A Proper Understanding About Jesus Christ

A PROPER UNDERSTANDING ABOUT JESUS CHRIST

Having a proper understanding about Jesus Christ, and teaching it in our churches is absolutely essential if we are going to defend the Christian faith:

According to a Barna survey done in 2001, Americans, including many Christians, believe some surprising things about Jesus:

More than two out of every five adults (43%) believe that Jesus Christ lived on earth He committed sins.

63% of Baptists  believe that Jesus did not commit sins.  This means that 47% believe that he did.   Even if only 1/3 of this 47% are among our active church members, that is more than 10%!

Among  church attendees of all denominations 54% believe that Jesus never sinned.  Again that means that nearly 46% believe he did. We have our apologetic work cut out for us, before we ever set foot outside the church

Christology

Jesus was both God and Man—as much God as if He were not man, and as much man as if he were not God.

The Baptist Faith and Message statement makes a number of assertions about this.

Jesus is

        The Eternal Son of God.

        The One Mediator

        Fully God and Fully man

Jesus was

        Incarnated—became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus

        Revealed and did the will of God perfectly

        Honored the divine law by his obedience

        Identified completely with mankind, yet without sin

        Made provision for our reconciliation with God by his death on the cross

        Rose from the dead

        Dwells in all believers

        Will return in power and glory to judge the world.

Scripture reveals that Jesus was referred to in divine terms:

Son of Man—Jesus’ favorite designation of himself.  (from Dan 7:13)

        Used in three general ways

1. The Son of Man is at work on earth—as a servant
2. The Son of Man will suffer, die, and rise again
3. The Son of Man will return at the end

Son of God

        Jesus referred to himself simply as “The Son” when describing his relationship with the Father.  He often refers to “My Father”  

        Others used “Son” extensively:  Mark 1:1 , 15:39;  Matt 4:3, 6;   Lk 4:3.

Jesus is often called “Christ” by others—it means anointed one or chosen one. For Jewish people it meant “the Messiah.”

Jesus was conscious of having a unique relationship with the Father.

Jesus was man as well as God.  This fact is not emphasized much among Christians, though lost people never really dispute it.

        Jesus was born as baby, grew up, got hungry, tired and felt emotions,  He ate, paid taxes, sweated, and lived, in many respects, a normal life.  

Paul often referred to Jesus’ divinity and his humanity.

 Jesus’ humanity is referred to more often than people realize.  He refers to his birth, his descent from David (Rom 1:3) that he had brothers I Cor 9:5)  that he died.  

In addition, Paul often alludes to the humanity of Jesus in referring to his personality.

Paul’s argument in Romans 5:12-21 depends on Jesus being fully human.

The Deity of Christ.  

Christ becomes a proper name in Paul’s writing, rather than a title.

Son of God is used often in Paul’s writings.  

Paul uses the Christological Hymns to emphasize Christ’s deity (Phil 2 and Col 1:15-20)

Jesus was sinless.

Challenges to orthodox understandings of Christ:

Liberalism—Critical Christology

Basis of this is Form Criticism.  It is tempting to regard this as a relic of the past, but some of it has formed the basis of the Jesus Seminar.

Presuppositions of Form Criticism as applied to the Gospels:

1. The Gospels were written, not to give an accurate history of what happened but to meet spiritual needs in the early church.
2. The early Christians did not distinguish much between things Jesus said on earth and teachings given through the apostles and prophets in the church—it was all “what Jesus said,” and sometimes the apostles words was reset into the historical situation of a few decades earlier. Thus Jesus never said what the Bible says He said—others said them.
3. Jesus never made many of the claims the church made about him.  
4. Supernatural explanations for the events recorded in the Gospels are to be generally rejected in favor of  “scientific”ones.

--the Virgin Birth narratives were the effort of the early church to understand Jesus as “special” of “unique” or “different”  

     --The miracle stories seek to help the church make concrete the idea that Jesus meets all our

Needs. For example, Jesus never walked on water—the story is just a vivid way to remind us that Jesus comforts us in the “storms of life.”

--The resurrection accounts are the church’s way of explaining the sense that God is with us all the time.

1. It is possible for careful “scholars” to comb through the gospels and separate out what Jesus really said from what the early Church adapted or made up for its own needs at the time.

Problems with Form Criticism

1. It assumes that the early church was unconcerned with the historical facts about Jesus Christ.  However,  a look at the Bible shows they certainly knew the difference between historical facts, especially recent ones, and things people had made up. When we consider the large number of non-historical accounts that circulated at the time—re; Jesus’ childhood etc.—and that none made it into Scripture, we must give them credit for knowing the difference.
2. It assumes that anything supernatural must be rejected or  replaced with a natural explanation
3. It assumes that the church was so focussed on their own experience, and on their own needs that they had no concern for Christ as he really was or for the world around them, or for their own credibility

Existential Christology and Demythologizing