Chapter 4 IN THE GOSPELS
In studying
the revelation of God in the flesh as portrayed in the Gospels, the student
must keep in mind the two-fold objective of the writers themselves. Not only is
the historical data of the life of Jesus being recorded, but an interpretive
account of that history is being written from the memories and research of men
enlightened by the Holy Spirit. 1
Luk 24:44 And
he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet
with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of
Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45 Then
opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Joh 20:21 Then
said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so
send I you.
Joh 20:22 And
when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the
Holy Ghost
How Jesus was
understood during His earthly life by those who were associated with Him, and
how He was viewed after His resurrection when perceived in His divine
relationship are two different things. These two experiences are intermingled
in the gospel narrative. Therefore, to see Jesus as He appeared in the eyes of
men, while in the body of our humiliation, one must weigh carefully the simple
accounts of historical fact against the way these facts are interpreted when
made a part of the gospel proclamation as to Who this Man really was.
With
most of His public ministry in the background, Jesus retired with His disciples
to Ceasarea Philippi. 2
Mat 16:13 When
Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mat 16:14 And
they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others,
Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
Mat 16:15 He
saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mat 16:16 And
Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God.
Mat 16:17 And
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven.
While there alone
with them, He asked, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" The
disciples had mingled with the multitudes. They had conversed privately with
many. But in all those years of ministry, not once had they heard a testimony
of recognition that Jesus was the Son of God. Some considered Him John the
Baptist risen from the dead; others thought of Him as Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets. Then He asked the disciples the direct question - "But whom say
ye that I am?" To this Peter replied "Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the Living God." In responding to Peter's confession, Jesus revealed how
complete was His identification with humanity. "Flesh and blood [the
faculties of human perception] hath not revealed it unto
p 23 -- thee, but my Father which is in
heaven." Only a mind enlightened by the Spirit of God could perceive His
real identity. He, the Son of God, had become verily the Son of man.
On
another occasion, Jesus was asked to come to the home of a ruler of the
synagogue and heal his daughter. 3
Mar 5:35 While
he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which
said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?
Mar 5:36 As
soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the
synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.
Mar 5:37 And
he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother
of James.
Mar 5:38 And
he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and
them that wept and wailed greatly.
Mar 5:39 And
when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the
damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
Mar 5:40 And
they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the
father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth
in where the damsel was lying.
As He
proceeded to the residence of this man, messengers came and told him that his
daughter had died. But this report did not deter Jesus. Upon entering the home,
He asked the mourners, who were wailing and making a tumult, "Why make ye
this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." The Scripture
states their reaction - "They laughed Him to scorn." So completely
was divinity clothed with humanity, that men dared laugh at God in scornful
derision. As He was perceived to be when He became "the seed of David
according to the flesh," and as He was understood to be when
"declared... the Son of God with power... by the resurrection from
the dead" were two different things. 4
Rom 1:3
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh;
Rom 1:4 And
declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead:
All the Gospel
writers present Jesus as sharing the common experiences and feelings of
humanity. He became so exhausted with the daily pressures of life that He fell
"asleep on a pillow" in the back of the boat, and remained asleep
through a fearful storm until awakened by His disciples. 5
Mar 4:35 And
the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto
the other side.
Mar 4:36 And
when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the
ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
Mar 4:37 And
there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it
was now full.
Mar 4:38 And
he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him,
and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
Travel
"wearied" Him. He felt the need for water to quench His thirst as a
result of such travel . 6
Joh 4:6 Now
Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat
thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
Joh 4:7 There
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to
drink.
He could be deeply stirred because of human
stubbornness. He "looked... with anger" on the hardened hearts of His
religious critics. 7
Mar 3:5 And
when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the
hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And
he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
Yet with a heart of
compassion, He could weep with those who wept over the loss of a loved one. 8
Joh 11:35
Jesus wept.
Even
in this experience, at the tomb of Lazarus, there was revealed a deep emotional
conflict as Jesus noted the unbelief of those who had come as mourners. Twice
it is recorded that He "groaned" in Himself. 9
Joh 11:33 When
Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her,
he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
Joh 11:38
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave,
and a stone lay upon it.
When Jesus entered
the Garden
p 24 -- of
Gethsemane, He said to His disciples, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even
unto death." 10
Mat 26:38 Then
saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye
here, and watch with me.
After
His resurrection, He demonstrated that He had not separated from His human
characteristics. In the presence of the Eleven, He asked, "Have ye any
meat?" - and ate before them the food provided. 11
Luk 24:41 And
while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye
here any meat?
Luk 24:42 And
they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luk 24:43 And
he took it, and did eat before them.
In reality, "when Jesus took human
nature, and became in fashion as a man, He possessed all the human
organism." 12
The
Gospel of John presents a very unique synthesis of His identity with humanity,
and the Gospel proclamation that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. 13
Joh 20:30 And
many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are
not written in this book:
Joh 20:31 But
these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
John emphatically
declared that his gospel was written with the specific purpose that the reader
"might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God."
Yet
throughout the book is a thread of thought declaring that Jesus was a Man! He
records John the Baptist's statement to the multitude - "This is He of
whom I said, After me cometh a man..." 14
Joh 1:30 This
is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for
he was before me.
He
quotes the dialogue between some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem with their
conclusion - "We know this man whence
He is." 15
Joh 7:27
Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth
whence he is.
Joh 7:28 Then
cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know
whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye
know not.
Joh 7:29 But I
know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.
John
presents Jesus Himself as declaring - "Ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth." 16
Joh 8:40 But
now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard
of God: this did not Abraham.
And then in the
final climactic picture of the life of Jesus, John records the words of Pilate
as he presents Jesus robed in purple, and crowned with thorns to the mob -
"Behold the man!" 17
Joh 19:5 Then
came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate
saith unto them, Behold the man!
Yet
there is another picture in the Gospel of John running parallel to the concept
of Jesus' close identification with humanity. One night the disciples were
crossing the Sea of Galilee under very adverse circumstances. Suddenly they see
Jesus "walking on the sea" toward them. Fear seizes them. Then they
hear His voice declaring, "It is I; be not afraid." 18
Joh 6:19 So
when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
Joh 6:20 But
he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.
The
Greek for "It is I", is simply - egw eimi -
"I AM". On another occasion, Jesus told the Jews that if they
believed "not that I Am," ["He" is a supplied word.] they
would die in their sins. 19
Joh 8:24 I
said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not
that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
Throughout the
Gospel is the constant presentation of Jesus
p 25 -- the man as the I AM:
"I
AM the bread of life." 20
"I
AM the living bread which came down from heaven. ." 21
"I
AM the light of the world." 22
"I
AM the door." 23
"I
AM the resurrection and the life." 24
"I AM the way, the truth, and
the life." 25
In the
very heart of John's gospel is the record of an encounter with the Jewish
leadership in which Jesus' relationship to Abraham was challenged. To
their derisive inquiry - "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast
thou seen Abraham?" - Jesus replied, "Before Abraham was, I
AM." 26 Indeed the Gospel of John is the Gospel
of the Burning Bush. While Jesus is revealed as the
"thorny shrub" on the spiritual desert of Judea, even to the
extent of wearing the crown of thorns, John also proclaimed the Name of
Jesus as given to Moses by the Lord of glory - "I AM THAT I AM."
The
synthesis between Jesus the man and Jesus the I AM in the-gospel of John is
revealed in an exchange between Jesus and the Jewish leaders over an act of
healing on the Sabbath day. 27
Joh 5:16 And
therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had
done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17 But
Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken
the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with
God.
Joh 5:19 Then
answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can
do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever
he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
In
meeting the challenge of Sabbath violation, Jesus declared - "My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work." The Jewish leaders understood clearly the
import of these words, and became further incensed because by so saying, He was
"making Himself equal with God." To this new turn in the
confrontation, Jesus replied - "The Son of man can do nothing of
Himself." This was repeated - "I can of my own self do nothing."
