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Jesus’ resurrection was His vindication---and what a resurrection! Unheard by human ears, untouched by human hands, unseen by human eyes, hardly grasped by human minds, Jesus returned to the land of the living.  His post-resurrection appearances were His confirmation.

In the interim between His resurrection and His ascension, He was seen by hundreds of people (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).  Many of Jesus' appearances after His resurrection were cloaked with a mantle of strangeness, from the human point of view. Note a few examples.  Mary Magdalene went early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, to the site where Jesus had been buried. When she found the tomb open, she thought that His body had been removed.  While she was weeping, Jesus appeared and spoke to her. He said, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’” (read John 20:1-18).

When a group of women told the eleven apostles that Jesus had been raised, “These words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them” (read Luke 24:6-11).  Even after Peter saw the empty tomb, “he went away to his home, marveling at that which had happened” (Luke 24:12b).  Later that same day, two men ate with Jesus. They did not recognize Him at first; as soon as they recognized Him, He disappeared (Luke 24:13‑31). Shortly afterward, in Jerusalem , Jesus appeared to those who had gathered with the apostles. “They were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.” He assured them that He was not a ghost, showing them that He was of flesh and blood, with crucifixion scars in His hands and feet (Luke 24:36‑43).

A week later Jesus appeared to all of His apostles who were in a room with locked doors. Thomas had not been present when Jesus had appeared to them earlier. He had expressed disbelief about Jesus' resurrection. He was now with them. Jesus spoke to him: “‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:27-28).

When Jesus appeared to the eleven apostles in Galilee and gave them the Great Commission, “they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful” (Matthew 28:16-17). We read in the Gospel of Luke that during the post-resurrection time Jesus appeared to the apostles over a period of forty days. With many convincing proofs He showed that He was alive, according to Acts 1:3. At last, He took them out to the Mount of Olives, near Bethany, and was taken up into heaven (Luke 24:50-5l).

Why have we said that many of these events were cloaked with a mantle of strangeness? Is it because the disciples had difficulty in accepting the resurrection of Jesus? Obviously, many did find it difficult, but this is not unexpected. After all, Jesus' resurrection was the first and only time in the history of the entire world that anyone died, was buried, and resurrected himself! It may be easy to discuss resurrection theologically, as a doctrine; it is not so easy to conceptualize it as a literal event. Resurrection involves a netherworld dimension with which we cannot relate on the basis of any personal experience. Was it strange that some of Jesus' followers were frightened at His appearance?—Not at all. Consider the effect of seeing someone standing before you—someone whom you had seen crucified and buried a few days before.  If you fully believed the living person was the same one you had seen dead and buried, you would certainly sense an atmosphere of “other worldliness.”  You would know that this was a “back‑from‑the‑beyond” person.  You would know that something strange was happening.

The unusual was swirling around the resurrection and the subsequent appearances of Jesus. The apostles demonstrated this by their varied reactions.  Also, Jesus contributed to this atmosphere by His own words, actions, and appearances. After His resurrection He said, “Stop clinging to Me . . . I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17).  Jesus said to Peter concerning John, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" (John 21:23b).  His appearances were often under extraordinary circumstances. Jesus had never appeared or disappeared through closed, locked doors before. He was not easily recognized at times.  Events had taken a strange turn.

The earthly sojourn of Jesus was complete.  What an episode!  What a life!  What a Savior!  Have you ever considered the ingenuity of God?  How could God, Who is omnipresent, “drop in on the world,” spend some “time” here, and return to an eternity in which He is always simultaneously present?  How could He do this without upsetting the balance of His creation?  How could He “contain” His unlimited power so as not to cause chaos in our galaxy and cataclysmic upheaval on the Earth?  The answer is found in Jesus Christ, because “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19a).

As we consider how this glorious feat was accomplished, we note that two great transitions are apparent in the life of Christ. The first was a shift in emphasis from deity to humanity.  The infant Jesus arrived amid echoes of an angelic chorus, but He was wrapped in bands of cloth and laid in a manger. He was of virgin birth, but He was thought to be the son of Joseph.  So it was all His life. Deity was manifested in fashion as a man. The incarnation was real.  Paul wrote:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8).

The second transition was a shift in emphasis from humanity to deity.  His humanity had veiled His deity. Amid this “strangeness” of transition, Thomas was at last able to see through the veil that was lifting. He spoke to Jesus, saying, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). This was only one man's confession, you might say. This is true, but in God's revelation of Himself to humanity it was the historic, pivotal turning point in man's ability to perceive and confess the significance of that revelation.

This transition was consummated at the ascension. Jesus did not merely disappear one day, never to be seen alive again. As He was talking to His apostles, “He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). Thus the transition from emphasis on humanity to deity was complete.

These two incredible transitions do not affirm, of course, that Jesus became less God and more human at His birth or that He became less human and more God at His death. We have merely analyzed the dominant manifestation apparent in each transition.  What we learn is that God's redemptive work in Christ Jesus is not so simplistic as to be self‑evident. However, once grasped, its reflection of God's love, grace, and mercy moves us to surrender our own lives to Him in faith, love, gratitude, and service.

Even so, the hymnic proclamation found in the Bible, sometimes called the song of the incarnation, is an appropriate theme with which to close our study of “God the Son”: “And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, beheld by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16).

Excursus: Historical Background for Bible Study

To emphasize the deity of Jesus to the neglect of His humanity would expose us to the age‑old heresy of Gnosticism. “Christian Gnosticism” began to plague the church by the end of the first century A.D. It flourished extensively in the following century.  It is neither necessary nor possible to present a full treatise on Gnosticism in our study.  Many of the teachings of the Gnostics were on a collision course with the Gospel of Christ. Therefore, Gnosticism will serve as our launching pad from which to begin a brief overview of several major historical events, religious movements, literary developments, and currents of thought that have had a bearing on Biblical study through the centuries.

Gnosticism

The word Gnosticism sends up a red flag.  It comes from the Greek gnosis, which means “knowledge.” Not ordinary knowledge, mind you, but direct knowledge, which comes from illumination, or revelation, of eternal truths. Those who claimed such knowledge saw themselves as the gifted elite.  Although girded by philosophic underpinnings, Gnosticism was a syncretistic system that drew on sources that varied geographically, philosophically, and religiously.  For example: From Persia, Babylon, and Greece came dualism, astrology, and philosophy, respectively.  Gnosticism adapted to Christianity and became a very divisive force within the church in the early second century A.D.

One of their standard tenets was a belief that all matter is evil by nature and spirit is good by nature.  This dogma had a direct bearing on their view of Jesus.

One group within greater Gnosticism was identified as the Docetics. The term comes from the Greek dokeo, meaning “to appear to be, to seem.” Their dualism (evil matter versus good spirit) dictated that Jesus, as God (good spirit) could not have been in the flesh (evil matter). His humanity was only an appearance, an apparition. He seemed to be human. Although there were variations in this belief, the bottom line was essentially the same. They denied the true humanity of Jesus.

Our first reaction to this ancient view of Jesus may be amazement, followed by a sigh of relief that such heresy has long since been overcome and forgotten.  However, such complacency would be premature.  Although the Gnostic faith did not survive the early centuries of the church, modern times have seen equally disturbing views about Jesus come to the forefront within the broader boundaries of Christendom.  The Docetics arrived at an inferior view of Jesus based upon false presuppositions about matter; in the past few centuries many grotesque caricatures of Jesus have appeared based primarily upon false presuppositions about the Bible.

Reformation

The Reformation was a very complex historical movement. Among other things, it was marked by moral issues, nationalisms, economics, and resistance to political authoritarianism. In religious matters, the most important development was a break from the status quo of Roman Catholicism, as illustrated by Martin Luther's “95 theses” set forth at Wittenberg in 1517. This great breach had been foreshadowed by emerging “resistance groups,” such as the Waldensians, as early as the twelfth century.  Most of these groups were made up of people who saw teachings in the Bible that were contrary to those of the Catholic faith.  However, neither the Inquisition nor the later Counter-Reformation could stem the tide. With much bloodshed and anguish, Protestantism grew in Germany and spread to other countries like Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Great Britain - to name a few.

During those torturous centuries the Scriptures came to the forefront as never before since the beginning of the Middle Ages. With the emergence of Scripture for the masses came also the conviction that they were sufficient for all matters pertaining to faith and life. The individual, not the church, was responsible for studying and interpreting them for salvation. This stance toward Scripture was predicated upon the conviction that the Bible, in its entirety, was the true Word of God. This, as is well-known, was the foundational strength of the Protestant Reformation.

Renaissance

Of course, the great historical/religious development of which we have been speaking was not happening in a vacuum.  Quite the contrary.  The Western world was beginning to turn itself in new directions from which it would never return. By the middle of the fifteenth century the Renaissance or, from another perspective, the Revival of Learning, was well under way.  That new tool of wonder, the printing press, was the major vehicle that would spread new ideas, discoveries, and challenges across the world of which we speak. The Revival of Learning had a great facilitator in the printed word. The monasteries began to yield their hidden treasures. Scholars and monks fled to the West in great numbers.  They brought their precious manuscripts of science, math, philosophy and religion.  This flight was intense prior to the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.  Thus old boundaries were gone and new centers of learning emerged.

Humanity was “moving up.” Economic and commercial ventures were beginning to produce better physical conditions. Concentrations of wealth were making it possible for individuals and nations to expand their horizions. For example: Christopher Columbus made his voyages to the New World in the second half of the fifteenth century under the patronage of Spain .

Learning progressed on many fronts. Old ideas were challenged by new insights and discoveries. The Italian Galileo Galilei was a product of the new age. He was proficient in Greek, Latin, logic, music, painting, physics, and astronomy. He was a staunch individualist who set the world straight by sending it around the sun with the scientific verification of the Copernican theory of our solar system. In Germany , Johann Kepler was also establishing the theory of Nicolaus Copernicus that the Earth rotated around the sun. Discovering new worlds and reorienting the old were the kinds of accomplishments that characterized the Renaissance spirit!

Scientific Humanism

However, our point of interest is how religious authority, doctrine, and sources were affected by this heady spirit of humanism. A clash between the principles of scientific humanism and the principles of the Protestant Reformation was inevitable.  Scientific humanism rejected the supernatural. The Bible insisted on the historicity of revelation and miracles.

Scientific humanism and religion based on biblical revelation could not be permanent bedfellows. At first the humanists conceded that revelation might be above reason but would never be contrary to it; therefore, reason must be the judge of revelation. Eventually, Rationalism declared that reason had judged revelation and found it wanting. Therefore, biblical revelation was rejected as “unscientific.”

Thus the pendulum had swung completely. Instead of man receiving revelation from God, any belief in God must now be reduced to man's ability to “reconstruct” Him by rational, scientific inquiry. This meant that the Bible itself must be viewed and studied as a human product.  It must not be allowed to judge man without his consent; rather, man must exercise judgment on the Bible by the principles of scientific rationalism.

Critical Biblical Studies

This was the historical nexus for the various “critical” studies of Scripture. Higher biblical criticism was launched by Jean Astruc and Johanne Gottfried Eichorn in the last half of the eighteenth century with their analysis of Genesis. This was followed by Wilhelm M.L. De Wette's critical work in Deuteronomy at the beginning of the nineteenth century.  He denied the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy. This type of analysis came to the forefront in critical biblical studies such as the Documentary Hypothesis of Karl Graf and Julius Wellhausen in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

It is not mere coincidence that the work of Charles Darwin was a nineteenth century product. His famous work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was taken by many as a scientific confirmation of the natural origin of man. As part of “the survival of the fittest,” man's destiny was to rule the world as its supreme product. What the old “higher criticisms” did to Scripture was done to the human race by Darwin : both Scripture and humanity were cut off from God.

This development was rejected by many in those days. Of course, it is still denied by many today. There is one thing that continues to haunt the basic premise of all scientific humanists. It is this: History in the twentieth century proves we are not the master of our own destiny. The collage of horrors is before us. We are not getting better. The insistence on mere “naturalism” has caught up with us.

To whom, or what, shall we turn?  This question implies the basis for the shift in emphasis in New Testament liberal scholarship in the early part of the twentieth century. Once scholars had discarded the orthodox views of inspiration and revelation concerning the Bible, the conclusion was reached that the Gospels were not factual accounts of the life of Jesus, except for a few fragments here and there. They were said to be elaborate statements of faith by the devoted followers of a pious visionary. This Man called Himself the Son of Man and saw Himself as an instrument of God to usher in a new aeon of glory.  Therefore, the search for the historical Jesus was doomed to failure because of a lack of evidence (since the Gospel accounts were ruled out in terms of having definitive historical value).  Indeed, the historical Jesus was considered quite irrelevant!

Reactions to Scientific Rationalism

However, World War I struck a severe blow to the optimism and self­-confidence about which we have been speaking.  It was thought that perhaps something was lacking.  It was decided by many that a new approach or a closer look at biblical texts might prove helpful.

So, in an era of considerable disillusionment, the voices of Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and others began to be heard. With caution, and a large amount of liberal nuance, Barth pleaded for a return to the Word of God. Although to him the Bible was not the Word of God in an objective sense, it contained the Word of God for those who would peer through it and beyond. Bultmann agreed that a return to biblical studies was appropriate. However, the texts would have to be thoroughly “demythologized” before the kerygma could be discerned and appropriated in faith. Even though these positions were a far cry from conservative Christian faith, they at least pointed to a new interest and a new direction in Biblical studies between World War I and World War II.

Technology and Faith

The human condition since World War II has remained agonizing. The Korean conflict reminded us that World War II was not the war to end all wars. The Vietnam bloodshed raised the specter of doubt as to whether peace on Earth was possible. The cold war of fifty years yielded to provincial outbreaks of conflict with their atrocities, misery, and death.

This human caldron so characteristic of much of the twentieth century has been exacerbated by the bewildering advance of scientific technology in all fields of human endeavor. We are left reeling and uncertain, confused and fearful, shattered, with no solidarity, adrift, with no anchor. The feel of impending doom is heightened in the minds of many as a new millennium begins.

In times like these, many people become “religious” for the first time. They often turn to some charismatic leader and find relief in escapism, cults, and “end‑of‑the‑world” (eschatological) thinking. Others, influenced by doomsday evangelists, turn to Jesus on a spiritual high that is carried along by excess emotionalism and sustained by showmanship and sensationalism.

Fortunately, on a more insightful level, once again many Bible scholars are pointing to the historical Jesus found in a Bible that is now held in much higher regard than in the heyday of “Old Liberalism.”

Back to the Bible

The preceding observations are not intended to be lessons on church history or a survey of theology.  If so, they would be inadequate.  They are intended to be a reminder that it has become intellectually valid to study the Scriptures as accurate historical accounts of the life of Christ.

The search is not always easy; neither is it simplistic.  However, if it is done diligently, the rewards are many and wonderful. Many different methods are being utilized today by advanced students of the Scriptures who have a deep faith in the veracity of the Bible as the inspired Word of God.  It can be said with confidence that we cannot legitimately be branded as naive or foolish for turning to the scriptural accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus.  On the contrary!  In the Bible we find Him Who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life!”