Jesus: Who IS This Guy? Part 2

Spirituality Column #97
September 16, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

Jesus: Who IS this Guy? Part 2
By Bob Walters

From last week’s Part 1:

… Jesus is mankind’s only link with a loving, personal God; Satan promotes our separation from God.

“Only link?” Yes. The only one.

Jesus is entirely unique in history because He is the only human religious figure who ever said He was God, and by His resurrection, proved He Himself is God. Nobody else … nobody, before or since … has even made that claim, let alone proved it.

Christ is also the only religious figure who ever said God was about love, not power. About freedom, not law. About faith, not works. About a personal heavenly father, not an impersonal, transcendent master.

If you disagree or think someone else made these claims, they didn’t. There are lots of religions, unique in their own ways. It’s important to know how Christ was unique.

In a recent newspaper story about another religion there was a quote that said Jesus was a prophet like another religious figure, Muhammad. It was left, incorrectly, as a “fact” by an editor who likely didn’t know the difference.

Jesus? Only a prophet? C’mon, that’s the World talking. Christ is the object of prophecy. Jesus is the coming of God on earth; the eternal Creator God entering our human time-space-feeling continuum.

It’s neither precise nor Biblical to describe Jesus Christ as a prophet; and even simply “religious figure” sells Him short.

Prophets come to teach; Christ came to save.

Jesus Himself never said He was a prophet, and only rarely inferred – by veiled question or agreement – that he was God or the Messiah (e.g. Luke 9:17-21). That’s because the point of His being on Earth wasn’t to tell us He was God; the point was that God cared enough to come to earth to save us from our sins. The point was for us to learn and have faith that Christ is the truth.

As Christians, we have to do better than spout Bible verses and platitudes about Christ. We have to be able to explain our relationship with Him and what that relationship gives to us: hope and strength for now, perfect love and eternal life forever.

That’s how others will know that we know Christ is real.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) reminds all to look at 1 Peter 3:15 and, for good measure, 2 Timothy 4:2. Be a witness. Pray for guidance and wisdom.