Jesus Christ Has Said It All.

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jul 27, 2007 at 16:31

Evidently, this must necessarily be taken to a next step, if for no other reason but to provide a last bit of clarification of just what separates this reader's position from the point of this last response. In the last response, it is finally clear to this reader how the differing perspectives do not square with each other. As to the syntax and grammar of these writings, chalk it up to a Catholic secondary education, though no apologies are to be made for that.

Holding to a tight reading of the book of Matthew, and especially focusing on the message on the mount has a tendency to cause a limited understanding of just exactly who the audience though they were listening to, and who the message was initially directed to. That the people of the day of Christ's first advent did not completely understand Who Jesus Christ was can be explained in the Jewish leadership's inability to identify Him, even with the mostly complete Old Testament at their disposal. In their most learned situation, they could not see Him for who He was because they did not believe what they had learned. It is therefore essentially and spiritually crucial to recognize Who Jesus Christ is in order to conform the believing Christian's relationship with Him.

In Matthew 16:16, Simeon, before he was renamed Cephas (Peter), declares Jesus to be the Messiah (the Anointed, Christ in the Greek), the Son of the Living God.

Jesus declares that He is the truth, the way, and the life. No man (or woman) can come to the Father except by Him. When adjured by the High Priest during His trial, we read in Matthew 26:

63) And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 64) Jesus saith unto him, "Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

Paul, in his letter to the Philippians provides the following post crucifixion and resurrection witness:

9) Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

By these few witnesses and declarations out of so many contained in the Hebrew Holy Scriptures, there is the separation and the sanctification of believing that Jesus Christ is LORD and is the Savior for all who believe and have accepted Him into their lives. To diminish that is to fall into critical failure of understanding the relationship. In order to have salvation and entrance into the Kingdom of Almighty God and heaven, Jesus Christ is the only way to do so, that praying to Him for forgiveness of sins and asking Him into the sinners heart is the only way to please Almighty God and avert judgment.

In the vein of historical ecumenical discourse with the varying religions, there was an understanding proposed that a common brotherhood of all could be achieved if an attitude of tolerance was maintained. This is a position that cannot be sustained in view of the truth of the Hebrew Holy Scriptures. It is mentioned in the latest response: "You know Muslims also love Jesus very much as well, they just don't regard him as God." Were that actually true in the deepest sense of understanding, then the following would apply, Jesus saying, "if you love me, keep my commandments." They, by loving Him and keeping His commandment, would recognize Him as God. Unfortunately, Muslims do not, but they are not alone, as by your mention of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Keeping the commandments of Jesus Christ, indeed all of His lessons and the teaching of the complete Holy Scripture requires sanctification in the Spirit, and rightly dividing the Word of truth which declares Jesus Christ as Almighty God. To try and contrast the Hebrew Holy Scriptures with writings that Jesus Christ did not speak, then those sources outside of the Hebrew Holy Scripture are suspect and can be contradictions to the truth. Keeping clear on the truth of the WORD of Almighty God eliminates the confusion.

It is therefore the truth of the Hebrew Holy Scriptures, in their entirety, that this reader by faith will stake his relationship with Jesus Christ, by Whose shed blood believers have their sins washed, by Whose death believers have their sins forgiven and are redeemed, and by Whose resurrection and place at the right hand of the Father believers have justification for their hope and guaranteed entrance into heaven for their faith.

In another place of the Gospels beside Matthew, we read of Jesus praying to the Father in John 17:14) "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17) Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18) As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19) And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."

Jesus Christ, LORD and Savior has said it all, and I have nothing more to add.

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