- #GC31 What briefly does it comprehend? That we acknowledge the Son of God as our Saviour, and the means by which He has redeemed us from death, and acquired salvation.
- #GC32 What is the meaning of the name Jesus which you give to Him? It means Saviour, and was given to Him by the angel at the command of God (Mat 1:21).
- #GC33 Is this of more importance than if men had given it? Oh, yes. For since God wills that He be called so, He must be so in truth.
- #GC34 What, next, is meant by the name of Christ? By this title His office is still better expressed---for it signifies that He was appointed by the Father to be ordained King, Priest, and Prophet.
- #GC35 How do you know that? Because according to the Scripture, anointing is used for these three things. Also, because they are attributed to Him many times.
- #GC36 But with what kind of oil was He anointed? Not with visible oil as was used for ancient kings, priests, and prophets, but this anointing was by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is the reality signified by that outward anointing made in time p...
- #GC37 But what is this Kingdom of which you speak? It is spiritual, and consists in the Word and Spirit of God, and includes righteousness and life.
- #GC38 What of the priesthood? It is the office and prerogative of presenting Himself before God to obtain grace and favour, and appease His wrath in offering a sacrifice which is acceptable to Him.
- #GC39 In what sense do you call Christ a Prophet? Because on coming down into the world (Isa 7:14) He was the sovereign messenger and ambassador of God His Father, to give full exposition of God's will toward the world and so put an end to all prophe...
- #GC40 But do you derive any benefit from this? All this is for our good. For Jesus Christ has received all these gifts in order that He may communicate them to us, and that all of us may receive out of His fullness.
- #GC41 Expound this to me more fully? He received the Holy Spirit in full perfection with all His graces, that He may lavish them upon us and distribute them, each according to the measure and portion which the Father knows to be expedien...
- #GC42 What does His Kingdom minister to us? By it, we are set at liberty in our conscience and are filled with His spiritual riches in order to live in righteousness and holiness, and we are also armed with power to overcome the devil, the fles...
- #GC43 What about His priesthood? First, by means of it He is the Mediator who reconciles us to God His Father; and secondly, through Him we have access to present ourselves to God, and offer Him ourselves in sacrifice with all that b...
- #GC44 There remains His Prophetic Office? Since this office was given to the Lord Jesus to be the Master and Teacher of His own, its end is to bring us the true knowledge of the Father and of His Truth, so that we may be scholars in the house...
- #GC45 You would conclude, then, that the title of Christ includes three offices which God has given His Son, in order to communicate virtue and fruit to His faithful people? That is so.
- #GC46 Why do you call Him the only Son of God, seeing that God calls us all His children? We are children of God not by nature, but only by adoption and by grace, in that God wills to regard us as such (Eph 1:5). But the Lord Jesus who was begotten of the substance of His Father, and is of...
- #GC47 You mean to say, then, that this honour is proper to Him alone, and belongs to Him by nature, but is communicated to us through a gracious gift, in that we are His numbers? That is so. Hence in regard to this communication He is called elsewhere "the First-born among many brethren" (Rom 8:29; Col 1:15).
- #GC48 How is He "our Lord" Because He is appointed by the Father to have us under His government, to administer the Kingdom and the Lordship of God in heaven and on earth, and to be the Head of men and believers (Eph 5:23; Col...
- #GC49 What is meant by what follows? It declares how the Son of God was anointed by the Father to be our Saviour. That is to say, He assumed human flesh, and accomplished all things necessary to our salvation, as enunciated here.
- #GC50 What do you mean by the two clauses, "Conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary" That He was formed in womb of the Virgin Mary, of her proper substance, to be the seed of David, as had been foretold (Ps 132:11), and yet that this was wrought by the miraculous operation of the Holy...
- #GC51 Was it then required that He should put on our very flesh? Yes, because it was necessary that the disobedience committed by man against God should be redressed in human nature. And moreover He could not otherwise be our Mediator to reconcile us to God His Fat...
- #GC52 You say that Christ had to become man, to fulfill the office of Saviour, as in our very person? Yes, indeed. For we must recover in Him all that we lack in ourselves, and this cannot be done in any other way.
- #GC53 But why was that effected by the Holy Spirit, and not by the work of man according to the order of nature? As the seed of man is in itself corrupt, it was necessary that the power of the Holy Spirit should intervene in this conception, in order to preserve our Lord from all corruption, and to fill Him with...
- #GC54 Thus we are shown that He who is to sanctify others was free from every stain, and from His mother's womb He was consecrated to God in purity from the very beginning, in order that He may not be subject to the universal corruption of the human race? So I understand it.
- #GC55 Why do you go immediately from His birth to His death, passing over the whole history of His life? Because nothing is said here about what belongs properly to the substance of our redemption.
- #GC56 Why is it not said simply and in a word that He died while Pontius Pilate is spoken of, under whom He suffered? That is not only to make us certain of the history, but is also meant to signify that His death involved condemnation.
- #GC57 How is that He died to suffer the punishment due to us, and thus to deliver us from it? However, because we were guilty before the judgment of God as evil-doers, in order to represent us in person He was pleased to appear before the tribunal of an earthly judge, and to be condemned by hi...
- #GC58 But Pilate pronounced Him innocent, and therefore did not condemn? Him as if He were worthy of death (Mat 27:24; Luke 23:14). Both were involved. He was justified by the testimony of the judge, to show that He did not suffer for His own unworthiness but for ours and...
- #GC59 That is well said, for if He had been a sinner He could not have suffered death for others; and yet in order that His condemnation might be our deliverance, He had to be reckoned among transgressors (Isa 53:12)? I understand so. (Is 53:12)
- #GC60 Is there greater importance in His having been crucified than if He had been put death in another way? Yes, as Paul also shows us when he says that He hanged on a tree to take our curse upon Himself and acquit us of it (Gal 3:13). For that kind of death was accursed of God (Deu 21:23).
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