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Chapter 5- Christ

Christianity and Liberalism by J. Greshman Machen 
Chapter 5: Christ

An obvious main focus of Christianity ought to be Jesus Christ. He definitely seems to have something to do with it. (That is me being sarcastic. The religion is called Christianity for a reason). When it comes to the identity and person of Jesus there have been many ideas tossed around through the years. Most people agree that Jesus was a real historical person. Of those who agree on this there are those who think that Jesus was just a man and those who think he was and is God. 

Those who think that Jesus was just a historical person believe that he stands as a good example to follow. They do not believe that he is God and therefore do not trust in him. Instead they only seek to imitate him. Those who believe that Jesus is God who came down in human form to earth believe that more than just following his example Christians are supposed to place their faith in him. I mean the Bible does say that the only way to the Father is through the Son (John 14:6). It seems that Jesus did not present himself as just a person to imitate but to put your faith in. Both Paul and the disciples put their faith in Jesus. They did not present Jesus as merely a man to look to for guidance but looked at him as the means to receive salvation. He was the object of their religious faith and should be ours as well.   

This view of Jesus was not one that the followers of Jesus formulated on their own either. Jesus affirmed his deity time and time again. He presented himself as the savior of the world, never just as a good teacher or leader though he was both of those. Too often the liberal view of Jesus is just that, that he is all loving and flowery, and easy-going. The truth is that Jesus came in the same way many of the prophets had. They came to speak the truth which was that man's relationship to God is broken and in need of fixing. Unlike all the previous prophets though Jesus was able to offer a permanent solution rather than a temporary turning back to God. He was only able to offer this because he is God. No man was ever able to or ever will be able to offer restoration of relationship between God and man the way Jesus did. Only God could do that and Jesus did. 

One of the problems with viewing Jesus as our ultimate example to follow is that we cannot. He is absolutely perfect and therefore we are unable to imitate him perfectly. If salvation were to be ours only if we can imitate Christ then we are locked into a works based religion. But, our Bible tells us that we are saved by grace and not by works so it cannot be our imitation of Christ that saves us. It has to be that faith in Jesus saves us. So even though we ought to imitate Christ in order to live out the Christian life we cannot depend on that for salvation. 

Jesus is not a Christian. A Christian is a person who follows Jesus and Jesus did not follow himself. He is God so he does not need to follow anyone. He is the supreme example of how to live our lives because he is a supernatural person. He is not held within the same bounds as we are. In our current state we are in need of someone outside of our natural world to reconcile us to Him who is outside of our world. This doctrine comes from scripture and it determines how we live our lives and how we view Christ. 



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