JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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As we have repeatedly seen, Jesus makes Himself—His life, His teaching and ministry
the issue all mankind has to deal with. He openly invites us to give ourselves to Him in whom
somehow manhood and Godhead are connected. He forces all of us to make a decision—for or
against. Neutrality He has not left as an option. To those who had seen and heard Him and who
yet had not believed on Him He said:
"If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now,
however, they have no excuse for their sin. . . . If I had not done among them
what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen
these miracles, and yet they have hated both Me and My Father" (Jn 15:22,24).
Jesus, His life, teaching and ministry is the issue. Because of who He is—the sinless Son
of God, the Savior of the world, the Judge of mankind (Jn 7:22-23; Mt 7:13-27), the Lord of
lords and King of kings—we must decide. Either we embrace Him wholeheartedly and
experience eternal life or we reject Him and invite His banishing us to eternal destruction. The
apostle John wrote:
"These things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name" (Jn 20:31).
The German poet Angelus Silesius put it:
"Were Christ a thousand times to Bethlehem come,
And yet not born in you, it would spell your doom.
Golgotha's cross, it cannot save from sin,
Unless for you that cross is raised within.
I say, it helps you not that Christ is risen,
If you yourself are still in death's dark prison."
The incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection have little relevance to anyone unless they
are received and appropriated by faith. The Person of Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, but
He must be born in us if He is to make any difference in our lives.
Behold the God-Man!
Man has frenziedly tried to untwist and remove the name or the memory of the Son of
Man from the hope and heart of the world but has found that it is impossible. For He has changed
the world! It has never been the same since He walked into it. Nor can any person be the same
once he confronts Jesus. Loti was right
"When once you look into His face, nothing again will ever satisfy."
The Christian religion is not so much a philosophy or an ethic as it is a perfect Life
which, having entered the world, can never be expelled. What has been written about Him is
true: