We are continuing with our sermon
series on the “Attributes of God.” I
apologise to online parishioners and readers for being so absent but other responsibilities
kept me away from sermon writing, I am definitely behind where I wanted us to
be in our journey through this but what can you do? I pray that everyone is doing well and
wherever you are in this world you are blessed and you feel the love of God in
you, around you, and on you-because God loves you.
This
sermon we are looking at the impeccability of God; Impeccability meaning,
perfect, without flaw or error. I
believe that this attribute best defines what God is, for no being can claim to
be God without being perfect. No being would
want to worship a God who was reactive, made errors, and sinned. One of the main tenets of Christianity is
that Christ was fully man and sinless but He was tempted and as such we can
have victory over sin because of Christ we can say we will be perfect. The Bible says “be perfect as Christ is
perfect.” The last sermon I wrote was on
the impassibility of God, and as I have said before God’s attributes cannot be
divided. You cannot have one and not
have the other. I don’t know about you
but not only do I find it comforting that God and thus Christ is perfect but
that there is no possibility of sin and because of that impeccability. We are going to be looking at God’s
perfection in 3 ways, first the proof that God must be impeccable because He
could be nothing but, secondly that Christ is impeccable because He is the
incarnate God, and third what does that mean for us as Christians, devout
followers of Christ.
People
often think God makes mistakes. I was
driving home one day and on a billboard of an Anglican church it said “many
people want to serve God but only as advisors.”
The reason people have trouble giving up control to the Lord is because
they cannot trust because they are afraid He will make a mistake! Psalm 18:30 says that God is perfect! He does not make a mistake. In ancient societies the gods of old could be
swayed and often made choices that human beings were disgusted with. Often times these ancient deities required sacrifices
that were extreme and the legends of their conduct read like a rated r
movie! A god should never be more sinful
that their creation. In today’s society
the three Abrahamic religions fight over many things but we thing we do not
fight about is that God is perfect. As
the Bible says that no one has goodness in them all goodness comes from God
(Ps.16:2). If something is the source of
all goodness it must be perfect. Rene Descartes
posed this logical proof for God’s perfection and existence. He said that God must exist for we are aware
of God’s perfection: He is the greatest
(most perfect) being, it is greater to exist than not to exist, and thus God
exists. Another proof of God’s
perfection is His holiness. God is
referred to many ways in the Bible but
the top two ways God is referred to is as a God of mercy and firstly a God of
holiness. God does not break His word
even when we make mistakes, thank Him-even at personal cost to Him. But the relationship we enjoy with God is not
evidence of His impeccability but that of Christ because if God had sent a mere
man to pay for our sins, he would have come up short in the bill but we needed
an impeccable man-we needed someone who had His foot in both worlds, the human
nature and temptations we endure and yet the perfect nature of the Father; we
have that combination in Christ.
We must
be careful not say that Christ started life with a clean slate nature and struggled
to avoid sin lest He would fall under His Father’s wrath but it was a struggle
and almost lost it a few times. Christ
is sinless because He was possessed and made up of the Father’s holy
nature. And it was so intrinsically part
of His being that while the enemy tried to tempt Him He could not sin because
it would go against His very nature. In
the Bible there is no evidence that Christ even thought about sinning. Christ is the physical and evidential human
proof of God’s impeccability because as the Lord Jesus says “the Father and I
are One.” So let us look at the proof
that Christ and thus God is perfect.
Well let’s go right back to the beginning, no not Genesis-too far, I am
leaving lets leaf through the pages of time to just over 2000 years ago,
roughly 2040 years ago-in Galilee, Nazareth should be good. This farm girl is sitting, resting from her
day’s work. And an angel comes to herald
good news of great joy. The Holy
(perfect) Spirit of the Most High will come upon her and overshadow her. In the gospel of Luke the angel calls the Christ
growing in the Virgin’s womb a “Holy thing”.
