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Identifying Jesus
Throughout history much of the world has wanted, in the same way, to speak highly of Jesus without recognizing His deity and lordship.
Pontius Pilate said, “I find no guilt in this man” (Luke 23:4). Napoleon said, “I know men, and Jesus was no mere man.” Strauss, the German rationalist, said Jesus was the “highest model of religion.” John Stuart Mill said Jesus was “the guide of humanity.”
The French atheist Renanas said Jesus was “the greatest among the sons of men.” Theodore Parker said Jesus was “a youth with God in his heart.” Robert Owens said Jesus was “the irreproachable one.”
But all of these descriptions and titles fall short of identifying Jesus as He fully is—the Messiah, God in human flesh.
People are still confused about Jesus to this day. In fact, more people profess faith in Jesus, without really knowing who He is, than ever before.
We all must come to grips with the same questions that Pilate faced, “What shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:22).
C.S. Lewis wrote, “You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool; you can spit at Him and kill Him for a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Part of the Trinity
Jesus never became God. He was God before He was born, and He remained God after He became man. His deity was pre-human, pre-Bethlehem, and pre-Mary.
Once on earth, Jesus never laid aside His deity; He only veiled His deity for a time. We know this because Jesus momentarily revealed His glory in transfiguration on the mount with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1–5). At that time, He shone like the sun. (The real miracle was that He didn’t shine all of the time!)
“Infinite and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast. Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arm. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s son.”
—C.H. Spurgeon
Virgin Born
The Virgin Birth is not an optional belief; rather it is essential to a relationship with God and belief in His Word.
It would, no doubt, have been possible for God to send Jesus to earth as a complete, yet sinless, human being without parents. But it would have been hard for us to see how Jesus could be fully human.
On the other hand, it would have been possible for God to have Jesus come into the world with two human parents, with His full divine nature somehow united to His human nature. But then it would be hard for us to believe Jesus was indeed God.
Those who say that the Virgin Birth is impossible are essentially denying God’s Word and God’s ability to do miracles when and where He chooses.
Forgave Sins
Forgiveness of sins is reserved for God alone. In Luke 5, a crippled man is lowered through the roof before Jesus; and He says, “Your sins are forgiven you.” (Luke 5:20). After seeing this, the Pharisees rightly asserted, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (They got no argument from Jesus).
Jesus replied, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But so you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, [He said to the crippled man] Arise, take up your bed and go to your house'” (Luke 5:23).
Claimed Deity
Jesus said, “Unless you believe that ‘I AM’…you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). If we believe that He is God in human form, then we must also accept the process God used to bring Him to us. Jesus claimed to be God on many occasions. For instance, we know that Jesus, on many occasions, accepted worship. But Jesus also said that worship was reserved for God alone (Matthew 4:10).
Scripture also tells us that the Pharisees “sought to kill Him because He…said God was His father, continually making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18). So without a doubt, Jesus claimed to be and was God.
Although He was God, Jesus accepted all the limitations of humanity, except sin itself. Jesus came from the presence of angels to a cave filled with animals, from the throne of Heaven to a “feeding trough.” He who was larger than the universe became an embryo.
He who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl. Jesus entered this world as a helpless human baby unable to do more than lay still, stare, wriggle, and coo. He needed to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.
Was Human
It is difficult for us to comprehend that Jesus, who possessed divine attributes such as omniscience and omnipotence, still went through normal human development. Imagine Jesus learning to read and write! He had the limitations of humanity, but not the limitations that sin brings in one’s life.
As a man, Jesus became tired, hungry, and lonely. We are told that when He went to Samaria, ultimately to meet the woman at the well, He was weary (John 4:6). When on the cross, no doubt extremely dehydrated, He said, “I thirst!” (John 19:28). After He fasted for forty days in the wilderness, we read that He was hungry (Matthew 4:2).
Experienced physical weakness
When He was on the way to Calvary, bearing His cross, He fell beneath its weight. A man named Simon from Cyrene had the great privilege of carrying it a short distance for Him (Matthew 27:32). Finally Christ died like a man in the sense that His body ceased to function just as ours does when we die.
Had a human mind
From the Bible, it appears that He went through a learning process. “And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him…And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men…They found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:40, 52, 46).
Experienced human emotions
Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled…” (John 12:27). In the story of Lazarus, we see Jesus express a broad range of human emotion. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ He asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied. Jesus wept” (John 11:33–35).
We are called to resemble Christ in our actions (Philippians 2:5). To have Christ’s attitude is not some mystical, unreachable goal. It is profoundly practical and applicable. We must simply seek the will of God above everything else. We must keep God’s will foremost in our lives. Christians must empty themselves, laying aside ambition and personal glory to find God’s formula for true success!
