 Good morning everyone, hope you've had a good weekend. Are you able to hear me? Am I too loud? Are you able to hear me? Is it clear enough? Yes ma'am, we are able to hear you. Thank you. Okay, before we begin class today, can one of you lead us in prayer please? Aradma, can you lead us in prayer this morning? Thank you for the God, for this time, for this day, Lord. Has He given us, Lord, whatever we learn, Lord, help us to receive in our mind, fill us with the Holy Spirit, Lord, whatever we learn, help us to do in our work, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you Aradma. Okay, last Monday we were studying chapter 7, the purpose of the Incarnation. And we looked at the Incarnation quite a bit in chapter 6 as well and chapter 5. But in this chapter, chapter 7, the purpose of Incarnation, we try to summarize the why of the Incarnation by answering a few questions. And the question that we looked at was, what was the purpose of Incarnation? Why did Christ have to become a man and take on the fullness of humanity? What was going through, what was God doing through the humanity of Christ that He could not do by any other means? And why did Jesus have to partake in flesh and blood? And why did He have to share in our humanity? So we looked at these questions and we tried answering these questions and we basically summarized the why of the Incarnation. And before we end it class, we looked at the divine exchange. Okay, I just read it out. So I'd just like you all to take a couple of minutes and just read through this entire points on the divine exchange. For those of you who don't have your notes, I'll just put it up on the screen so that you can read it. It's there on your screen. So please take a couple of minutes to just read through the divine exchange and if you have any questions, any doubts, then we'll discuss. If you can take a couple of minutes please to read through the divine exchange and fill it up on the screen there. Hi, good morning, Jaikriha. Thank you for joining us. I just put up the points on the divine exchange on the screen. Just take a couple of minutes to read that please. If you are done, you could just type in the chat section done then you'll note that you're finished with us. You're finished with me. Thank you. Okay, so we basically ended chapter 7. We were talking about the why of the Incarnation by looking at that whole purpose of the Incarnation is summed up in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 where it says, Who you know, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our saints he became poor so that through his poverty we might become rich. Okay, so Christ became poor for our saints so that through his poverty that is through his Incarnation you know that we could become rich and these are the areas where the divine exchange is in place. Any of you have any questions on this? We looked at it last week. I just read through it but if you're having questions and doubts in lesson 7 and based on the divine exchange you can unmute your mics and ask or you can type in the chat section. Any doubts? Any questions? Okay, if not we'll move on to chapter 8. I hope for the chapter 7 was clear and this divine exchange that you're just reading I'll just read through now is clear as well. Okay, so we will look at chapter 8, the Virginal Conception. Okay, in this chapter we will be able to briefly discuss about Christ's Virginal Conception. For that I would like one of you to read Isaiah chapter 7 verse 40 and someone else can move chapter 1 verses 26 to 38. One again. Isaiah 7 14. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Thank you Simakori. Someone else can read Luke chapter 1 verses 26 to 38. Luke chapter 1 verses 26 to 38. Luke chapter 1 verses 26 to 38. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to the city of Galilee. Named Nazirat, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary and was having come in the angel said to her, rejoice highly favored. One the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God and behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever at his kingdom. There will be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man and the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that the holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God. Now indeed Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age and this is now the sixth month of her who was called baron. For with God nothing will be impossible. Then Mary said behold the main servant of the Lord. Let it be me according to your word and the angel departed from her. Thank you city king. So here we see that regarding the virginal conception of Christ there has been a lot of controversies about people accepting it and people beating on it and people giving their own versions. The term virginal conception is much preferred rather than commonly used term virgin birth. So why is virginal conception preferred to virgin birth is because the miracle was in the conception and not in the manner of birth. So where he conceived to the power of the Holy Spirit so that was the miracle that took place and it was not in the manner of birth. We read in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 that the Lord would give a sign to the old the virgin shall conceive and bear the son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Now the Hebrew word Isaiah is basically Old Testament so it was just in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word for virgin is al-Makrī and it's translated either as young woman or virgin and that is where one of the