Identity Crisis - Who Jesus Really Is

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Two Versions of Christianity

It appears that the word "Christian" doesn't mean what it once did....and the new definition is no improvement.

It used to be that "Christians" were people who followed the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was once revealed in the pages of Scriptures. These were people who made sure to attend church every Sunday, who honored the Word of God, and who weren't afraid to stand against sin. They were also among the most generous, caring, and compassionate people that you could find (although they were never considered to be kind by the secular world.)  In short, a Christian was someone who had made Jesus the Lord of their life and who read and followed the Bible.

Not so anymore. Now the term "Christian" seems to have the consistency of play-dough. It as if the term can mean anything you want it to now. Never before in history could someone live the most reprobate lifestyle, believe the most heretical doctrines, and never even crack open the Bible for months...and still be considered a "Christian". How could we have gotten to this point?

There are probably a lot of ideas out there for why we find ourselves in this predicament...but here's my own humble opinion: I believe we have left the rock solid doctrine of Christ, and have exchanged it for fluid emotional experiences. (If you're unfamiliar with the word "doctrine", it simply means "a belief that is taught".) We no longer teach the Bible as absolute truth, but instead teach about how we feel.

This has allowed people to call themselves "Christians"...just because they feel a certain way. 

-A person can be called a "Christian" just because they "believe in God."

-A person can be called a "Christian" just because they're "nice"

-A person can be called a "Christian" just because they care for the poor.

But what happened to the words of Jesus in John 14:6? "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

To which version of Christianity do you belong?

Are you a believer of the Bible who holds onto the doctrines of scriptures?

Or are you a "morally good" person who "believes in God" and attends church once in a while?

Are you a Christian in name only?

The Dividing Line

You see, there is a clear separation from true followers of Jesus Christ and people who just call themselves Christians. The dividing line is almost always doctrine...not experience, not emotion, and not so-called "spirituality".

It's doctrine that brings salvation (after all, that's what the Gospel is...a doctrine from scriptures that is taught, believed, and then changes the life of the believer). 

It's doctrine that brings growth and change.

It's doctrine that will safeguard you from believing lies and falling away from the faith.

Romans 6:17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

1 Timothy 4:13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

Nowhere else is this dividing line of doctrine more pronounced than when it comes to the identity of Jesus Christ. Who do you say that He was?

Some people say that He was a good man, a teacher of love and acceptance.

Some people say that He was a myth, a figment of someone's imagination.

Some religions claim He was just another prophet.

Others claim that He was an angel...or that He was a created being that somehow became a god.

This is a question that Jesus asked in Matthew 16:15, and it's a question that has eternal consequences based on your answer: "But who do you say that I am?"

The Original Christian Doctrine

From the very beginning, New Testament followers of Jesus Christ have always believed that He is God, who was manifested in the flesh. This has been the foundational teaching of the church all along: Jesus is God Himself. He laid aside His rights as God and became like one of us. He lived a sinless life as a man and then died to set us free from sin. Three days after He died, He then rose from the grave and ascended to the right hand of the Father.

Critics of this doctrine like to claim that no one in the early church ever considered Jesus to be God. They'll claim that this belief wasn't invented until 300 years later, at the council of Nicea. True, this council did acknowledge the belief in Jesus' divinity (His identity as God), but it did not start that belief. No, this is a faith that is much older than Nicea.

 Look what one of Jesus' own disciples declared only one week after Jesus' resurrection.
(John 20:27-28) Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and My God!"

This was a clear statement from Thomas, he truly believed that Jesus was God. What's even more striking is that Jesus never corrected him! In fact, Jesus told Thomas in the next verse that he was right in believing this. Then He pronounced a blessing on everyone who believed what Thomas just declared.

More than 20 years later, the apostle Paul said this to the leaders of the Ephesian church:

(Acts 20:28) Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Who shed His blood to purchase the church? It was Jesus' blood that was shed on the cross, right? And yet, here Paul declared that it was God's blood.

More than a decade later, Paul still held to this belief in Jesus' divinity. Look at what he said in 1 Timothy 3:16 - And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, Seen by the angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.

Peter believed that Jesus was God:

(2 Peter 1:1) Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

As did John:

(1 John 5:20) And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Side Note: It is an interesting fact that there is more Biblical evidence for Jesus' divinity than there is to prove the divinity of the Father...and yet no one has a problem believing that the Father is God!

The Bible evidence is overwhelming, and we will spend some time in the next few weeks looking at it. Not only can we see this from the Scriptures, but all of the early "church fathers" believed that Jesus was, and still is, God. 

We have direct quotes from Ignatius and Polycarp - early church fathers and students of the apostle John - that clearly claim Jesus to be the God that they served.

In his writings, Justin Martyr (AD 100-165) said this: "For if you had understood what has been written by the prophets, you would not have denied that He was God, Son of the Only, unbegotten, unutterable God."

Other pre-Nicene church leaders (that is, leaders of the church before the council of Nicea) that taught Jesus' divinity include Clement, Tertullian, Origen, Melito, and Irenaeus. If Nicea was supposedly when Jesus was turned into God, then why do the writings of these men scream His divinity? True Christians have always believed this. There is no doubt from Scriptures, Jesus is God

Why should we stress this? Why is it so important to believe that Jesus is God? Isn't it enough to believe that He was a good man who died to forgive us? Not at all! Look at what Jesus said in John 8:24, 58 -  "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins. Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

It is crucial to believe that Jesus is God, the great I AM...evidently, your eternal salvation depends on it.