It is a mystery to us how, in Jesus Christ, humanity and deity are co-mingled. Jesus is clearly God and claimed to be on many occasions (Colossians 2:9; Philippians 2:6–8). Yet, He allowed Himself to be humbled, voluntarily experiencing human limitations.
The account of Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee with His disciples exemplifies that He simultaneously succumbed to human limitations and possessed God’s omnipotence. What could be more human than our Lord’s sleep of total exhaustion in the boat, and what could be more divine than His stilling of the winds and the waves? (Mark 4:36–41).
Jesus also faced temptation, as we do. Some people wonder if Jesus was truly vulnerable to temptation. This is a very important question, for the answer clarifies that incredible and never-to-be-repeated blending of deity and humanity in one person (Luke 4:1–13).
Although Jesus could have met Satan’s offers to sin with the full force of His deity, Jesus chose to meet Satan in meekness, withholding His vast supernatural power. He did not banish His tempter or remove Himself from temptation’s presence. He displayed power under constraint. To be sure, Jesus felt the presence and pressure of temptation like we do, but remember that Jesus did not share our sinful nature, so the necessary element for temptation to succeed was not present (Hebrews 4:15, James 1:14).
Jesus left us an example to follow as we face temptation. You may think that His temptations were not true, since, as God in the flesh, He did not really have the capacity to fall. But let me ask you this, Have you ever been tempted and resisted? Or do you believe the adage, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to give into it”? Is temptation only real if you give in to it? Certainly not; it merely becomes resisted temptation. The presence and the pressure of temptation are quite real, regardless of our response.
It was important for Jesus to be tempted. His temptation experience shows us that our God cares for us and can fully understand the pressures we face (Hebrew 2:1–7). Because He has faced the devil’s taunts and resisted, He is able to aid us, who are likewise tested. His example also teaches us how to effectively resist temptations. He showed us how to use God’s written word to defend ourselves against the devil.
“I believe God.”
The apostle Paul faced an uncertain future when he uttered those words to a frightened crew as a storm engulfed their boat on the raging Mediterranean.
But Paul had been told that after the trip, he would stand trial before Caesar and that God would spare the lives of all who sailed with him. So it was with confidence and great faith that he told his fellow sailors, “Keep your courage men, for I believe God, that it will happen just as He told me” (Acts 27:25).
We too face an uncertain future as our world seems to grow crazier each day. It seems that wrong is right and right is wrong.
Without a doubt, the very foundations of our society are crumbling beneath our feet and we have lost our way.
Recent statistics show that today most Americans do not believe in moral absolutes. Instead, 69% believe in “situation ethics,” where right and wrong are determined by circumstances.
At the same time, 70% say it’s important to do what God or Scripture says is right. 91% of Americans also believe that religion is important, but 63% of those people reject the concept of moral absolutes!
We all must have a set of absolutes to live by. Otherwise, whose definition of truth will we embrace? Throughout history, people have been interested in a relationship with God, but only on their own terms.
Voltaire said, “God made man in His image and man returned the favor.” Today many people are still remaking God into their image, into a deity that they can control (Isaiah 5:20; 2 Timothy 4:3–4; Romans 1:21).
In Kyoto, Japan, there is an unusual place of worship called the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas. On display inside the shrine are more than a thousand likenesses of Buddha, each just a little different from the others.
It is set up this way so that a devotee can come in, find the one that looks most like himself, and worship it.
Many Christians essentially seek to do the same thing.
But no one has the luxury of picking and choosing the attributes of God that are most appealing. We are given the option of accepting Him or rejecting Him, but not of changing Him.
God is Omniscient (all-knowing)
God is vitally aware of His own creation—mankind. What’s more, He is interested in us as individuals. Not one single thing occurring in any place escapes His knowledge (Psalm 139:1–6; Psalm 147:4; Matthew 10:29; Proverbs 15:3).
God is Omnipotent (all-powerful)
God can do all things. Nothing is too hard for Him. No problem is so large that He cannot deal with it and, if it is His will, He is able to eliminate it altogether (Psalm 139:7–12; Job 42:2; Genesis 18:14).
A.B. Simpson said, “There is no difficulty too intricate for Him to unravel. There is no little detail of life too petty for Him to take an interest in. There is no toil too tedious for Him to go through with us. There is no tangle too involved for Him to unthread and loose. There is no complication or difficult circumstance too extreme for Him to not be willing to take hold and lead us gently out into the light.”
God is Omnipresent (present everywhere)
You are never alone. Like Paul on that storm-tossed ship, you can boldly say: “I believe God!” He will be with you no matter what you face in life (Isaiah 43:2). He is always everywhere (Jeremiah 23:24; Psalm 139:7–10).
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