Salvation and the Gospel of the God-Man Jesus Christ

Christian theology has always emphasized the importance of salvation. As the ancient creeds state, Jesus’ person and work are “for us and for our salvation.” While there has clearly been a diversity of opinions on the method of salvation or its ultimate goal, the need for salvation has always been the center of Christian proclamation.

The Need for Salvation: Saved from What?

Saying we need salvation prompts the next question: Saved from what?

People need to be saved from their sin. As the angel tells Joseph, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). The heart of the problem has always been the heart problem of the people! 

The narratives of Gen 1-3 and the writing of Paul in Rom 1-3 clearly show that God created a good place for mankind to worship and obey. However, beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden, humans have always “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom 1:25).

• The Breadth of Sin: According to Scripture, “sin” is a problem that affects all of humanity. The fall narrative in Gen 3 focuses on the beginning of the sin problem, and all other biblical texts assume its universal existence. The entirety of the biblical witness and the entirety of world history demonstrate the universality of sin and its effects.
  
  
• The Depth of Sin: The biblical witness emphasizes not only the breadth of sin, but also its depth. The depravity of humanity after the fall into sin runs deep. As the Lord says in Jer 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Paul argues further in Rom 8:7 that “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Earlier in Romans, Paul argues again that “there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God” (Rom 3:10). Paul concludes that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). As he says again in Ephesians, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1).

This fundamental reality is where the plan of salvation must start for it to make sense. We need a Savior, because we needed to be saved from sin. We needed a redeemer, because we were in bondage to our sinful desires. 

The Gospel of the God-Man Jesus Christ: Saved by Whom?

Connecting the Study of Salvation to the Study of Christ:

One of the major emphases of a study of Christ is that the person of Christ is the second person of the Trinity, the Word, the Son of God. God the Son existed before the world began, and He is the one who comes to save his people from their sins. This is another way to think of salvation “from the beginning.” This is the “long view” of the good news of the gospel.

The logic of this long view of the gospel story helps make sense of the way the Bible talks about Jesus’ work as the Messianic savior of the world. Jesus, who was on high, comes low to the earth, makes atonement, and then returns to glory. These are the “stages” of his work.

Stages of Christ’s Work: Humiliation and Exaltation

The “stages” of Christ’s work involve the temporal sequence of what his Messianic mission entailed. We could think of each movement as a series of steps. The “savior came from Glory,” and these are some of the mile-markers on that redemptive journey.

• Eternal Exaltation: From the beginning, the Son of God enjoyed perfect fellowship with God the Father and God the Spirit in eternity past. Because the Son shares the divine nature with the Father and the Spirit, the Son is co-eternal and is equally exalted. Affirming this prior exalted state is crucial to rightly understanding the theological significance of God's plan of redemption. 

• Temporary Humiliation: Because God the Son is sent by the Father to live and die as a man, the incarnation is known as the Son's temporary state of humiliation. In his incarnation, we see Jesus humble himself to be born into this world. He lives among us. He eats with sinners. He associates with the lowly. He washes his disciples’ feet. He experiences all kinds of pain, misery, and injustice. He suffers, dies, and is buried. This is the lowest point of his work.
  
  
• Restoration of Exaltation: On the third day after his crucifixion, Jesus rises from the dead. This monumental event demonstrates for all time to all peoples that he truly is the “resurrection and the life.” He rises from the dead, and he also ascends into heaven, and sits down at the Father’s right hand. Thus, from the lowest possible point of death, Jesus is raised to the highest possible point of life in the Father’s presence on high.

These stages of Jesus’ work can be seen in a number of key texts. For example, in the servant song of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the Messiah was the exalted one (52:13), but he was brought low and suffered on behalf of his people (53:1-10). After his suffering, though, he is exalted and “the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand” and his “soul shall see and be satisfied” (53:10-11).

Paul picks up on this pattern when he describes the work of Christ to the Philippians. Paul notes that “though he was in the form of God” Jesus did not “count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man” (2:6-7). Just as the Messiah of Isa 53, Jesus humbles himself “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (2:8). 

It is at this point that the pattern shifts. Because of this humiliation, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (2:9). The reward of Jesus’ suffering is that salvation has been accomplished and that his name (Jesus!) is shown to be worthy of absolute worship:

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10-11).

When we hold both the humiliation and exaltation of Christ together, we see an image of an inconceivable exchange. Seeing this pattern of exaltation-humiliation-exaltation helps us see what’s at stake in the incarnation. That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us is perhaps the most startling mystery we can contemplate in the task of theology.

His Being is connected to His Doing

As we move into a direct discussion of Jesus’ work “for us and for our salvation,” it is important to keep our discussion of salvation grounded in our study of Christology. The work of Christ is not to be separated from the person of Christ.

There are four great passages in the New Testament that exalt both the person and the work of Christ. Equipped with our study of Christology and the stages of Christ’s work, we can catch the full force that we find in these passages.

Because they are so rich with Christological meaning, they are sometimes called the “Christ Hymns” of the New Testament. These are also texts that demonstrate the absolute necessity of having a canonical Christology. 

They are like Christological force fields, where a biblical writer hits the slow-motion button and digs down as deep as he can take us into the character and mission of Jesus.

• John 1:1-18, The Word that became flesh

• Phil 2:5-11, The Servant that emptied himself and was exalted

• Col 1:15-23, The Image of the invisible God who dwells in bodily form

• Heb 1:1-4, The Son who made purification for sins

In each of these passages, the author expounds on Jesus’ person and work. Each one clearly demonstrates that Jesus’ being is connected to his doing. 

The work of Christ in his sacrificial death is the “hinge” or the climactic turning point of each of the “Christ Hymns.” 

Only because Jesus was who he was is he able to do what he did.

These four passages are worth reading, studying, memorizing, and contemplating. They are windows into the grand sweep of the divine economy. 

They hold together concepts and affirmations that we sometimes allow to drift apart. 

They illustrate the way that Jesus's being is connected to this doing. 

That his person and work are inextricably linked. 

That his exaltation is not an introduction to something that he had never experienced but rather a return to something that was rightfully his!

As Jesus says before his death, "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed" (Jn 17:5). 

The writer of Hebrews also communicates these theological truths as he blends Christology and Soteriology in his exposition of the stunning mystery of the incarnation (Heb 2:9–10): 

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 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.