The Son of God
John 19:7
The purpose of John's gospel is unambiguous. It is to show that Jesus is the Son of God. This he took the opportunity to impress upon his readers every time he had the opportunity. As we see in verse 7 here, the leaders of the people had handed him to Pilate and on his part, Pilate after scourging him, brought him back the leaders hoping that the disfigured and bleeding body of Christ after the punishment would change their minds. He was shocked by what he heard, that Jesus made himself the Son of God. Pilate understood the statement very well just like the leaders of the people, they understood that Jesus was making himself to be equal with God. His query of Jesus after the incidence with the leaders made his issue worse, this was not what he bargained for. This testimony about the deity of Jesus is found in other places in the gospel according to John. The testimony of the actors in the text within the context of their time and culture shows that they understood that Jesus was not just talking about being a son in the sense that a male child is the progeny of his father, he was talking about something deeper and higher than that. That in a unique way he was unlike other sons but the son, He is God.
Happy Reformation Day
October 31, 2020 by Jide Ajayi • October 31, Reformation day • Tags: 95 Theses, Reformation, Theology, Thought •
This day many years ago the posting of the theses on the door of the church at Gutenberg. It was at time when the people had to host a messenger with news about how to buy indulgences and the benefit of buying the indulgences.
This was a document prepared by Luther for discussion and debate with other professionals in the ecclesiastical ministry. It also happend not too far from the time the printing press was invented, these two events worked together by providence and the theses, ninety-five of them in number, quickly was found in the community due to the ease of printing and reprinting and many became aware of the details the document and the items to be discussed and the world did not remain the same.
This day is seen as the start of the spark the brought the beginning of the reformation that changed the world and brought attention back to the reading of the text in the orignal languages and placing the authority of the word of God at the top of the authority list for the Christian.
Today many people in different parts of the world do not see the autority of the word as important as that of the founder of the particular church they attend, rather they focus on the special revelation they believe the leader has which trumps whatever the bible might be saying about a particular issue. This view is not too different from what was common before the reformation and the more people are ignorant of what the bible says and not aware of what it teaches and only read those things shown to them with the intention of communicating some point at the expense of the text in context, there will be a continuous descent into ignorance.
May the Lord continue to empower the spots of bright light around the world where there is renewed interest in the word and in the authority of the word.
Happy Reformation Day.