Bridging the Gap

(...continued from part one...) 

Occasionally, sincere (and a handful of not-so-sincere) folks suggest that Jesus never professed to be God. But in order for me to believe that Jesus never claimed to be God, I would have to—for integrity’s sake—simultaneously rip a few hundred pages out of my Bible. In his cultural and religious context, Jesus so clearly claimed to be God that the spiritual leaders accused him of blasphemy: 

Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:17–18)

Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:31–33)

Jesus answered them, . . . “Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (John 10:34, 36–38)

Was Jesus fully man? Yes. Was Jesus fully God? Yes. We call that a mystery—one that Father God shouted from the heavens and Jesus echoed on earth.

Having fully captivated Jesus’ and John’s attention, of all the things Father God could have said, his first words were neither directional (“Go here”) nor instructional (“Do this”). They were relational: “This is my Son.”

From anonymous: Jesus' hidden years... and yours
© Alicia Britt Chole

• Series 1