It is our feeling that some of these claims require further explanation. That is the purpose of this section.

He claimed to Be Able to Forgive Sins as Evidenced in Mark 2:5 and Luke 7:48

By Jewish law this was only for GOD to do, as only GOD could forgive sins.

This is seen from Mark 2:7. The scribes, in their discontent with Jesus, ask in verse 7, "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but GOD alone?"

In Matthew 9:5,6 Jesus has just healed a paralytic by forgiving his sins. Once again He is confronted by the religious leaders.

In these verses Jesus asks which would be easier, to say "your sins are forgiven" or to say "rise and walk." According to the Wycliffe Commentary this is "an unanswerable question. The statements are equally simple to pronounce; but to say either, with accompanying performance requires divine power. An imposter, of course, in seeking to avoid detection, would find the former easier. Jesus proceeded to heal the illness that men might know that He had authority to deal with its cause..."

At this He was accused of blasphemy by the scribes and Pharisees. "The charge by the scribes and Pharisees, condemned Him for taking to Himself the prerogatives of GOD."

C. E. Jefferson tells that "...He forgave sins, He spoke as one having authority. Even the worst sinners when penitent at His feet received from Him authoritative assurance of forgiveness."

From L. S. Chafer we are told that "none on earth has either authority or right to forgive sin. None could forgive sin save the One against whom all have sinned. When Christ forgave sin, as He certainly did, He was not exercising a human prerogative. Since none but GOD can forgive sins, it is conclusively demonstrated that Christ, since He forgave sins, is GOD, and being GOD, is from everlasting."

Not only did He forgive sins committed against Himself, but He forgave the sins of one individual against another, which, up to that time, was unheard of. John Stott reminds us: "We may forgive the injuries which others do to us; but the sins we commit against GOD only GOD Himself can forgive." And Jesus does just that.

Thus, we see that Jesus' power to forgive sin is the "climactic exhibition of a power that belongs to GOD alone." (The Jerome Biblical Commentary, Vol. 2 Prentice Hall, 1968)

Jesus Is Immutable

Lewis S. Chafer says that "the unchangeableness of Deity is ascribed to Christ. All else is subject to change."

Jesus Claimed to Be "Life"

In John 14:6 Jesus claimed to be "life." "I am the...life..."

In analyzing this statement, Merrill Tenney tells us that "He did not say He knew the way, the truth, and the life, nor that He taught them. He did not make Himself the exponent of a new system; He declared Himself to be the final key to all mysteries."

In Him Is Life

"And the witness is this, that GOD has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of GOD does not have the life" (I John 5:11,12).

Speaking of this life, John Stott (Basic Christianity) writes:

"He likened His followers' dependence on Him to the sustenance derived from the vine by its branches. He stated that GOD had given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give life to as many as GOD gave Him..."

Jesus Has Authority

"And He [GOD] gave Him [Jesus] authority to execute judgment, because He [Jesus] is the Son of Man" (John 5:27).

In claiming that He will judge the world, Jesus will Himself arouse the dead, He will gather the nations before Himself, He will sit on a throne of glory and He shall judge the world. Some, on the basis of His judgment, will inherit heaven, others, hell.

TITLES

YHWH - LORD

SACRED TO THE JEWS

The more literal translation of YHWH is Yahweh.

"The precise meaning," writes Herbert F. Stevenson, "of the name is obscure. In the Hebrew, it was originally composed of four consonants YHWH - known to theologians as 'the tetragrammaton' - to which the vowels of Adonai were afterwards added (except when the name is joined to Adonai: then the vowels of Elohim are used). The Jews came to regard the name as too sacred to pronounce, however, and in the public reading of the Scriptures they substituted Adonai for it - Jehovah was indeed to them 'the incommunicable name.'"

"...the Jewish people out of sheer reverence refused even to pronounce this name..."

"The avoidance," writes L. S. Chafer (Systematic Theology), "of the actual pronouncement of this name may be judged as mere superstition; but plainly it was an attempt at reverence however much misguided, and doubtless this practice, with all its confusing results, did serve to create a deep impression on all as to the ineffable character of GOD."

