By Pastor Dave Farmer
Who is Jesus? Jesus raised the issue with His generation, so it must be important!
The text of this study is Matthew 22:41-46
Introduction
In this article, we continue looking at the major errors that led to Israel rejecting our Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah. In the previous article, we established the truth that in the Old Testament there was sufficient teaching that revealed the ministry of the First Advent which the Jewish scribes and Doctors of the law missed. The second error was fatal. They failed to see the unique character or nature of their Messiah as taught in the Old Testament. Is Jesus just a man?
The second greatest failure of Judaism is in not grasping the unique Person and Nature of Messiah
They only expected The Messiah to be a man. They could not comprehend the fact that God Himself would enter the human race and die for us. Jesus is clarifying the problem particular to the Jews at this time. They were not fully informed about the Person of the Messiah. They were missing pertinent doctrinal information. Satan is in the misinformation business, a super deceiver, so it doesn't surprise me that this same problem still exists today. The Muslims, Jews, and some of the Eastern faiths speak well of Jesus. Many of the cults, like the Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, have a positive view of Christ. The question Jesus asks is still relevant today. Who is Jesus? Your answer will determine your eternal destiny. This is central. Jesus asks, "Who am I?"
It is important to ask, "Where in the Old Testament is the Messiah taught to be God Himself?" Great question! Jesus wanted to know if they knew! So He asks, "Whose son is He?"
They were all aware of the fact that Jesus continuously referred to Himself as the Son of God. When He spoke publically, He was always mentioning to them that His Father in Heaven, "who is Jehovah,” gave Him His Mission and Words. “On one occasion they concluded that what He said was blasphemous and they took up stones to murder Him [John 10:25-31]. Why? Because He said, "the Father and I are One." What did He mean? Now, we are the sons of God by faith alone in Christ alone [ Galatians 4: 5,6]. We are sons based on regeneration, and that statement is not going to offend the Jews. Yet what He said was that He is the Son of God by nature. He is the unique born Son of God [John 1:14]. It was making Himself equal with God that so enraged them. What was their answer?
The Pharisees Answer
42b] They said to Him, “The son of David.”
These men are Old Testament experts. They understand the Messianic line will come through King David [2 Samuel 7:8-16]. It is interesting that no one ever asked Him to substantiate His Messianic line. He certainly could have for from the standpoint of His humanity both of His parents were descendants of David. Joseph's line goes through Solomon to David [Matthew 1:1-17] and Mary through Nathan/Solomon/David [Luke 3: 23-39].
The covenant [Davidic Covenant 1] guaranteed the perpetuation of the line of David. God promised that there would always be a king from the line of David to rule over Israel. Yet, who was sitting on the throne in Jesus' day? King Herod! He was the King of the Jews. Herod does not fulfill the promise for he was an Idumean. Herod came from a place south of Jerusalem and Hebron. They were a mixed Arab race from the ancient Edomite people. In other words, He was a gentile. They understood this. They were looking for someone from the house of David. In this, we must agree with them. They were half right, but this is the point, they were half wrong. Messiah is more than just the Son of David which stresses His humanity; He is also God the Son.
If my view of our Lord Jesus Christ is faulty in that I disregard the fact of His deity, then I devalue His work on the cross. God the Son became a man in order to die for man. Deity cannot die. You see one of the attributes of God is eternal life. Eternal life has no beginning and no end. God cannot die. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, added to His already existing deity, a human nature. Now as a man He could become the substitute for our sins and be judged on the cross. This is how infinite and perfect God explains divine love.
God demonstrates that love [Romans 5:7]. He provides eternal salvation for everyone, without exception, so that we might know about the love of God [John 3:16]. Salvation is tied to understanding the deity of Christ. If Jesus is to evangelisze them, He must elevate their thinking about the Messiah. Messiah is God the son. Now we see the purpose for his quoting Psalm 110.
Our Lord's Follow- up Question [43 - 45]
43] He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,
Notice that David is speaking " lit. in the sphere of the Spirit." David is being led by God the Holy Spirit to write down these words. Jesus says that this is the inspired Word of God. It is not from the Talmud or the Mishna; it is from God's unadulterated Word having absolute authority.1
44] ‘The Lord [God the Father] said to my Lord [the Lord Jesus Christ], “Sit at My right hand Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet” ’? [Acts 14-11 cp 2:23-342]
45] “If David then calls Him ‘Lord, [God]’ how is He his son?”
David was led by the Holy Spirit down through the corridors of time. He sees son after son ruling and then the last Son appears. He is the one called the Messiah, and he gets a glimpse of his Son's victory celebration in Heaven, and this Son is our Lord Jesus Christ. David is being transported through time, and God the Father points His finger at our Lord Jesus Christ, also David's Son, and says "This is My Son in whom I am well pleased." David at that moment recognizes the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and calls Him kupie which means Lord-God. He sees the Ascension and Coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ, right after His first strategic victory on the cross, a thousand years before these events. Jesus then asks a simple question, "Why did David call his son God?"
