Further Study

Digging In

Read: John 10:25-33.

What did Jesus mean by saying, “I and My Father are one?”

What was the reaction of the Jews?

Read: John 8:54-59.

What is the significance of Jesus’ claim to have existed prior to Abraham? How did this affect His Jewish audience?

Vernon Grounds said: “[Jesus’ claims] rule out the possibility that He was merely a good man. C. S. Lewis put it in his own memorable prose: The claims of Jesus indicate that He was a liar or a lunatic. Anybody who alleges that He and God are equal or who says, ‘before Abraham was, I AM,’ who makes the assertions which we find in the Gospels, anybody who makes those claims is, as Lewis says, equivalent to someone who claims he’s a [poached] egg. You know that’s just absurd. And yet those claims in the mouth of Jesus don’t strike us as being absurd. They’re all congruous with His personality.”

Why do these claims of Jesus seem to fit His character and behavior? If the claims were not true, then why would we conclude that Jesus was delusional?

Enter your thoughts into your personal journal.

Going Further

Read: Mark 4:37-41.

How did Jesus’ response to the storm differ from that of the disciples? What is the significance of Christ calming the storm with a spoken command? What is the answer to the disciples’ question: “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

Darrell Bock commented: “Now we sometimes give the ancient person a hard time. We think of him as gullible and a miracle on every corner and this kind of thing. But I would challenge anyone to read the Scripture and see if that’s the portrait of the way these people respond to these miracles. You know, Jesus does a healing, and they go: ‘Another day, another miracle.’ No, that’s not the way these texts read. There is surprise that these events are going on, just as any modern person would be [surprised]. ‘We’ve seen marvelous things today,’ or, ‘Who is it that’s able to command the wind and the sea and they obey Him?’ They’re caught off-guard and are as surprised as we would be if it happened in our midst.”

Why is it significant that ancient observers responded like modern observers?

Read: John 14:6.

Why is this verse so offensive to many people today? How could Jesus make such an exclusive claim?

Of Jesus’ claim in John 14:6, Dr. Doug Groothuis said: “Now people may think that’s an arrogant claim, or that it’s overly dogmatic or excludes so many people. But the real question you have to ask is: Did Jesus have the authority to say that? Did He have a life and a character that ensured that that statement is believable? If you simply take the statement apart from the life of Jesus as we see it in the gospels, then yes, it could sound overly narrow and restrictive. But when you consider what Jesus did; the prophecies that He fulfilled in the Hebrew Scriptures of being a suffering servant and being born of a virgin and so on; when you see His life of compassion; the wisdom He has in His teaching; the way He drew outcasts and the socially unacceptable people to Himself; His miracles over the forces of nature, over disease, over demons, over death itself in raising His friend Lazarus from the dead, and in His own resurrection from the dead, which is well-attested historically; if that kind of a person says, ‘I am the way the truth and the life,’ it makes sense. It’s believable.”

Do you agree with Doug Groothuis’ reasoning concerning Jesus? Explain.

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Final Thoughts

The miracles and teachings of Jesus were witnessed personally by multitudes. Peter said, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (II Peter 1:16).

Do you believe the miracles of the New Testament? If so, how does this affect your view of Christ’s truth claims?

Enter your thoughts into your personal journal.