The Case For Christ

anticipated, I was taken aback by his warm, sincere, and pastoral
tone as he responded to what turned out to be, in some cases,
rather caustic questions.
Our conversation was held in an otherwise deserted faculty
lounge over Christmas break. Carson was wearing a white
windbreaker over a button-down shirt, blue jeans, and Adidas.
After some preliminary banter about our mutual appreciation of
England (Carson has lived there off and on through the years, and
his wife, joy, is British), I pulled out my notebook, started my
recorder, and posed a background question to help determine
whether Jesus has "the right stuff' to be God.
LIVING AND FORGIVING LIKE GOD
My initial question centered on why Carson thinks Jesus is God in
the first place. "What did he say or do," I asked, "that
convinces you that he is divine?" I wasn't sure how he would
respond, although I anticipated he would focus on Jesus'
supernatural feats. I was wrong. "One could point to such things
as his miracles," Carson said as he leaned back in the
comfortably upholstered chair, "but other people have done
miracles, so while this may be indicative, it's not decisive. Of
course, the Resurrection was the ultimate vindication of his
identity. But of the many things he did, one of the most striking
to me is his forgiving of sin."
Really?" I said, shifting in my chair, which was perpendicular to
his, in order to face him more directly. "How so?"
"The point is, if you do something against me, I have the right
to forgive you. However, if you do something against me and
somebody else comes along and says, 'I forgive you,' what kind of
cheek is that? The only person who can say that sort of thing
meaningfully is God himself, because sin, even if it is against
other people, is first and foremost a defiance of God and his
laws.
When David sinned by committing adultery and arranging the
death of the woman's husband, he ultimately says to God in Psalm
51, 'Against you only have I sinned and done this evil in your
sight.' He recognized that although he had wronged people, in the
end he had sinned against the God who made him in his image, and
God needed to forgive him.
So along comes Jesus and says to sinners, 'I forgive you.' The
Jews immediately recognize the blasphemy of this. They react by