Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Christian Essentials: Who is Jesus



Who Is Jesus?



This is the most  important question you will ever answer.
How you  answer this question determines where you will spend eternity.

Jesus  asked the question like this: Who do men say that I the Son of man am? Matt  16:13

–You might  answer like a lot of people. Jesus Christ was a good man, a great moral teacher,  the leader of a religious and political movement.
•What do you  think? Are these things true?
•C.S. Lewis  wrote about how, based on the evidence and what Jesus said about Himself, we are faced with a logical “trilemma”.
•Jesus was a liar, the greatest con man of all time. He knew what He was not what He said He was.
•Jesus was a lunatic. He really believed He was who He said He was, but didn’t know he  wasn’t.
•Jesus was the Lord, the Son of God, the Messiah.
But some  people say that Jesus never claimed to be God. Let’s look at what Jesus said.
John  4:25-26 The woman said, “I  know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain  everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am  he.”

John 10:30-33 I and the  Father are one.” Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to  them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these  do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be  God.”

Deut. 13:10 And you shall  stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from  the LORD your God
John  8:58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping  away from the temple grounds.
Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the  Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”


This is  four Hebrew letters (Yod, He, Waw and He) called the
Tetragrammaton. The four  characters are the four Hebrew letters that correspond to YHWH and are  transliterated IAUE or Yahweh. Yahweh is the name of the Almighty Father in  Heaven that people commonly call “The LORD” or “God”. The reason we see “LORD” and “God” in our bibles is because of a Jewish tradition that the name Yahweh  was not to be spoken for fear that the name be  blasphemed.


Jesus said  He is “The Son of God.”
Luke  22:70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied, “You are  right in saying I am.”
John  19:7 The  Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he  claimed to be the Son of God.”

Jesus claimed equality with The Father.
John 10:30 I and the Father are one.
John  14:9 He who has seen Me has seen the Father.


Revelation 1:17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.”
Revelation 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Compare this to the following, in which Jehovah says Jehovah is first and last:
Isaiah 44:6 This is what the LORD says — Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.

Revelation 22:12-13, 16  12 “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. ………16  “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. …”
Compare this to Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Mark 12:36 (ESV)
36  David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “‘The Lord (Κύριος)said to my Lord (Κύριος), “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

Philippians 2:11 (ESV)
11  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Κύριος), to the glory of God the Father.

Κύριος = which in the OT would have been Lord.




How can Jesus be God and Human?


The hypostatic union is the term used to describe how God the Son, Jesus Christ, took on a human nature, yet remained fully God at the same time. Jesus always had been God (John 8:58, 10:30), but at the incarnation Jesus became a human being (John 1:14). The addition of the human nature to the divine nature is Jesus, the God-man. This is the hypostatic union, Jesus Christ, one Person, fully God and fully man.

Jesus' two natures, human and divine, are inseparable. Jesus will forever be the God-man, fully God and fully human, two distinct natures in one Person. Jesus' humanity and divinity are not mixed, but are united without loss of separate identity. 




What is homoiousia? How does it apply to Jesus and was this view invented by the early church. 







 How can Jesus be God and still get tired?
The term kenosis comes from the Greek word for the doctrine of Christ’s self-emptying in His incarnation. The kenosis was a self-renunciation, not an emptying Himself of deity nor an exchange of deity for humanity. 
Philippians 2:7 tells us that Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men." Jesus did not cease to be God during His earthly ministry. But He did set aside His heavenly glory of a face-to-face relationship with God. He also set aside His independent authority. During His earthly ministry, Christ completely submitted Himself to the will of the Father.

As part of the kenosis, Jesus sometimes operated with the limitations of humanity (John 4:6; 19:28). God does not get tired or thirsty. Matthew 24:36 tells us, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” We might wonder if Jesus was God, how could He not know everything, as God does (Psalm 139:1-6)? It seems that while Jesus was on earth, He surrendered the use of some of His divine attributes. Jesus was still perfectly holy, just, merciful, gracious, righteous, and loving - but to varying degrees Jesus was not omniscient or omnipotent.




 If all people inherit their sin nature from Adam, how could Jesus be born sinless.
If all people have original sin and Jesus was a human being, then didn't Jesus need to have had a sin nature?

Before we can answer this question, we need to know what the term "original sin" means.  This is a term used to describe the effect of Adam's sin on his descendants (Rom. 5:12-32). Specifically, it is our inheritance of a sinful nature from Adam. The sinful nature originated with Adam and is passed down from parent to child. We are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).  So, if we inherit our sinful nature from our parents, then Jesus, who had Mary as a parent, must have had a sin nature.  Right?  Not necessarily.  I believe that the sin nature is passed down through the father.  Let me explain.
Some Bible commentators, with whom I agree, hold the position that the sin nature is passed down through the father.  Support for this position is found in the fact that sin entered the world through Adam, not Eve.  Remember, Eve was the one who sinned first.  However, sin did not enter the world through her.  It entered through Adam. Rom. 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." The concept behind this is called Federal Headship.  This means that a person (a father) represents his descendants.  We see this concept taught in Heb. 7:9-10, "And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, 10for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." We see in Hebrews that Levi, a distant descendant of Abraham, is said to have paid tithes to Melchizedek when Abraham was the one offering the tithes, not Levi. 
What this means is that there is biblical support for the idea that the sin nature was passed down through the father.  Since Jesus had not a literal, biological father, the sin nature was not passed down to Him.  However, since He had a human mother, he was fully human but without original sin.  Jesus has two natures:  God and man.  Col. 2:9 says, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form." Jesus received His human nature from Mary, but He received His divine nature through God the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, Jesus is both God and man.  He was sinless, had no original sin, and was both fully God and fully man.




John 8:58 (ESV)  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Ok, did Jesus appear in the Old Testament?


Luke 24:27 (ESV) And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 








Ok but why did Jesus have to die? Why couldn’t God just forgive us?








The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law.

 In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute and exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video taped or video discs, without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use”, and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody. This articles is written, and any image and video (includes music used in the video) in this article are used, in compliance with this law: Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107.
on

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please feel free to make civil comment. Divergent views encouraged,

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)