CONVERSATIONS WITH JEFFREY
The Point of it All
“Grandma, a friend at school said
that Jesus' last name was Christ. Is that true?”
“No, Jeffrey, it was a title.
'Christ' is from the Greek word 'christos' which means 'the anointed
one.' It comes from the Hebrew word 'Messiah.' That was the term
given to the Redeemer who is spoken of by the prophets of the Old
Testament. He was expected to be the great and wonderful leader or
king whom God promised would save the Jewish people and the whole
world..”
“Since that was Jesus' title, what
was His last name then?”
“People didn't have surnames in those
early times in history.”
“In the Bible I see only first
names of people. How could anyone tell who was who when there were so
many similar names?
“People were usually identified by
who their father was or the place where they were born or what they
did for a living, or their birth order, or some characteristic about
them. Like James and John the sons of Zebedee, and Simon the Zealot,
or Alexander the coppersmith, or Saul of Tarsus.”
“When did people start using last
names?”
“The earliest time was in China way
back in 2852 B.C. A Chinese person had three names: their family
name, their generational name, and their given name. It is the same
even today in China. And the family name is written first. It wasn't
until the 10th or 11th century that it became
the custom in Europe to have a surname so that the government could
tell who was who for written records, taxes, and military service. In
some countries it didn't happen until the 15th or 16th
century. In Scandinavia it was as late as the 19th
century, and in Turkey not until 1933.”
“Why didn't Jesus take the name of
his father Joseph then?”
“Jesus is the only person who did not
have a human father. Mary was the mother of Jesus and Joseph was her
husband but not Jesus' biological father. God chose Joseph to be the
legal guardian or foster father of Jesus and care for Him during His
growing years.”
“Then who was Jesus' real father?”
“God was His father so Jesus was His
son. Here is a mystery again—Jesus is God, a part of the Trinity.
He became man, became human like us but still remained God. He has
the same divine nature as His father, God. Jesus is man because He
was born from the body of Mary so He has a body like ours. Mary was
the only human parent of Jesus.”
“So is Jesus more than one
Person?”
“No, Jesus is only one Person.
We say that He is the second Person of the Trinity—God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But Jesus has two natures:
the nature of God and the nature of man.”
“I don't quite know the difference
between nature and person.”
“A nature is what someone is:
Jesus is God and man—two natures. A person is who someone
is: Jesus is Jesus the Christ—one person.”
“Well I have to think hard to
understand that.”
“Here is an important word for you to
learn: Incarnation. The Son of God always existed. He was with
God the Father from the very beginning of Eternity. The first chapter
of the gospel of John explains that. Then at one point in history He
came to earth and took on a human nature, a body like ours. That's
what “Incarnation” means. Jesus became man but He still remained
God. The Bible calls it 'becoming flesh'.”
“How did He do that?”
“We can't really understand or
explain it but the Bible said that's how it happened and we accept it
by faith. After the angel Gabriel announced God's plan of Incarnation
to her, Mary said yes. She agreed to have the Son of God born through
her body. He was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy
Spirit and developed there and was born like all infants.”
“Why did Jesus want to become a
man?”
“Well, that's the point of it all!
God loved the people of the world so much that He sent His Son
into the world to save whoever would believe in Him. He didn't want
anyone to perish because of their sins. That includes all of us
because we have all sinned. God had a plan whereby we could be
forgiven by what Jesus did to take away our sins. He wanted everyone
to have eternal life and be forever with Him.”
“Hey, that sounds like from the
gospel of John 3:16!”
“That's right! Do you remember when
Adam disobeyed God and caused all mankind to be inclined to sin and
listen to the devil? As a result Heaven was closed to all mankind.
But God promised Adam that He would one day send someone to fix the
situation. That was the promise of the Incarnation! We should have
been punished for our sins, but Jesus came to earth and became man
and died in our place to take our punishment. Jesus Christ opened
Heaven for us again!”
“Oh, that's double awesome! It all
makes sense. Now Heaven is open to anyone who believes in Jesus and
is born of water and the spirit like He told Nicodemus in the gospel
of John.”
“And
that's the point of it all!”
No comments:
Post a Comment