There are those who do believe in Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of mankind and those who accept him, but do not recognize his diety. Is that a critical component of salvation? Can you clarify why?
2007-12-21 16:43:21 · 30 answers · asked by stjoseph5 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
God has many faces and in God's house thier are many rooms.Jesus was the Son of God but they thought alike in the way that they think. So they are one in agreement. Thank you and God Bless You.
2007-12-21 16:47:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋
"There are those who do believe in Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of mankind and those who accept him, but do not recognize his diety."
Yes, and there are those who believe in god the Father, and in his son Jesus, and they are both deity, separate in the literal sense, don't need to torture the plain reading of the text like when Jesus prays to his father, instructs others to pray to his father in heaven, while he had his feet firmly on the earth...how crucial is it? Well, apparently it is pretty crucial for those who cannot think outside the box, or as JC Pearce put it, "who cannot crack the cosmic egg..."
2007-12-22 01:00:39 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is extremely crucial. Only a very very Holy MAN could be sent as the Savior. Since only God can forgive sins. Jesus, as the second person of the trinity, became the perfect Messiah by being BOTH God and man. Son of God indicates a share in the divinity just as son of a woman indicates a share in human nature.
2007-12-22 00:51:29 · answer #3 · answered by gismoII 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
There's a number of very logical reasons why ONLY God should have redeemed man.
The great Catholic theologian and Bishop - St. Anselm (1033-1109 AD) - explained it this way:
Justice to man is regulated by God’s law, so that, according to the requirements of law, the measure of award (satisfaction) is determined solely by God.
Man naturally owes honor, obedience and allegiance to God in all things, so with what could man pay for his sin against God?
Man alone, possesses nothing that can satisfy his debt to God for sin.
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… if any other being should rescue man from eternal death, man would rightly be adjudged as the servant of that being.
Now if this be so, he would in no wise be restored to that dignity which would have been his had he never sinned.
For he, who was to be through eternity, only the servant of God, and an equal with the holy angels, would now be the servant of a being who was not God, and whom the angels did not serve.
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Nothing can be more severe or difficult for man to do for God's honor, than to suffer death voluntarily when not bound by obligation.
Man cannot give himself to God in any way more truly than by surrendering himself to death for God's honor.
As no sin could be found in Christ, he certainly was not liable to die.
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Can anyone fail to see how the sacrifice of the fully divine and fully human Jesus would vastly exceed and transcend any purely human effort?
2007-12-22 00:57:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Christians believe that Christ is the only begotten Son of God. The word "begotten" is key. When a man "creates" something, he makes something that is not himself. But when he begets something, he begets something that is also a human. A fish begets another fish, a beaver begets another beaver, and a human begets another human being. In the same way God begets God. Christ is not a creature, he is God. This is what it means to say that Christ is the Son of God - he is divine. As to why this is critical to our salvation, we can refer to the comment of the scribes when Christ told a man that his sins were forgiven. They said "Who can forgive sins but God alone?". What they failed to realize is that Christ is God, and therefore his forgiveness was real. It is Christ's divinity that gives his words their power; he is not just another great teacher like Confuscious or Plato or Sidhartha, he is the voice of God himself and therefore everything he said is invested with truth, power and majesty. And when it comes to what he said, there are a number of places in the gospels where Christ claims divinity. In order to accept the Christian message at all one must accept the truth of these claims. I think the greatest difficulty, and also the greatest triumph of our Christian faith, involves the crucifixion. The idea that God died for us is just too much for human reason to process, especially that he died in such a terrible way. He was whipped, beaten, spit upon, stripped of his clothing, and nailed to a tree. How could this happen to God? It makes no sense to us, yet it remains the greatest act of compassion and love known to us. Should it really surprise us that the greatest act of sacrifice and redemption was accomplished by God? God is beyond us in all things. Why should it be so strange that he should die for us in order to show us what it means to love? In this way he becomes the God of all things, on the one hand a God of power and majesty, and on the other the God of all who suffer, are persecuted and humiliated. It is through the crucifixion that God embraces all of creation, great and small, powerful and weak, perfect and imperfect. The cross is where humanity and the divine meet.
2007-12-22 01:14:15 · answer #5 · answered by morkie 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
What a great question...I have struggled with this question for many years...I believe that it is not crucial to salvation to know whether Jesus is God or only God's Son. Jesus is the Messiah/Christ. That is certain. And we are to honor him as we honor the Father, according to Scripture. I think it is sufficient to honor Christ and obey him, follow him, as he commanded. Jesus told us to pray to the Father, and that the Father is greater than he is. Jesus is the same, Yesterday, today, and forever, and he is subject to the Father. If one day I find that Jesus is also God, Hallelujah! If not, Hallelujah! He is what he is, and it is sufficient.
2007-12-22 00:50:48 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
If Jesus is a God then that means there are more than one God in existence but then believers think there is one God but with 3 different identities with different bodies or spirits in their own rights as well as being God themselves but must be combined in order to satisfy the one God concept.
The only problem is if Jesus is a God then who gave him the tile as being the son when Jesus always existed side by side with the FATHER GOd?
2007-12-22 00:56:22 · answer #7 · answered by unabletoplaytennis 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I think that a spiritual relationship with God, the Father, through Jesus Christ is enhanced when one understands and grasps the working components within the spiritual relationship. To fully understand or comprehend Jesus as God is very significant to knowing the love God has for His human creation. One can really come to see that God is really in the saving business and not lurking over us to find an excuse to "nail" us. In a sense, the role of Jesus Christ is greatly magnified when one comprehends fully, who He really is, as "God" ! This contributes to a large degree, to one's spiritual relationship .
2007-12-22 00:55:39 · answer #8 · answered by guraqt2me 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
The Spirit of Father God is in Jesus as in Us Also.
The Breathing Wonderfull EverLiving God in Heaven.
2007-12-22 00:48:32 · answer #9 · answered by masterdk888p 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
a) it is in scripture and so accepting it is accepting the Jesus revealed in scripture, b) as part of the whole scriptural vision of salvation, as the Angel said to Abraham, 'God will provide the sacrifice'. The fullest prophetic fulfillment of this is when God provides Himself as the sacrifice. And that sacrifice is at the same time a human, Jesus, so we humans can be fully reconciled as humans to God, can even become like Him, as St John says.
2007-12-22 00:50:57 · answer #10 · answered by rebecca v d liep 4 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Very crucial Jesus is God
2007-12-22 00:48:43 · answer #11 · answered by Inou 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