This week we tackled Jesus and His fully human self and fully God self. The Bible has great things to say about who He was and is and is to come. This one is long so hang in there, you won't be disappointed!
Jesus Christ is the center of God's revelation and the foundation and Head of the Church. The church has many members but only One Head. Many churches forget this and thus problems arise. He is the focus of Satan's attack and the evil one seeks to destroy. Also, the Bible, from beginning to end, points to Jesus Christ.
Christ appears in the Bible before the immaculate conception. He is often referred to as the Angel of the Lord as in Gen 18, Gen 32:24(wrestling with Jacob), Ezekiel's friend 1:26 and to Daniel 10:5. The manifestation of God in bodily form is called a theophany.
The Bible talks about Jesus being around before the foundation of the earth in John 1:1, 15 & 17:5. John 6 talks about Jesus coming from Heaven & then ascending back from whence He came.
Christ is also referenced as eternal in Scripture in Micah 5:2, Is. 9:6, John 8:58 & 1:1, Rev. 1:8, Heb. 1:8, and 1 Tim 1:17. He is given many names Logos(John), Son of God(Ps. 2:7), the 1st begotten, the only begotten, Image of God, & exact representation of God.
Scripture prophesied of Christ's lineage in Gen 3:15, 49:10, 2 Samuel 7:12-16. His birth in Micah 5:2, Is. 9:6 & 7:14. His life in Is. 61:1-2, 11:2-3, 53:1-4. His death in Ps. 22 & Is. 53. His resurrection in Ps. 16:10 and His glory in Dan. 7:13-14.
Jesus Christ is perfect humanity. He is the only person born that died perfect. Yet, He is all God, too. Except for sin he has all characteristics of man and all the attributes of God. These 2 things were united in 1 person forever. It is called the hypostatic union. In the human, Christ had emotions, felt pain, suffered, hungered, was thirsty, expressed pure joy. As God, He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. He is holy, righteous, just, good, full of grace, and patient.
The fact that Jesus lived is not disputed. The fact that He died is not disputed. The resurrected Christ was witnessed by over 500 people. Not just in 1 mass group but over a number of about 40 days by both those alone and in a crowd according to Acts 1. The ascension was viewed by a massive amount of people and recorded by historians along with the disciples.
What is Christ doing in the church today? He is the head of the church, Lord of all creation(Col 1:8, Heb. 1:3). He is our great high priest(Heb 4:14-16), our intercessor(Heb. 7:25) and our advocate(lawyer 1 John 2:1). What is Christ going to do in the future? He will rapture the church, bring about the tribulation, come again, reign in the millenium, and live with us in eternity!
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.--C.S. Lewis
