P7/11 Discovering the Identity of Jesus - John's Gospel Identity of Jesus - The Son of God Who came to be Savior

Matthew 16:15 "He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Note to the reader: These next several posts are designed to present a cultural, historical and theological study of Jesus Christ and the facts behind the crucifixion.  In yesterday's post we considered Luke's Gospel identity of Jesus as - "The Son of Man". I have chosen to present this material partly in response to the History Channel's recent series: "Bible Secrets Revealed" and partly to give the readers of this blog a chance to see what the Four Gospels truly say about Jesus Christ.  

This particular series of blogs are more concerned with explaining the contents and validity of the four Gospel accounts.  

In today's post we consider once again Part two of this series, and the fourth lesson of Part two entitled: John's Gospel presents Jesus as the Son of God who came to be the Savior.

PART TWO: CONCERNING THE RECORDS OF JESUS’ LIFE AS A MEANS OF TYING TOGETHER THE OLD TESTAMENT RECORD

Lesson Four: John’s Gospel’s identity of Jesus – The Son of God, The ultimate sacrifice for sin

1. John’s gospel enables there to be a theological set of glasses by which to properly view the first three gospels[1].

2. While the first three gospels give historical and thematic guidelines for viewing Jesus’ life, John’s focus is theological[2]

3. The primary Old Testament event that John uses in helping us identify Jesus is that of the Exodus and Passover.

a). In similitude to Moses, Jesus performed miracles and signs to confirm both His teaching and life.  For Jesus though, He did these to show that He could do what God can do (John 5:21); prove His existence from eternity before Abraham (John 8:58) as well as, like God said in Isaiah 48:16, being the only true Savior (John 10).

b). Jesus played out His role of the Passover lamb that was used to protect Israel from the destruction of God’s wrath (John 2).

4. John’s gospel aid the reader in seeing where the O.T patterns, revealed in Matthew, Mark and Luke, theologically and logically conclude. John’s conclusion about Jesus is that He took onto Himself a human nature, while still being divine, so as to enable the possibility of a relationship between God and people.

Questions:

1. How does God’s nature as Savior and Rescuer agree or disagree with how you view God?

2. Could anybody less than God be able to accomplish what only He could do (bring about forgiveness and be the source of life)?  If Jesus accomplished these very things (which the gospels indicate that He did), then what does this tell you about His identity? 

Endnotes:

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[1] Moises Silva in His lectures on John’s gospel alludes to this general idea when describing the relationship between John’s gospel and the first three Gospels.

[2]This is certainly not meant that Matthew, Mark and Luke did not have theological themes woven through their writings, for they most certainly had theological purposes as well!  The comment here means that John’s gospel is comparatively more theological than historical in tone the first three.