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MF-Gleanings in Christology, Part 2

CHRIST THE LORD
It is sad when people deny Christ’s deity. The Bible repeatedly identifies Jesus as the Lord, reflecting the Old Testament’s personal name for God. The Hebrew has the letters YHWH (the Tetragrammaton). This is translated into English either as Jehovah or Yahweh, or more often as Lord.
 
 “Jesus is Lord” was the earliest Christian confession (1 Cor 8:6; 1 Cor 12:3; Eph 4:4-5). It was one of many Church practices that recognized Christ within God’s identity.
 
Christians prayed to Christ, even as they prayed to the Father (see the prayer-wish in 2 Thess 2:16-17). They were baptized into the divine name, which included Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19). They received prophecy from Christ as Lord (e.g., the Book of Revelation). And they sang hymns to Jesus (Eph 5:19; cp. Col 3:16), even as King David composed psalms to the LORD.

Confessing Jesus as Lord is essential for salvation (Rom 10:9-10). Let’s hold fast to this truth and live our lives in obedience to this amazing Lord.

CHRIST THE PROPHET
Hebrews 1:1-4 celebrates Christ’s triple supremacy: his comprehensive revelation of God, his powerful work of atonement, and his sovereign cosmic reign. These themes picture Jesus as prophet, priest, and king. As curious children (Matthew 11:25), let us learn about Christ in these three offices.
 
First, consider Christ the Prophet. The Westminster Catechism for Young Children asks, “How is Christ a prophet?” The child’s response is simple: “Because he teaches us the will of God.” Jesus is qualified to reveal God because he is God’s Son (Heb 1:2), imaging God’s own being, and sustaining the universe by his word (Heb 1:3). He is superior to the Old Testament prophets (Heb 1:1) and even the angels (Heb 1:4).  
 
The Father provides this revelation to those who come as children, humble, and teachable. “Why do you need Christ as a prophet?” We should not cringe at the catechism’s answer: “Because I am ignorant!”  Let’s trust Jesus, who is God’s Word (John 1:1), to teach us what we need to know about God.

Confessing Jesus as Lord is essential for salvation (Rom 10:9-10). Let’s hold fast to this truth and live our lives in obedience to this amazing Lord.
 
CHRIST THE PRIEST
Jesus is not only the final prophet; he is also our great high priest. How is Christ a priest? The child responds in the catechism, “Because he died for our sins and pleads with God for us.” This death for sins was an efficacious sacrifice (Heb 7:25-28). Christ is now seated at God’s right hand as our sympathetic priest (Heb 4:14-16). 

“Why do I need Christ as a priest?” The child’s answer: “Because I am sinful.” The call of the gospel is not to those who are strong and proud, but to those who are humble. The warning of Hebrews 2:1 is for us: “Let us pay much closer attention!”  We can only find forgiveness of sins in Christ, our only true priest.

Once forgiven, as God’s people, we are to function as a kingdom of priests, offering sacrifices of praise (Heb. 13:15; 1 Peter 2:5), the sacrifices of goodness and sharing with others (Heb. 13:16), and doing the priestly work of announcing to others forgiveness in Christ (1 Peter 2:9).  

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Is Jesus’ mission statement ours?

 
Luke 19:10 summarizes Jesus’ mission statement. Jesus said to Zacchaeus, the crooked tax collector, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Zacchaeus was the “chief tax collector” (Luke 19:2) in Jericho which was located along a major trading route so there was much to tax. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman Empire. Taxation was heavy and the Jews opposed these taxes because they supported a secular government and its pagan gods, but they were forced to pay. The collectors were very unpopular in Israel because they chose to work for the Romans. They were considered traitors. In addition they gouged their fellow Jews and made themselves rich by doing so. No wonder, therefore, the people “grumbled” (19:7) when Jesus went home with Zacchaeus. But despite being a cheat and a turncoat, Jesus loved him and in response Zacchaeus became a follower of Christ. Zacchaeus then proved his conversation by making restitution to those he cheated by paying them back fourfold what he stole which is far beyond the requirement of the law (Leviticus 6:5, Numbers 5:7). He also gave half his goods to the poor (Luke19:8). His outward action demonstrated his inward change.

Among many, here are a couple huge lessons in this story:
1.  Jesus loves those in every society who are considered to be untouchable because of their political views, their immoral behavior or lifestyle. We as disciples of Jesus should not give in to social pressure to avoid these people. Jesus loves them, seeks them and wants to save them.
2. When Jesus said Zacchaeus was a “son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9) and yet he was lost, shock waves must have gone through the crowd! They were shocked in at least two ways because:

*they would not have wanted to acknowledge that Zacchaeus was a fellow son of Abraham and 

*they would not have wanted to admit that sons of Abraham could be lost. 

The truth is people are not justified with God by a good heritage or condemned by a bad one. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, by which we are made right with God (Romans 5:1-2). Jesus still loves to bring the lost into His kingdom, regardless of their reputation, name, religious or political background or previous way of life. Through faith in Him, the lost can be found and forgiven. 

The question for us modern day disciples of Jesus Christ is: Is His mission statement ours?      

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MF-Gleanings in Christology

REASONS TO STUDY CHRISTOLOGY

The health of our lives and churches depends on how we understand and follow Christ. Christianity stands or falls with its Christology. Here are four reasons for a deeper knowledge of Jesus.

 

First, there are depths to the doctrine that we have not discovered. A full account about Jesus is inexhaustible (John 21:25).

 

Second, our spiritual well-being depends on being reshaped by biblical teaching. The corrective for unhealthy habits that misshape our lives is the wisdom found in Christ.

 

Third, while biblical truth never changes (Ephesians 4:14; Hebrew 13:9; Jude 3), the circumstances of our lives do. We must  come afresh to God’s Word for the wisdom of Christ that meets our daily needs.

 

Finally, the study of Christ is for God’s glory and our good. The Father is pleased when much is made of His Son. It is amazing, but through the proper knowledge of Christ, we can come to participate, not only in salvation, but in God’s very life (2 Peter 1:3-4).

 

CHRIST, THE MESSIAH

In Jesus’ day the messianic puzzle lay in pieces. God promised that Eve’s
descendent would crush Satan’s head (Gen ‪3:15). This seed was through Abraham
(Gen 17:19) and associated with David (Psalm 2:7). Added were promises about various
anointed figures (priests, prophets, and kings). Messiah would be a human servant (Isaiah 42:1). Other texts pointed to a heavenly being (Daniel 7:13). How would this come together?

 

Some sought a king to free them from Rome. Some focused on a ruling priestly messiah. Turning from politics, others looked for a righteous teacher. Each justified their picture from the Old Testament.

 

Peter’s confession was a breakthrough: “You are the Messiah, Son of the living God” (Matt ‪16:16). Jesus became a magnet, drawing the pieces together. Messiah would be king and priest (Psalm 110:1, 4; Hebrews 7). Messiah would be suffering servant (Isa 53; Phil 2:4-8) and glorious Son of God (Phil 2:9-11; John 1:4, 18). He would be a human being and the divine Savior.

 

The puzzle is now complete and perfectly meets our need.

 

CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD
How is Jesus God’s “only Son”? The Apostle’s Creed says, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in his only Son Jesus, our Lord.”

 

In the Bible, Adam is God’s son (Luke 3:38), Israel is God’s son (Exodus 4:23), Solomon is God’s son (Psalm 72:1), and peacemakers are sons of God (Matt 5:9).
Jesus must be God’s Son in a special way to be called His “only” son.

 

The creedal designations that follow (“Jesus, our Lord”) help explain. Christ is both God’s Son in his humanity, for his name is “Jesus” – the perfect Adam, the new Israel, the promised Davidic King, and the true peacemaker. But Christ is also the Son of God in his deity. He is “our Lord.” As applied to Jesus, “Lord” often comes from the Old Testament name Yahweh (e.g., Hebrews 1:10). This means that Jesus as “God’s only Son” is fully man and fully God.

 

Let’s confess our faith in such a Savior, “God’s only Son.”

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Going Together: The Great Commandments

In Mark 12:28-31 Jesus responded to a question from a scribe. The question was “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus’ answer was “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandant. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these (NKJV).” Wow! These commandments are the bottomline of our everyday life in Christ with our brethren. 
 
As followers of Jesus we are commanded to love God with all that we are. Coupled with our love for God we are to love our neighbor. Loving God and people go together and *cannot* be separated. Sometimes those of us in ministry think we love ministry but it is the people we cannot stand. Some eople we serve in our churches, specialized ministries, communities, schools, our coworkers and even our family members can be really difficult to love. People are messy. This is why George Verwer calls missiology “messy-ology”. Before Jesus ascended to the right hand of His Father He gave the so-called great commission to His twelve disciples. They were a motley bunch and He had no backup plan. They turned the world upside-down as they scattered among the nations with the gospel. The same is true of us today. We are imperfect and messy but living according to the commandments, by the grace of God, are required of us too. Let us learn to say from the heart when we offend people or make life difficult for others “I am sorry. Please forgive me.” If we truly disagree with someone let us disagree with an agreeable attitude. Let us not be disagreeable ornery people. Ministry will always be messy because people are messy. At best we are cracked pots but the treasure we contain is the gospel. As we go in the gospel let’s love people as we love the One who is sending us.