"My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one." -John 10:29-30
“The large print giveth; the fine print taketh away” says popular wisdom—which accounts for the importance of attorneys and legal experts who define the fine print. I’ve come to conclude that by and large, people don’t want to be bothered with the fine print. They want you to tell them what they want to hear and then they sign on the bottom line.
But the fine print makes the difference between winning and losing, between having something of substance and only thinking you have it. In the event that you have been following this series, I’ve been pondering a series of “what ifs” and what are their implications. There are some issues, however, which are so important that you dare not leave them to other people to decide. You’ve got to decide for yourself. You have to evaluate the evidence and decide.
The appearance of Jesus Christ on planet Earth is one of the best documented facts of history. Only an individual blinded with prejudice would attempt to defend the premise that Jesus Christ never lived, never walked the dusty roads of Judea, and never met His death at the hands of Roman soldiers. His existence is not an issue, but the seminal issue is, who was He, and what did He do?
For a few moments ponder this “what if?” What if Jesus was not who He claimed to be? Stop. And what did Jesus claim? It doesn’t take a theologian to convince you that Jesus claimed to be God, and the writers of the New Testament were clear witnesses of that position. Furthermore, they believed His claim was absolutely factual, borne out by what He did.
OK, now that I’ve given you the bottom line, let me fill in the gaps. John’s Gospel begins with a position statement. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Referring to Jesus as The Word, John alleges that Jesus was God. Therefore, if God had neither beginning nor end, neither did this One known as His Son.
Even Jesus’ most bitter enemies acknowledged that He claimed to be God. Take time to study the last few verses of John’s Gospel, chapter 8. In this passage, Jesus challenges the spiritual leaders of His day saying, “My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him.”
Then Jesus said that Abraham saw His day and rejoiced in it, and the Jews rebut, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham!” Then, said Jesus, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” Without an understanding of the languages in which the Bible was written that doesn’t mean much, but Jesus was using the precise wording that meant He was saying He was God.
What are the implications of all of this? C. S. Lewis put it so well when he wrote that if Jesus was not God, He was also not good, for He claimed to be God, and therefore would be a deceiver and an impostor.
The implications are devastating. If He was not God, then His death meant nothing, for other good men have died both before and after Him. If He was not God, then, by and large, Christians have believed something that is not true. And most poignant of all, if He was not God, we are yet in our sin.
In his massive History of Civilization, historian Will Durant tells how for 200 years German theologians and philosophers sought to discredit the historical Jesus, but they have been buried and even their names are forgotten, except in a few universities, yet Christianity continues to change the lives of men and women around the world. The hammer has worn out, but the anvil remains—generation after generation after generation.
***
Permission to reprint the above article is hereby granted by Guidelines, Inc.
***
0 Comments