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<2024.07> It Is God who Justifies. Who Is to Condemn?

European Bible Study Meeting, 2002
It Is God who Justifies. 
Who Is to Condemn?
April 4th, 2002, Afternoon Lecture Part 1
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).  Matthew 1:23
God Sent Forth His Son, 
Born of Woman
Just as Jesus came to this sinful world, God summoned Abraham to the land of Canaan which was inhabited by a nation that had been cursed. Then God completed the Bible through a nation that at times was visible and at other times seems to have disappeared, and he made it possible for all the nations of the world to read the Bible that had been completed in this way.
Let’s take a look at this person by the name of Jesus.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  Galatians 4:4-5
Here it says, “when the fullness of time had come.” Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). At the time when he was alive on this earth, “the Scriptures” were the Old Testament. When it says in this verse, “when the fullness of time had come,” it means when all the events in the Old Testament had passed and the Son of God came at the time and to the place designated by God. 
God was conceived in the body of a woman and born in human form, and this is the One we refer to as Jesus Christ. So these words, “sent forth his Son” are truly monumental. Jesus did not simply come as the kind of righteous man that might easily come to mind for us. He is of far greater significance than that.
In reference to his birth, the Old Testament says, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), “To us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6), and, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2).
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.  Matthew 1:1-6
In this genealogy, we find it is the father who is referred to in each case. The man is like the seed and the woman, the field. In the genealogies in Genesis chapters 5, 10, and 11, we again find that the father is referred to in each case: it says, “Adam fathered. . .” and “Noah fathered . . .” In the letter to the Galatians, however, we find it says, “God sent forth his Son, born of woman.” This is the offspring of the woman referred to in Genesis chapter 3 where God said he would put enmity between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman (see verse 15). This offspring of the woman was not born through the seed of a sinner, but was conceived through the Holy Spirit, and he was the only righteous person ever born in this world.
And Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew 1:16-20
It says here that she was “with child from the Holy Spirit.” The Bible says, “As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child” (Ecclesiastes 11:5 NKJV). Similarly, a seed began to grow inside Mary, and no one in this world could see it, or know it was there.
On the first day of the creation, there was also a power that is invisible to the human eye.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.  Genesis 1:2-4
God’s word was heard in this world that was without form and void and where darkness was over the face of the deep, and with the coming of its power the creation was accomplished. Similarly, a seed fell in the midst of a nation that was suffering under the oppression of the sinful Roman Empire. It was in this way that Jesus came to this world. No one was aware of what was happening. It was just like Abraham slowly making his way to the land of Canaan and entering that land, when the Canaanites could not even have imagined that he was the forefather of the people who would devour them; and like the time when no one would have imagined that David would kill the giant of a man Goliath with a pebble he had taken from a stream.
Jesus’ coming to this world was accomplished in accordance with God’s law of life. There were great nations and empires on this tiny planet called Earth in the midst of the vast universe, but just as a seed grows in the womb of a woman when no one is aware of it and later a child is born, the light entered this world through the body of a virgin living in the small village of Nazareth in Galilee, located in one of the smaller nations of the world. The Son of God who was to save us all was growing in human form in the womb of that woman, and was born in the small town of Bethlehem. God is the One who was able to accomplish this.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.  Matthew 1:21
The name of “Jesus” means Savior. We end our prayers by saying, “We pray in the name of Jesus.” The Bible says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Here, when it says those “who believed in his name,” it means those who believe in the name of “this man” referred to in Acts chapter 13 where it says, “Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses” (verses 38-39). If you do not know precisely how Jesus died when he came to this world, why he died, and how his death is related to you personally, you should not just enjoy holidays like Christmas using the name of Jesus in your conversation without giving it any thought. The Bible says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11). Using the name of Jesus carelessly is also taking it in vain.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.  Matthew 1:22
Jesus came to this earth to fulfill the Old Testament, that is, to fulfill the words God spoke through the prophets. As you read through Matthew’s Gospel, you find that it says time and again that these things happened to fulfill certain passages in the Old Testament. Then, the One who was to be persecuted and suffer in accordance with the Scriptures was crucified and, as he died he said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He completely fulfilled all the requirements of the law.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).  Matthew 1:23
When Jesus was born on this earth, a star appeared in the sky. Some wise men from the east saw the star, came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” This caused quite a stir in Jerusalem. Herod was seated as king in the royal palace in Jerusalem, but now these wise men had suddenly arrived, enquiring about someone who had now been born as king of the Jews. 
Herod found out that there was a prophecy about this, and he sent the wise men to Bethlehem, saying, “When you find the child, let me know where he is so that I, too, can go and worship him.” But Herod was hiding his actual intention to kill the child. The wise men found Jesus and worshipped him, and then being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.
After that, Mary and Joseph took the child and went to Egypt to escape from Herod. Realizing he had been tricked by the wise men, Herod became furious and ordered the death of all the male children two years old or under in Bethlehem and in all that region, based on what he had learned upon the arrival of the wise men (see Matthew chapter 2). To escape a famine, Abraham went down to Egypt and then came back again, and to escape another famine, Jacob and his family went down to Egypt, where they stayed for four hundred years and then returned. Similarly, Jesus also went down to Egypt and then came back again, but this was to escape a human sword. When Abraham and the Israelites went on their journeys to Egypt and back again it was as a shadow of this. It was not that Jesus went down to Egypt and back following after Abraham and the Israelites; God let them go to Egypt to show in advance that Jesus would be doing this.
Man Shall Live by Every Word that Comes from the Mouth of God 
Jesus grew up in the village of Nazareth located in Galilee. Then, when he was about thirty years old, he appeared before John the Baptist who had been testifying to the Jews of Christ and offering the baptism of repentance. John the Baptist stirred up the hearts of the people, telling them, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11-12). Just as our hearts are plowed up by the word of God, John the Baptist also was admonishing the Israelites. 
At that time, Jesus appeared by the River Jordan where John was baptizing.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  Matthew 3:13-14 
Jesus went to John to be baptized. But John tried to stop him, saying, “No, how can you, the Son of God, be baptized by me?”
But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he sa
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