David Crowder*Band

TRIfecta: God the Son

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Who was Jesus?

Tim LaHaye writes “Almost everyone who has heard of Jesus has developed an opinion about Him.”

Max Anders writes “Attitudes about Jesus are varied and often are strongly held.  From denying that a person named Jesus of Nazareth ever existed to believing that He was God in the flesh, people demonstrate their conviction about Him by ignoring Him or worshipping Him.”

Even while Jesus was alive in the Bible, opinions varied.  In Mark 6.14-16, people thought Jesus was John the Baptist, some thought He was Elijah, some thought he was a prophet.

  • Buddhists believe Jesus was a wise and enlightened man who taught similar things to the Buddha.
  • Muslims believe Jesus is a true prophet sent by God, but was superseded by Muhammad.
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus is the Archangel Michael
  • Unitarians believe Jesus is a great teacher, faith-healer, “incarnation of God’s love.”
  • Mormons believe Jesus was God’s son, and He began as a created spirit being like all other humans
  • Christians believe Jesus is 100% God and 100% man, the second person of the Trinity, and the only one qualified to offer salvation.

If Jesus were not man, He could not have died for our sins, and if He were not God, His death would have accomplished nothing.

God The Son

J.I. Packer writes:

“God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than [lay down] and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.  And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality.”

God put skin on.  And the impact of this is outlined in John 1.1-14.

When Jesus was born, he had not ceased to be God, but had begun to be man.  Jesus is fully God and fully man.  That’s why He can make the claims that He made.  That’s why Jesus is the remedy to our sin problem.

God The Savior

These three passages sum up the qualifications of a savior and point to the necessity of Jesus being fully God and fully man in order to satisfy those qualifications: