JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to
hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some
of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and
pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood
that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of
Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the
altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation."
Not exactly the kind of words one would expect from the gentle Jesus of liberalism!
Jesus ended this awful litany of warnings with tearful words of compassion:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is
left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say,
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'" (Mt 23:13-39).
His words, His claims, His warnings are immense! Never has a person spoken as Jesus
did. Without apparent deliberation or premeditation, without a moment's hesitation or
uncertainty, He addressed all audiences—the curious, the hostile, the devoted--and answered
them all masterfully and convincingly. Those who tried to trick Him got caught in His wisdom
whether it was the incident of the woman taken in adultery (Jn 8:1-11), the lawyer with his query
on eternal life (Lk 10:25-37), the chief priests on authority (Mt 21:23-46), the Pharisees' taxation
trap (22:15-22) or the Sadducee's resurrection trap (vv. 23-33).
Were these answers those of a mere man? Paul said of God's wisdom:
"For it is written:
'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will
frustrate.'
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? . . . For the foolishness
of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than
man's strength" (1 Co 1:19-20,25).
Paul goes on and says of Jesus:
"It is because of Him [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us
wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Co 1:30).