Now that we know the Bible is Reliable, we know that it is a good source of information about Christ the founder of Christianity. This leads us to new questions. Did Christ claim to be God? If He did, then we must investigate this claim. The promised one would be appointed by God to a special position. It is not till later on that we discover more about the Messiah’s important place in the fulfillment of God’s promise. In Matthew 16:16 Peter said to Jesus, “You are Christ.” How would the disciples be sure if Jesus was really the promised Messiah? The prophets of God who lived before Jesus foretold many details about the Messiah. These details are what helped the disciples to identify Him. In John 14:9-10 Jesus said, “How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is …show more content…
There is no way that the gospel writers made up any of these details about Jesus being the Messiah. Since the gospels were written so close to the time of the actual events, if something wasn’t true someone would have figured it out. Jesus also couldn’t of intentionally fulfilled each of these prophecies to make Himself appear as the Messiah. Maybe some of the prophecies, like Jesus riding into jerusalem on a donkey, but others it would be impossible. Jesus wouldn’t be able to arrange his ancestry or place of birth and so on. Also one wouldn’t die for something that is not true.
Christ is telling the truth therefore He is God. “...Christ Jesus…..being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be Equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and has made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians
Other characteristics include being in agony or being self-sacrificing (Foster 126). Although these are characteristics of a Christ figure, the character is not required to have all of these aspects in order to be considered a Christ figure (Foster 127). Jesus Christ chose to be crucified rather than falsely confess to accusation made against him. Although some believed him, many were against
In the Bible there are 4 different so called eye witness accounts of the life of Jesus Christ which are supposedly written by Matthew and John, two of Jesus’ disciples, Luke, a journalist and historian while Jesus was alive and Mark was a teenage Jew during the time that Jesus visited Jerusalem. Although many scholars do not agree with some of the specific episodes described in these texts, it is still believed that these documents present a fairly accurate portrayal of the life of Jesus Christ. One of the reasons that have to believe this was the time when these texts were written and how close this was to the death of Jesus Christ. It is generally believed that the gospel of Luke was written in the year 60 AD, the gospel of Mark in the year 70 AD and the gospels of Matthew and John within the years 70-100 AD. This is so significant because these books were all written within one generation of the life and death of Jesus Christ and it shows that the people writing these texts were really around to witness the events that they quoted in their texts. Another reason that historians have to believe that these texts are accurate accounts of the life of Jesus is the amount of copies of original manuscripts that still exist today. These images on the screen are just some of the ancient original texts of the bible, all of which were written before 300 AD and all of which still exist today. Although there are no original documents of any of the books of the Bible, there are several original copies by monks whose profession was to accurately copy texts so that they copies of these texts could be distributed amongst many
Jesus did claim to be God in human form not once, nor on a few occasions, but frequently and consistently throughout his sermons. This is established in all four gospels, and in Paul's letters to the early church. Jesus himself claimed to be God, in what he said, his miracles and in what he did. The earliest Christians recognize that Jesus was God in human form starting with Peter's prediction before the resurrection. The whole theology of Christianity has been centered on the divinity of Jesus Christ throughout history.
Rather than being called the Messiah, Luke refer to Jesus as “The Savior.” The use of the word Messiah is more so used in the Jewish context. Jesus is called “The Savior” because Luke is appealing to a larger audience. Within the Greco-Roman context, the term “Savior was referred to the work of the gods or emperors. They suggested that Jesus is the true savior and take the place of the Greek gods and the Roman
Matthew opens his argument by describing Jesus: born of a virgin in Bethlehem, in the line of David, worshipped by Gentile Magi, brought out of Egypt, and raised in Nazareth.1 Matthew employs this list of prophecies from Mosaic Law and describes how Jesus fulfilled them all, simultaneously, as Blomberg’s notes in his portrait of Jesus, Matthew describes Jesus as “Son of David, King, and Royal Messiah,” and “Son of God.”2 Moreover, Matthew’s examples of the use of these titles throughout Matthew bear witness to Jesus’ divinity, as well as, how God could be understood through Jesus.3 Matthew proves not only Jesus’ Messiahship but His title of the Son of God.
The early beginnings of the Common Era displayed several Jewish expectations of the Messiah that were complex. As compiled in the Dr. Peter Flint, some was expecting the return of Elijah (Mal 4:5-6, Mark 6:15), or even Moses (Deut 18:15-19, John 1:21) and many expected the Messiah to be a descendent of King David, one that would arrive in Bethlehem . Apart from the background of messianic expectations seen in modern Bibles, several sectarian scrolls shed light on such expectations. Four select texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls in Cave 4 helps shed some light into this area of messianic expectations and will aid help answering this question on who was the Messiah.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 KJV). This familiar passage of scripture recorded in the Gospel of John indicates the deity and or preexistence of Jesus Christ prior to time as we know it and before the creation of earth. The strongest proof that the Lord Jesus Christ is God are the divine attributes, divine names, divine works, divine worship, divine claims and divine relationship ascribed to Him.
Jewish tradition passed down the oral and written story of Messianic prophecies for generations. To provide the correlation between the anticipated Messiah and the fulfillment through Jesus, Matthew affirmed prophecies throughout the birth story with two significant fulfillments—Abraham’s promised seed [offspring] and the virgin birth.
Jesus is known as the Son of God, the Messiah or the savior of all. Who was the first person to see Jesus as the Messiah? Peter was the first who called him, “Christ, Son of the living God.” There are different versions to this story that can be found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. I am going to discuss the similarities and differences of how these books relate to each other.
In previous chapters, the real identity of Jesus is unknown- the crowds wonder if he is the Son of David (Matt 12:23), the disciples previously said that he was “the Son of God (Matt 8:29, 14:33) and Jesus himself identifies himself as “the Son of Man” (Matt 10: 23; 2:8; 12:40) and even likening himself to a Prophet (Matt 13:57).
One of the first major points that describes who Jesus Christ is how he displays the “…image of the invisible God…” however, he is God but in human form being Christ. He reflects the nature of his father, God. His son, Jesus, is the image of God. He is “… the firstborn of all creation” meaning that
When exploring the concept of ‘God the Son’, the incarnation and attributes of God as seen in Christ enter the picture. In order for human sin to be covered, a human sacrifice is all that could meet the requirement ordained by God, yet, they had to be sinless. Only the incarnate God could fulfill this role, exhibiting qualities of God Himself, such as selflessness, unconditional love, and purity. Another core trait was humbleness, although Jesus held the highest status in all the world, which shone brightly in His ministry, as He also served the children of God. Paul captured the essence of Jesus as God and the reality of the incarnation in these verses, “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God…made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7, NKJV).
In the view of His deity, Christ is God. Not only is he Christ, but the Son of God, and called God in the New Testament.
In the Gospel of Mark (10:45) it states, “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." The issue with this verse lies in the various ways one could interpret it. Solely based on the text, one could say that the main concept of this verse is to illustrate both the identity and responsibility of Jesus as servant and savior. Jesus came to earth for the purpose of servitude and to become an impeccable physical model of “true sacrifice” through his suffering, so that we could live. If one considers themselves a true believer and follower of Jesus, they should be living a life of humility through service by helping their fellow man (Crowder 2013).
There is a lot of evidence which point to the truth of Christianity. If the resurrection of Jesus truly occurred, then Jesus is God the son. If the resurrection did not occur, then he is not God the son.