God sent us good dreams.
Stories scattered through all the religions and beliefs in the world.
About a god who dies and comes to life and again.
And who, by his death, has somehow given new life to men.
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| 6 For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder. These will be his royal titles: “Wonderful,” “Counselor,” “The Mighty God,” “The Everlasting Father,” “The Prince of Peace.” 7 His ever-expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule with perfect fairness and justice from the throne of his father David. He will bring true justice and peace to all the nations of the world. This is going to happen because the Lord of heaven’s armies has dedicated himself to do it! Isaiah 9:6-7Living Bible (TLB) |
He also chose one particular group of people and spent several centuries teaching them what kind of God He is.
He taught them that there is only one of Him.
That He cares about people doing the right thing.
And then amongst these people, the Jews, suddenly turns up a man who claims to be God.
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| 7 Wake up, you sleepyhead city! Wake up, you sleepyhead people! King-Glory is ready to enter. 8 Who is this King-Glory? God, armed and battle-ready. 9 Wake up, you sleepyhead city! Wake up, you sleepyhead people! King-Glory is ready to enter. 10 Who is this King-Glory? God-of-the-Angel-Armies: he is King-Glory. Psalm 24:7-10The Message (MSG) |
A man who claims to be able to forgive sins.
A man who claims to have always existed.
A man who claims to come to judge the world at the end of time.
Amongst other religion a person might have been able to say that he is a god.
Or that he is part of God, or one with God.
And there would be nothing wrong with this.
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| 9-10 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it; look hard, but you won’t catch on.’ Make these people blockheads, with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes, So they won’t see a thing, won’t hear a word, So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on and, yes, so they won’t turn around and be made whole.” Isaiah 6:9-10The Message (MSG) |
But this man came to Jews and to them; he could not mean that kind of god.
There was only one God, the Being outside the world, who had made it and was infinitely different from anything and everything else.
For them, what this man said, was the most shocking and blasphemous thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.
We may have become so used to what this man claimed that we don’t even notice it.
But he said that he could forgive sins.
Any kind of sins.
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| 3 He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds. 4 He counts the stars and calls them all by name. 5 How great he is! His power is absolute! His understanding is unlimited. 6 The Lord supports the humble, but brings the wicked into the dust. Psalm 147:3-6Living Bible (TLB) |
If you aren’t God, this is just hilarious.
We can all forgive each other.
If someone offends me, I can forgive him or her.
But what would happen if someone else would say that he can forgive the person who offended me?
That would be stupid.
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| 8-9 But he says to the Son, You’re God, and on the throne for good; your rule makes everything right. You love it when things are right; you hate it when things are wrong. That is why God, your God, poured fragrant oil on your head, Marking you out as king, far above your dear companions. 10-12 And again to the Son, You, Master, started it all, laid earth’s foundations, then crafted the stars in the sky. Earth and sky will wear out, but not you; they become threadbare like an old coat; You’ll fold them up like a worn-out cloak, and lay them away on the shelf. But you’ll stay the same, year after year; you’ll never fade, you’ll never wear out. Hebrews 1:8-12 The Message (MSG) |
How can someone else forgive, really forgive, something that has happened to me?
But this is what Jesus claimed He could do.
He went around telling people that their sins were forgiven.
And He never asked anything about the people who had been offended by these people’s sins.
He just went on, behaving like He was the party chiefly concerned, and the person chiefly offended in all these offenses.
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| 21-25 Thank you for responding to me; you’ve truly become my salvation! The stone the masons discarded as flawed is now the capstone! This is God’s work. We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it! This is the very day God acted— let’s celebrate and be festive! Salvation now, God. Salvation now! Oh yes, God—a free and full life! Psalm 118:22-25The Message (MSG) |
And the only way this makes sense is, if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin.
If anyone else but God Himself would say this it would only be silliness and conceit.
But when we read Bible we do not get the impression of silliness or conceit.
Christ tells us in the Gospels that He is “humble and meek” and we are able to believe Him.
But if He were just a man, humility and meekness would be the last things we could use to describe Him.
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| 7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true. Isaiah 53:5-12The Message (MSG) |
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open for us. He did not intend to”.
C. S. Lewis
This post is part of an on-going series.
To begin, read Natural law. A post about the law we all have in our hearts.
If you would like to know what comes after read the post about Moral law.
Having read that, you'll need to know Which moral law to choose.
If you agree we need to choose a moral law, maybe you'll agree that We need God.
After we have understood the need we have for God, it is time to research What is sin.
Having accepted your need for God, what kind of God is exactly a Christian God? This you can find out about in What we Christians believe.
Why is it so hard to follow Christian faith? What prevents you to believe in God?
Do not let yourself to be fooled by Christianity and water.
Who was first? The chicken or the egg? Read the post Of good and band - who was there first? The chicken or the egg?
If God is above everything else and did not create evil then Why God accepts the evil in the world?
We run on God, like a car on gas. This is why We cannot live without God.
