Who Is Jesus?

Many people and groups claim to be Christian but do not accept the basic doctrines of Christianity. First and foremost in the Christian doctrine is that Jesus is God and the second person of the Holy Trinity. If someone claims to be a Christian but denounces or ignores this very important doctrine, that person would need to examine themselves to see if they are indeed in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5a).

From Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry , here is an apologetic on the Deity of Christ.


Who Is Jesus?

Jesus is the central figure of Christianity. He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me," (John 14:6). Also, Jesus claimed to be God in flesh. If you compare what God said to Moses in Exodus 3:14 ("And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”) with what Jesus said in John 8:58 (Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am,"), then you quickly see that Jesus was claiming to be God. In fact, others testified that He was divine as well:

John 20:28, "Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'"
Col. 2:9, "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form."
Heb. 1:8, "But of the Son He says, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever..."

Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. He is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God...And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth," (John 1:1-2,14). Because the word was with God and was God and became flesh, we then state that Jesus has two natures: divine and human. Therefore, Christianity teaches that Jesus is both God and man at the same time. The reason that he is God in flesh is because only God can atone for our sins; we can't do it on our own because we are finite, sinful beings and we cannot please an infinitely holy God. Jesus had to be a man to be able to die for humanity. This means that Jesus took our place on the cross; that is, He took our place and suffered the wrath of God the Father. If you trust in what Christ has done, then you will be saved from the righteous judgment of God. More on that next.

God is infinitely holy, sinless, and just. When we sin, when we do something contrary to God's will, then we have offended God. Since He is infinite, our offense against Him takes on an infinite quality -- because of who we have offended: an infinite God. Since no person can please an infinite God (because we are finite and sinners) then the only one left to remove our sins is God Himself. Therefore, Jesus is God in flesh, the one who died on the cross, bore our sin in his body (1 Pet. 2:24), and physically rose from the dead.

Right now, in heaven, Jesus is still in the form of a man: "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," (1 Tim. 2:5). Jesus rose from the dead in the same body he died in: "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' 20 The Jews therefore said, 'It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken," (John 2:19-21). Also, He retained the wounds of His crucifixion after He rose from the dead: "Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing,” (Acts 1:9). He will return again from the heavens, and will judge the world and all people: "This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven," (Acts 1:11). Yet, at the same time, He is still divine, "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form," (Col. 2:9).

Jesus never did anything wrong. He performed many miracles such as healing, casting out demons, walking on water, calming a storm with the command, raising people from the dead, and rising from the dead himself. Though there have been many great teachers throughout history, none of them have performed such miracles and claimed to be divine as Jesus claimed. This is why we can believe Him when He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me," (John 14:6).

We trust what Jesus said. Therefore...

Jesus is prayed to - Acts 7:55-60; 1 Cor. 1:2 with John 14:14)
Jesus is worshipped - Matt. 2:2,11; 14:33; John 9:35-38; Heb. 1:6
Jesus cleanses from sin - 1 John 1:9
Jesus forgives sins - Matt. 9:1-7; Luke 5:20; 7:48

New additions to the family

A funny thing happened on the way out of the bathroom this morning.

My wife was standing in the doorway and spoke these words, “I need to tell you something and I was debating on when and how to tell you.” I immediately fixated my mind on the fact that we were going to have a new addition to the family. “You’re pregnant?” I cautiously asked? “No, I’m not. Someone was and isn’t anymore” she said. Of course after that statement my mind was going in many directions trying to figure out the riddle of the hour. The 7am hour.

My wife finally gave me the answer and my first suspicion was correct. We WERE going to have an addition to the family, but it was going to be in the form of litter, a gaggle, a pack, whatever they call them, of six, yes six brand new baby gerbils.

Last week my six year old wanted a pet. We all agreed that a gerbil would be the best pet for the household. My wife picked up a couple of female gerbils, a cool hut with a tube that led to an above condo, a couple balls for them to run in and all the necessary gerbil accessories to make life pleasant in my sons room. When my wife picked up the gerbils she inquired of Mr. Gerbil supplier why the tan one was so much bigger than the black one. He told her that it was because the tan one (Sugar) was a little bit older and had a stocky frame. Or, he quickly added, she may be pregnant. Of course this tiny bit of information was withheld from me until this morning when the “I need to tell you something……” declaration was issued. My wife told me that Mr. Gerbil supplier went on to add that if Sugar was indeed pregnant, then he would work something out with her.

Mr. Gerbil supplier is about to be the owner of six baby gerbils. That’s how something is going to be worked out. I know... I know…..all you animal lovers out there; don’t worry. The babes can stay with mommy until they are weaned before I make Mr. Gerbil supplier take back what we didn’t pay for.

When my 6 year old found out from his mother that we now had six baby gerbils, he immediately answered with, “I told you this was going to happen if we got two of them.”

Stay tuned……….

What is good?

A quote that The Quaker Agitator posted on his site recently from the Dalai Lama read like this.....

"I have come to the conclusion that whether or not a person is a religious believer does not matter. Far more important is that they be a good human being."


There is no such thing as a good human being.

The Bible states this very clearly in Mark 10:18...Jesus said, "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God."

Paul affirms this in Romans 3:12, "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

One can only compare good to God. God is good. We can compare all day long ones goodness to another's goodness, but that doesn't make either one good without having a standard to first judge 'good'.

The quote itself is nice, but good is relative based on social standards and perceptions of a particular morality view.

That's why we must always view good as starting with God and realizing that anything less than His standards is wrong and inadequate.

I mean how else can two perfectly intelligent people view, in polar opposites, the subject of abortion for example? One would say that it is 'good' for a woman to have a choice and another would say that it is 'good' for the baby not to be killed?

Good is relative when all we have to compare it to is each others opinion.

Global warming meeting canceled due to Ice Storm

Is this the funniest headline you have seen in awhile?

I think some folks are starting to miss global warming actually.

Lovie Smith: First Black Coach to Lose a Super Bowl!

The headline in my mind this morning: Lovie Smith becomes the first black coach in history to lose a Super Bowl.

As the predictable media continued to make race an issue Monday morning by focusing on the first black coach, Tony Dungy, to win a Super Bowl, I thought we should give equal time to the losing coach as well.

For the last two weeks, we, the fans of professional football, have had our intelligence insulted day after day as the drooling media made race the focus of the coach’s path to the Super bowl. Instead of qualifying the success of these two coaches, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, by showering us with their accolades of achievement, we were bombarded with the same race issue that, we, the general public, are never supposed to talk about (or more specifically, we, the non-black people).

When will the non-race/race factor stop?

Will we have to hear a few years from now about how so-and-so is ONLY the 12th black coach to ever lead a team to the Super Bowl? I mean, how far is this going to keep going? The football 'analysts' during the game last night pondered why there were no black owners in the NFL yet. The media continues to make race an issue when it should never be brought up and if someone (a white person) challenges this issue, well then your a racist.

I’m not a racist person by any means. I pretty much like everybody I meet and I try to never put a label on someone. We are all God’s creation and as far as I’m concerned there is only one race to begin with; the human race.

If race is not an issue, can we please stop talking about it and focus on the individual without looking at the skin color? Didn't someone once say, 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.'

How many years has it been since those words were spoke? Dr. King's children are not little any more and they sill don't live in that nation yet; as the media has proved over the last two weeks.