Some will bow gladly. I will. Others, who have similarly received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in this life, will be saved eternally and welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Some will bow sadly. They missed their opportunity to enter heaven. Fully intending one day to be saved, they waited too late and never accepted Christ’s invitation. The road to hell will be paved with their good intentions.

Some will bow madly. The enemies of Christ will be forced to acknowledge His triumph. Even Satan himself—the ultimate rebel—will have to grovel before being cast into the lake of fire.

But all will bow before God the Son.

If you want to be saved, you must do so now!