controversies or one of the misunderstandings or the arguments are based on is because the Hebrew word what is used in virgin in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 is al-Makrī and it means either young woman or virgin. So therefore the questions have been raised about whether this verse really supports the virginal conception or not but when we look at the Matthew and the Gospel of Matthew and Luke we see that in their Gospel accounts they used the Greek word Parthenos which means virgin. That's not a young woman but the Greek word Parthenos means virgin. So the virginal conception of Christ can be understood from the fact that it is a miraculous power of the Holy Spirit who brought about it. And we know that this virginal conception is something that is unscientific cannot prove scientifically it violates all natural laws but we know that in Luke chapter 1 that the last phrase in verse 37 it says, So with God nothing is impossible. We know that God created the entire universe there was nothing, the earth was formless it was empty, it was dark but we know that God created everything that received the power of this word and we also created Adam and Eve Adam from the dust of the earth who created Eve also the same way and we took a rip and then we created Eve so we see that nothing is impossible with God and also this miraculous conception by the power of the Holy Spirit in many rooms is also miracle and we see that even though it's unscientific and violates all natural laws it is something that God ordained God foresaw God wanted to do it that way and we know that nothing is possible with God so if you look at your notes the virginal conception is very short and brief there but I would just like to add a few more points so if you would like to take down notes you are welcome to do so we look at the doctrinal importance of the virgin word at least we will look at it in two areas the first thing the virginal conception shows us or reveals to us that salvation is ultimately only from the Lord only God can provide us salvation just as God had promised in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 we looked at this verse in our previous chapters where the seed of the woman would ultimately destroy the serpent and we see the fulfillment of that Christ who is the seed of the woman and so God brought it about by his own power and not human salvation is not the work of man it's not the effort of man it is only through God that we can receive salvation and we see that God brought it about by his own power and not human effort so the virginal conception or the virgin word of Christ reminds us that salvation can never come through human effort it's only the work of God himself and our salvation comes only through the supernatural work of God and that is very evident from the very beginning in Jesus' life as we read in Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 to 5 Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 but when the time had fully come God sent his son born of a woman born under law to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of the son thank you, so here we see that at God's appointed time, the Chairos time was sent both his son born of a woman to redeem those who are under the law so that we can be part of his family so that we can be called his sons and daughters so here we see that God did this so that salvation is the work of God it's not the supernatural, it's not the work of man cannot be accomplished through man's human effort and so God brought about this miraculous virginal conception so that he could bring about salvation and save the entire mankind so that is one area that we can look at regarding the doctrine of the concept of virginal conception the second thing is that the virginal conception made it possible for uniting the full deity and full humanity in one person so the virginal conception made it possible for uniting the full deity and the full humanity in one person and we see that this was the means that God used to send his son in relation to chapter 3 or 16 that he gave us his son that we believe in him shall not perish but have eternal rights so God used this to send his son into the world as a man so if we think of other possible ways in which Christ might have come to the earth none of them would clearly unite deity in one person it probably would have been possible for God to create Jesus as a human being in heaven itself and then send him directly to earth to descend down from heaven to earth like we send him from earth to heaven he could have created Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and having sent down to earth without any human parent that means he would not have been born to a human parent because he is already created as a human being but then if we had done that it would have been very hard for us to see how Jesus would be fully human as we are now would he be part of the human race that physically descended from Adam so we see that for the genealogy of Jesus we descended from Adam and the promise that was prophecy that came that he would come in the light of David and through Abraham through the light of David and he would be bringing blessings to the Gentiles so we also as Gentiles we can be drafted into the tree of life into the blessings of the covenant and if we want to establish with Abraham we can be part of that it's because of Jesus and because that he came in the same race as Adam as Abraham and he came to establish the throne of David so all of these prophecies would come in book with me with what you know God has said if Jesus was