Does Jesus the Man Save?
Dec 3rd, 2007 by John
I’d like to hear from you about some reflections I am having about Jesus. More precisely about Peter, the Apostle’s, characterization of Jesus.
Peter was selected by Jesus to be an apostle and Peter experienced Jesus for approximately 3 years…up close and personal, as they say. Peter became the spokesman for the Twelve as the Gospels show. Peter lived through both some glorious and grievous encounters with Jesus.
With this as background, I am intrigued by the way Peter describes Jesus to primarly Jews and Jewish proselytes on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and to a Roman centurion, a Gentile, and his household (Acts 10).
Acts 2 To Jews
“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
Acts 10 To Gentiles
“You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”
It is evident that Peter’s vision of Jesus is that Jesus from the Galilean village of Nazareth was a Spirit-empowered man. Jesus lived and served with great Spirit-empowerment. Jesus was crucified. Jesus was raised from the dead by God.
We would expect, with our entrenched theology, for Peter to say to Cornelius and his family that Jesus “…went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because he was God.” But Peter says “…God was with him.” Peter doesn’t bring up Jesus as a divine Being. From Peter these early hearers, both Jews and Gentiles, were presented with a man–an authentic, fully human being through whom God worked and to whom God gave his empowering Spirit. Jesus was Messiah, that is, the promised, Spirit-anointed agent of deliverance.
I bring this up because I am intrigued by these early expressions of who Jesus was. PLEASE NOTE: I am not denying that Jesus is fully and truly divine as well as fully human. I am intrigued that these early Jewish and Gentile believers were apparently not required “to believe” in Jesus’ deity to be “saved.” Did they? And if they did by necessity have to consciously affirm that Jesus of Nazareth was God to be saved, why didn’t Peter make that more evident in his descriptions of Jesus? Why did Peter emphasize Jesus’ humanity? Why didn’t he come out plainly and say, “Jesus is God. You have to believe it to be delivered”?
I know that Paul the Apostle wrestles more with the Jewish challenge that one God can be expressed in two or more persons. Peter, however, didn’t make that plain in Acts 2 and 10. And yet people–Jews and Gentiles–”got saved.”
What was the content of faith about Jesus when Peter preached the gospel in Jerusalem that Day of Pentecost and that day in Cornelius’ house?
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You raise a great question John, one with which I and some friends of mine are wrestling: what is the content of belief? In what must a person believe to be restored to relationship with God?
Does someone need to believe in Jesus’ deity? In the Trinity (as Athenasian creed demands)? That there is a hell or heaven and Jesus rescued them from hell to bring them into heaven? What about people who’ve never heard of Jesus…to what extent does God’s mercy extend to them?
As a former pastor on Capitol Hill and seminary student training to be one in a church community I know Acts says “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” and I know what my theology says and what my seminary teaches…but sometimes I struggle with the content of the “belief” that rescues people. And if Jesus already paid the penalty as the ultimate and final sacrifice, if that is in fact a present reality for the world as Hebrews says, what does it matter what anyone does? Is it more of a conscious rejection of Jesus and the Rest as Hebrews alludes, or is it a conscious embracing of Jesus? What about those who can’t consciously embrace Jesus because their conscious isn’t aware of Him?
Anyway, I think your question on “what is the content of faith” is an important one, one that I’m wrestling with myself even as a seminary student who is steeped in “answers”! My fear is that we are not communicating properly the content of that good news nor the content of faith in the Goodness of that news…
-jeremy
John, great post.
Jesus often identified himself as “son of man.” Part of what I take from that is the fact that his gospel restores to our full humanity. When we act outside of Christ’s Way (that is, love), then we act less than human. The Creator desires our full, beautiful humanity, which is embodied in the life of Jesus, the Man.
What about when the rich young ruler asks Jesus for eternal life, and Jesus tells him to follow the law and give away all his money. That one’s always kinda bothered me. Then there’s that blind man who didn’t know anything about Jesus except that once he was blind and then he could see. Isn’t salvation a mystery anyway?
Jeremy, Wow, you are taking this idea even further. How flexible or expandable is “the content of faith.” If these early Jewish and Gentile believers were saved without having to make a conscious assent to Jesus’ deity (which I do not deny), then, again, how “fluid” is the content of faith??
Watchman,
How true…becoming more like Jesus does not make us more God-like; being more like Jesus makes us more fully human, as he was the fully human ’second Adam.’
Fireball,
I agree that there is truly a mysterious dimension to salvation. I am trying to get my head around the post-pouring-out-the-Spirit (Acts 2) ‘content of faith’ before Paul began to wrestle with the one-ness and the three-ness of God. Peter seems content to present Jesus as a Spirit-empowered man.
Right. My mind tends to work randomly, and timelines mess with my head.
Dear sir,
We are working in the remote areas of Rajasthan in India. People are facing shortage of drinking water. Hot summer is falling now. Village people are traveling miles to collect water.
Here we are running an orphanage for 25 children, pray that we need a church building and hostel building here very urgently. These children are orphan and semi orphan from tribals.
Converted people will not allow to draw water fron village wells or from handpumps. So water facility is very urgent here.
Pray for the Church Building and land, Pray for the new believers facing oppositions from their relatives and community. Rajasthan Government passed Anti-conversion bill against christian work. Our workers are working without any support from any where. Our workers are from tribal community, and working in the remote areas. Pray and support us in the ministry so that we can earn more people for Jesus from other nonchristian communities.
Pray for us. Waiting for your reply.
Pr. Benjamin K. Dodiyar.
Perhaps this isn’t so complicated if we accept that the words and phrases of the bible needn’t be parsed and systematized as propositional belief points or statements. The NT shares parts of the story of the coming of God in Jesus–the parts that God wanted recorded in written form. These stories reflect a growing awareness and understanding of Jesus and His way of life, to include His teaching. Some passages appear to contradict other passages because that was where those individuals were at in their faith journeys. Our faith and belief will always fall short of God’s truth–both propositionally and existentially. We rest, however, kept by Him and for Him. If I can trust and follow Jesus the man or Jesus the prophet or Jesus as God—whichever, however God chooses to enliven the eyes of my spirit I am blessed in Him.
Howard,
While you have presented some interesting thoughts, I am wrestling with the revealed information in Acts 2 and 10 as Peter describes Jesus. I do think that discerning “the content of faith” in the earliest church is an important issue. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
[...] friend and mentor John Frye over at jesus the radical pastor has a a few posts (here and here) on the content of faith. In the first post he address the fact the in Acts 2 and 10 [...]
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whomever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. –NIV
At the simplest level, Jesus was the designated sacrificial lamb of God, given to cover the sins of Man. He had no other assignments.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. –Matt 5:17
Your question, John, has two components: What was Jesus, and what did he need to be?
Being God’s lamb and our salvation did not require that Jesus be God. He need only be guiltless man. Our salvation requires only that we believe in him as our savior, regardless of the entirety of his nature. But, I don’t believe any mere man, even one who is begotten of God, can achieve and maintain guiltless-ness, as history shows us. Only a man who is also fully God can pull that one off.
So, do we need to believe in Jesus as deity for our salvation? No, we only need believe that he is our salvation. We need to believe in him as deity only in order to be in accord with God’s word.
Z-man,
I believe you are on to something crucial here when you write, “So, do we need to believe in Jesus as deity for our salvation? No, we only need believe that he is our salvation. We need to believe in him as deity only in order to be in accord with God’s word.” I thnk we have a tendency to roll all theology about Jesus into the faith-to-be-saved content container. All we need believe is that Jesus is God’s sole agent of reclaiming the universe and all in it for God. Excellent thoughts, my friend.