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There are many things that I love about Christmas. I love the
cookies, the Christmas trees, and waking up early to open presents. I
love the extra time with the extended family, seeing people that I don’t
normally see throughout the year. I love all those things, but what I
love the most about Christmas is it’s the one time of the year where
even non-religious people find within them the desire to sing about the
God who came to earth in the form of a baby wrapped in swaddling
clothes lying in a manger. Often during this time of the year I wonder
how so many millions of people can sing songs like “Hark the Herald
Angels Sing” and “Joy to the World” without considering the meaning
of the words they are singing. Today on this Christmas day I’m going
to ask you to do just that.
About six weeks ago, I was flying over the Pacific Ocean when a
very nice guy about the same age as me decided to engage me in
conversation. In the beginning it felt like I was talking to a fellow
missionary and we were encouraging each other in our respective
faiths, but not too long into the conversation I realized I was talking
with a Jehovah’s Witness.
2. There are two traps that people tend to fall into when it comes to the
identity of Jesus. One error is to undermine His deity. The other error is to
undermine His humanity.
4. Peter and Paul didn’t necessarily have to emphasize His deity in their
sermons. That Jesus claimed to be God was already a given. That was why
He was put to death. In Jewish law, there were only a few crimes punishable
by death, and one was blasphemy.
5. When Jesus claimed to be the “Son of God” the Jewish people of His
day understood Him to be saying, “I am God.” In the language of their
times, they didn’t distinguish between “God” and “Son of God.” (John 5:18,
10:33-36)
6. If Jesus isn’t God, then His blood doesn’t qualify to be the sacrifice for
the sins of the world.
As true as the first five points are, it was Dianne’s last point that
grabbed me in the gut. How easy it is to forget that essential truths of
the gospel are all connected! You can have a beautiful glass of water,
but if there is just one drop of arsenic, then the whole glass is
poisoned. So it is with essential doctrine. If the deity of Christ is in any
way undermined, then the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is
undermined as well—and down goes the house of cards. If Jesus isn’t
God, then He doesn’t qualify to be our Savior either. God says in His
Word, “I, even I, am the Lord, And besides me there is no Savior”
(Isaiah 43:11). This explains why the Apostle Paul used the terms
“Jesus”, “God”, and “Savior” interchangeably (especially in the Book of
Titus). You can’t have one without the other.
The central truth of the entire Bible is this: Only God can save.
As tempting as it might be to attribute our salvation to anything other
than God Almighty bearing the sins of the world in His own body on a
tree, we must resist! As my friend Dr. Eddie Hyatt pointed out in a
recent editorial, Jesus didn’t say that He would build His Church on the
foundation of His moral teachings (as important as His moral teachings
are). He told Peter that He would build His Church on the revelation of
Who He is (Matthew 16:18). Jesus said, “Unless you believe that I am
He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).