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March 2, 2006

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Who is Jesus?

by Aaron

Sorry about the lack of activity from me. I have been having a few weeks of real wrestling with depression, loneliness, apathy, and just a bunch of general crud. Please pray for me… I don’t even know how to articulate what I am asking you to pray about. Good thing the Holy Ghost fills in the gaps.

I am coming to the renewed realization that I need grace in my life. The text for my Galations study this week has actual been pointing me to the only place that I can find Grace: the Son of man and God the Son, Jesus the Christ.

In these verses, Paul makes a case for grace not being an abstract concept that we believe in. Rather, we come to know grace (and thus the true and only good news) from the unveiling of who Jesus is (1.11-12). So, who is Jesus? Don’t give me some this-is-what-I’m- suppose-to-say answer that gets you a gold star in Sunday school… I want to know who we see Jesus as. If someone asked you to tell them about this Jesus fellow the Bible talks about, what would you tell them? When you say “Jesus died for my sins,” what person do you imagine hanging on the cross for your sake? Take this question and turn it any which way you can so that it makes you think about Jesus, how He has been revealed to you, and what that revelation means.

Other posts you should check out:

  1. Grace Reaching: holding out something of value
  2. Don't Forget Jesus!
Read more from General Rants, Jesus, Spirituality, Theology
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  • SaraBeth

    So, I've been thinking about this post since before it was written. We talked about it while it was in the works, but I don't think I understood what you were talking about before. You see, whenever I've read Galatians 1:12 before, I've always seen it differently. Let me try to explain.

    When the text says "…I received [the gospel] through a revelation of Jesus Christ" I've always understood it this way: "Of" meant that Jesus Christ possessed the revelation and showed it to Paul. The revelation wasn't a manifestation of Christ, but rather a revealing of the gospel…what it was…what it meant. Just so you don't think I'm weird here are a couple commentaries that substitute the word "of" with "from."

    "Paul neither received it from some other person, nor was he taught it through books. It came to him by direct revelation FROM Jesus Christ Himself" (Believer's Bible Commmentary, emphasis mine).

    "…he received the Gospel FROM Jesus Christ" (The Bible Exposition Commentary, emphasis mine).

    The Bible Knowledge Commentary actually changes the wording when it quotes the passage in its commentary.

    "…the apostle on the other hand received it by revelation from Jesus Christ."

    Okay, so I've always thought this way, so when I read your post, I'm going, "This is weird…did Jesus really just reveal Himself to Paul and so the gospel is really just who Jesus is?" So I kept studying. Here's what I found.

    The Evangelical Commentary on the Bible states the following:

    "What Paul appears to be saying is that the ultimate triumph of Jesus as redeemer through an act of free grace (the core of the gospel as specified earlier, v.4) came to him through the very revelation of Jesus' presence during the Damascus Road postresurrection appearance (v. 12; see Acts 9). Paul seems not to have specific declarations of doctrine in mind (see I Cor. 11:23ff; 15:1-8). Rather, the reality of the victory of Jesus over death, signifying God's acceptance of his sacrifice, allowed everything Paul knew of God to fall into proper perspective. This, presumably, is what Paul means by 'the gospel' in Galatians 1:11. The specifics of the history and doctrine were secondary to the reality revealed in him (v. 16) at his conversion.

    And I also found this note in the New English Translation of the Bible:

    "It is difficult to determine what kind of genetive Iesou Christou is. If is is a subjective genetive, the meaning is "a revelation from Jesus Christ" but if objective genetive, it is "a revelation about Jesus Christ." Most likely this is objective since the explanation in vv. 15-16 mentions God revealing the Son to Paul so that he might preach, although the idea of direct revelation to Paul at some point cannot be ruled out."

    So, yeah, makes me think a bit. If indeed the revelation Paul received was a manifestation OF Jesus Christ, then was that all Paul needed to know the gospel? Is that all WE need to know to have "heard" the gospel? What is gospel? And what do we need to know about Jesus Christ?

    As you asked before…who is Jesus Christ? I'm still working on that one.