Christian Faith: The Basics, Part 32

I'm dealing with a few questions that may have cropped up as we've been moving through this series. I did so in the last installment and tackle one more here.

Q: Christians speak of Jesus as being God and also as the Son of God. Which is He?

A: Both.

Jesus, in many different ways, made the stunning claim that He was God. "I and the Father are one," He once said, for example.

Yet He also spoke of Himself as the Son.

It's important to understand that in describing Himself as the Son, Jesus was not claiming a subordinate or derivative role for Himself, except to the extent that He voluntarily submitted to the will of the Father in going to the cross. While never using the term, Trinity, the Old and New Testaments taken together reveal that God is one Being, three Persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

In His willingness to accept worship, Jesus signaled that He was God. But as the Son, He had a particular role, what the theologians call an office. As the Son, Jesus was the Person of the Godhead Who built the bridge between God and humanity, heaven and earth, eternity and our time-bound world. He was to be the Redeemer.

I love the confession about Jesus found in the New Testament book of Colossians:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

More on Jesus in the next post.