When I was in college one of my courses included outdoor repelling down a sheer cliff. This is not what you normally do in college. We were not reading about repelling and answering questions, we were out on rocks.
The first lesson to repelling is check the ropes. Do not take for granted that the ropes are going to hold you up. You check the ropes before you go over the cliff. Check them like your life depends on it.
Our whole case of Christianity rests upon Jesus Christ. We trust Christ to save us from our sins and we trust him for our eternal hope to spend eternity with God in heaven. If Christ cannot be trusted we don’t go over the cliff spiritually with our whole weight. The Apostle Paul said it this way, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19)
Jesus Christ is central in our faith. The Old Testament looks forward to Jesus Christ. It has an attitude of anticipation. In the New Testament the really big claim is for the supreme authority of Jesus Christ.
Christianity is Christ. It is not a philosophy. It is the good news that God has come us and redeemed us, his people. We could never reach up to God, he had to come down to us. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, that is the first and the last. He is the one authority.
The Deity of Christ.
We see Jesus the deity of Jesus in scriptures, that is we see Jesus is God. “We have seen his glory.” (John 1:14) There is the threefold Lord, liar, or lunatic proposal by C. S. Lewis to those who do not hold Jesus was fully God. He was 1. Crazy thinking and claiming to be God when he was not. 2. A liar knowing he was not God but making that claim. 3. He is God.
At the very start of the New Testament the deity of Christ is stated. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1:23) The Deity of Christ is stated again in the announcement to Mary. “He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33) Jesus is the everlasting Lord.
The gospels were written with a definite and deliberate objective in vies. Not as a collection of facts, but to show Jesus as the final authority.
John the Baptist was baptizing, and the crowds were coming to him. The said of John surely this is the Christ. He was very clear that he was the forerunner in preparation for Jesus Christ. He was not even worthy to untie the sandal of Jesus.
John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)
Jesus Teaches with the authority of God.
Jesus spoke and taught with authority. The Old Testament prophets were able to say “thus says the Lord”. But Jesus adds I say to you. After teaching in the sermon on the mount Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Mathew 7:24)
Jesus is not summarizing the great teachers, but uses his authority to say, these sayings of mine and I say to you. The people recognize the authority of Christ and were astonished. they said, When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7:28-29)
The Chief Priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards out to seize Jesus. When they got back the Chief Priests and the Pharisees asked the guards why did you not bring him back. “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. (John 7:46)
The miracles of Jesus established his authority.
John constantly emphasized in his Gospel that the miracles Jesus established his authority. They were signs to assert and proclaim his authority. This was asserted by Peter in the Pentecost sermon.
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— (Acts 2:22)
Even the demon said I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” The demons trembled at the authority of Jesus. We must say as Thomas did when he put his finger into the wounds, “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:24-28)
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30)
The authority that Peter and John used at the Beautiful Gate to heal the lame man was the authority of Jesus. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6) When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? (Acts 3:12) It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. (Acts 3:16)
The disciples marveled at Jesus because even the wind and the waves obeyed him. Jesus has all authority.
The Humanity of Jesus
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:14) God the Son, Jesus Christ took on complete humanity. His humanity means more than God taking on a body. He took on all aspects of humanity.
The gospels assume the humanity of Jesus and they don’t seek to prove it. Jesus was so human that James who wrote the book of James and Jude who wrote the book of Jude, the brothers of Jesus were certain that Jesus was an ordinary man. They could not accept he deity or that he was Messiah until the resurrection. He was so human that they missed that for thirty years.
One of the characteristics of Jesus humanity was his growth. He grew from a baby to a child and became strong as a man. This all happened in the context of his family and community. He experienced the physical characteristics of humanity. He got tired. He slept. He became hungry and he ate. He knew suffering. He got cold and he worked, and he talked all part of his humanity.
Jesus had full range of human emotions joy, love, compassion, amazement, indignation, anger and sorrow. The only emotion Jesus did not have was remorse over his sin, because he was without sin. There was full humanity in Jesus
He had human limitations. His knowledge concerning the end times was limited. All of us has a unique personal individuality and Jesus shared this quality of humanity. W. T Conner said, “Jesus was born, had family connections, lived in his home at Nazareth, was subject to his parents, was obedient to God had a body, mind and soul and suffered and died and rose again.”
In Peter’s Pentecost sermon he says Jesus was a man. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. (Acts 2:23)
Jesus our Savior
Jesus never hesitated to claim that he has the power to forgive sins. The people said, who can forgive sins but God alone? (Luke 5:21) He told the paralyzed man, take up your mat and walk, in order that you may know that the Son of man has the authority to forgive sins. (John 5:8)
There was an occasion when the Lord, upon seeing people leaving the congregation, turned to the disciples, and said, “will you also go away. Peter answered, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:69)
Jesus went to the cross to provide a way of salvation. He conquered even death rising again that we too might know new life. Jesus died that you might have eternal life. He Lord Jesus Christ reconciles you God by His death. He saves you by His life
You were guilty as a sinner, to receive the sentence of death, hell and eternal separation from God. There is a sense of urgency to the gospel. People around us might die without Christ. We must urgently proclaim this message that Christ is the only hope.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
Jesus is the light of the world. Without Christ you are in darkness without eternal hope. Jesus is the living water and the only one who can quench the spiritual thirst inherent in man. Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. (Acts 13:38)
Jesus is the savior, but you must put your faith in him that he becomes the savior of your life. Jesus stands alone as the sole authority. Your response to Jesus Christ will determine your condition in the sight of God. You are redeemed with Christ and condemned without Christ.
Jesus is Lord. He is fully God, fully human and died for our sins the just for the unjust to bring us to God. He is our savior.
Below is the statement on Jesus Christ and verses that come from the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 version.
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God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
Genesis 18:1ff.;
Psalms 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.;
Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53:1-12;
Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19;
Mark 1:1; 3:11;
Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46;
John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5, 21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20;
Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4;
1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28;
2 Corinthians 5:19-21; 8:9;
Galatians 4:4-5;
Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10;
Philippians 2:5-11;
Colossians 1:13-22; 2:9;
1 Thessalonians 4:14-18;
1 Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16;
Titus 2:13-14;
Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 12:2; 13:8;
1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22;
1 John 1:7-9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9;
2 John 7-9;
Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.
