Crying out the claim

And Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me."
John 12:44-45

Jesus made it clear that He had a unique relationship with the Father. He said that seeing Him was the same thing as seeing the Father. This was certainly a claim to deity that Jesus did not make in secret. The text says that He cried it out. This claim was public knowledge and became more and more an issue during the Passion Week leading to His crucifixion.

John 12 makes it clear that the religious authorities recognized what Jesus was claiming. They were losing coverts to His teaching. They were moving to deal with these claims and silence Him. If He were just another rabbi, there would have been room for Him in the system. There was no room for Him to claim to be God.

And I can see Jesus as nothing less than God, even as He is fully human. That is why as I read the gospels, I must be very attentive. I am looking at the life of my God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He claimed it and proved it in all that He did. I believe it. That is the best fact of my life.


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