God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS

THE CHIEF PRIESTS

 

It was a pivotal question: Are you the Christ?

      • Are you the One foretold by the prophets?
      • Are you the Anointed One?
      • Are you the great Liberator?
      • Are you the Son of God?

Jesus' answer would either set him free or seal his death.

But even at this critical moment he turns the question back on the questioners:

      • If I tell you, you will not believe me.
      • If I asked you, you would not answer.

He knows the hardness of their hearts. He knows their stubborn unbelief. But their unbelief does not affect the truth: from now on, from this point to which they are ruthlessly moving, this crucifixion, from this point on, when he puts aside his temporary limitations of time and space and human flesh, from this point on he, 'the Son of Man', that glorious, divine, authoritative, eternal being of Daniel's vision, will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.

Yes. He is the Son of God.

With this answer he sealed his death.

But let us turn the question again, so that it confronts us, so that it challenges us, so that it forces us to face its pivotal and ultimate significance:

If Jesus told us who he is - would we listen?

If he asked us who we believed him to be - would we answer?

Our answer - our response - either seals our death, or sets us free.

To those who believe in him, to those who acknowledge and receive him as the Christ, the Son of God, he affirms: you have eternal life; you will never be condemned; you have already crossed over from death to life.

Scriptures: Luke 22:66-71; Daniel 7:13-14; John 1:12; 5:24; 1 John 5:12.

Copyright Rosemary Bardsley 2004,2009