In my sermon prep this week I have been contemplating the following thoughts about the essentials of Christ. In my thoughts, prayers and research I have come to this conclusion...
1) If Jesus were not born of a virgin he would have merely been an average boy born out of wedlock.
2) If Jesus only came to this earth to show humanity the way to heaven that would have just made him a prophet; a false one at that.
3) If Jesus only came to die on the cross that would have only made him a martyr.
4) If Jesus didn't rise from the dead that would make him a rotting corpse/skeleton tucked away in a desolate cave.
5) If Jesus never ascended to heaven He could not be God.
6) If Jesus never gave his Spirit then Christians would be powerless religious lemmings serving a distant God who does not care about us.
I find it hard to believe that people who once professed Christ can actually believe all of this. I am not a scholar, nor have I exhausted my research scientifically, archaelogically, nor historically to know if the Bible and it's claims are true. However I find the evidence overwhelming that God's Word is accuarate, and it ultimately boils down to faith in something or nothing.
So to confirm my faith I say...
I believe Jesus was born of a virgin
I believe Jesus came to the earth to show us the way to God
I believe Jesus died on the cross for the sins of humanity
I believe Jesus rose from the dead conquering death and sin
I believe Jesus ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father
I believe the Spirit of Christ dwells in all who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
I believe.
2 comments:
By your conclusion in #6 are you establishing your stand in an as-yet unresolved, thousand(plus)-year-old dispute amongst conservative Christians over the filioque clause?
That the Spirit of God is present amongst us and poured out on the Church is agreed. But the adherence to the understanding handed down in the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creed has been somewhat subject to discussion for at least a millennium. The short end of the argument is that the Roman Catholic and (inherited) Protestant insistence on the double-procession of the Spirit (through an adjustment to an established Creed in a noble effort to certify an understanding of Jesus as God) unfortunately suggests that the Holy Spirit should be relegated to being a lesser member of the Trinity.
I'm assuming, of course, that this isn't what you meant. :)
I was not intending in the least that the Holy Spirit is the lesser of the three. I guess I was referring to the time when Christ spoke of the coming of the Spirit, that his death needed to happen "in order" for the Holy Spirit to come. Without the Holy Spirit Christians would be "powerless".
Post a Comment