born here on this earth through a woman and if he had been created as a human being and just sent down to the same to God then you know he would not be fully human as we are now he would be part of the human race that physically descended from Adam so we see that in Adam the first Adam sin entered the world but in the last Adam the last Adam conquered sin we see that Paul saying in writing that you know through the first Adam death reigned but she knew the last Adam you know life reigned and that was none of that it was completely taken away so you know we couldn't do that but that would have not served the purpose then it would have on the other hand probably it would have been possible for God to have Jesus come into the world through Adam through Joseph and Mary and then after he was born his full divine nature could be miraculously united in this human nature at some point it would have been early in his life but if God had done that then it would have been very hard for us to understand how Jesus was fully God since his origins would have been like us in every way that means if he is born through human parents hope to you know Joseph and Mary then he would have been born in sin that is you know in sin because we are all born in sin because our parents are sinful and we are born in a sinful way so you know we could never identify with him or understand how he could be fully divine so God did not do this as well he did not have human parents to give birth to Jesus and then in a miraculous way you know in a miraculous way at some point in his early life just united the full divinity of Jesus into his human nature and if he had done that we would never be able to understand his full divinity his full deity because he would be just like us in every way that means he would be born in sin so when we think about these two possibilities we have to understand how God in his wisdom ordained a combination of human and divine influence in the birth of Christ so that his full humanity and his full divinity would be you know clearly seen in the fact of his ordinary human work from a human mother in which we can see his full humanity his full deity would be everything from the fact of his conception in Mary's room by the power of the Holy Spirit so God in his divine wisdom in his divine knowledge thought about this though for us it seems very unscientific it seems to violate all natural laws but in God's wisdom in his understanding this was the best way it would be about God becoming man in a seamless way so that he could pay the full finality for the sins of mankind and hence please God or please God with his full sufficient sacrifice that he made so this was the best possible way of conception in Mary's room to see the power of the Holy Spirit and hence we see humanity and divinity fully accomplished in the process of Jesus Christ now it will be difficult for people to understand this believe it but why should we believe this because simply because scripture affirms it so we saw in Luke chapter 1 verse 37 it says nothing is impossible by God certainly such miracles is not too hard for God created the universe and everything through the power of his work created man the dust of the earth and we also see he affirms that nothing is impossible by him so original conception was not an impossibility so if we don't believe it we are just confessing our own unbelief in the God of the Bible so in addition to the fact that scripture teaches us or confirms a virginal conception we see that it is doctrinely important that we are to understand the biblical teaching on the person and the work of Jesus Christ correctly and it's important that we begin once we begin to affirm or understand the believe in the original conception then we will be able to understand and correctly interpret correctly minister or understand the biblical teaching on the person of Christ so that is about original conception well it was the notes there very short but I just added in some more points for our understanding any questions on this so just added the voting about why in God not just human being and seven years on earth and I said that if he had done that you could not fully understand Jesus as a human because he's not really free and part of us would not have come in the life of Adam and hence we will not be able to understand he will not be able to understand us for revealing God revealing himself to us and trying to understand our human nature as well and we saw that if God would have in our hand Jesus formed through the normal force so a husband and wife then we would know and put him his divinity into his humanity at some point very early in his life we would not be able to understand how he is fully God because he would have been born in sin just like each one of us are born in sin and that would not have accomplished the purpose because it was only a sinless person any questions any doubts ok Subash says that we are not able to hear properly is the rest of you able to hear me clearly yes ma'am we can hear you clearly thank you Siddiqui so Subash is going to have to worry maybe what you can do is at the end of the day at 5 o'clock the lecture video will be posted on the stream page in the Google classroom you have access to all the videos that have been brought to you so you can go back in the seat but if you have not heard anything and you still have any questions you are free to ask ok type it in the chat section no questions ok Siddiqui can you hear me clearly it's not that clear but it's ok what about Dubeyga and Abu Bakr are you able to hear me it's very clear ma'am ok clear