Who Ever Is Jesus Christ?

"My church is a lot more open-minded than yours!
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we teach that Christians, Jewish people, and Muslims all pray to the same God. You talk as if Jesus were the Savior, the only path to God."  

"Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet. Jewish people believe that Jesus was a gifted yet unorthodox rabbi. Buddhists regard Jesus as an enlightened person. Scholars acclaim Jesus for his remarkable ethics. Jehovah's Witnesses describe Jesus as an exalted, divine being. Mormons teach that Jesus Christ became a god."

So begins the section about Jesus Christ in the 2010 book I downloaded from Amazon last week. The book is called The Lutheran Difference. You might want to check it out. It discusses in detail in what ways Lutherans differ from other Christian and non-Christian groups. The book is organized around the Nicene Creed. As the introduction says, the name Lutheran is shorthand for saying, I agree with Martin Luther whose teaching has been well-known for over 500 years. The book goes on to show from the Bible how Lutherans differ and why. Since I've been writing about Jesus in particular during the past several weeks, I thought it well to continue by using this book as my reference.

One word in that Nicene Creed has caused much controversy. It is the Greek word ousios. We translate the word into English with our word substance or being. The Nicene Creed describes Jesus as being homo-ousios, that is of the same substance or one in Being with the Father. So one English translation of the creed describes Jesus in this way:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.

I mention this to point out that there was much controversy over the years about the person of Jesus. Just who is he? Is he truly God? How can there be three persons and yet but one God? So the teachers argued back and forth for many, many years. The details of that controversy are spelled out in the link above to the Wikipedia article. Ultimately the teachers of the church developed the Nicene Creed in order to declare what they understood to be the teaching of God's Word. Millions of us since then have embraced that Creed as our own confession of faith.

Now mind you, not everybody likes the term homo-ousios. It certainly is not a Bible word. It is a Greek word cooked up by some and tossed back and forth with many nuances. There are times when many of us wonder whether the term detracts from the awesome mystery. Maybe we're trying too hard to explain something beyond human words, a mystery foretold by the prophet Daniel, among other O.T. prophets. He wrote like this in an inspired attempt to describe what he saw and experienced.

"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. - Dan 7:13-14 ESV

This mysterious son of man in Daniel's vision is given authority and dominion that rightly only belongs to God. All peoples, nations and languages serve him. This appears to be why Jesus favored the title Son of Man. He used it again and again to describe himself. Examples:

• the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. -  Matt. 8:20 
• the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. - Matt. 9:6
• the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath - Matt. 12:8
• the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather of of his kingdom all causes of sin - Matt. 13:41
• they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom - Matt. 16:28
• Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead - Matt. 17:9
• The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men - Matt. 17:22
• Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man - Matt. 24:30

As you can see, again and again and again Jesus took to himself what Daniel described: dominion, authority, glory, and equality with God the Father. His is an everlasting kingdom that shall never pass away nor be destroyed. This is what the creeds attempt to say in whatever language they use.

Lutherans—and millions in other Christian traditions—embrace that confession, that credo. More about this next time, especially since we believe our eternal destiny rests upon getting this right.