Following on from my posts thinking about “What is Discipleship” this is the next obvious question.
Taken from sxc.hu by jshelve
If we are trying to be transformed into Jesus then our Christology and knowledge of who we are aiming for is very important. In fact, John tells us that’s why he wrote his Gospel, so we’d know who Jesus was and believe and follow him. [John 20: 31] All throughout the book, John the disciples keep asking “Who is he…” after Jesus does something amazing or significant and we should ask ourselves the same questions regularly.
Here are a few answers though.
Jesus was a man
We know Jesus was born, grew up, had brothers and sisters, was beaten up, cried and cared about his friends. He was a complete human being with everything that goes along with it. He got hungry, he suffered and he was tempted. We shouldn’t forget this fact. Jesus was a real human being
Jesus was a prophet
Jesus even says that a prophet is without honour in his own town. [Matthew 13: 53-58]
He came and certainly spoke critical God breathed truth into situations. People didn’t like it and rejected it.
Jesus was God
The most important one and indisputable. The bible is clear about it, Jesus wasn’t just a man or prophet like Islam or some groups claim. He wasn’t Just a good person or moral teacher. He was God.
I remember someone saying that Christians tend to make one of two mistakes.
They forget Jesus was God….or They forget he was Man.
If Jesus was just man then he was “Just a good moral teacher” a liar, and our faith is useless [check out Paul in 1 Corinthians 15] and we really shouldn’t talk about Jesus at all, let alone want to be his disciples.
C.S. Lewis’s choice of Mad, Bad or God really is still true about Jesus. Either he was crazy, which case why follow him, Or he was a liar and deceiver (promising people eternal life, claiming to be God) or he was indeed God and is worthy of praise and the model of our faith.
The irony is that Jesus the man/prophet is easy for people to accept (yet there is very little evidence for him claiming to be just a man) where as Jesus as God is hard to accept, yet the evidence is all there.
The consumer Jesus
There is, However, one last extra option. Jesus is whatever we want him to be. He didn’t really say or do what the bible says. Instead, he only did the parts I agree with, or did stuff that I say he did. It’s just pointless though.
If Jesus is whatever we want him to be then we might as well just talk about ourselves and follow ourselves. As good as my advice to my self is, it isn’t great and it won’t save me.
I don’t want to be led by myself. I want to be led by someone greater.
