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Identifying Christ – Part 2

January 16, 20090

Below is part 2 of the article written by our guest author, Rev. Dave Rodgers

As “Who is Jesus?” is a significant question, so is the question, “Why did He come?” Scholars agree Jesus came to usher in the “Kingdom of God.” Jesus came to embody and introduce God’s Kingdom: God’s way of doing things in the world God created. Every key point along the way in the life of Jesus, from His unusual birth to His tragic death, to His glorious resurrection and ascension, became key elements in understanding and experiencing the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. Jesus came so that man can share in the Kingdom of God. Jesus came as God’s provision, to atone for the sin of man and to set man free from the penalty of sin. This penalty, which man is saved from, is death eternal.

Through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, on the cross of Calvary, God atoned for the sins of all those who will believe and call on the name of Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus did more than simply proclaim salvation. On the contrary, he creates salvation as we share in His life, death, and resurrection. The result is that Jesus is Savior, not only from the penalty of sin, but from the power of sin as well. The salvation process we enter into when we first believe is carried through to completion throughout our lives unto glorification. As Paul states in Colossians 1:13, “God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.” This transference is the fullness of why Jesus came.

In conclusion, Jesus is the revelation of God himself in both person and purpose. It is through God’s revelation that we know Him, and it is through a personal knowledge of Him that we can be saved. Revelation comes in the form of enlightenment. The term enlightenment points us to the fact that our knowledge of God is the result of God’s grace, not of human inquiry. Jesus Christ ushers in God’s Kingdom by ushering in God’s grace.

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God Makes Sense Podcast

January 12, 20091

Recently the author of this site spent some time with ‘The Podcast Answer Man’ recording a podcast titled ‘God Makes Sense’.  The Podcast Answer Man, Cliff Ravenscraft, has a number of podcasts, one of which is called ‘About the Church’  Reverend Raney has begun joining Cliff as a guest host from time to time.  Listen to the podcast below.  You can listen to it online or you can download it for listening later.

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Identifying Christ – Part 1

January 12, 20091

This article is submitted by a guest author, Rev, Dave Rodgers.   It is divided into two parts.  Below is part 1.  Part 2 will post later this week.

Who is Jesus Christ? This question has intrigued humanity since the Angel Gabriel first appeared to Mary. In fact, it is within the birth narrative that we find our first glimpse of who Jesus is. Within the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel, we find Jesus is the Son of Mary (Luke 1:31), He is great and will be called the Son of the Most High (Luke1:32). We read about His Kingship is verses 32 and 33 and that he is conceived through the power of the Most High. The Anthanasian Creed clarifies the conception as “The Son was neither made nor created; He was begotten from the Father alone.” In Luke 2:11, the angel again appears and tells the shepherds  Jesus is a Savior, born to them, and He is Christ the Lord. In the first chapter of Matthew, the Prophet Isaiah is quoted; “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel – which means God with us.” However, what does all this mean – who is Jesus the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth?

The study of who Jesus is is called Christology. Simply stated, Christology is the study of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the person Jesus Christ. With God’s Holy Scriptures as the primary source, Christology attempts to uncover the mystery of who Jesus Christ is. Christology, however, does not terminate into an exact statement. While it certainly uncovers much about Jesus Christ and His purpose, one must not overlook the conclusion of the study; that much of the “how” of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection remains a mystery. This mystery is not a limit of an infinite God, rather a limit of finite man.

Christology begins with the study of Jesus’ birth. As stated earlier, Matthew’s Gospel quotes the Prophet Isaiah in chapter one verse 23; “Jesus…will be called – Immanuel – which means God with us.” The first verse of John’s Gospel emphasizes and reinforces this point:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (1:1) The fourteenth verse of John’s Gospel (chapter 1) states: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of a Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” What John is stating is referred to as the Incarnation; the belief that Jesus is God incarnate, or God embodied in flesh. This belief, within the limits of the human mind, remains a mystery. In fact, the study of the incarnation of God is both fully God (His divinity) and fully human (His humanity). Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos (the Word), who has assumed and personalized a human nature. The two natures did not join to form a composite person; rather the Son added humanity permanently. The Son is eternally God – yesterday, today, and forever – and remains so. In the Incarnation, He chose to lower himself, adding human nature, in which He was obedient to the Father, while simultaneously, ruling the universe. Jesus himself, throughout His teaching, reaffirmed this fact. In John 14:9, Jesus states, “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father as well.” Jesus’ humanity assures us that He understands our hopes and fears.  Jesus’ divinity assures us of all else God has promised. One final thought worth noting is that Jesus is the most accurate representation we have of God the Father, but Jesus is not the complete representation of God. No Christian would say the fullness of God has been revealed. As stated earlier, our finite mind cannot fully comprehend an infinite God. Understanding this, one realizes that what we do know about God, we find in Jesus Christ.

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Questions

January 5, 20090

I’d love to hear the questions that are on your mind.  This site has a page and a simple form for you to submit questions if you would like.  Simply click on the link to the questions page above or to the right (“Questions – Ask Here”) and fill out the form to submit your question.  Your questions can provide good discussion points for many to learn from.  Your email address will not be shared and you can provide a user name or screen name in place of your real name if you would like.
“Click here to submit your question”

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Desire or Duty

January 5, 20091

While traveling recently I observed a young husband and father pause to pray prior to enjoying his continental breakfast at the hotel.  It gave me a good feeling to watch him do so.

