Christ's Life Elucidating God and Us
A Philip Yancey Chapter Summary
Jesus was a friend to sinners, including tax collectors, a Samaritan woman with five failed marriages, and a criminal on a cross. But the church nowadays is increasingly seen as the moral police, where sinners don’t feel loved. We should focus on our own moral purity but reach out to others, caring for the oppressed and devoting ourselves to the sick and the poor.
Christ was a Galilean man with a family but declared Himself as God. He said: I forgive your sins; I am sending you prophets; I and the Father are one; anyone who has seen me has seen the Father; I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me; and before Abraham was born, I am.
Belonging to a monotheistic people, the disciples might have been startled and even offended by Christ’s supposed arrogance. For three years, they couldn’t understand Him. But weeks after His crucifixion, they worshipped Him as God, through whom all things were made.
Did God personally experience the cross? If not, Christ’s crucifixion could be seen as cosmic child abuse. Like the disciples, we need to decide if He is the Son of God, a madman, or something worse.
Jesus reveals the image of the invisible God. Through Him, we see God more clearly. In the Old Testament, God is seen as omnipotent, distant, and terrifying. But Christ demonstrated God’s loving and serving nature. Now, in view of the price Christ paid, we can call on God as Abba, the loving Father.
Jesus reveals a compassionate God searching for us, a God desperate to get His family back. God wants us to love Him. This has been illustrated in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. God the Father demonstrated His love by sacrificing His Son’s life for us. Some may even consider His approaches reckless (1 John 4:9,10,16).
Jesus reveals what we, created as the image of God, were meant to be, and how far we have missed the mark.
Jesus shows God enduring weakness, insults, hardships, and persecution to defeat sin, overcome death, triumph over Satan, and get His family back. We are healed by His wounds, not His miracles.
Summary of “The Difference He Makes,” Chapter 14 of The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey
Christ was a Galilean man with a family but declared Himself as God. He said: I forgive your sins; I am sending you prophets; I and the Father are one; anyone who has seen me has seen the Father; I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me; and before Abraham was born, I am.
Belonging to a monotheistic people, the disciples might have been startled and even offended by Christ’s supposed arrogance. For three years, they couldn’t understand Him. But weeks after His crucifixion, they worshipped Him as God, through whom all things were made.
Did God personally experience the cross? If not, Christ’s crucifixion could be seen as cosmic child abuse. Like the disciples, we need to decide if He is the Son of God, a madman, or something worse.
Jesus reveals the image of the invisible God. Through Him, we see God more clearly. In the Old Testament, God is seen as omnipotent, distant, and terrifying. But Christ demonstrated God’s loving and serving nature. Now, in view of the price Christ paid, we can call on God as Abba, the loving Father.
Jesus reveals a compassionate God searching for us, a God desperate to get His family back. God wants us to love Him. This has been illustrated in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. God the Father demonstrated His love by sacrificing His Son’s life for us. Some may even consider His approaches reckless (1 John 4:9,10,16).
Jesus reveals what we, created as the image of God, were meant to be, and how far we have missed the mark.
Jesus shows God enduring weakness, insults, hardships, and persecution to defeat sin, overcome death, triumph over Satan, and get His family back. We are healed by His wounds, not His miracles.
Summary of “The Difference He Makes,” Chapter 14 of The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey