church at watershed

so if you aren’t jewish, you probably didn’t know that a very important holiday happened a few weeks ago.  anyone? anyone? bueller?  bueller?  yom kippur.  that’s right, last week the jewish community celebrated the day of atonement.  do me a favor.  take a look at leviticus 16 right now… i’ll wait…

ok, now that you have some insight into the day of atonement (yom kippur), we can talk about a problem that luke and i have been discussing for the past couple days.  so, here is the question… does it really matter if Jesus was God or not?  don’t worry, we aren’t asking this because we are beginning to think that it doesn’t.  we just have some questions about those who claim to serve or strive to follow Yahweh God, but do not believe that Jesus actually is God.

first, why is this a problem for people to believe?  there is too much historical evidence that the man, Jesus, existed or even that he was executed on a roman cross to say that he did not ever walk the earth.  to disagree with this would be far too arrogant not to mention ridiculous since there are multiple non-biblical historians who speak of Jesus.  But the issue is not with the fact that a man name Jesus lived in the first century and died on a cross.  the issue is whether or not he is God in flesh.

people want to say that Jesus was a good man or a great teacher, but they get all squeamish when you say that he was God.  Some religions believe in the same God of Christianity (Judaism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witness to name a few), but they do not believe that Jesus is God.  now, before i go any farther, i am not the ultimate judge and i hope in the mercy of God for all of humanity, so this is not a hellfire and brimstone kind conversation.  But my question comes because there are religions such as Jehovah’s Witness that follow the God of the Bible and even believe that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, but do not believe that he is God.

here’s the issue…if Jesus is not God then what would the passages where Jesus claims deity prove?  here is an example out of mark 2:

and when he returned to capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.  and many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door.  and he was preaching the word to them.  and they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.  and when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.  and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “my son, your sins are forgiven.”  now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “why does this man speak like that? he is blaspheming! who can forgive sins but God alone?”  and immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “why do you question these things in your hearts?  “which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘rise, take up your bed and walk’?  “but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” –he said to the paralytic– “i say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

Jesus claims he can forgive sins!!!  and who can forgive sins, but God?  no one!  Jesus is saying that he is God because he can forgive sins, and he proves this by doing what no one else could do for the paralytic – he heals him!

now, if Jesus is not God, then what is going on here.  is he still a great teacher and wise healer?  of course! and i don’t think anyone wants to discount that fact.  however, he is claiming to be God, and now we are forced to deal with that fact.  so, what does this prove?  if Jesus is not God, then this proves that he is a liar.  and if Jesus is a liar, then he is sinful.

now comes the issue.  if Jesus is a liar and so a sinner, then he could not have died for the sins of the world.  here is what happens…God sets up the Israelite sacrificial system where the lambs must be “without blemish or spot.”  they had to be perfect!  translation: when Jesus is called the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the sacrificial lambs were all pointing to this one Lamb who would be without spot or blemish and would be the ultimate sacrifice.  that is why hebrews 9:13-14 says, “for if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

if sin is what separates us from God who is Life, as James says that one sin separates us from God as far as a lifetime of sins, then Jesus’ lie would separate him from God and subsequently his death would serve as his own.  he could not die on behalf of anyone but himself because he himself was a sinner.  even if he did resurrect after his death on the cross, his death covers only his sin and we are all still steeped in our own sin with no way out.

God in his infinite mercy knew that we would not be able to bear the separation from him that our sin would cause.  that is why he became a man, Jesus, to live the perfect life that we cannot live and to die the death the we should all die.  in this way he satisfied the death that sin brings, demonstrated his unconditional love, and provided forgiveness for us all.  if Jesus did in fact die for the sins of the world, then he is in fact God.  if he is not God, the when he died on the cross, he only died for his sin and we are all without hope.  we are all very much in our sins and as a result, we will all face eternity without God.

christians don’t celebrate yom kippur as our jewish friends do, but we most certainly celebrate the day of atonement at easter when we remember good friday when Christ died in our place and resurrection sunday when he defeated death and brought eternal life to all who will take it.  interestingly enough, easter is set around the same time as the jewish celebration of passover, which incidentally is where jews remember when the judgement of death came, but those who were covered by the blood were passed over.  i don’t at all find that to be a coincidence.