Authority of Jesus

• Jesus' authority as Gods authority: Based on the claim that Jesus was God incarnate

  Traditional view as stated in the Nicene Creed and is the official view of most churches

  According to the Gospels, Jesus claimed to have divine authority

  Was seen in - his teaching, the miracles attached to him and the titles used by him e.g. Son of God, Son of Man
• Jesus' divine authority seen in his teaching:

  Those who heard Jesus teach were amazed by what he said and how he taught it

  Jesus taught with authority and those who believed in him were convinced his authority came from God
• Jesus as Son of God:

  Old Testament - title was used of kings

  The phrase 'Son of' means 'reflecting the nature of/like'

  Kings were thought to have been adopted by God at their accession

  Meant to reflect Gods justice and mercy in their rule

  New Testament - title indicates Jesus' unique divine authority

  At the beginning of Marks Gospel, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God and he is said to be 'my beloved son'
• Jesus as Son of Man:

  Old Testament - was a very ambiguous term

  It could mean 'I' , a human being, a representative of humanity or a supernatural figure bringing Gods judgement

  It was Jesus' preferred title for himself - the ambiguity made it less likely that he would be thought of as a power figure

  Used it to describe his role as the 'suffering servant' spoken of in the Old Testament and to his God-given authority
• Jesus' authority as only human:

  2 groups who take this view -

  In the early centuries of the Church and in more recent times who interpret texts in a different way from the majority of Christians

  Liberal Christians who reject any idea of divine inspiration underlying the Bible
• Adoptionism - The belief that Jesus was not divine by nature

  God 'adopted' him as his 'son' at the baptism in the same way kings were chosen to be Gods earthly representatives
• Unitarianism - Adopts a deist view of the creation of the world e.g. God created the world but then had no further connection with it

  Jesus was just a spiritual leader so his teachings may contain useful insights, but there is no idea of divine authority attaching to them
• Gospels


  Products of several decades of thinking about the significance of Jesus' life and teaching
• Jesus' teaching and stories

  • Passed down by word of mouth
  • Altered and exaggerated in the telling
• Differing accounts of the calming of the storm

  • Found in the first 3 Gospels
• Influence of Greek philosophy and mystery religions


  Led to the human Jesus being transformed to a divine figure
• Jesus


  A human being like everyone else though his spiritual nature gave his teaching authority
• Christian responses to the teaching of Jesus -

  Those who see Jesus' authority as Gods authority will feel they should obey his teaching, but that may not be as simple as it seems; some of his teaching seems to be totally impractical and counter-intuitive

  Those who regard Jesus' authority as only human are free to decide for themselves whether or not they should follow his teaching
• Jesus as a role model -

  All Christians see him as a role model

  They believe that they should seek to emulate his life of self-giving love, which reflected his teaching that the 2 greatest commandments were love of God and love of neighbour

  Many non-Christians such as Gandhi have been inspired by the teaching and example of Jesus
• Jesus as the Son of God - 'I and the Father are one' - his response to people asking of he was the Messiah

  2 ways to understand 'one' - Referring to a common essence ' of one Being with the Father'

  One as referring to the unity of purpose; Gods purpose for humanity and Jesus' mission were in harmony

  Biblical conformation for both of these - Essence 'Before Abraham was, I am

  Purpose - where Jesus prays he and his disciples might be one