Wisdom's Friend

Wisdom's Friend
Wisdom's Friend

Friday, October 19, 2012

Who Is Jesus? A Dangerous Question

Are you sure you really want to know who Jesus is? Such knowledge means your death. That's right; the cost for knowing who Jesus is, is your life. Let me tell you a true story to illustrate this.

 I once stood before dozens of men in a jail and, after telling them who Jesus is, asked them who wanted to surrender their lives to Jesus, to die to self and live for Jesus. Almost every hand went up. Almost. There were a handful of inmates who sat there, defiance etched grimly on their faces. I looked intently at one such face and though that man never said a word, I could read volumes in the look on that face. It said, "Not me! No way am I giving up my life, my freedom to do what I want. I am in charge of my soul, my life. No one is taking that away from me!"

The irony of his unspoken worldview was striking: For someone already had taken his freedom away from him; he was in prison. But the truth is, it wasn't the law enforcement officials or the judge who took away his freedom: He did. He chose to break the law and suffered the consequences for that choice.

Who was to blame for his losing his freedom? He was. Not society who made those laws to protect people from those who would otherwise harm them; not a poor economy that offered him no employment to get money to buy the drugs to which he was addicted (or anything else he wanted to get for himself); and not life, who had dealt him a bum rap with rotten parents and too little money (or too much money--take your pick).

I tell this story because answering the question of the identity of Jesus is all about freedom and its loss, truth and deception, and most of all, about life and death. It is no small question. In fact, it is the most important question any human being can ask. Jesus himself posed it to his own disciples:

"Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, 'Who do people say I am?'
"They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.'
"But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' "Peter answered, 'You are the Christ.'
"Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him" (Mark 8:27-30 NIV).

Notice that Jesus makes a distinction between what others say about himself and what the individual thinks about Jesus. This is at the heart of the whole matter. For there are many opinions among people as to who Jesus is. But Jesus dismisses what others say about him. His sole concern is what the individual thinks of him. What matters to him is what you think of him.

But why should that matter to him? Why does Jesus care what you think of him? This concern is not for his sake but yours. There is no vanity here, only concern for your soul. It is a matter of life and death for your soul when answering the supreme question of life, "Who is Jesus Christ to me?"

Now, you may be irritated by now that I have not answered the question yet. Why all this delaying in giving the answer? Why not just give the biblical answer to this question? If that is your attitude, then know that you are not the first to feel that way. Another group of inquirers into the identity of Jesus long ago also expressed their impatience over this same thing:

"At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them.'If you are the Christ,' they said, 'tell us' (Lk. 22: 66,67 NIV).

They wanted to know who Jesus was, and they wanted to know now. They had heard much about him and rumors of miracles and great powers, but they wanted to know the truth. Or so they said. But did they really? Jesus knew the truth about the reason for their inquiry, for Jesus can know a person's thoughts.

"Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?" (Mt. 9:4 NIV).

"Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, 'Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?'" (Lk. 5:22 NIV).

Jesus no doubt infuriated these investigators into his identity by refusing to comply with their impatient and devious demand to answer their question. Why? Because he was interested in something more than an answer to a question posed by insincere seekers of truth. He knew that their question arose out of who they were, with their background of a religion based on obeying countless rules and following many manmade regulations as the way to please God. They had let rules become their god instead of the God who rules. He would give no answer to such people.

Previously, Jesus had exposed this great lack of love for God by telling them, "I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts" (Jn. 5:42 NIV).

Knowing this, how was he to communicate with them? They lived in two different worlds, with two opposing backgrounds regarding who God was and what he wanted from men. Love for his Father in heaven, whom they called their God, consumed Jesus. How could these cold, legalistic men understand something like that? He knew also that they expected the promised Christ to be an earthly, political type of savior, not one who came from God to set their captive spirits free. How in the world would they understand such a thing? It is beyond the grasp of those without the Spirit of God.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14 NIV).

And so Jesus refused to answer their question of whether or not he was the promised Christ and simply said, "If I tell you, you will not believe me" (Lk. 22:67 NIV).

But he went even beyond this. He turned the tables on them and added, "and if I asked you, you would not answer" (v. 67).

Jesus knew them. Oh, how he knew them, knew their hearts! He knew their fears. They had asked him if he was the Christ, as if they really wanted to know. Now he once again exposed their hypocrisy, telling them that he knew that if he asked them if they thought he was the Christ, that they would not answer for fear of the others who had already made up their mind to kill him, no matter who he was. Therefore, if they would not answer, why should he? And if he did and told the truth, that he was indeed the promised Christ, they would not believe him anyway. They loved the praise of men more than that of God. Little did they know that before them stood the one to whom they and all mankind would one day have to give an answer to how they had lived their lives.

"God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus" (Rom. 2:16 NET).

Nevertheless, a moment later Jesus did give them something with which to accuse him that was even bigger and better than if he had said that he was the Christ: He claimed deity itself. Sensing their opportunity, they pounced. "They all asked, 'Are you then the Son of God?'" And Jesus answered them, "You are right in saying I am" (v. 70).

That was all they needed. They went from defeat a moment ago, when he refused to say that he was the Christ, to elation with his bold statement that he was the Son of God. They had him! It was now all over.

"Then they said, 'Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips'" (v. 71).

