Last week we looked at the authority of scripture….
…this week we look at our belief about Jesus Christ.
It is important to note that these two essentials are intertwined. The Bible from beginning to end is the written record of God pursuing a relationship with mankind. So the love of Jesus can be felt in every word, on every page. One person has said, “Cut the Scriptures anywhere and they bleed with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” I can understand why this would be said, because the sacrificial love of God in Jesus Christ is the focal point of the Bible. The thing that Jesus shows us most clearly about God is His love.
Love has never been a normal way of describing what happens between human beings and their God. Not once does the Qur’an apply the word love to God…and Aristotle stated bluntly, “It would be eccentric for anyone to claim that he loved Zeus.” But the Bible is different. It very clearly states that love is the reason Jesus was born. I John 4:9 says, “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
So it is important — essential — for us to believe that, in Jesus, God showed His infinite love for you and me by descending to our level of existence. He became a man like any man who has ever walked the face of this earth. But while Jesus was a man like you and I, He was also unlike you and I. He was different than any man who has ever been or ever will be. Like the title of this message states, Jesus was the man who was different. There are may ways that Jesus was different from any man.
But this morning, I want us to understand our essential belief about Jesus Christ by looking at this text from Hebrews 1 and using it to focus our study on just two of the ways that He was different.
1. First of all, Jesus was different from any man in that He was God.
Remember the words of verse 3 of today’s text. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.” These words serve to remind you and me that in the past there had been many great teachers who had come from God, but in Jesus, in Jesus, God did something different because Jesus was not just another teacher come from God. He was God Himself come to teach.
Throughout His earthly ministry Jesus Himself claimed to be God. In John 10:30 He said, “I and the Father are one.” In John 8:58, Jesus used the same name God used to identify Himself to Moses when He said, “Truly, truly I say to you…before Abraham was born, I AM.”
He substantiated this claim by demonstrating powerful attributes which belong to God alone. During His life He demonstrated power over nature by stilling the stormy waves( Mark 4:39 ) and by turning water into wine ( John 2:7-11 ). He showed that He had power over physical disease and power over the spirit world of demons. In fact several times Jesus both claimed and proved that He had the authority and power to raise the dead. He never attended a funeral that He did not ruin by raising the corpse back to life. He also said that He had the power to forgive sins–something that His opponents pointed out that only God could do.( Mark 2:10 ) So, Jesus was omnipotent, all powerful. But, like God, He was also omniscient, or all-knowing. You see, Jesus was the man who was different because He was God.
Since He was God then Jesus was also perfect, Holy, sinless in thought, word, or deed. And like God, Jesus is eternal. He has always existed. Do you remember the words that begin John’s Gospel? “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God. He was with God in the beginning.” And then pay close attention to these next words, “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” Since Jesus is God, then not only is He eternal, but He created all things. So Jesus is God,t he creator and sustainer of the universe, in human flesh.
But that is not the only thing that distinguishes Him from other men.
2. For not only was Jesus God….He was our Redeemer.
Jesus, the creator of the world, was also the redeemer of the world.
Think of it! Even in the misty, pre-creation past, Jesus was thinking of you and me and planning our redemption. Even at the dawn of creation it had already been decided. The One who created the world would be the One who re-created that same world.
Ephesians 1 puts it this way, “…He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. … in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
L. Nelson Bell recounted a story told by a Chinese pastor as a way of explaining Christ’s redemption. He told of a man who fell into a dark, slimy pit. He tried to climb out but could not. Confucius came along, saw the man, and aid, “Poor fellow. IF he had listened to me, he would never have fallen in.” And Confucius walked away. Then Buddha came along. “Poor fellow,” said Buddha, “If he’d come up here, I’d help him.” He, too, walked on. Then Jesus came by. Seeing the man, Jesus said, “Poor fellow,” and then He jumped down into the pit and lifted him out.”
Other religions offer rules and regulations, guidelines to follow and doctrine to believe. But only Christianity offers a living personality who comes to where we are and lifts us out of the pit of sin. Our eternal God of all-knowing power could force obedience from us, His subjects.
But although power can force obedience, it could not summon a response of love which is the one thing God desires from us and is the reason He created us.
How can we reject so great a gift?