Yeah, yeah, I know, you'd think with a name like "Christianity" I'd have come to the nature of Christ a long time ago. Well, we're there now. I didn't get to this point until now because we needed first to establish Scripture as our basis and the nature of God as Trinity. I threw in the Nature of Man before this just so we would be reminded of why the good news is good news. So what about Christ is essential to Christianity?
The very first thing about Jesus that must be believed is that He is real. A belief in a spiritual Jesus or a mythical Jesus doesn't count. If there was no Jesus, there was no solution to Man's sin problem. A spiritual or mythical Jesus provides no answers. Jesus, then, is a historical man who lived and died in Israel 2000 some odd years ago. Absolutely essential.
But that's just the start. The Bible obviously argues that He was a real person, that He lived, and that He died, but it also argues that He rose from the dead three days after His death. He physically rose from the dead. He was present in our world, performed human interactions with our world like talking and eating and touching, and was seen by multiple witnesses. In fact, the texts that make these arguments were written in the time of eyewitnesses who could have refuted them. Absolutely essential to Christianity is the fact that the Jesus who died on the cross and was buried actually, physically rose again three days later. Without that resurrection, Paul says, "We are of all men most to be pitied" (1 Cor 15:19). No, it's worse than that. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins" (1 Cor 15:17). Or, to put it another way, no resurrection, no Christianity. Simple as that.
The fundamental premise in Christ coming physically to our world, living, dying, and rising again is based on the fundamental principle of God as Just. You see, we stand -- each of us -- condemned of Treason of the highest degree against the Most High God. God, as Just and Holy, is not capable of simply dismissing the charges. It would violate His character, His nature. So justice is demanded. And that justice was the purpose of sending His only Son. What, then, is required for this justice to be served and to benefit us?
First, Jesus had to be human. A human being was required to pay the price for human sin. Jesus, then, was human indeed. Second, in order for this price to be paid on behalf of another -- any other -- Jesus Himself could not have had to owe such a price. Thus, Jesus would have to have been without sin. The Bible says He was "One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin" (Heb 4:15). Tested by sin, but never succumbed to it. He had to be perfect. Third, He had to be more than merely human. You see, if one man is going to pay the price for one other man, that man would have to not owe the price -- sinless -- but he couldn't pay for more than one. In order for Christ to pay the debt for more than one, He would have to be more than Man. Thus, it is absolutely essential to your salvation and to Christianity, despite all who argue otherwise, that Jesus was indeed God Incarnate, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. No other could accomplish the payment in full of the debt of mankind to God.
One other factor is essential here, based around these facts. If Jesus is the only person -- God and Man, sinless, lived, died, and rose again -- to have accomplished this process of paying for the sin problem of Mankind, then it stands to reason that Jesus is the only answer. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6). There is no other available answer. There is no other way. It is not true, in the case of being saved from sin and God's just wrath, that all roads lead to Rome. There is salvation in no other (Acts 4:12). Many would like to tell you that Jesus is one of many ways. To hold to this "nice" view is popular, but in the end nullifies Jesus's own words and, ultimately, Christianity in its entirety. You just can't get around it. People don't like the claim to exclusivity, but it isn't merely the claim of Christians; it is the claim of Christ. Any other gospel is no gospel at all (Gal 1:6-9).
According to the Bible, Jesus's death and resurrection served as payment for our sin. With this payment, God "would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26). That was the point. That was the accomplishment. Some will try to tell you that Jesus was not human, but merely appeared human. Won't work. Some will tell you He was merely human and not actually divine. Won't work. Some will tell you that He was a good man, but not a perfect man -- no such man ever existed. Won't work. Some will tell you that He was one of many Sons of God. Won't work. Many will complain that the Christian claim of exclusivity is unfair and unwarranted. Won't work. Change any of these components, and you destroy the basis and structure of Christianity.
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