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.

Jesus: Who IS This Guy? Part 1

Spirituality Column #96
September 9, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

Jesus: Who IS This Guy? Part 1
By Bob Walters

(First of two parts)

Can you explain who Jesus Christ is?

No, I mean, seriously, if someone tells you Jesus was just a prophet or was just a man in history famous for giving good advice and being crucified or was a “sinner like me” or isn’t really God or is “my homeboy” or is a myth or is just “your personal opinion,” can you explain who Jesus Christ is, really?

Without your face turning red and your tongue getting tied?

We Christians tend to mangle our message and get our feet tangled up in church buzzwords and scriptural chimera when we attempt to explain Jesus Christ to non-Christians. They have no idea what we’re talking about. “Blood of the Lamb … Huh?”

Or we get mad. The irony is that Satan thrives on both the misinformation that makes us angry, and the fact that anger makes us poor witnesses for Christ. Funny how that works.

Our efforts are further hampered because the world … that would be the Fallen World which is the turf of Satan, you know, this place where we all live … works overtime to confuse the issue of who Jesus truly is.

So who is He?

For this conversation, let’s start with the fact that Jesus is Satan’s Public Enemy No. 1. Hence, the world works hard to confuse us about Jesus’ identity. Non-believers are easily suckered into accepting – and too many believers are not equipped to refute – incorrect information about the basic facts of Christ.

It is critically important that Christians are able to explain that …

… Jesus is God in human form. He is God’s expression and assurance of love, and our invitation to a relationship with God. Jesus is God’s proof that God created and loves each one of us individually. Jesus really lived, really died, really came back to life, really ascended into heaven and He really lives.

… The Cross – Christ crucified and risen – was about God’s love, not about God’s wrath.

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

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) will explain the “only link” remark next week in the conclusion of this column.