How would you answer the question 'Who is Jesus?'A myth? A good man? An influential teacher? A good example to follow?
What about Son of God? Miracle worker? Messiah?
Many people are happy to believe an option from the first set of answers, but not prepared to take a step further and believe that Jesus was anything other than a human being. And so the claims that Jesus was in some way God, that he performed miracles, that he rose from the dead... these all become later additions - creations of the church and the writers of the New Testament - and so, they claim, we have the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith.
Of course there is nothing new in these arguments. Opponents to the Christian faith have known for the past 2000 years that the person and work of Jesus are absolutely central to the Christian faith and therefore if you want to undermine Christianity your best line of attack is the person and work of Jesus. If you water down the claims of the Bible about Jesus you water down people's faith.
Many people will think there is something new, explosive, controversial and revolutionary in what Philip Pullman has done in his latest book 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'. But this is just another re-hashing of an old argument - that has been around for centuries. An acknowledgment of someone in history called Jesus - and a claim that everything we read about Jesus being God, the miracles, the resurrection...these are nothing more than a literary creation of the early church.
Last Sunday we started a new series looking at the New Testament book of Hebrews. A book in which the truth about Jesus is central. Hebrews was written to Christians who were experiencing persecution for their faith, and the temptation to turn back to their old way of life. And if we don't actually believe that Jesus was God, or that his death on the cross has significance for us etc. then why would we continue to believe - especially if it meant hardship or even death?
Hebrews 1:1-4 makes a number of claims about Jesus - that he is God, that he is the creator of all things, and that he continues to be intimately involved in his creation, that he provides forgiveness for sin, and that he is now in heaven, alive and superior to whatever it is that we hold most important in our lives.
'Who is Jesus?' This is the most important question you will ever have to answer.
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5 comments:
Your emphasis on the person of Christ blesses me and is, I believe, essential to true faith. But at the risk of appearing to be a heretic, may I say that I think that the statement "Jesus is God" is misleading. As we know, the Scriptures declare that Jesus is the Son of God (the only begotten), that he is the Christ, and that "Jesus is Lord" (for there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all"), but not "Jesus is God". Though I know what you intend to declare concerning the deity of Christ, and fully agree, to say "Jesus is God" would mean, would it not, that he alone is God (for there is only one God)?
What about John 1:1 'the Word was God' (verse 14 makes it clear that the word is Jesus). Or 1:18, 'the one and only Son, who is himself God'.
Additionally Romans 8:5, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 1:8, 2 Peter 1:1.
I don't know if this helps or not!
Doesn't it boil down to what we say about the Trinity - which is something I don't ever anticipate getting my head round!
Do we not say:
'God eternally exists as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God'.
It's at this point my brain implodes. Help!
Yes, those verses do help me to understand better who Jesus really is. That he is the Son of God, as his Father in heaven revealed to Peter (Matthew 16.16-17) and others (Matthew 3.17 & 17.5, etc.) is a fact which speaks volumes to me. The son (or daughter) of any being is always the same sort of being as its father. Seeing that God has made us in his image, we can understand that his Son likewise must be the same sort of being as he is! I guess Romans 1.20 is relevant here.
What a wonderful privilege we both have, together with all God's elect, to know the Son and the Father (Matthew 11.27)!
But I am still bothered by the statement "Jesus is God". The Scriptures could have identified Jesus by using that statement, but they don't. And what the Bible doesn't say, surely it intentionally doesn't say, since God inspired it. To me the statement "Jesus is God" means that he alone is God, to the exclusion of the Father and the Holy Spirit.
May I extend this discussion a bit further? You have tempted me by using another theological expression which has been commonly used by Christians for centuries but which it seems is not drawn directly from Scripture and can lead to confusion. (Here comes the heretic again!) The word is "trinity". We have counted the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and have noticed that the names total three. Strangely the Scripture writers never seem to have noticed or noted the number three in relation to God. They did notice that faith, hope and love are three (1 Corinthians 13.13) and that the Spirit, the water and the blood total three (1 John 5.7). Why didn't they notice that Father, Son and Spirit total three? Was it deliberate, as I suppose? Could it be that God never intended us to think of him as a trinity -- possibly because it leads to implosions of the brain?
Whilst looking to avoid a conversation on the doctrine of the trinity at this time of night...I'm not sure your response addresses some of the references given in my first response.
Is it not possible to read John 1:1 and 1:18 as saying 'Jesus is God'?
What of the 'I am' sayings in John's Gospel - is this not a claim by Jesus, identifying himself with the the God who spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:14. Surely it was considered as such by those who heard it, as they wanted to stone Jesus for such a claim (John 8:58-9 for example).
Let me ask you another question, (I think I see where you're coming from - but now I want to see where you're going!)
In terms of their deity, are the Father, Son and Spirit equal (but not the same)?
Time for bed!
I’ll try to answer your three questions as straightforwardly as I can:
1) Yes, the claim to the divinity of Jesus Christ in those verses is undeniable. As the devil’s advocate, let me postulate that we’ll rely on human wisdom and logic as we read the Scriptures, thinking A = B, and B = C, therefore C= A, so “Jesus is God”. Following that thinking, one could conclude that God must have vacated his throne and come down to earth in the form of Jesus, or that if God were still in heaven then there must be more than one God.
2) I fully agree. As you point out, the ‘I am’ sayings clearly identify him with God. Jesus didn’t, and didn’t need to, say “I am God” to identify himself.
3) I have to admit that I find it hard to get my head around even the best theological attempts to formulate Bible truth, but I think I understand what that statement means to you, so I will answer ‘Yes’. How do you as a mathematician get your head around that one? I am assuming that you would agree that my son and I are equal (equally human, equally part of the family, equally distinct from all who are not members of the family) but not the same in position and function within the family.
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