01.099. THE CLAIMS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH (Concluded)
Lesson Eighty-four THE CLAIMS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH (Concluded) Scripture Reading: John 9:13-41, Matthew 25:31-46.
Scriptures to Memorize: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). “And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).
40. Q. What is an eighth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. He claimed, in the eighth place, to have oneness with God the Father.
John 10:30—“I and the Father are one.” John 8:29—“And he that sent me is with me.” John 14:11—“Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” John 17:20-21—“Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that thou didst send me.”
41. Q. What is a ninth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. He claimed, in the ninth place, to be the Master of men.
Matthew 23:9-12, “And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Master, even the Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.” This title “Master” describes Him as the great Teacher and Lawgiver and Exemplar, who alone has revealed the truth of God to man, and who alone is to be followed in matters of religious faith and practice.
42. Q. What is a tenth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. He claimed, in the tenth place, to have been the Messiah or Christ.
John 4:25-26—“The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” Mark 14:61-62, “Again the high priest asked him, and saith unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Cf. Peter’s confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).
43. Q. What is an eleventh claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. He claimed, in the eleventh place, to be the Son of God.
John 10:24-25—“The Jews therefore came round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness of me.” Matthew 11:27—“no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.” John 9:35-37, “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and finding him, he said, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and he it is that speaketh with thee.” Luke 22:70—“And they all said, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am” (literally, Ye say it, because I am). John 10:36—“say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest: because I said, I am the Son of God?” Matthew 16:15-17, “He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.”
44. Q. What is a twelfth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. He claimed, in the twelfth place, to be Mediator, Intercessor, Redeemer, and King.
(1) Mediator. John 14:6—“I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 10:9—“I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” John 15:5—“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from me ye can do nothing.” (2) Intercessor. John 15:16—“that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” John 16:23—“Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name.” (3) Redeemer. Matthew 20:28—“even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Luke 19:10—“For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” John 11:25-26—“I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth, and believeth on me, shall never die.” (4) King. John 18:36-37—“Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” Luke 22:29-30—“I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom,” etc. Cf. Luke 19:38—“Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
45. Q. What is a thirteenth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. He asserted, in the thirteenth place, His own preexistence; and in so doing assumed for Himself the great and incommunicable Name of the Deity.
John 8:58—“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am.” Cf. Exodus 3:14—“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (No wonder the Jews, when they heard Jesus assume this Name for Himself, “took up stones therefore to cast at him,” John 8:59. It is obvious that He must have been all that He claimed to be, else He thus becomes the most notorious blasphemer of all history!) John 17:4-5—“I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” How could a mere man have made such a prayer as this? Note also His frequent use of the words, “I am,” in His teaching:
“I am the bread of life” (John 6:48).
“I am the living bread which came down out of heaven” (John 6:51).
“I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).
“I am the door” (John 10:9).
“I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).
“I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25).
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
“I am the true vine” (John 15:1), etc.
46. Q. What is a fourteenth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A.He claimed, in the fourteenth place, all authority in heaven and upon earth. This claim He made after His resurrection from the dead. Matthew 28:18—“All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.” This is a claim of nothing less than sovereignty over all created things. “For Confucius or Buddha, Zoroaster or Pythagoras, Socrates or Mohammed to claim all power in heaven and on earth, would show insanity or moral perversion. But this is precisely what Jesus claimed. He was either mentally or morally unsound, or his testimony is true” (Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 190). Cf. Ephesians 1:19-21, “according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come,” etc. Php 2:9—“Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name,” etc. 1 Peter 3:21-22—“Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”
47. Q. What is a fifteenth claim which Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. He claimed, in the fifteenth place, to be the Judge of the living and the dead.
Matthew 10:32-33—“Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:27—“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds.” Luke 22:69—“But from henceforth shall the Son of man be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” John 5:26-27—“For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.” John 5:22—“For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son.” John 12:48—“he that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my saying hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.” Matthew 25:31-33, “But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats,” etc. Cf. Acts 17:31—“inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” Acts 10:42—“and he charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.”
48. Q. What must be our conclusion in view of these many stupendous claims which Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
A. We are compelled to conclude, either that He is all He claimed to be, or that He is the most notorious impostor who ever came before the world.
Jesus obviously knew how vast His claims were, yet He staked all upon them. Though others doubted Him, He never doubted Himself. Though persecuted unto death, He never ceased His constant testimony. Had He evaded the issue when the High Priest asked Him bluntly, “Art thou then the Son of God?” (Luke 22:70), the chances are that He would have avoided the charge of blasphemy and subsequent death by crucifixion. But He answered emphatically and without hesitation, “Ye say that I am” (literally, Ye say it: I am); and for that good confession of His own Sonship He went to the Cross with all its suffering and anguish. We therefore, for many reasons, believe that His testimony is true; that He is one with God the Father; that He is the revealer of God to men; that He is, in short, the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Dr. Bushnell, in his book, Nature and the Supernatural, includes a chapter on what He designates “the self-evidencing super-human character of Christ.” Among the evidences of this superhumanness, he lists the following: (1) The fact that Jesus is the only character who disowns repentance. “Human piety,” writes Bushnell, “begins with repentance. It is the effort of a being, implicated in wrong and writhing under the stings of guilt, to come to God. The most righteous, or even self-righteous men, blend expressions of sorrow and vows of new obedience with their exercises. But Christ, in the character given Him, never acknowledges sin. It is the grand peculiarity of His piety that He never regrets anything that He has done or been; expresses, nowhere, a single feeling of compunction, or the least sense of unworthiness. On the contrary, He boldly challenges His accusers in the question—“Which of you convicteth me of sin?” (John 8:46) and even declares, at the close of His life, in a solemn appeal to God, that He has given to men, unsullied, the glory divine that was deposited in Him.” (2) The fact of the superhuman balance of Jesus’ character. “Men undertake to be spiritual, and they become ascetic; or, endeavoring to hold a liberal view of the comforts and pleasures of society, they are soon buried in the world, and slaves to its. fashions; or, holding a scrupulous watch to keep out every particular sin, they become legal, and fall out of liberty; or, charmed with the noble and heavenly liberty, they run to negligence and irresponsible living; so the earnest become violent, the fervent fanatical and censoring, the gentle waver, the firm turn bigots, the benevolent ostentatious. Poor human infirmity can hold nothing steady. . . . And yet the character of Christ is never modified, even by a shade of ratification. It is one and the same throughout. He makes no improvements, prunes no extravagances, returns from no eccentricities. The balance of His character is never disturbed, or readjusted.” (3) Especially the fact of Christ’s “astonishing pretensions.” Writes Bushnell: “Imagine a human creature saying to the world—‘I came forth from the Father’—‘ye are from beneath, I am from above’; facing all the intelligence and even philosophy of the world, and saying in bold assurance—‘behold a greater than Solomon is here’—‘I am the light of the world’—‘the way, the truth, and the life’; publishing to all peoples and religions—‘No man cometh to the Father, but by me’; addressing the Infinite Majesty, and testifying—‘I have glorified Thee on the earth’—calling to the human race—‘come unto me’—‘follow me’; laying His hand upon all the dearest and most intimate affections of life, and demanding a precedent love—‘he that loveth father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me.’ Was there ever displayed an example of effrontery and spiritual conceit so preposterous? But no one is offended with Jesus on this account. . . . For eighteen hundred years, these prodigious assumptions have been published and preached to a world that is quick to lay hold of conceit, and bring down the lofty airs of pretenders, and yet, during all this time, whole nations of people, composing as well the learned and powerful as the ignorant and humble, have paid their homage to the name of Jesus, detecting never any disagreement between His merits and His pretensions, offended never by any thought of His extravagance. In which we have absolute proof that He practically maintains His amazing assumptions!” (4) And finally, the circumstances of our Lord’s death. Here Bushneil remarks: “He dies not as a man, but rather as someone might, who is mysteriously more and higher. So thought aloud the hard-faced soldier—‘Truly this was the Son of God.’ As if he had said, ‘I have seen men die—this is not a man. They call Him the Son of God—He cannot be less.’ Can He be less to us?”
REVIEW EXAMINATION OVER LESSON EIGHTY-FOUR 40.What is an eighth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
41. What is a ninth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
42. What is a tenth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
43. What is an eleventh claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
44. What is a twelfth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
45. What is a thirteenth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
46. What is a fourteenth claim that Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
47. What is a fifteenth claim which Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?
48. What must be our conclusion in view of these many stupendous claims which Jesus of Nazareth made for Himself?