By Whom God Saves
Q21 Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God became man and so was and continueth to be God and man in two distinct natures, and one person forever.
The only Redeemer.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). “No one knows the Father save the Son and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt 11:27). “Come to Me” (Matt 11:28). “No one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). The apostles add: “Nor is there salvation in any other” (Acts 4:12). “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim 2:5)
The Eternal Son of God.
The Saviour did not begin His personal life with His birth. Indeed, in His Person, He never began. He is the eternal Son of God. As one put it, ‘Jesus Christ is the only Person who ever lived before He was born.’ The life He lived nearly two thousand years ago was the human, historical period in the life of an eternal Person. But our salvation rests on what He did for us in this human life.
Became man.
Calling our Lord Jesus the WORD or the Revealer of God, John said: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). Christmas celebrates this act of God’s taking flesh. We call this the Incarnation. He who was God became also man. And from then on the one Divine Person had two natures, or two kinds of beings, the BEING of the CREATOR and the being of the creature. The human being or nature found its personality in the Divine Person.
As man He is our real flesh and blood brother who lived our life, who was tempted like as we are yet without sin, who died our death. As He, our example and elder brother, walked by faith in God, so we trust in God. As God manifest in the flesh He revealed the Father, He exercised His almighty power in working miracles, in raising His human nature from the dead. As God, He is with every one of His disciples wherever they are today. We not only believe in God as He our Brother did; we first of all believe in Him, for He is God our Saviour. Saving faith rests on God in Christ.
Adapted from William Robinson