><>JESUS THE CHRIST><>All praise and honor be to God.!#8
When, at Caesarea Philippi, Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus directed him and his fellow disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ. After His death and resurrection, however, the concept of messiahship among His followers was transformed by what He was and did. Then He could safely be proclaimed as Messiah, God's Anointed King, resurrected in glory to occupy the throne of the universe.
Son of God-- Jesus was acclaimed as the Son of God at His baptism <Mark 1:11>. But He was also given this title by the angel Gabriel at the annunciation: "That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" <Luke 1:35>. The Gospel of John especially makes it clear that the Father-Son relationship belongs to eternity-- that the Son is supremely qualified to reveal the Father because He has His eternal being "in the bosom of the Father" <John 1:18>.
At one level the title Son of God belonged officially to the Messiah, who personified the nation of Israel. "Israel is My Son, My firstborn," said God to Pharaoh <Ex. 4:22>. Of the promised prince of the house of David, God delclared, "I will make him My firstborn" <Ps. 89:27>.
But there was nothing merely official about Jesus' consciousness of being the Son of God. He taught His disciples to think of God and to speak to Him as their Father.
But He did not link them with Himself in this relationship and speak to them of "our Father"- yours and mine. The truth expressed in His words in <John 20:17> is implied throughout His teaching: "My Father and your Father... My God and your God."
As the Son of God in a special sense, Jesus made Himself known to the apostle Paul on the Damascus Road. Paul said "It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me" <Gal. 1:15-16>. The proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God was central to Paul's preaching <Acts 9:20; 2 Cor. 1:19>.
When Jesus is presented as the Son of God in the New Testament, two aspects of His person are emphasized: His eternal relation to God as His Father and His perfect revelation of the Father to the human race.
Word and Wisdom-- Jesus' perfect revelation of the Father is also expressed when He is described as the Word (logos) of God <John 1:1-18>. The Word is the self-expression of God; that self-expression has personal status, existing eternally with God. The Word by which God created the world <Ps. 33:6> and by which He spoke through the prophets "became flesh" in the fullness of time <John 1:14>, living among men and women as Jesus of Nazareth.
Much that is said in the Old Testament about the Word of God is paralleled by what is said of the Wisdom of God: "The Lord by wisdom founded the earth" <Prov. 3:19>. In the New Testament Christ is portrayed as the personal Wisdom of God <1 Cor. 1:24,30>-- the one through whom all things were created <1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2>.
The Holy One of God-- This title was given to Jesus by Peter <John 6:69>, (RSV) and remarkably, by a demon-possessed man <Mark 1:24>. In their preaching, the apostles called Jesus "the Holy One and the Just" <Acts 3:14>. This was a name belonging to Him as the Messiah, indicating He was especially set apart for God. This title also emphasized His positive goodness and His complete dedication to the doing of His Father's will. Mere "sinlessness," in the sense of the absence of any fault, is a pale quality in comparison to the unsurpassed power for righteousness which filled His life and teaching.
The Lord--" Jesus is Lord" is The ultimate Christian creed. "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" <1 Cor. 12:3>. A Christian, therefore, is a person who confesses Jesus as Lord.
Several words denoting lordship were used of Jesus in the New Testament. The most frequent, and the most important in relation to the doctrine of His person, was the Greek word kurios. It was frequently given to Him as a polite term of address, meaning "Sir." Sometimes the title was used of Him in the third person, when the disciples and others spoke of Him as "The Lord" or "The Master."
After His resurrection and exaltation, however, Jesus was given the title "Lord" in its full, christological sense. Peter, concluding his address to the crowd in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, declared, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" <Acts 2:36>.
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
To be continued |
