The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-10-19
Son Of God
Lesson for October 81, 1862

said that Christian religion and
the most barbarous Of jungle
faiths have more in common
than either of these has with
atheism. But that is not tn e
point. What do we have that is
distinctive, unique. unlike any
other religion whatever?
The reader will think Of the
answer at once: Jesus Christ.
There is no equivalent of Jesus
in any other religion. Alleged
opposite numbers" turn out,
on inspection, to bear little re-
semblance to the Christians
Lord.
Because of the grea. import.
ance Jesus Christ possesses. the
church has thought much and
long about Him and has said a
great deal. It all grows out Of
what was said in the Bible
about Him. Out Of much more
that could be said, three points
are selected here, for highlight.
ing-all from the Bible material.
Equality With God \.
First of all, the church teaches
that Jesus Christ is divine. The
most usual way to say this in
the New Testament is to call
Jesus the "Son of God" Now
there are three kinds of "sons'
of God recognized in the Bible
To repeat what was said in this
column last week at lowest level
are all men, all human beings
BY creation we are all children
of God. But there is a great diff
ference between being a son-by-
creation and a son-by-faith-and-
love. So the second level is the
sonship of adoption, as Paul
puts it in Romans 8. the init
mate trusting conscious sonship
of true Christians. The third
level has only one person in it,
Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son
of God. The writer's Of the New
Testament never Cor very sell
dom indeed call Jesus God di-
rectly; but the church rejecting
through many years on what the
Bible does say, long ago arrived
at the conclusion that whatever
it takes to make God God, Jesus
Christ has and is. Yet Christ
and the Father are not tw O
Gods. The church came near
saying that, but after a long
debate concluded there cannot
be two Gods. Jesus is not a sec
ond God, not a substitute or
minor God. That is the meaning
we see in Paul's saying that
Christ was in the form of God,
but did not think equality with
God was a thing to be grasped.
He Emptied HIMSELF
Paul goes right on to say
that Christ "emptied Himself"
and was born in the likeness of
men. The writer to the Hebrews
goes farther than saying Jesus
was like" men. Christ, he says
(Hebrews 2:14) "partook of the
same nature" as his h u M a n
brothers.
In other words, the church de-
clares that not only as divine as
the Father in heaven is, He is
as human as you and I are.
This was not a make-believe.
not putting on a costume and
pretending to be a man. It was
really being a man. The church
mas never explained how this
could be. If We knew how it
could be, we would know as
much as God knows.
Giver Of Life
There are many figures of
speech in the Bible to indicate
one thing: that Christ is the
source of spiritual life for all
who believe in Him. Jesus call
ed Himself the vine, with His
disciples as the branches. He
called Himself bread and water.
Mote: He did not say cake:
bread and water were then the
minimum essentials for food and
drink; Christ is not to be re-
garded as a luxury but as a
necessity Those who believe in
Him have eternal life, now.
Eternal life land this is a note
worthy point is not merely a
longer life. It means las Saint
John uses the words, and Jesus
before hi1n) a different quality
OF LIE. Mere everlastingness
might not be such a good thing
Eternal life is the kind of life
which deserves to be everlast-
ing. What Christians are saving
to put a big idea into very
small space, is that what Christ
came to do was to bring to this
earth, to any one who desires it.
a new kind of life, so that we
may become new persons.
BIASED ON outlines copyright
ed BY the Division of Christian
Education. National Council Of
the Churches Of Christ in the
U. S. A. Released by Commit
ty Press Service.)