Yes, they heard the truth from God, spoken through his Son; but did this convince them, make those hard hearts yield to the truth? Far from it. Their next action was to take Jesus over to the civil authorities so that he could be put to death (Lk. 23:1).

It was same after his death and resurrection. Jesus showed himself to many people. "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted" (Mt. 28:17 NIV).

Hearing is not enough, seeing is not enough. There are always those who refuse to believe no matter what evidence God presents to them.

"If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead" (Lk. 16:31 NIV).

The truth of this statement of Jesus is seen from the reaction to his own resurrection, as referenced above, as well as when he raised Lazarus from the dead:

"Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, pue question of the identity of Jesus is all about freedom and its loss, truth and deception, and most of all, about life and death. I want to close with a final remark about each one of these three aspects of knowing who Jesus is.

Freedom and Its Loss

Every human being is born a slave to sin. We want to do the right thing, but something inside us prevents us from doing that.

"I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it" (Rom. 7:18-20 NIV).

"Everyone who sins is a slave to sin" (Jn. 8:34 NIV).

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he enables us to do the good that we could not do on our own. He sets us free from the slavery to sin because on the cross the chains of that slavery was broken.

"Our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin" (Rom. 6:6 NIV).

Jesus, the Son of God, has set us free from the imprisonment of our slavery to sin. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (Jn. 8:36 NIV).

Truth and Deception

We deceive ourselves if we think we do not need to be set free or that we are not imprisoned by who we are as sinful human beings. I mentioned that prisoner whose face betrayed the deception in his heart that he was in control of his life. He was not. Sin was.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9 NIV).

Who can understand it? The One who can see into every heart, Jesus. Just as he did for those who brought him in to question him about his identity. Just as he does for my heart and yours. That is not in question. What is open to question is whether or not we will admit our helplessness to save ourselves from ourselves and let Jesus do for us what we cannot do for ourselves: whether or not we will accept him as our Lord and Savior and thus save our souls; or refuse to accept him and thus lose our souls.

Life and Death

And, finally, the final question, the matter of life and death--not just in this world but for eternity. It was said earlier that the question of Jesus is the supreme question that faces every human being in life. The reason it is supreme is because nothing else even comes close in comparison to its importance for our soul. Jesus knew this and said:

"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mk. 8:36,37 NIV).

"No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough--that he should live on forever and not see decay" (Ps. 49:7-9 NIV).

No man can do this; only God himself is precious enough to redeem a human soul. Jesus was a man, a human being, like the rest of us. But if Jesus were only a man like the rest of us, his sacrifice on the cross would not have been sufficient. But since he is also God, that sacrifice fully satisfies the requirements for the forgiveness of our sins and to set us free from them.

That sacrifice is the only way this can be done and it has been done. But if we do not accept that sacrifice by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then it does us no good. Many people know about Jesus or have some amount of knowledge about him and think that they know who he is. But that is not the kind of knowledge that saves a person from eternal separation from God in hell. Demons are very knowledgeable about who Jesus is but it does them no good.

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder" (Js. 2:19 NIV).

To be saved from the terrifying fate of demons and the devil, a person must know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Continuing to live one's life otherwise is to destine one's self to hell.

"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30,31 NIV).

Life and death for all eternity. That is how serious this question of the identity of Jesus is. You can either die to self now and live for him now and in heaven for all eternity. Or you can continue to live for self now and not for Jesus--and then live apart from him forever in the torment of hell. Either way, knowing who Jesus is means death: either death to self now so that new life in Jesus can occur; or else eternal death at the final judgment by this same Jesus. That is the danger of the great question of life: Who is Jesus? I pray that all who read this make the decision for life in Jesus.

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set beforin this world but for eternity. It was said earlier that the question of Jesus is the supreme question that faces every human being in life. The reason it is supreme is because nothing else even comes close in comparison to its importance for our soul. Jesus knew this and said:

"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mk. 8:36,37 NIV).

"No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough--that he should live on forever and not see decay" (Ps. 49:7-9 NIV).

No man can do this; only God himself is precious enough to redeem a human soul. Jesus was a man, a human being, like the rest of us. But if Jesus were only a man like the rest of us, his sacrifice on the cross would not have been sufficient. But since he is also God, that sacrifice fully satisfies the requirements for the forgiveness of our sins and to set us free from them.

That sacrifice is the only way this can be done and it has been done. But if we do not accept that sacrifice by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then it does us no good. Many people know about Jesus or have some amount of knowledge about him and think that they know who he is. But that is not the kind of knowledge that saves a person from eternal separation from God in hell. Demons are very knowledgeable about who Jesus is but it does them no good.

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder" (Js. 2:19 NIV).

To be saved from the terrifying fate of demons and the devil, a person must know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Continuing to live one's life otherwise is to destine one's self to hell.

"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30,31 NIV).

Life and death for all eternity. That is how serious this question of the identity of Jesus is. You can either die to self now and live for him now and in heaven for all eternity. Or you can continue to live for self now and not for Jesus--and then live apart from him forever in the torment of hell. Either way, knowing who Jesus is means death: either death to self now so that new life in Jesus can occur; or else eternal death at the final judgment by this same Jesus. That is the danger of the great question of life: Who is Jesus? I pray that all who read this make the decision for life in Jesus.

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live" (Dt. 30:19 NIV).

Who is Jesus? Jesus is Life. Choose Jesus.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (Jn. 14:6 NIV).


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