By Pastor Greg
Little Johnny was shopping with
Grandma. One of the things she tossed in the cart was a package of
pantyhose. He sounded out the words "Queen Size" and exclaimed,
"Grandma, you wear the same size as our bed!"
Why thank you Johnny for reminded
me of this. And while you’re at it, why
don’t you give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it. Oh sure, the name might be the same, but it’s
the application of that name that matters.
It’s the same with Jesus. People might mention the name of Jesus, but
it’s the application of that name that really matters. For example, some people think He was a god
who looked like a man (a teaching prevalent in the Emergent Church movement). Some think He was a man who became a god
(this view is held by the Mormons). Some feel that He was simply another of
God’s prophets; a man that grew up in Palestine who became God’s messenger
(this view is held by the Muslim faith).
However, among Christians, many believe that Jesus was divinely created
(the virgin birth), and because of this He was a sinless man. Then, after He was baptized and empowered by
the Holy Spirit, Jesus began His ministry on earth. He lived His life as God’s sinless witness,
and the Father worked through Jesus to perform all those miracles.
Chances are, as a Christian, you
know better than to think Jesus was simply a prophet like Moses or Elijah or
Mohamed. And you also know better than
to think Jesus was a man who became like God.
That’s just nonsense. Perhaps, in
your Christian journey, you’ve embraced the teachings of the Emergent Church
movement. They are becoming more and
more popular among some Christians, especially through teachers like Brian McLaren
and Rob bell. I run into more and more
people who take away the humanity of Jesus by insist the cross was not
necessary. Perhaps you have heard their
teaching. They say faith is all that
matters; claiming everyone gets to go to heaven, and questioning whether there
is any sin. But, most of the Christians I
meet believe the last example; that Jesus was a man empowered by the
Holy Spirit to do the work of God on earth; that it was God the Father who fed
the 5000 or who healed the sick and cast out demons. He did this through Jesus. However, even this view diminishes who Jesus
truly is.
Jesus was most certainly more than
a sinless man gifted by the Holy Spirit and empowered by God. He was and is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15).
In other words, God did not work through Him because He was a sinless
man, but instead Jesus was and is God.
Jesus had authority and power to perform all those miracles we read
about in the Gospels. Here in Colossians, Paul reminds us that Jesus is both
God and Man. He speaks of the
dual nature found in Jesus. And I
understand that this is a difficult concept for us. How can He be both? If Jesus is not a man who became like God or
a god who looked like a man, then what is He; who is He?
First of all, Paul reminds us that
Jesus is fully God. In Colossians 2:9,
Paul says, “In
Him dwelt the fullness of God”.
In other words Jesus is fully God and God is fully Jesus. Jesus said of Himself, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father”!
(John 14:9). The writer of Hebrews says
that He is “the
exact representation of (God’s) nature”
(Hebrews 1:3). Although some today insist
that Jesus never claimed to be God, truthfully He never left His identity open
for debate. In John 10:30, Jesus says, “I and the Father are
one.” And according to
theologian John MacArthur, “The one-ness
that Jesus is claiming is not one-ness in purpose. It is not one-ness in mission. It is not one-ness in theological
agreement. The one-ness that he is
talking about is one-ness in nature, one-ness in essence, one-ness in being”.[1] In other words, Jesus says that He is
God. And God the Son created a sinless
body in which He could dwell. The Word
became flesh.
The Gospel of John emphasizes the
eternal nature of Jesus right from the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God” (John 1:1). But then John goes on to add, “The Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as the only begotten
from the Father” (John 1:14).
The Word which existed from the beginning became flesh. And the same glory we see in the Father we
now see in the Son.
Paul reemphasizes this teaching from
John by describing Jesus as the “firstborn of all creation”. However, he doesn’t mean first in order as
the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim, but first in authority or rank. By taking on flesh Jesus takes His place
within His creation as the one with the highest authority. The Greek word used here (prototokos) is not
a noun, but an adjective. Since Jesus
existed with God from the very beginning, and since Jesus is God (John 1:1),
both John and Paul describe God in the flesh as Jesus, and describe Jesus in
His glory as God.
I know. This is a concept very difficult to
grasp. And truthfully, theologians have
been struggling with this for years.
With finite minds we try to understand the workings of the
infinite. So we are naturally going to
struggle with this. But it is a truth
taught to us by Christ Himself. “I and the Father are
one”, He has said. And even
though “Christ sometimes operated in the
sphere of His humanity and in other cases in the sphere of His deity, in all
cases what He did and what He was could be attributed to His one Person”.[2] Only God could forgive sins. Only a man could be killed. Only God had power over death and life. Only a sinless Man could atone for the sins
of Humanity.
As the second person of the trinity,
Jesus possesses the same characteristics we see in God, yet they are contained
in human flesh. Jesus willingly
surrendered portions of His true nature (for example, omnipresence – to be
everywhere at once), in order to dwell in a human body. Paul reminds us that “Though He was God, He did not think of equality
with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up his divine privileges;
He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He
appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a
criminal’s death on a cross”. (Philippians 2:6-8). Christ took on flesh, and chose to live
according to the same limitations you and I have. He grew weary. He got hungry and thirsty - things He would
not experience in Heaven. He lived in a
frail body that could be cut and wounded.
He could bleed to death. But even
thought His body was like yours and mine, that body contained the second person
of the Trinity.
Paul reminds us first that Jesus
is the exact representation of the invisible God. What we know of God we can see lived out in
Jesus. And secondly he reminds us that
not only has Jesus existed eternally with the Father, but that He has been
given authority over all creation. Paul
says that Jesus wasn’t “born”, but that He chose to limit Himself and live like
one of us in a sinless mortal body. And
what that means is that for 33 years God Himself walked this earth. God took on flesh and became like us. And because of this, the world has never been
the same.
This doctrine of Christ (called
the Hypostatic Union) was important in Paul’s time, and it’s just as
important today. It is vitally important
that we understand Just who Jesus really is. English pastor J. S. Baxter
summarized this best when he said “Fundamentally,
our Lord's message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He
himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, "I
am the bread". He did not come merely to shed light; He said, "I am
the light". He did not come merely to show the door; He said, "I am
the door". He did not come merely to name a shepherd; He said, "I am
the shepherd". He did not come merely to point the way; He said, "I
am the way, the truth, and the life".
Truthfully, Jesus never gave us
the option of deciding for ourselves who we want Him to be. The character of Jesus is not open to
personal preference or opinion. The only
option He gave us was to either accept Him for who He is and be saved, or
ignore Him and face judgment. “He who believes in
Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he
has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John
3:18). Honestly, if Jesus was merely a
good man filled with the Spirit and empowered by God, then I can understand why
people get offended when Christians say “no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John
14:6). But if He is truly God in the
flesh, then His words, His commands, His teachings, and His death need to have
absolute sway over our life.
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