Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Christ alone (part 4)

"From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." (John 6:66)

The distinguishing factor between true and false disciples is their relationship to Jesus Christ. In Jn. 6 we are presented with some bedrock Christological truths. We see Christ's pre-existance in verse 62b "...where he was before?" In verse 38 Jesus said: "For I came down from Heaven..." This speaks of His incarnation (see also verses 35, 41b). Verses 64, and 70 demonstrates and declares His omniscience. He also spoke of His ascension in verse 62. Jesus shares a special relationship with God the Father (as mentioned already in the previous post) in verses 32 and 65.

Peter declares other Christological truths in verses 68-69. "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." Here we see Jesus as Lord, Christ, and the Son of the living God. Most modern translations exchange the latter part of verse 69 for a shorter reading "the Holy One of God." But I am thankful for the three titles which are providentially preserved in the TR/KJV.

1. Concerning His Lorship - Jesus is Lord! No man can make Him Lord, because this is who He is regardless of any man's spiritual condition (whether saved or unsaved). In fact everyone is subject to the Lordship of Christ, and in the end everyone will declare "Jesus is Lord" according to Philippians 2:10-11.

2. Jesus is the Christ - or the anointed one, the Messiah. He was sent from God to redeem us from sin. The rejecting Jews potentially saw Him as an illigitamate child. Some see Him as merely a good man. Yet others view Christ merely as a prophet. But the truth of the matter is He is the Messiah, He was the promise fullfilled.

3. Jesus is the Son of the living God - the term 'Son of God' means that whatever attributes and characteristics are true of God that they are true of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. No one else will ever share this special relationship.

True disciples, like Peter, affirm all of who Jesus Christ is and all of what Jesus has done.

2 comments:

Jerry Bouey said...

Brother Bill, I do appreciate this new series too. I like these short daily studies - everytime I try to do something short, I fail miserably! ;)

I like this theme - we can never learn too much about our Saviour and what true faith in Him means!

Unknown said...

Amen, I try to blog daily, but it doesn't work for me. I blog when I get to it, and they usually stem from my personal studies, they have been a such blessing to me, I just want to share them with everyone. Thanks for your comments!