The Person of Jesus

Explore the person of Jesus Christ and his role as the Incarnation.

Matthew

• Written specifically for a Jewish audience (people already familiar with the OT)

• Jesus’ Jewish ancestry made very clear

• Links between OT prophecies and Jesus made very clear

• Agenda: you can only fully understand Jesus’ life by knowing his history

Mark

• Wrote for the Gentiles/Romans; people with no/limited knowledge of the OT

• Jesus is clearly portrayed as the Son of God

• Emphasis on his miracles/ministry 

Luke

• Presents Jesus’ life in chronological order

• Stresses Jesus’ humanity 

• Not an eyewitness, but recording other eyewitness accounts 

John 

• Emphasises Jesus’ divinity 

• Portrayed as an eyewitness account 

• Poetic/theological 

Alistair McGrath: Jesus had three roles

1. he ‘reveals God’

2. he was the ‘bearer of salvation’ 

3. he ‘forms the shape of the redeemed life’ 

Jesus as the Son of God

• Jesus as the Incarnation - his most important characteristic 

• Others believe Jesus to be an ordinary man with a unique consciousness of God 

• ‘Son of God’ meant someone perhaps with supernatural aspects specifically chosen by God to Jewish people 

7 ‘I am’ statements

1. ‘I am the bread of life’ 

2. ‘I am the light of the world’ 

3. ‘I am the gate for the sheep’ 

4. ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ 

5. ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life’

6. ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’ 

7. ‘I am the True Vine’ 

Direct examples of Jesus as the SofG in the Bible

• Virgin Birth (Luke) 

• Jesus’ Baptism (Matt, Mark, Luke) 

• The Transfiguration (Matt, Mark, Luke)

• Centurion at the crucifixion: ‘Truly this man was God’s son!’ 

Critique: Jesus never called himself the Son of God and therefore perhaps did not see himself as God or as equal to God 

• He was humble (‘when you pray and fast, be humble about it’) 

• Would have been murdered for blasphemy 

• Less credibility (actions speak louder than words) 

Critique: In John’s gospel Jesus said ‘The Father is greater than I am’, and so may not have seen himself as God

• Contextual - confined by his earthly body 

Knowledge of God

• Jesus’ knowledge of God is proof of his divinity 

• Called ‘the Word’ in John

• ‘The glory of the one and only Son’

• Jesus also uses the term ‘Abba’, Hebrew for Father - implies a personal relationship

Miracles

• Seen in Jewish tradition as God’s power/sign of Him acting in the world 

• Jesus only performed miracles which he called ‘work’

• Performs the most healing miracles 

Summarise Mark 6:47-52. What is significant about it?

• Jesus walks on water and calms a storm (disciples in a fishing boat)

• First time disciples begin to understand how special Jesus is

• They begin to open their hearts and minds to the idea of him being Son of God

Summarise John 9:1-41. What is significant about it?

• Jesus heals a blind man

• Pharisees don’t believe the blind man, claim he is ‘steeped in sin’

• Suffering as a canvas for God to be revealed

• Metaphor for spiritual awakening

5 criticisms of Jesus and miracles

1. Many magicians during Jesus’ time - tricks were commonplace

2. Hume: no modern evidence of miracles, gospels cannot be trusted

3. Jesus’s miracles were metaphorical (e.g. feeding of the 5000)

4. Hume: treat miracles with scepticism, there are other more convincing reasons

5. N.T. Wright: Jesus’ miracles symbolic of power. They didn’t actually happen