III
Conclusion: Why is this important?

So Jesus may have claimed to be God in human flesh- so what? Why does that make a difference to us today?

  1.  First of all, Jesus’ identity is not a peripheral issue to Christianity. If He was not God in human flesh he was not the Saviour, he is not the eternal Lord and Judge. According to the Gospels, Jesus focused all attention on Himself. He made Himself the centre attraction for salvation and approach to God. [1] One early church history scholar observed that Christians have believed this from the very beginning- it is not some idea that Christians invented later and put back into Jesus’ mouth.[2] He observed that: [3]

 …the oldest Christian sermon, the oldest account of a Christian martyr, the oldest pagan report of the Church, and the oldest liturgical prayer (1 Cor. 16:22) all refer to Christ as Lord and God.…Clearly it was the message of what the church believed and taught that ‘God’ was an appropriate name for Jesus Christ.

In fact, the very existence of Christianity as a distinct religion cannot be explained apart from the belief that Jesus died and rose again from the dead, and that He was God in human flesh. Without these things early Christianity would have merely been a pietistic Jewish reform movement; a mere footnote    in history books.[4]

  1.  Jesus presented Himself as the only means by which a person could be forgiven of their sins, enter heaven after death, and have a personal relationship with God in this world and the next. There are many verses which support this but the clearest is perhaps John 3:16:

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever      believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Friends, Jesus made greater claims for himself than any major religious figure, before or since. You owe it to yourself to consider them with as objective and sincere a mindset as you can. I can testify that if you do you will not be disappointed. I have found Jesus to be the loving and just Saviour and Lord that He claims to be. He also claims He will be our eternal judge concerning eternal punishment or eternal life. It would be better to deal with Him now, than later, just in case this is true.

Jesus said,      

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40 NIV)

Thank you for listening. The CU has free copies of John’s Gospel for you if you would like to read about Jesus for yourself. Please feel free to ask me questions now or later, and contact me through my website, www.spotlights.org. There are also free materials at the table at the back. Please help yourself. I hope within a few days to have the text of this talk and an MP3 download available on my website.

Given at Nottingham Trent University 20 February 2007 as part of their CU Mission.
© Keith E. Small


 

[1]  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Small</Author><Year>1988</Year><RecNum>586</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>2</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>586</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Small, Keith</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1988</YEAR><TITLE>Jesus&apos; Self-consciousness as a Prophet: A Biblical Quranic Comparison</TITLE><SECONDARY_TITLE>Department of Systematic Theology</SECONDARY_TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Dallas</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Dallas Theological Seminary</PUBLISHER><PAGES>77</PAGES><TERTIARY_AUTHORS><TERTIARY_AUTHOR>Dr. Norman Geisler</TERTIARY_AUTHOR></TERTIARY_AUTHORS><TYPE_OF_WORK>Masters of Theology</TYPE_OF_WORK><SHORT_TITLE>Jesus&apos; Self-consciousness</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Comparative Religion</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Small, Keith, ‘Jesus' Self-consciousness as a Prophet: A Biblical Quranic Comparison’, Masters of Theology thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary University, 1988, 59.

[2] Actually, this is what the Qur’an does- assert a new view of Jesus and puts it back into the mouth of Jesus- from a distance of more than 5 centuries. The view of Jesus in the Qur’an does not present a credible first-century view of Jesus or the setting in which he ministered. Instead, it is a view of Jesus that would have him more at home in the religious discussions of the 500’s and 600’s AD.

[3]  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Craig</Author><Year>1994</Year><RecNum>7</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>7</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Craig, William Lane</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1994</YEAR><TITLE>Reasonable Faith</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Wheaton, Illinois</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Crossway Books</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Reasonable</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Apologetics</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Craig, Reasonable, 243, citing  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Pelikan</Author><Year>1971</Year><RecNum>342</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>342</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Pelikan, Jaroslav</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1971</YEAR><TITLE>The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine.</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Chicago</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>University of Chicago</PUBLISHER><VOLUME>1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600)</VOLUME><SHORT_TITLE>Tradition</SHORT_TITLE><LABEL>Church History</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine., Chicago: University of Chicago, 1971, 173. He is referring here to events in Acts 2 and 7 from before 70 AD, and the Roman writer Pliny the Younger writing in about 111 AD. ( ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Bruce</Author><Year>1974</Year><RecNum>308</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>308</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Bruce, F. F.</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1974</YEAR><TITLE>Jesus &amp; Christian Origins Outside the New Testament</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Grand Rapids, Michigan</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Origins</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Jesus in Islam</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Bruce, F. F., Jesus & Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974, 23-25). Three of four of these were written within the lifetimes of the Apostles well before 70 AD.

[4] ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Barnett</Author><Year>2005</Year><RecNum>22</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>22</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Barnett, Paul</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>2005</YEAR><TITLE>The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years</TITLE><SECONDARY_TITLE>After Jesus</SECONDARY_TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Cambridge</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Birth</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Christian History- Early</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Barnett, Paul, The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years, After Jesus, Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005, 185-187;  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Craig</Author><Year>1981</Year><RecNum>17</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>17</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Craig, William Lane</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1981</YEAR><TITLE>The Son Rises</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Chicago</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Moody Press</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Rises</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Apologetics</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Craig, William Lane, The Son Rises, Chicago: Moody Press, 1981, 127-134;  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Craig</Author><Year>1994</Year><RecNum>7</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>7</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Craig, William Lane</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1994</YEAR><TITLE>Reasonable Faith</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Wheaton, Illinois</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Crossway Books</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Reasonable</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Apologetics</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Craig, Reasonable, 289-298;  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>McDowell</Author><Year>1983</Year><RecNum>18</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>18</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>McDowell, Josh</AUTHOR><AUTHOR>Larson, Bart</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1983</YEAR><TITLE>Jesus: A Biblical Defense of His Deity</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>San Bernadino, California</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Here&apos;s Life Publishers</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Jesus</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Apologetics</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>McDowell, Josh and Larson, Bart, Jesus: A Biblical Defense of His Deity, San Bernadino, California: Here's Life Publishers, 1983, 77-86;  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Marshall</Author><Year>1990</Year><RecNum>350</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>350</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Marshall, I. Howard</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1990</YEAR><TITLE>The Origins of New Testament Christology</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Leicester</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Apollos</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Origins</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>NT Christology</LABEL></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Marshall, I. Howard, The Origins of New Testament Christology, Leicester: Apollos, 1990, 119;  ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Strobel</Author><Year>1998</Year><RecNum>161</RecNum><MDL><REFERENCE_TYPE>1</REFERENCE_TYPE><REFNUM>161</REFNUM><AUTHORS><AUTHOR>Strobel, Lee</AUTHOR></AUTHORS><YEAR>1998</YEAR><TITLE>The Case For Christ</TITLE><PLACE_PUBLISHED>Grand Rapids, Michigan</PLACE_PUBLISHED><PUBLISHER>Zondervan Publishing House</PUBLISHER><SHORT_TITLE>Case</SHORT_TITLE><CALL_NUMBER>KES</CALL_NUMBER><LABEL>Apologetics</LABEL><KEYWORDS><KEYWORD>Christology</KEYWORD><KEYWORD>Apologetics</KEYWORD><KEYWORD>Metzger</KEYWORD></KEYWORDS></MDL></Cite></EndNote>Strobel, Case, 139-141.