yes Ina go ahead it's not that clear ma'am it's echoing oh it's echoing I'm going to use my volume now is it clear again it's ok now ok ok some of you can hear me clearly now is it ok success can you hear me clearly yes it's ok now ok thank you ok if you have missed any points then maybe you want to ask again you can ask or you can type in the chat section and I will explain it anything that you missed out in the ones I said it's ok ma'am you can proceed ok then let's move on there are no questions and no doubts we move on to chapter 9 ok the seamless land now we look at the person of Jesus Christ we will look at his work ok and Jesus Christ is referred to as the seamless land we look at Jesus referred to as the NAM over 30 times in the New Testament so in this chapter we are going to consider this title and the whole price both from the Old and New Testament perspective we cannot understand Jesus being the Lamb of God just from the New Testament perspective we have to look at it from the Old Testament perspective as well so that we can be better understanding ok where is it mentioned in the New Testament that Jesus is the Lamb of God who calls him as the Lamb of God John the Baptist ma'am John 129 thank you Rosalind thank you John yes it's John the Baptist in John chapter 1 verse 29 came one came with wheat John chapter 1 verse 29 John chapter 1 verses 29 the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world thank you so Jesus came as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world now the Jewish people are very familiar with this word Lamb why were they familiar with this word Lamb ma'am maybe because the Lamb is used to sacrifice yes thank you because of the Lamb that was used in the sacrificial offering and we know that the entire life religious or spiritual life of the Israelites who go around the sacrifices and around the law that they had to keep the commandments the laws and the sacrifices that was their own religious activity or their religious life around these three things so hence they knew about the Lamb was very familiar to them and it was part of the rituals like we will look at in our study and we will also study that in the previous chapters now there is only a way in which a Lamb will take away the sin of a person or Jesus being the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world that is going to sacrifice it is to put it to death because life for life the penalty for sin is death and hence we have to face the consequences of the penalty for sin which is death so it is important to know that Jesus came to take away the sins of the whole world it was not just the sins of the nation of Israel or it was not just the sins of Christians that Jesus dealt with but we know that God so loved the world that he gave his only son so he died for the sins of the entire whole world and so we see that Jesus had to take our place and we died in our place because the penalty for sin is death and breaking of the covenant promise is life for life so the person has to take and we see that even in the Old Testament sacrifice the Lamb had to be slain the Lamb has to be killed and the blood that signifies a life has to be followed as if a torment or a covering for the sin of the person or the sins of the entire nation of Israel that the Passover Lamb that is where the first institution of sacrifice came and where did the Passover Lamb happen for the first Passover festival happened Exodus when Israel is coming out of Egypt okay thank you we will read this in Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 to 14 and this happens in Egypt this is one of the last the playbook and before the playbook the first one happens we see God telling Moses you know how the Israelites had to you know choose the Lamb, what kind of Lamb how they had to sacrifice it and what this whole meaning of this whole Passover festival and how they are to follow it to generations so can one of you read Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 to 14 please Exodus chapter 12 verse 1 to 14 now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying this month shall be your beginnings of your month shall be the first month of the year to you speak to all the conversion of Israel saying on the 10th of this month every man shall take for himself a Lamb according to the house of his father a Lamb for his household and if the household is too small for the Lamb let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of this person according to each man's needs you shall make your count for the Lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you may take it from this ship or from the goods now you shall keep it on the 14th of this same month then the whole assembly of conversion of Israel shall kill, eat it to a light and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two dust spots and on the light lighted of the house where they eat it then they shall eat and the flesh on that night roasted in fire with on level bread and with bitter herb they shall heat it do not eat the raw no boil at with a water but roasted in fire its head with legs and in street you shall let none of its remain until morning and what remain of it what remain of it until you shall burn it with fire and thus you shall heat it with a belt on your waist you shall your scandal on your feet and your staff in your head so you shall heat it in the east is the Lord Passover for I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and we strike at strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and against all the girls of Egypt are we a secret judgment