Silence!
46] No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.
The Lord patiently and lovingly wanted them to realize that the Messiah they were looking for was greater than their commonly held beliefs. He was the God [John 1:1] -Man [John 1:14] 3. They did not appreciate how much their God loved them, in that, for their redemption He must come. There was no other way [John 14:6], no other sacrifice [Hebrews 10:12] to provide for them eternal life and fellowship with Him.
After the Ascension, Peter stood before the Sanhedrin, the ones who put our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and defended the fact that Jesus was the unique God-Man.
36] “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord [God] and Christ [man]—this Jesus whom you crucified.” [Acts 2:36]
Peter had listened to the Lord that day in the temple and also quotes Psalm 110 and provides the same interpretation. This is the second time this verse in the Scripture is given its proper teaching. The two natures of Christ is a crucial doctrine 3 to know. An incomplete knowledge of who our Lord Jesus Christ is can indeed hinder your fellowship with God. If it kept the Jews of Jesus day from salvation, we could only conclude that the same is true for all who do not believe that Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh. Do the two natures of Christ provide a challenge to our minds? Of course, it is a difficult point of doctrine. But if God reveals it in the Scripture, let us then believe it!
Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer's attitude is my adopted view. I am finite and possess a very limited capacity to understand the deep things of God. As Dr. Chafer writes regarding an equally difficult doctrine:
Through the two revealed facts - divine election and the universality of divine love- cannot be reconciled within the sphere of human understanding, here as elsewhere, God may be honored by believing and resting in Him. Therefore, to God be all the glory! And to Him be given the first consideration! Those systems of religious thought which require that the Doctrine of God shall conform to the notion of the supremacy of man, which also begin with man, defend man, and glorify man, are fundamentally wrong and therefore are productive of God-dishonoring error. The true system of religious thought begins with God, defends God, and glorifies God...4
In the spiritual life that we live, we must decrease, He must increase, "To God Be the Glory."
Endnotes
1 The Davidic Covenant was God 's promise to David, and it is found in 2 Samuel 7:8- 16. There are six blessings in this covenant, three that are fulfilled in David's lifetime and three after His death. The latter is important background for this study. The three promises to David that would be fulfilled after his death are these:
1. God would give David an eternal seed, 2 Samuel 7:12.
God promised David that he would always have a Son who would rule Israel. In other words, the line of David would never cease to exist. Does the fact that Herod sits as King of The Jews mean that the covenant has been abrogated? Absolutely not! 2 Samuel 7: 14,15 explains that there will times the throne will be vacant of a ruling monarch because of divine discipline, but there will always be one who has the right to sit on David's throne.
According to 2 Samuel 7:14 the requirement for any king to rule was obedience, disobedience would incur chastisement, but never rejection as in the case of King Saul [2 Kings 8:19; 19:3-4; 20:6]. In the reign of Hezekiah, the Assyrians marched on Jerusalem. Hezekiah prayed for deliverance and God through Isaiah spoke:
33] “By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,” ’declares the LORD.
34] ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David ’s sake. ’ ” [2 Kings 19:33,34]
Our Heavenly Father says to Hezekiah, l will remember the covenant that l made with David, i.e., "David sake." For a thousand years Satan tried to destroy the line of David but failed. Jesus Christ was in the line of David, a true Son of David in His humanity [Matthew 1:1-17]. After our Lord Jesus Christ arose from the grave, he became the Eternal Son of David fulfilling this part of the covenant. When the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D all genealogical records were also destroyed. lt would be impossible after the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent dispersion for anyone to trace their line of descent. Yet, in the Scriptures, our Lord‘s genealogical line is written down and preserved forever.
2. God would give David an eternal kingdom or a sphere of rule, 2 Samuel 7:16. This is yet to be fulfilled and in a later covenant, The Palestinian Covenant [Real Estate], the specific borders of that future kingdom are clearly delineated [Genesis 13:15; 15:18-21; Exodus 6:4,8; Numbers 31:1-12; Joshua 1:2-4; Jeremiah 32:36-44; Ezekiel 11:16-21; 36:21-38].
3. God would give an eternal throne or a center of rule. Jerusalem is the city in which the eternal throne of the Davidic king will rule forever Jeremiah 31:38- 40; Zechariah 8:4,5; Micah 4:1-4].
2 I would suggest a review of the study on Jesus' View of Scripture LINK HERE
3. The Ascension and Coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ after His Resurrection is also taught in Ephesians 4:8-10; Hebrews 1:4-14.
4 A delineation of the doctrine of the Two Natures of Christ is found in the General Information section of this magazine under doctrinal statement. Jesus is both God and man. He is God which causes Him to be different from all members of the human race. He is a man who makes Him different from the other members of the Godhead. Therefore He is indeed the unique Person of the universe, the only true celebrity.
5 Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Bibliotheca Sacra, Volume 104, 1947 article on "Divine Election."