While certainly not judging the motives of this man, it also brought a thought, or question, to my mind.  How often do we do such things out of duty rather than desire?  Many of us are taught from a very early age practices such as praying before a meal.  Discipline is good for Christians.  The word disciple is at the root of the word discipline.  Discipline helps build good character.  It helps us grow and mature when put to practice.

But when doing something purely out of duty, it is no longer a service or a sacrifice or a praise, but merely an obligation.  Where is the glory in “giving thanks” if there really is no thanks?  Where is the power in prayer if it is merely “what we do at an appointed time”?

Is it truly our heart’s desire to pray?  Is our giving thanks really driven by gratitude swelling in our hearts?  An active, loving relationship with God will produce such feelings and desires.  Then our actions, even those that are disciplines will be pure, holy, and menaingful.

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What was the Purpose of the Birth of Christ?

December 23, 20082

Just finished watching a program titled “In Search of Christmas”.  It was certainly an interesting look at the history of the birth of Christ.  It contained the usual attempt to provide a balanced look at the events as interpreted by skeptics and supporters and in reality did a pretty good job.

One thing I found intriguing was the viewpoint of several of the learned scholars and experts regarding the purpose or result of the coming of Christ, even those who profess to be Christians.  Most interpreted the purpose and the desired result of the coming of Christ in light of the impact it has on how we live with each other.  One after another they spoke of how the life and message of Christ was about teaching us to treat one another better and defining what humanity really should be; teaching us how to live in peace with one another.

I certainly cannot, nor do I desire to, deny that Christ’s message spoke of and showed us a better way to live with our fellow man.  But was this the sum of His message?  Was it the ultimate purpose of His coming?  To believe so dilutes who He is and what He accomplished.

Christ is the Son of God.  He is God.  We are the creation of God and through sin had become separated from God.  We had become his enemies (Romans 5:10 says “For if, when we were God’s enemies…”).   God desired to reconcile us to Him; to no longer be separated, but to be at peace with him.  To again be the children of God.  This is what was ultimately accomplished through the coming of Christ; not a “can’t we all get along” message to be nice to your fellow man.   Being made children of God, being forgiven and renewed, will certainly carry with it expectations of conduct in regard to how we live with each other, but it is the product of what Jesus came for (to save us from our sin and give us eternal life) not the purpose.

How did we get to the point where our learned scholars, along with so many of us, believe the ultimate purpose of Christ’s coming was to teach us how to live together as humans?  Do we resist the idea that we are enemies of God, sinners in need of grace?  Do we so not want to face the fact that without the sacrifice of Christ at the crucifixion we will remain as enemies, as sinners separated from God?  Are we so resistant to the message that we cannot save ourselves from this plight?  That we cannot merely listen to and try our best to conform to and live by some code of conduct taught by Jesus and thus find ourselves ‘okay’?

Nay, without faith in the grace of God as provided by the sacrifice of Christ and our belief in His resurrection, and our need for this provision, we cannot see God.   It is not, nor will it ever be, enough for us to conform to a standard of living.  We must acknowledge the state of our soul and seek the forgiveness of Christ and accept His gift of life for us.  Then we shall be the children of God, and not a moment sooner.  Then we can live this standard of living in sincerity and truly we will impact how we live with our fellow man.

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The Virgin Birth

December 18, 20080

Its not just a great part of the Christmas story.  Its not just a miracle.  It is essential to the core of the Christian belief.

In the first chapter of the book of Luke we read the account of Gabriel’s announcement to Mary of the upcoming birth of Christ.  Starting in verse 26 and going through verse 34 we read a part of this conversation between Mary and the angel Gabriel.   It starts out by pointing out that Mary was a virgin in verse 27.  In verse 34 Mary questions how this can take place as she is a virgin and has never been with a man.

As the story goes the angel Gabriel explains to her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High (God) will overshadow her.  He then tells her the one to be born of her will be the Son of God.

This is truly a great miracle and such a beautiful part of the Christmas story.  But is it more than that?  Is there an eternal importance to the fact that a virgin would give birth to the Messiah, as foretold by Isaiah hundreds of years earlier (Isaiah chapter 7)?

The virgin birth is critical to the core of the Christian belief.  The Messiah, Christ, was the Lamb of God.  He was the sacrifice for our sins.  He stood in as the sacrifice for our sins.  He took the punishment and the stain of our sins.  To be the sacrifice that could take away our sins and provide us redemption he must be the spotless Lamb, the Lamb without blemish.  He had to be sinless.  This sinlessness was more than just a matter of not “committing” sins as we tend to look at sin.  Sin is much more than a deed or an act.  Long before sin becomes an act it is an attitude.  The attitude and ultimately the acts of sin come forth from the nature of sin.  Sin is not just wrongdoing or even wrong thinking, it is the nature that is within all humanity.

this nature was passed down from generation to generation from Adam.  We, each and everyone, inherit the nature of sin.  See Romans chapter 7 (especially the last half) for a good picture.  The Messiah, the Christ, had to deliver us not only from our acts of sin, but our nature of sin.  Likewise, to be without sin, as He was described, he had to be without the nature of sin.  How could He be without the nature of sin?  this was accomplished by the miracle we call the virgin birth.  The nature of sin was not passed on to Christ as He was conceived of the Holy Spirit.

The virgin birth is not just a great part of the Christmas story and is more than just a miracle.  It is an integral part of God’s plan of salvation.

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