Jesus as God and Savior

Jesus as God and Savior
NAME
UNIVERSITY
COURSE/SUBJECT
PROFESSOR
DATE
I. Introduction
There are basic questions that need to be answered by a searching soul if one has to really discover the core of Christianity. If one is to say that he is really a follower of Christ, the first thing that one needs to answer is this: Did Jesus claim that He is God? Yet to answer this question, words and reasons alone will not suffice. One has to learn to accept and abandon oneself in the light of faith to the tenets of Christian religious teachings. Without faith, one cannot really be sure about salvation. The Bible speaks about the second coming of Jesus Christ where all the might and power of God`s Kingdom would be fully realized. This was the faith that kept the fires of evangelism alive in the first apostles. More than 2,000 years have passed since then. The question still nags the believers: How can we be sure that Jesus will really come again? If one can answer this question affirmatively, a following question will arise. Can I be saved? How sure am I that I would be included in the list of the saved? This paper is an attempt to answer these nagging questions and an effort to further brighten the light of our faith. When doubts and questions arise, we turn to the Bible and we turn to God for enlightenment and grace to keep us on the right path to salvation.
II. Did Jesus Claim to be God
Jesus didn`t walk around Judea`s hills saying, "I am God!" He didn`t do a public procession saying, "I am the Messiah". Yet His disciples called Him Master way and they also called Him "Lord". In the Gospel, a story is written about the Transfiguration of Jesus where Jesus was seen in his shining light and where the voice of God was heard by the apostles saying that Jesus is his beloved son. During Jesus` baptism by John, there was also a voice from heaven that said the same message.
It is clear in the New Testament that Jesus is the son of God sent from heaven to the earth to serve as a bridge to salvation. Jesus himself says that He is the way, the truth and the light and no one comes to the Father except through him. And yet Jesus temporarily set aside his glory, power and honor, in accordance to God`s will, to become a helpless baby like a normal person on earth. Jesus worked as a carpenter, experienced joy and hunger and also suffered from pain and death. Although divine, Jesus is also human in every way.
At the age of 30, Jesus began to preach the public ministry. Some of the words that Jesus had spoken reflect his limitations as a man and reveal his humility. On the other hand, on other circumstances Jesus also said that there things that he can`t do and only God could make CITATION Elm \l 1033 (Towns, 2007). God has shared 30 years of his life here on earth as a human, like us. He also experienced the process and cruelty of life here on earth and underwent the sufferings of a normal human being in full obedience to the Will ...