The authority of Jesus Christ

• Jesus was part human and part God
• Jesus gave teachings that are in the Gospels
• All Gospels report Jesus's authority being questioned and how Jesus in return questioned the authority of his Jewish and Roman accusers
• Two views on Jesus's authority

  • Jesus's authority as God's authority
  • Jesus's authority as only human
• Jesus carries out God's will and brings about salvation due to him being the son of God
• "son of" means "reflecting in nature", so Jesus reflects God's nature
• Jesus taught people new things and had new insight into belief, unlike religious teachers at the time
• Jesus taught with authority and so many believed this meant his words came from God
• "The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law" Mark 1:22
• Jesus taught about morality, developing character (discipleship) and motive
• The sermon on the mount is a parable of Jesus' teaching where he said resisting anger prevented murder and resisting lust prevented adultery
• the sermon on the mount sets a very high standard and says that the aim of morality is perfection
• "He taught his followers that their aim was to exceed the righteousness of the Jewish lawyers" Matthew 5:20
• Jesus has divine healing authority
• Examples of Jesus having divine healing authority:

  • healing the leper
  • healing the blind man
  • helping the roman soldier
• "Lord don't trouble yourself... But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me" Luke 6:6-8
• Liberal christians and small sects believe Jesus is only human
• Adoptionism- the belief that Jesus was not divine by nature, but was adopted by God at his baptism
• for many scholars, presenting Jesus as a teacher of wisdom is compatible with a belief in his resurrection
• John Hick describes Jesus, the Buddha and Moses as "gifts to the world"
• Hick said that it is only when Jesus's supernatural elements are accepted as symbols that we will be able to enter into healthy dialogues with other world religions
• Hick believed there were lots of roads to God- pluralism
• Hick presents Jesus as a teacher of wisdom and morality
• All christians see Jesus as a role model
• Jesus exemplifies qualities of God in his behaviour
• Living by Jesus's example only has merit if humans can do it too
• It is not just christians who see Jesus as a role model: Gandhi saw jesus as a great role model, but did not believe he was divine
• Some wrongly excuse their frustration and wrong behaviour by referring to Jesus flipping tables in the temple
• Some see Jesus flipping tables in the temple as model behaviour as it teaches to respond vigorously to injustice
• Unitarianism- small christian denominations that reject the belief in the divinity of Jesus
• Deist- accepts the existence of God on the basis of reason and the nature of the world, rejects the idea of special revelation
• Pacifist- rejects all violence, refer to scripture such as Matthew 5:38-42