Who Is Jesus?

Building One Another - Vol. 10, No. 26
Dear Friend, “Hesaid to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.’” Matthew 16:15-17* I have long loved the view of Jesus expressed by Napoleon Bonaparte to General Bertrand who followed him into banishment on the island of St. Helena. “I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man.         Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity . . . Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by himself. His ideas and sentiments, the truth which he announces, his manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things . . . The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me— everything remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man . . . One can absolutely find nowhere, but in him alone, the imitation or the example of his life . . . I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”** Who do you say that Jesus is? It is the most profound question you can be asked and your answer is of the highest significance. “Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
With joy - E. Stanley Ott Copyright 2011 E. Stanley Ott *Scripture from the NRSV **Vernon C. Grounds The Reason for Our Hope (1945) Chapter Five
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