The Jewish Encyclopedia (ed., Isidore Singer, Funk and Wagnalls, Vol. 1, 1904) indicates that the translation of YHWH by the word "LORD" can be traced to the Septuagint. "About the pronunciation of the Shem ha Metorash, the 'distinctive name' YHWH, there is no authentic information." Beginning from the Hellenistic period, the name was reserved for use in the Temple.

"From Sifre to Num. vi. 27, Mishnah Tamid, vii.2, and Sotah vii.6 it appears that the priests were allowed to pronounce the name at the benediction only in the Temple; elsewhere they were obliged to use the appellative name (kinnuy) 'Adonai.'"

The Jewish Encyclopedia goes on to quote from Philo and Josephus.

Philo: "The four letters may be mentioned or heard only by holy men whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom, and by no others in any place whatsoever" ["Life of Moses," iii, 41].

Josephus: "Moses besought GOD to impart to him the knowledge of His name and its pronunciation so that he might be able to invoke Him by name at the sacred acts, whereupon GOD communicated His name, hitherto unknown to any man; and it would be a sin for me to mention it" [Antiquities. ii 12, par. 4].

CHRIST SPEAKS OF HIMSELF AS THE JEHOVAH

Scotchmer, cited by W. C. Robinson: "The identification of our LORD Jesus Christ with the LORD of the Old Testament results in an explicit doctrine of His Deity."

"Yahweh" (Exodus 3:14) basically means "He who is," or "I am who I am," and declares the divine Self-existence [Unger's Bible Dictionary, p. 409].

Kreyssler and Scheffrahn say: "He claimed the covenant of YHWH - or Jehovah. In the 8th Chapter of John's Gospel we find: 'Unless you believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins.' V.24; 'When you lift up (i.e., on the cross) the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM...' V.28; 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM,' V.58. His use of the I Am connects with Exodus 3:14 where GOD reveals Himself to Moses: "I AM Who I AM.' And He said, 'Say this to the people of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.' Thus the name of GOD in Hebrew is YHWH or I AM."

In Matthew 13:14,15, Christ identifies Himself with the "LORD" (Adonai) of the Old Testament (Isaiah 6:8-10).

Clark Pinnock in Set Forth Your Case says that "His teachings rang with the great I AM statements which are divine claims in structure and content" (Exodus 3:14; John 4:26; 6:35; 8:12; 10:9; 11:25).

In John 12:41, Christ is described as the one seen by Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1. Also Isaiah writes, says William C. Robinson, of the forerunner of Jehovah: "Prepare ye the way of the LORD..." (Isaiah 40:3, KJV). Christ endorsed the claim of the Samaritans who said, "We...know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42, KJV). From the Old Testament this can only designate the Jehovah-GOD. Hosea 13:4 declares: "I am the LORD thy GOD...thou shalt know no god but Me: for there is no saviour besides Me" (KJV).

Son of GOD

Hilarin Felder relates that "Gustav Dalman sees himself forced to this confession: 'Nowhere do we find that Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Son of GOD in such a way that merely a religious and ethical relation to GOD is meant, which others also could and should also in reality possess....Jesus has given men unmistakable to understand that He is not only 'a,' but 'the Son of GOD.'" [Die Worte Jesu, mit Beruecksichtigung des nachkanonischen juedischen Schriftums und der aramaeischen Sprache eroertert, i, 230,235 (Leipzig, 1898).]

H. F. Stevenson comments that "it is true that the term 'sons of GOD' is used of men (Hosea 1:10) and of angels, in the Old Testament (Gen. 6:2; Job 1:6; 38:7). But in the New Testament, the title 'Son of GOD' is used of, and by, our LORD in quite a different way. In every instance the term implies that He is the one, only-begotten Son; co-equal, co-eternal with the Father."

In the repeated uses of the term "Son" in juxtaposition to "the Father," they declare His explicit claim of equality with the Father and formulate the truth of the Trinity (John 10:33-38; 3:35; 5:19-27; 6:27; 14:13; Mark 13:32; Matthew 23:9,10).

Jesus complimented Peter on his knowledge of Him as the Son of GOD when Peter confessed at Caesarea Philippi: "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living GOD." He replied, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 16:16,17,KJV).

Felder writes on Christ's concept of GOD being His Father: "As often as Jesus speaks of His relations with His Father He uses constantly and without exception the expression 'My Father'; and as often as He calls the attention of the disciples to their childlike relation to GOD, there is the equally definite characterization, 'Your Father.' Never does He associate Himself with the disciples and with men by the natural form of speech, 'Our Father.'"

Felder continues: "Even on those occasions in which Jesus unites Himself with the disciples before GOD, and when therefore it would be certainly expected that He would use the collective expression, 'Our Father,' there stands, on the contrary, 'My Father': 'I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of My Father' (Matt. xxvi, 29). 'And I send the promise of My Father upon you' (Luke xxiv, 49). 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world' (Matt. xxv, 34). thus and similarly does Jesus distinguish unequivocally between His divine sonship and that of the disciples and men in general."

Scotchmer concludes that "His disciples and His enemies understand from their Jewish background that the real import of the term 'Son of GOD' was Deity. One hundred and four times, Christ refers to GOD as 'Father' or 'the Father.'"

Son of Man

Jesus makes use of the title "Son of Man" in three distinctive ways:

1. Concerning His earthly ministry
1. Matthew 8:20
2. Matthew 9:6
3. Matthew 11:19
4. Matthew 16:13
5. Luke 19:10
6. Luke 22:48
2. When foretelling His passion
1. Matthew 12:40
2. Matthew 17:9,22
3. Matthew 20:18
3. In His teaching regarding His coming again
1. Matthew 13:41
2. Matthew 24:27,30
3. Matthew 25:31
4. Luke 18:8
5. Luke 21:36

Stevenson attaches a special significance to the title " 'Son of man,' because this was the designation which our LORD habitually used concerning Himself. It is not found in the New Testament on any other lips than His own - except when His questioners quoted His words (John 12:34), and in the one instance of Stephen's ecstatic exclamation in the moment of his martyrdom, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of GOD' (Acts 7:56, KJV). It is clearly a Messianic title, as the Jews recognized" (John 12:34).

Kreyssler and Scheffrahn write that "Jesus clearly believed Himself to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. In referring to Himself He continually used the title 'The Son of Man' from Daniel's vision" (Daniel 7:13,14).

In Mark 14:61-64 Jesus applies Daniel 7:13,14 and, alongside of it, Psalms 110:1 to Himself as something that is going to transpire before their eyes.

C. G. Montefiore adds: "If Jesus said these words we can hardly think that He distinguished between Himself, the Son of man, and the Messiah. The Son of man must be the Messiah, and both must be Himself."

Montefiore continues by quoting Professor Peak:

"In spite of the 'perplexing use of the Son of man alongside of the first person singular, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that in this context Jesus means to identify the two. He could scarcely in one breath have affirmed His identity with the Messiah and implied His distinction from the Son of man. This is not to say that the Son of man is necessarily equivalent to Messiah; but if the ideas are distinct Jesus was conscious that both were fulfilled in Him, just as He was at once both Messiah and Servant of Yahweh' " [Messiah and the Son of Man (1924), p. 26].



Abba - Father

Michael Green, in his book Runaway World, writes that Christ "asserted that He had a relationship with GOD which no one had ever claimed before. It comes out in the Aramaic word Abba which He was so fond of using, especially in prayer. Nobody before Him in all the history of Israel had addressed GOD by this word...To be sure, Jews were accustomed to praying to GOD as Father: but the word they used was Abhinu, a form of address which was essentially an appeal to GOD for mercy and forgiveness. There is no appeal to GOD for mercy in Jesus' mode of address, Abba. It is the familiar word of closest intimacy. That is why He differentiated between His own relationship with GOD as Father and that of other people."

It is interesting that even David, with his closeness to the Father, did not speak to GOD as Father but said that "like as a father...so the LORD" (Psalms 103:13, KJV).

Jesus Christ used the word "Father" often in prayer. "The Pharisees, of course, realized the implications of it, and charged Him with blasphemy (John 5:18) '...but [He] also called GOD His Father, making Himself equal with GOD' (RSV). And indeed unless He were equal with GOD His words were blasphemous."



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