28 The extent to which Jesus humbled Himself in
taking the form of a slave as revealed in this His own testimony must be given
full weight in considering the implications of the Incarnation. Using these
very words of Jesus, in describing His reaction when
p 26 -- awakened
from sleep in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee, the servant of the
Lord wrote: He
rested not in the possession of almighty power. It was not as the "Master
of earth and sea and sky" that He reposed in quiet. That power He had laid
down, and He says, "I can of Mine own self do nothing." He trusted in
the Father's might. It was in faith - faith in God's love and care - that Jesus
rested, and the power of that word which stilled the storm was the power of
God. 29
The
same author in the same book stated that through prayer, "He must Himself
gain a fresh hold on Omnipotence." 30
What one possesses innately, he does not have to obtain in a new way each time
he desires to make use of it. The omnipotence of God, Jesus laid aside when He
took upon Himself the form of a slave. When one considers that 1) Jesus Christ also relinquished His
omniscience as noted in His confession that of the day and hour of His return
the second time was known only to the
Father; 31 and that 2) it
was necessary for the Holy Spirit to come because He could not be everywhere
present; it becomes very evident that the aspects of Deity - omnipotence,
omniscience, and omnipresence - Jesus laid aside in assuming our humanity. He
circumscribed Himself to the nature He assumed.
In the
upper room, prior to the crucifixion, Jesus stated - "The Father that
dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." 32
Whether it was the miracles He performed, or the righteous life which He lived
free from a single act of sin, all was by the power of God in response to faith
and prayer on the part of Jesus. Concerning the miracles we are told -
"The miracles of Christ for the afflicted and suffering were wrought
by the power of God through the ministration of angels." 33 Even the crowning miracle of His ministry the resurrection of
Lazarus was by "faith and prayer." 34
Concerning the life
that He lived - free from the acts and thoughts of
p 27 -- sin
- the divine comment reads "He exercised in His own behalf no power that
is not freely to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength
given Him from God." 35 The liability He
assumed in accepting our fallen nature is revealed in Jesus' reply to the
salutation of the Rich Young Ruler. To the address - "Good, Master",
Jesus questioned - "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one,
that is, God." 36 All absolute goodness resided in God. Jesus
realized that in accepting the nature of fallen man, "degraded and defiled
by sin", He was not clothed in that goodness, but had to exercise the same
faith to exhibit the goodness of God's character in fallen flesh, even as the
sons of Adam must do. In this experience, we find what it means to reflect the
image of Jesus fully.
During
the crisis in Galilee, Jesus emphatically stated the very nature of His life -
"I live by the Father." 37
Joh 6:57 As
the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father
"While
bearing human nature, Jesus was dependent upon the Omnipotent for His
life." 38 We dare not mitigate the fact that "the
man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty." 39 The fact of what He was, what He became as a man, and what He
was again through the gift of God when highly exalted is clearly set forth in
the Gospel of John. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God .... The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father) full of
grace and truth." 40 But the glory of
His earthly life - grace and truth - was not the full glory of His preexistent
life, for He prayed as He completed the work given Him to do -
"Now Father, glorify thou Me with thine own self with the glory I had
with Thee before the world was." 41
He came unto His
own, to whom the prophecies had been committed - prophecies which declared that
He would be "the seed of the woman", "the son of
p 28 -- David," "a root of
Jesse," "a near kinsman," and one in the likeness of the brazen
serpent. And the Jewish nation was looking for a Messiah. Yet they did not
receive Him. Why? Because they were looking for One who would reveal in Himself
the attributes of Deity - omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. They were
not looking for, nor wanting, a Redeemer who would meet the Law of Equivalence.
Such an Example would place too much of a demand on their lives and characters.
Could it be that such is also the problem with us today concerning the doctrine
of the Incarnation?
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l Compare Luke 24:44-45 with John
20:21-22
2 Matthew 16:13-17
3 Mark 5:35-40
4 Romans 1:3-4
5 Mark 4:35-38
6 John 4:6-7
7 Mark 3:5
8 John 11:35
9 John 11:33, 38
10 Matthew 26:38
11 Luke 24:41-43
12 E11en G. White, Letter 32, 1899 (5BC:1130)
13 John 20:30-31
14 John 1:30
15 John 7:27
16 John 8:40
17 John 19:5
18 John 6:20
19 John 8:24
20 John 6:35
21 John 6:51
22 John 8:12
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23 John 10:9
24 John 11:25
25 John 14:6
26 John 8:56-58
27 John 5:16-19
28 John 5:30
29 E11en G. White, Desire of Ages, pp. 335-336
30 1bid.,
p. 420
31 Matthew 24:36
32 John 14:10
33 E11en G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 143
34 Ibid., p. 536
35 Ibid., p. 24
36 Matthew 19:16-17
37 John 6:57
38 Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, June 17, 1897 (5BC:918)
39 E11en G. White, Ms. 140, 1903 (5BC:1129)
40 John 1:1, 14
41 John 17:5
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