The Deity of Christ is essential to Christianity.

Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."

John 8:58

 

This is an undiminished claim by Jesus to be God. He was appealing to the oldest roots of Judaism in this claim. He used the covenant name of God as revealed to Moses (“I am”) and He claimed to exist before Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel. It is very clear that the authorities understood what Jesus was claiming because they take immediate steps to stone Him for His blasphemy (John 8:59).

 

This is the part of Jesus that people still want to resist. It is OK to keep Him as a moral leader, as a great human or an enlightened teacher. But to ascribe to Him the authority and reality of God (which He claimed and demonstrated) is not what post-modern inclusivism wants to do. Instead, the system attacks the gospels as a trustworthy account of His life and teaching (leaving us with nothing by which to know Jesus) and blames His followers for deifying Him.

 

But Jesus clearly changed lives, backing up this claim. And those who saw Him and say and do what only God can do chose instead to hate Him. Why should it be different today? Accepting Christ as God and Savior has always been a personal commitment that is ridiculed by the world. But His is my salvation and life, and I know this!

 

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the claim that matters most

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:24

 

This is a remarkable statement from Jesus. It is a claim that He makes that matters most to any person in the world. It states that a relationship with Him (obeying His word) is really belief in God the Father and leads to a new life and a new eternal destiny. He claims to be the only true path to spiritual peace (see also John 14:6), and this is very significant.

 

Jesus had just performed a miracle that had all of the Jewish authorities upset. He healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath and made a claim to use God’s power, asserting God’s preferences in the use of it (John 5:21). This was a clear demonstration of deity. He had physically renewed and enlivened this man on a day of rest and worship. And only God could do what they had just seen done, The scribes and Pharisees knew this. But they refused both to hear Jesus on the matter and to believe what they had just witnessed.

 

Jesus is the source of my life and my destiny is to always live with Him. It is a natural part of my life right now and is what eternity will be. The power of Christ that turned cripples into dancers, made the blind see the artistry of God’s world, brought music to deaf ears, and confronted the hard hearts of the religiously indifferent is at work in my heart and life forever! That is a pretty amazing experience… right now and forever.

 

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Wine that showed God’s glory

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

John 2:11

 

This was the first miracle that anyone ever saw Jesus do. The people who really knew about what happened were Jesus’ disciples, His mother, and the servants at the marriage feast. And exactly what did Jesus do? He provided the wine for the party. Given current evangelical sensibilities, what would we have thought of this had we been there? What would we say if we heard that someone like Billy Graham showed up at a shindig bringing with him an ample supply of the best booze? This is sort of what happened at this event.

 

How did furnishing wine for partygoers show the glory of God in that culture? First, it revealed Jesus as the Creator God with control over the material world. He took a very simple chemical compound, water (H2O) and converted it to a complex, nuanced consumer item and organic compound. Wine ranking is notoriously nuanced and snobbish, but everyone agreed, this stuff was the best ever. So there was something of the artistry of God being displayed. And not once did Jesus need to touch the water to convert it over. He just created with control over the material world.

 

He was also seen as merciful in supplying joy to the people. In the Old Testament wine is symbolic of joy, not drunkeness (Psalm 104:15; Proverbs 3:10). Jesus provided joy, which is always an outcome of mercy. Wow!

 

The result of this first miracle was FAITH in Him. His first disciples believed in Him. They knew what had happened by him. What had they gotten themselves into?! This was no mere man, and this miracle proved it.

 

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The most important question of all

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 16:15-16

Peter correctly answers the most important question of our times: "Who is Jesus?" It was important for those who lived with Him during His earthly ministry. It is important for all those who have lived since His time. He is the central focus of God's revelation. And He is the turning point of human history. Answering this question is important both from God's perspective, and from ours.

Peter's understanding shows that He knew Jesus as more than just a human being. And having walked with Him, spoken to Him, learned from Him, given up all to be His disciple, and seen Him change everything known about God and what God wants in the human heart, Peter saw something much more than humanity in Jesus. He knew Jesus as the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy and as the very God of Israel come to earth as a human being. This confession was profound.

Jesus was so moved by it that He told Peter that what He had observed and discovered would be the foundation for all future belief in Him in the church. Peter's confession is the foundational necessity of orthodoxy. Anyone who wants to teach a simple, human Jesus then is denying the faith and is not a part of Jesus' church as He defined it.

Jesus also knew that with this knowledge would come incredible opportunity as the power of God attended the message of the gospel. That is why "the keys of the kingdom" would come with the proclamation of Jesus as Messiah and God. And that is why Jesus cautioned His disciples to hold on to this message until the proper time would come to proclaim Him.

Technorati Tags: Jesus,Humanity,Deity,Orthodoxy,Peter's Confession