and I am the Lord now the blood shall be a sign for you and on the house house is where you are and when I see the blood I will pass over you and I will plug you shall and the plug shall not come shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt so this they shall be to you in memoria and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your mission you shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance amen thank you so here we see the Lord is preparing to deliver his people the Hebrew people the Israeli people out of slavery in Egypt and he has a plan to lead them to the promised land the long land that he is they know to beg for them to give them to their forefathers so at this time God instituted the peace of the Passover and he tells them that this peace has to be observed throughout the generations and the peace of the Passover is celebrated by the Jews in the first month of the Jewish calendar year which is sometime between April March and April for us again the Passover actually spoke or it pointed out to the redemptive work of Christ so it was a kind of you know just a pointer it was signifying something that could happen in the future it was foreshadowing what Christ was going to do the redemptive work of Christ as the Passover so the new testament in 1 Corinthians 5 over 7 can somebody do that please 1 Corinthians 5 over 7 1 Corinthians 5 over 7 1 Corinthians 5 versus 7 get rid of the old east that you may be new bath without east as you really are for our Christ has been sacrificed so here we see that 1 Corinthians 5 7 tells us that Christ is our fast and birth and the sacrifice for us in the Old Testament the peace of the Passover is a type and a shadow of the redemptive work of Christ it basically pointed out on the spoke it was also a type and a shadow of the redemptive work of Christ that we see in the Old Testament Passover lamb is also a figure of Christ who is the true fast over lamb and the Old Testament Passover peace pointed to what the true lamb of God would be like and what he would accomplish there is an important characteristic of this fast over lamb which we clearly see in Christ now when God tells them choose the lamb what kind of lamb does they ask them to choose for the Passover peace what kind of lamb do we ask them to choose man the lamb of the first year okay the lamb for first year and also without blemish and without spoke yes without blemish and without spot a main lamb without blemish and without spot if you look at the Old Testament, the books of Exodus and Leviticus, which talks about, Leviticus basically talks about all the sacrifices that that has to be made. There's repeatedly mispraced that occurs, you know, the animal that has to be presented for the sacrifice should not be, you know, lame or sick or without any blemish. It has to be perfect. Okay. And we see that the Israelites fail to even keep this so-called requirement of the sacrifice and God holds it against them. We need this in Haggai and Malachi says, you know, bringing a sick and lame and disease animals. And he says, you know, you take it to your governors, will they accept that? They will not see. And when they don't, how can you bring it to me? I am God. So we leave that and God holds it against them because, you know, they were bringing sick, blemished, lame, animals for a sacrifice. But here we see that the lamb should be without blemish. We leave this in Exodus chapter 12 verse 5. So the lamb that had to be used for the Passover peace then is still being used by the Jews. Even as they celebrate the Passover peace, this should be one that is without blemish. That means it had to be something that was perfect, complete, heavy, whole and spotless. Okay. And we see that Jesus was also, you know, made this full sufficient sacrifice because he was a lamb without any blemish and without any spot. We leave this in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 19, in one of you we read this. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18. 1 Peter 119, but with the precious blood of Christ as of and left without blemish and without spot. Thank you. Sinaitonis, when you are telling us that Christ was that perfect lamb, we made the perfect sacrifice because he was without blemish and without spot. So what do we mean that Christ was without blemish or without spot? Does it mean that he was not sick, he was full, he was not physically disabled? What does it mean? Yes, it's good. Ma'am, he was sinless and holy. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Rebecca. Mama, I rest my case so they cannot answer it. Okay. Yeah, it was sinless, pure and holy. Okay. 1 John chapter 3 verse 5 in 1 Peter 3, 1 John chapter 3 verse 5. 1 John chapter 3 verses 5. But you know that he appeared so he might take away our sins and in him is no sin. Thank you. So yeah, we see that he was manifested to take away our sin. Christ, you know, manifested in the flesh to take away our sins and why could he take away his sins with the whole world because in him there was no sin. He was a lamb without blemish and we see that Christ's sinlessness, you know, is illustrated in him being a lamb without blemish that means he was someone who was perfect and someone who was pure and holy. Okay. So he was the perfect lamb without blemish and this illustrates Christ's sinlessness, which means that he was perfect and pure. Any questions on this? What we have done? What we have looked at? Christ is the Passover lamb? Any questions on this point? No? Okay. We pause here to take a break and we'll come back after the break and continue with that. Okay.