From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 46 of a series. Read part 45.

Believers in the Messiah trust in the One who possesses the perfect righteousness that qualifies Him to redeem men and the creation.

After the chorus has sung the angelic army's declaration at the Messiah's birth as recorded in Luke chapter 2, Handel's oratorio continues with these words taken from the prophecy of Zechariah:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee; He is the righteous Saviour, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen.

These words in Charles Jennens' libretto are a paraphrase of the prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9-10, which reads in full:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem;
The battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth.

This passage speaks of several non-contemporaneous Messianic events, as is often the case in prophecy. Some parts of the passage speak of the Messiah's first advent, specifically the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first day of the week that ended with His death on the cross. Other parts speak of events that followed in 70 A.D. when the temple and all of Jerusalem were destroyed.

Still other parts of this passage speak of the Messiah's present reign - events that followed His ascension, and are still in process as He reigns until He has put all enemies under His feet, shall culminate in the establishment of the New Heavens and New Earth in which perfect peace and righteousness shall prevail forever (1 Corinthians 15:24-28, 2 Peter 3:13-14).

Why This Paraphrase?

We may rightly ask: Why would Jennens choose this passage in Zechariah, and why would he paraphrase it in this particular way? Again, it is apparent that Jennens had the refutation of Deism at the forefront of his thinking. He chose a Messianic prophecy in which God comes. He intervenes in history. He is not merely an impersonal force but the King, the Righteous Savior.

Jennens chose a passage that speaks of the Messiah's eternal character, a prophecy that speaks of His past, present, and future actions in history, and His personal, direct control of all things.

Jennens particularly emphasizes the fact that the Messiah is "the righteous Savior." He is, as the Holy Spirit tells us through the writer to the Hebrews, "holy, harmless, undefiled..."

Scripture is absolutely clear: As the God-man, Deity incarnate, Jesus was not capable of sin, and the sinless perfection of His humanity was demonstrated by His perfect life. His sinless perfection is no mere moral example: It made Him the only qualified High Priest and the only acceptable sacrifice to save us from our sins.

Messiah's Nature as the God-Man

Jesus Christ is God incarnate. When God the Son came into the world, taking on human flesh, He did not in any way cease to be God. In the incarnation, the divine Son of God had complete authority over His humanity (e.g., John 10:18).

The divine attributes of Christ testify to this. Christ is unchangeable and immutable (Hebrews 13:8) and therefore He could not sin on earth as He did not sin in heaven. If Christ could have sinned while on earth, then He could sin now at the right hand of the Father since He is still the God-man.

Christ is omnipotent (Matthew 28:18) and therefore not susceptible to sin. Christ is omniscient (John 2:25) and therefore could not be deceived, which one of the principal ways that sin comes about (Genesis 3:13, 1 Timothy 2:14).

Sin is by nature an inward response to outward temptation (James 1:14-15), and Jesus had no inward sinful nature that could respond to outward temptation. Jesus possessed a singular will, to do the will of the Father (Matthew 26:39, John 5:30, 6:38, 10:37).

The angel Gabriel, in announcing the virgin birth to Mary in Luke 1, told her that the child born to her would be holy (in verse 35: the Greek word is hagion, separate and apart from sin). In Hebrews 7:26, Jesus is spoken of as "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." The writer of Hebrews under divine inspiration piles one adjective upon another to emphasize not merely Christ's experiential sinlessness, but His impeccability - His inability to sin.

The original Greek of this verse is very specific. Jesus is "holy" - hosios, religiously right and holy, as opposed to that which is unrighteous or polluted. Jesus is "harmless" - akakos, void of evil. Jesus is "undefiled" - amiantos, free from contamination. Jesus is "separate from sinners" - kechoorismenos apo toon hamartooloon, literally, divided asunder from those who miss the mark.

Jesus' Perfect Life Demonstrates His Divine Nature

In John 8:46, Jesus asks His Jewish hearers, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" A form of the word elencho (here translated "convicts") is also used in James 2:9-10: "...you are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all."

The uses of elencho in John 8:46 and James 2:9-10 set up a marked contrast between the status of Jesus Christ and the status of fallen man. We stand convicted of the whole law. Jesus stands unconvicted, and indeed incapable of any violation. He was, as Hebrews 4:15 tells us, "in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." The word translated "tempted" (pepeirasmenon) denotes being tried and proven, as well as being enticed. For man, temptation tests our obedience to our Lord. For Christ, temptation was the proving of His impeccability. The same word "tempted" is used in Hebrews 2:18. Biblical linguist W. E. Vine, commenting on that passage, says that

the context [in Hebrews 2:18] shows that the temptation was the cause of suffering to Him, and only suffering, not a drawing away to sin, so that believers have the sympathy of Christ as their High Priest in the suffering which sin occasions to those who are in the enjoyment of communion with God; so in the similar passage in [Hebrews 4:15]; in all the temptations which Christ endured, there was nothing within Him that answered to sin.

The Lord Our Righteousness

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ trust in a perfect Savior, because He is the righteous Savior.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah: In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jeremiah 33:14-16).

Thus the Christian can testify, with the Apostle Paul, of complete trust in Jesus the Messiah,

not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith (Philippians 3:9).

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Next: Messiah's Attesting Signs

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