Hey guys, Just wanted to share something I found while looking in the book of Hebrews. Here Paul(?) goes into a study about the very nature of Christ and his relationship to God. What do these words mean for us?
The first chapter attempts to talk about Jesus' divinity by using the logic that Jesus is God's son. It goes against the other categorizations of the time because
a) the writer of Hebrews refers to him as fore spoken of through prophets
b). having a glory that comes from God, represents God
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."(v3)
That is a pretty heady thing to be said of any human being. It puts Him immediately above the prophets, and further more, the writer of Hebrews makes clear that Jesus is an executer of God's will:
"After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."
So Jesus is God's "right hand man" so to speak, and sits in a position of glory before and after fulfilling God's will.
In context of these characterizations, what have been some things that have been said about Jesus? He Himself made it clear that he was no ordinary man, even though that was suggested (remember when the crowds reacted incredulously, "is this not Jesus of Nazareth, Mary and Joseph's son?")
Other's said that He was a prophet: when Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was, Peter began his response with "Some say you are Elijah"
Others also said that he was a good teacher, think about Nicodemus and aslo the rich young ruler who addressed him as such, to which Jesus replies, "Why do you call me good"?
The Pharisees and Saducess said that he was the devil (why would the devil cast out the devil) and finally that he was the Christ, the one sent by God, to which he responded "you have spoken well."
I guess in our modern time, in the context of other religions people will try to put Christ in the above categories. As Christians, in dealing with Jewish, Muslim, Mormon (I include them in this for a reason) and secular perspectives, each one is dealt with in scripture. In fact, I encourage you to look up each of these instances and see how the bible support’s Christ’s claim to divinity in each and every way.
Muslims and Jews: They think Jesus is either a prophet or a rabbi
Bhuddists: Think of Jesus as a good teacher, flawed, but alright
Mormons: It gets a little dicey, the perspectives range from Lord to “enlightened spiritual older brother man-turned-god”
But perhaps it can be we Christians ourselves who are the hardest to reconcile to each of us. We tend to treat Christ as this super spiritual being whose material existence barely matters. What do I mean by this? Well, it is initially very hard to relate to a being that is well…God. Part of this is that He is perfect, holy, set apart, in heaven, and very much righteous, awesome and the King of Glory, Lord of Lord, King of Kings, you get the drill. Not that we were supposed to make "yo mamma" jokes with Him in the first place, but we are called to both love and obey the Lord. God the Father gets hard to love if you don't pursue a relationship with him.
I guess that is why the person of Jesus comes as a blessing and a bit of a problem at the same time. We fall into the danger of either taking him too much as a human, or too much as a deity. We ultimately cannot fully comprehend the manifestation of Christ. This is the very thing argued over in the Council of Nicea, initially split the church in two halves, is challenged by such books as The Da Vinci Code, and is ultimately still the very reason we have a faith at all, in fact it is the cornerstone of our faith.
Let us not let a cornerstone turn into a stumbling block though. I remember the story of a woman who had read one of the Old Testament passages wherein God had commanded the children of Isreal to slay everyone of their enemies. It had distressed her, and of course I could relate. But then she prayed about it and turned to the bible again. There she came across John 14. It begins:
“"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me.”
Jesus then goes on to say: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
I go back to that scripture again and again because I love the fact that Jesus takes time to reassure and show compassion always, even though his disciples, like we children, can exasperate him to no end. It is the scripture right before he promises the Holy Spirit and right after he predicts his own death. Today however, what I got from it was the fact that even though God is unchangeable, we inspire Him to change. He never changes his will, but we in our pleas and circumstances, changes His actions. Think on that that, You, yes you, You Christian, YOU MAKE GOD MOVE.
Don’t think of Him as an angry old man on a throne ready to zap you or as lax associate more enlightened than you care to be, He is about his will and He is about looking out for you.
Quick quiz – think of prominent times in scripture in which God has allowed the outcome of an event to be determined by man.
(PS. I also realized I stopped talking about the book of Hebrews, kinda stream of conciousness but it is a good book to look at if you ever encounter anyone who says that Jesus was either just an angel or an enlightened spiritual being. Remember, angels can rebel too (i.e. Satan).
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