This should not be surprising since the Son of God must be holy since He
is holy. A son will always have the
attributes of their parents-why should the Son of God be any different and
since He is perfect and claims to be from God as the angels confirmed then
logic dictates God is perfect. But what
evidence do we have of the impeccability of Christ’s character during His adult
life?
The
perfection of Christ has been one of the most hotly debated topics in theology
since the Lord’s ministry. But one of
the most powerful passages Jesus claims His own impeccability without putting
Himself about the Father is in John 14:30; “Hereafter
I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath
nothing in me.” Jesus says plainly
and humbly that Satan, the root of evil has nothing in Him or near Him so thus
He has no sin. Earlier in the gospel of
John Christ is so sure of His impeccability He challenges people to find one
iota of sin in His life. He lays it out
in the open as He did throughout His entire ministry; but He did the same with
human beings. “Let he who is without sin
cast the first stone.” Jesus put Himself
on our level and as such He said since my life and all my personal little
moments are open to you, yours are open to Me.
Another proof of His perfection is the fact that Christ did not suffer
illness, physical or mental. Illness is
a result of man’s fall from grace as is death and Christ did not taste either
naturally. Medical researchers say that
based on the information at hand and historic analysis Christ should have died
from His injuries and blood loss hours before.
The final point I would like to look at is how God through Christ’s
perfection is cause for extreme joy for us.
One of
the core arguments people give for not accepting God’s gift is because they
claim that they hate the thought of being judged and they feel extreme pressure
because God is perfect they would feel more comfortable with a deity who can connect
more to what they are going through.
This would be a valid argument if Christ did not come but the fact that
Christ, came, ministered, died and rose again.
In 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 12 it says “For he (God) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin
for us, who (Christ) knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him.” One of the most obvious examples of
Christ’s impeccability in that famous event, His temptation by Satan in the
desert. And this brings me to my third
point, why His perfection is cause for joy on our part. The purpose of Christ being tempted in the
desert was not as some people believe purification but a necessary part of His
incarnation, the same way He was cold, or hungry, or had His hair grow. But the reason we should cheer at His
perfection is that Christ overcoming temptation blots out an error from the
beginning of time. The last Adam did
what the first Adam could not. Jesus
Christ has often been referred to as the Last Adam both Him and the first Adam
are direct sons of God, one being completely human and a clear failure and the
other the older, perfect brother. Dr.
John McCormick summed it up best;
“The First Adam was tempted in a beautiful
garden, and fell in utter defeat. The Last Adam was tempted in a barren
wilderness, and was victorious. The
First Adam was given a “helpmate” to strengthen and encourage him. The Last
Adam stood alone. The First Adam was not
tempted directly by Satan, for his inducement to sin came from the very one who
was appointed to be his helpmate. The Last Adam was tempted directly by Satan. The First Adam’s defeat brought guilt and
condemnation to all his posterity. The Last Adam’s victory brought grace and
cleansing to all His posterity. Thank
God, He who faced the Tempter in the wilderness was no mailed soldier with a
toy shield defending Himself against paper arrows! He was the Last Adam,
standing in the position of being the federal head of a new race, and winning
for them the victory over the Tempter from the very beginning of their new
existence!”
The entire premise of this sermon is that God
is perfect but above that God is perfect and we should be grateful. This can be summed up finally and wholly in
Hebrews 2:10, 14-18; “10 For it was fitting that he,
for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should
make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering... 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself
likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the
one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver
all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 for
surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that
he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to
make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he
himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being
tempted.”
In each of these sermons we
could analyze for years and write novels expounding on one topic. When I start writing these sermons I always
need to reign myself in and refocus myself.
But fortunately that is not hard, the question I always ask myself to
refocus is, how does this point to the supremacy of Christ? God is perfect, that really was never in
doubt, but the reason people doubt Christ is because He is a man. He is a perfect man, no; He is a perfect Son
of God sent to erase the imperfection of a fallen species descended from
another son of God-that is the joy of Christ’s impeccability. May the Lord bless you this week, may He make
His face to shine upon you and grant you peace.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
