ABC television recently aired a program purporting to take a new look at the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. Unfortunately, the program contained little fresh information about who Jesus was and is. Instead, some old faces and new ones, from both inside and outside the Christian church, repeated many of the worn explanations that try to explain away Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior.
Missing from the program was a balanced presentation of Jesus as described in the Bible — the Jesus who was God made flesh and dwelling among us.
It is not new to hear someone say that Jesus probably never existed — that He is a literary figure combining several ideas used by a breakaway Jewish group in the first century. It is not new to hear Jesus described as the “pinnacle of the highest and best in humanity,” the greatest and noblest of all the prophets. Such words are a high tribute, but they leave Jesus as a man and nothing more.
It is not new to hear Jesus referred to as a martyr — another in a long line of false prophets of Israel who wanted to be messiahs. Others call Him a reformer of Judaism. Still others describe Jesus as a religiously obsessed fanatic. Such concepts view Jesus as a failure.
From inside the church have come other fanciful explanations. It has been said that it was in telling the story of Jesus following His death that this dead man took on the identity of God and such legends as the virgin birth, incarnation, atonement and resurrection surfaced.
Jesus has been called “the ultimate standard of human existence” and “the ultimate of human-ness in whose Person we find God’s complete presence.” In other words, He is an ethical standard by which all others are measured. That is different from being fully God and fully human.
Still others point to the resurrection of Jesus to prove Him the eternal Son of God but deny His virgin birth. And some embrace His deity and add “yet concerning (His) divine essence and dual natures it is useless to speculate.”
In light of all this, it is not surprising that 20 years ago, one scholar wrote, “Surely no issues of Christian thought have gone through more thorough analyses in this century than those problems pertaining to the New Testament affirmations of the unique, unprecedented, once-for-all character of the Person of Jesus.”
Some have sought to dismiss the testimony of the Bible — God’s Holy Word — in this vital matter. As Baptists, we understand that the Bible alone is our sole authority for faith and practice. One disregards the Bible at one’s own peril. What the Bible says should be the determining voice in matters about Jesus.
The testimony of the Gospels is clear. Jesus saw Himself as God’s Son. Carl F.H. Henry adds that Jesus saw Himself as “God’s incomparable Son, standing in God’s place with divine authority and right.” In Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22, Jesus says that He alone “knows the Father.” The only hope anyone has of knowing the Father is for the Son to reveal Him.
In John 14:9, Jesus tells the disciples, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”
Three times in John 14–16, Jesus describes the sending of the Holy Spirit in terms that identify Himself and the Father as being together. There can be no mistake. Jesus saw Himself as possessing a unique relationship with God the Father.
Perhaps the most convincing words come from the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). If one takes seriously what Jesus said of Himself, it is difficult not to acknowledge the “unique, unprecedented, once-for-all character” of Jesus.
Jesus also saw Himself as having the power to forgive sin — an ability for God alone. Mark 2 contains the story of the man let down on a pallet by four friends. Jesus forgives his sin (v. 5) and then to demonstrate that He has the power to forgive sin, commands the man to get up and walk (v. 10).
Jesus saw the eternal destiny of individuals related to their relationship to Himself. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me.”
His Jewish listeners wondered about their eternal destiny. Jesus’ answer was clear. The only way to life eternal was through the truth embodied in Himself.
He was the Son of God given “that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”
Again the conclusion is clear. Jesus not only saw Himself as able to forgive sin, He understood that eternal judgment was based on one’s relationship to Himself. Much, much more could be written about the Gospel declarations about Jesus. One would have to consider the power of Jesus to perform miracles. These were understood as demonstrations of the power of God within Him.
Ultimately, one would have to point toward the resurrection and the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Here was One who not only predicted His death, He also promised His resurrection by the power of God. Most importantly, what He promised came true.
The gospel testimony is clear. Jesus is the “unique, unprecedented, once-for-all,” life-giving Son of God. There never has been nor will there ever be another like Him. Two thousand years of trying to explain away that He was “God made flesh and dwelling among us” have broken on the rock of biblical teaching.
Theories about Jesus and other Christian doctrines will come and go. Some might even provide new insights. God’s Holy Spirit still leads His people into “all truth” just as Jesus promised. But that truth will always be consistent with the testimony of God’s Holy Word. That truth will never deny that Jesus is God’s Son and our Savior.
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