Who Is the Jesus of the Bible?

Eta Linnemann | Sunday, November 11, 2001
Copyright © 2001, Eta Linnemann

(Retired) Professor of Theology/Religious Education, Pedagogic Academy, Braunschweig Honorary Professor, New Testament, Philipps University, Marburg

Edited transcript of a lecture given Sunday, November 11, 2001, 10:00 a.m. Grace Valley Christian Center, Davis, California as part of the Faith and Reason series sponsored by Grace Alive! and Grace Valley Christian Center

The Primacy of God

We are accustomed to speak much about ourselves and our needs and wishes rather than God. And if we do think about God, it is only to ask how he can meet our needs. But we need to put God in the first place and hear what he says about himself. Isaiah 44:24-26 says, “This is what the Lord says-your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers. . . .’ Note, who does God say he is? “I am the Lord.’

In Isaiah 43:10-11 we read, “‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.” Isaiah 44:6-8 tells us, “This is what the Lord says-Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come-yes, let him foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other rock; I know not one.” And Isaiah 45:18 says, “For this is what the Lord says-he who created the havens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited-he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

We should keep in mind that God is the Lord, God is the Creator, God is the Redeemer, and God governs history. We must put God in the first place.

We Have Forgotten God

We are living in a secular age that has forgotten God. People do not want to think about God. People do not want to talk about God, nor even talk to God in prayer. People do not want to take God in account when they are making their plans. Even in God’s own land, what is said in Isaiah 17:10a is true: “You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.’ Jeremiah 2:11-13 declares: “Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,’ declares the Lord. ‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Even we who are God’s children are too often little aware of God and do not keep him in our minds and hearts as we should. The fact is that most people have done more than put God out of their minds: they have replaced God with godlessness.

1. Practical Godlessness

The word of God is a mirror in which we see the godlessness in our lives. First, there is the practical godlessness, which does not seek God’s will. How often do we make plans without consulting God? But Isaiah 29:15 says, “Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know?” When we do this, we are acting as if there were no God. Isaiah 5:21-23 tells us, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.’

For example, sexuality is often practiced outside the boundaries of marriage in today’s society. But this often results in the murder of children in the womb. People speak of the rights of the woman, but seldom are the rights of the infant mentioned. What is at stake for the woman is merely a quality of life; what is at stake for the infant is life itself. Yet no one ever asks, “What is the right of God in this situation?’

Isaiah 44:24 answers that question: “This is what the Lord says-your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb. . . .’ Because God formed us in the womb, he is the rightful owner of our lives, for if someone creates something, it is that person’s property. Psalm 139:13-16 tells us, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’

So even from the first, a baby in the womb is planned and made by God; thus, it is God’s property. Isaiah 45:9-11 says: “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’? Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’ This is what the Lord says-the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?” And not only are many children murdered in the womb, but we also see many women who cannot get pregnant behaving as if a child was owed to them. (GVCC) Or we see people who think they should rightfully receive only a healthy child. Through genetic engineering, scientists are trying to appropriate the power over life and death-that power which only the Owner of life truly has.

2. Theoretical Godlessness

We are surrounded not only by practical godlessness, but by theoretical godlessness as well. The first aspect of theoretical godlessness is the denial of our Creator. In Isaiah 29:16 God asks, “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me’? Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?’ But this is just what modern man has done with the ideology of evolution. Those who believe in evolution are really saying to God, “You did not make me.’ But what does God say? “I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself. . .’ (Isaiah 44:24b). And in Romans 1:18-21 we read, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.’ The spirit of our age tells us to not believe in God as the Creator, but, as we read in Romans, we are justifiably guilty for not doing so. That is why it is so necessary to make people know that they will face judgment for such actions.

The second aspect of theoretical godlessness is the denial of God as the revealer who gave his inspired word. Just as humanism denied that this Bible is really the only revelation of the only true God, modern men have put all the “holy scriptures’ of all religions on one plate, considering them equal. That is a denial of God as the revealer. Additionally, historical critical theology, or higher criticism, denies the deeds and words of Jesus as recorded in the gospels, claiming that only about 15 percent of Jesus’ words in the Bible were really said by him. It does not acknowledge miracles or the resurrection, so it is really a denial of God’s revelation. It declares that of the twenty-seven New Testament writings, ten are pseudepigraphs, which means that they do not rightfully use the author’s name as recorded in the Bible, and it derogates the book of Revelation by claiming it is not prophecy of things to come, but rather an interpretation of past historical events. But whenever we put this theology to the test, it does not stand up. We can test the hundreds of arguments produced by it, but they all fail.

When we think about higher criticism, we may wonder how such clever people can produce such poor results. When I first realized the falsehood of the historical critical theology, I was overwhelmed, because I knew many of the theologians personally as very intelligent people. But then Jeremiah 8:9 gave me a clue: “The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?’ Or as it is in another translation, “How can the wise man teach my things when they reject the word of the Lord?’ Look at Isaiah 29:14: “[T]he wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.’ Or Isaiah 44:24-26: “I am the Lord. . . . who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers. . . .’ If we test the hypotheses of higher criticism and they do not stand the test, it shows that the knowledge of these theologians has been turned into foolishness. The church of God is built upon the book of the prophet and apostles, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.

What about You?

We all must make a decision. Will we choose the Jesus of the Bible critics who cannot save us, or the Jesus of the Bible? We must ask God to show us if and how we ourselves may have been sucked into the vortex of the spirit of this age. I pray we will turn back to God and take our refuge in the cross of Golgotha. God invites us with Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.”