Why I Can't Ignore You

Muslims believe Jesus was a great prophet. Thomas Jefferson believed Jesus was a great philosopher. Many people believe Jesus was a good man, but just as the two previous examples, they do not believe He was God. Even people who believe in the biblical view of an all powerful deity who created the universe have a problem believing a man can be God. 

Understanding the aspects of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit can be a hang up point for a new Christian, but there are verses to use that help:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

I and my Father are one. (John 10:30)

Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (John 14:8-9)

There is no doubt with scripture that the disciples heard Jesus say He and the Father were the same. He and the Father were one. Then the rest of the letters went out from Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, Peter, and James - and virtually confirmed they believed exactly the same. Each of those letters a testament to their belief in Jesus Christ, human Son of God, lived here on earth with them.

We must see Jesus as a man, as human as we are. He also has a Spirit - I think that goes without saying. He definitely had a human body that functioned and felt as ours did. He was not conceived as we were, but He gestated and was born as we were. 

He was raised by law abiding and religious parents - arrested to by their compliance with rules for census taxation and visits to the temple. He could tell when someone touched Him with faith:

And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? (Mark 5:30)

And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. (Luke 6:19)

And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. (Luke 8:45-46)

I won't go into the tortuous humiliation He suffered being tried, beaten and crucified, but remember how painful death by crucifixion is known to be - or look it up. There's a lot of information.

Since I believe the Bible was inspired by God, that it was written to show God to mankind, it would be impossible for me to take it apart and determine what was true and what wasn't. Which is exactly what Thomas Jefferson did - cut the New Testament into pieces to be glued back without any of the miracles the writers said Jesus did. You see, Jefferson could not destroy the historical Jesus. Nor could his mind accept a miracle. Nor could God be in the body of a man.

He wasn't and isn't alone. Many do not believe. However, since I do - I cannot ignore those who do not. To deny Jesus is to activate John 3:18:

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18-19)

I know what happens when those who believe do not speak out to those who do not:

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40)