Charlene S.
asked • 11/12/15What argument is being made in John about who Jesus is?
What argument is being made in John about who Jesus is? What is the significance of this argument and how do connections to the Old Testament figure into John’s account of Jesus?
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David W. answered • 11/12/15
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Background: Many Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah (the sent One of God; in Greek, "Christ") were well-know to the Jews. For example, that He would be born in Bethlehem (the City of David, the King, which is why the wise men were sent to Bethlehem to find the new-born King). The title "Son of God" uniquely identified deity.
John's argument: Using stories of people who met Jesus of Nazareth, John writes, "these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." The stories show how, progressively, Jesus is identified as the Messiah (the Christ) and the Son of God.
Jesus was a very common Jewish name. John tells about this Jesus changing water into wine, healing a lame man, healing a blind man, restoring life to a dead man, forgiving sins, being crucified, and rising from the dead. The significance of this argument is that those who believe in Him have eternal life; those who don't believe in Him will be separated from God eternally.
C.S. Lewis summed up this argument quite well when he wrote, "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That 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 the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your 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 at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God." (C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity)
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Sorita D.
THE apostle John opened up his account, saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” By that he did not mean the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry on earth nineteen centuries ago. He meant that the Word had a prehuman existence, long before he “became flesh” on earth. John makes that point clear all through his account. More than a month after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, John the Baptist called attention to Jesus and to his previous life, saying: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! This is the one about whom I said, Behind me there comes a man who has advanced in front of me, because he existed before me. Even I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing in water was that he might be made manifest to Israel.”—John 1:29-31John preached baptism for forgiveness of sins for those repenting, confining his baptism to Jews and proselytes to the Jews’ religion. (Mark 1:1-5; Acts 13:24) John’s being sent was a manifestation of God’s loving-kindness toward the Jews. They were in covenant relationship with Jehovah, but were guilty of sins committed against the Law covenant. John brought to their attention that they had broken the covenant, and urged honest-hearted ones to repentance. Their water baptism symbolized this repentance. Then they were in line to recognize the Messiah. (Acts 19:4) John began his preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” (Matt. 3:1, 2) He wore clothing of camel’s hair and a leather girdle around his loins, similar to the dress of the prophet Elijah. John’s food consisted of insect locusts and wild honey. (2 Ki. 1:8; Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6) He was a teacher, and was, accordingly, called “Rabbi” by his disciples.—John 3:26.All sorts of persons came to John to be baptized, including harlots and tax collectors. (Matt. 21:32) There also came to the baptism Pharisees and Sadducees, against whom John directed a scathing message of the judgment that was near at hand. He did not spare them, calling them “offspring of vipers” and pointing out that their reliance on fleshly descent from Abraham was of no value.—Matt. 3:7-12. Over 300 Hebrew prophecies concerning the Messiah’s first coming were fulfilled in Jesus—many of them already fulfilled when they came to ask Jesus for a sign. Jesus reminded them that because of their study of the Scriptures they should know about him: “You are searching the Scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me.”—John 5:39.acob was inspired to foretell that the Messiah would be of the tribe of Judah. His coming must, therefore, be at a time when that tribe is identifiable. The prophet Isaiah said that he would be a “shoot out of the stem of Jesse.” (Isa. 11:1, Leeser) Since Jesse was the father of David, Isaiah was foretelling that the Messiah would come from David’s house, his line of descent. Jeremiah also foretold this. “Behold, days are coming, saith the LORD, when I will raise up unto David a righteous sprout, and he shall reign as king, and prosper, and he shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.” (Jer. 23:5, Leeser) These prophecies could not be used today to identify the Messiah because the genealogical records that are necessary for linking him with the tribe of Judah and the house of David are nonexistent. They were destroyed with the temple in the year 70 C.E.The many prophecies that identify the Messiah were fulfilled at a time when the Hebrews had their genealogical records and knew who belonged to David’s house and who belonged to the various tribes. They were all fulfilled by a Hebrew in the first century. He was of the tribe of Judah, as Jacob foretold, and he was a descendant of King David, as Isaiah and Jeremiah foretold. Although he was reared in Nazareth, he was born in Bethlehem, as Micah foretold. A registration order from Caesar Augustus compelled the Hebrews to register in their native cities, and this caused the parents of this Hebrew to be in Bethlehem at the time he was born.—Luke 2:1-4.As foretold by the prophet Zechariah, this humble Hebrew, who was called Jehoshua in Hebrew and Jesus in Greek, rode into Jerusalem on an ass, as kings before him had done, but he was shunned by the leaders of the people. (Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:1-17) As foretold by Isaiah, he was wounded “for our transgressions” and “through his bruises was healing granted to us.” This was possible because his life, as Isaiah foretold, “brought the trespass-offering.” (Isa. 53:5, 10, Leeser) It was a perfect sin-atoning sacrifice that was foreshadowed by the bullock and the Lord’s goat offered by Aaron for the sins of the people on atonement day.—Lev. 16:17, 18.As foretold by Isaiah, he was “despised and shunned” by the Hebrews. (Isa. 53:3, Leeser) They “esteemed him not” .07/24/21