One Sent From Heaven
No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. John 3:13, RSV.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 6:38, RSV.
What kind of man is this? What kind of person would boldly state that He came down from heaven? No wonder the Jews had a difficult time with Him.
And we should too. The hard fact of the situation is that Jesus was either who He claimed to be or some kind of delusional nut of the most dangerous kind.
C.S. Lewis caught that point when he rejected those who claimed " 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral leader, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' "
"That," Lewis retorted, "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 the 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 on Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord or God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to" (Mere Christianity, p. 56).
Such is the Jesus of the Bible. His claim demands a hearing and a decision from you and me today and every day.
And what claims He made! He came down from heaven as the Son of man. Here He picks up a title from Daniel 7:13 of a heavenly being who receives from God the father dominion of His eternal kingdom (verse 14). "Son of Man" became Jesus' favorite title for Himself. One of the last uses of it in the Bible is Revelation 14:14, in which the Son of man comes a second time out of heaven to rescue His people and set up His heavenly kingdom.
In the meantime, John tells us that Jesus not only left heaven for His earthly sojourn, but that He did so with a mission--to do God's will (John 6:38). And the central feature of that will was for Him to be lifted up on the cross so that "whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:15, RSV).
What kind of man is this? Our answer to that question is the most important decision of our lives. And it is one we need to face this very moment.
No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. John 3:13, RSV.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 6:38, RSV.
What kind of man is this? What kind of person would boldly state that He came down from heaven? No wonder the Jews had a difficult time with Him.
And we should too. The hard fact of the situation is that Jesus was either who He claimed to be or some kind of delusional nut of the most dangerous kind.
C.S. Lewis caught that point when he rejected those who claimed " 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral leader, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' "
"That," Lewis retorted, "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 the 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 on Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord or God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to" (Mere Christianity, p. 56).
Such is the Jesus of the Bible. His claim demands a hearing and a decision from you and me today and every day.
And what claims He made! He came down from heaven as the Son of man. Here He picks up a title from Daniel 7:13 of a heavenly being who receives from God the father dominion of His eternal kingdom (verse 14). "Son of Man" became Jesus' favorite title for Himself. One of the last uses of it in the Bible is Revelation 14:14, in which the Son of man comes a second time out of heaven to rescue His people and set up His heavenly kingdom.
In the meantime, John tells us that Jesus not only left heaven for His earthly sojourn, but that He did so with a mission--to do God's will (John 6:38). And the central feature of that will was for Him to be lifted up on the cross so that "whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:15, RSV).
What kind of man is this? Our answer to that question is the most important decision of our lives. And it is one we need to face this very moment.
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