Thursday, October 12, 2006

Who was Jesus Christ?

For those of us who consider ourselves to be Christians, that is the most important question we have to answer. I was approached by a Jehovah's Witness yesterday while I was downtown, and he handed me a booklet. The question I asked him was how he feels about the divinity of Jesus. I was somewhat surprised by the straightforwardness of his answer, but he said he did not consider Jesus Christ to be God.

I believe this to be wrong. John 1, John 5 and John 20 make a strong case for the divinity of Jesus Christ. In John 8:58, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am", which was a clear claim of divinity and caused Jews around Jesus to attempt to murder Him. Philippians 2:6 says that Jesus Christ, "being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."

The Jehovah's Witnesses add to John 1:1, changing the verse to say the Word was a God. one letter changes the whole foundation of who they believe Jesus to be.

But who Jesus is cannot be changed. Jesus is the Son of God, and is God. Only through the substitution atonement of His blood can we be saved. We are damned already by our sin, but we can be reconciled to God through our Redeemer. For more about who God is see the Westminster Confession of Faith.

One thing I find unfortunate is that those who have it wrong about Scripture often know more of the Bible than Christians who have the truth. How are we to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope" in us (I Peter 3:15) if we don't know God's Word?