Jesus says so many things. about himself. what is rad to me is how he inarguably says he is god. he is god. he is not like god or a prophet sent from god. he is god. and that's so bold. jesus was the best at being as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove. pilate says, are you the king of the jews? jesus says, it is as you say. you said it, i didn't. i'm not condemning myself to death, it is you who condemn me. if you decide to excecute me for accepting a title worthy only of me, then the blood is on your hands.
oh, and meanwhile, i will kick death's ass and reign victorious evermore.
(i love to paraphrase jesus and say ass.)
Jesus called himself the son of man. this was a crazy title from the book of daniel that described the prophesied messiah. Daniel "saw the son of man....to whom was given all authority...glory and soverignty..."
Jesus forgave sin, which was (prepare for an understatement) revolutionary. sin is against God, by definition. of course our sins hurt eachother, fellow man, sin hurts creation, sin damages our own bodies and souls, but sin's prime evil is that it violates God and his holiness. Therefore, only god can forgive sin. so when jesus had the authority to cleanse people of thier unrighteousness, he did that only from the power that came from his being god (the greek homoousius in Phillipians 2 means that Jesus was of the "same substance" as God.)
most astonishing to me is that jesus claimed to be "I AM". we can't begin to imageine how significant that was. THat was a claim made only by Yahweh himself in the old testament, telling his people, before the earth was, I AM. (Exodus 3). What if someone today claimed he was jesus or god? Jesus was not the messiah the jews expected, the most unlikely king, and so when he firmly pronounced that he was thier YHWH, they (in john 8:58) picked up stones to stone him.
crazy. jesus. i love that guy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment