Quotes About Jesus

1 John 4:1-3: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" (NRSV). In yet another text, Revelation 19:10 declares that "the testimony of [or to] Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (NRSV).

Peter" in Acts 2:36, declaring that "God" has made Jesus "both Lord and Messiah/Christ," and the characterization of Paul's preaching in Damascus synagogues as focused on Jesus as Son of God (Acts 9:19-20).

Revelation itself. The opening words describe the text as "the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1:1) and a "prophecy" (1:3) that came to the author as he was "in the Spirit" (1:10),

and the words of Jesus for the seven churches of Asia in 2:1–3:6 are at the same time "what the Spirit is saying to the churches" (3:6 NRSV).

In Paul's discourse about the new situation of believers in Romans 8, it is very interesting to note how he interweaves references to Jesus and the Spirit. He proclaims "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (8:1 NRSV) and summons them to live "according to the Spirit" and set their minds on the Spirit (8:4-6). Paul declares that they are "in the Spirit" and indwelt by the Spirit (8:9, 11) and also that "Christ is in you" (8:10).

Jesus is central in NT references to early Christian ritual/devotional practices.

Note also the ritual use of Jesus' name in Christian baptism, the common initiation rite in early Christian circles (e.g., Acts 2:38). Paul's rhetorical question to the Corinthians, "Were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Cor 1:13 NRSV)

Note also Paul's portrayal of this meal as a corporate participation (koin?nia) in Jesus' body and blood (1 Cor 10:15-16), which further testifies to the centrality of Jesus in this ritual event.

In John 7:37-39, the author explains Jesus' statement about "rivers of living water" as anticipating the reception of the Spirit by believers, which would be made available only after Jesus was "glorified.

Jesus is pictured as warning his followers that they will be hated by all "because of my name" (Mark 13:13) and will suffer persecution "on my account" (Matt 5:11). First Peter 3:13-16 urges believers to be unafraid of suffering for their faith, to "reverence Christ as Lord" and

repeatedly refers to believers as those who testify to and suffer for "the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Rev 1:2, 9; 6:9; 12:17; 19:10; 20:4). I trust that it is not necessary to illustrate the point further here.

Yet in all the various presentations of Jesus' significance, "God" holds the overarching and crucial place. "God" is certainly not thrust into the background or sidelined. Indeed, as I indicated in an earlier chapter, Jesus' significance is typically expressed with reference to "God," and all the christological titles and claims of the NT really boil down to the one claim that Jesus is truly the unique expression and agent of "God.

Paul refers to "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6 NRSV). Colossians 1:19-20 (NRSV) asserts that "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" in Jesus and through him God works to "reconcile to himself all things." In a cluster of christological claims in Hebrews 1:1-4, Jesus is presented as the surpassing eschatological revelation of "God," as constituted by "God" to be "heir of all things,

that all creation will be required to acclaim ("Jesus Christ is Lord"), this acclamation in turn redounding to "the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:9-11).

this authority assigned to Jesus to dispense or send the Spirit is particularly important in reflecting what he calls a "divine christology," Jesus understood as in some real sense participating in the authority and roles of "God.

Along with statements in this material that "the Father" will give or send the Spirit-Advocate (14:16, 26), we have other statements that Jesus himself will send the Spirit (15:26; 16:7). In 15:26 there is an interesting link of Jesus and "the Father" in jointly sending forth the Spirit, with Jesus portrayed here as promising the Advocate, "whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father" (NRSV).

of each writing (e.g., Rom 1:7; 8:3; Titus 1:1, 4; 3:4-7) makes it clear that each author thinks of "God" and Jesus as both uniquely linked and also distinguishable.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he [Jesus] has poured out this that you both see and hear" (Acts 2:32-33 NRSV, emphasis mine).

the Jesus of this passage refers to his (pre-incarnate) sharing in divine glory (17:5, 24) and speaks of himself and the "Father" as co-inhering such that they are "one" (17:21). But the prayer form of John 17 makes it clear that Jesus and "God" are also distinguishable and that Jesus is subordinate and subservient to the purposes of "God." One of the repeated claims in the passage is that Jesus has been sent forth by "God" (17:8, 18, 21, 23, 25).

17:3 defines eternal life concisely as knowing two figures: "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

This connection is such that "the Spirit of the Lord" (3:17) is the means by which Jesus is revealed as glorious to believers and also how Jesus is powerfully present in their lives.

Fatehi proposed that Paul's link of the Spirit and the risen Jesus should be understood as "a dynamic identification," the Spirit acting to communicate Jesus' presence, power, and glory to believers and Jesus in some real way "actually present and active through the Spirit."44 This seems to me to be a cogent characterization.

There is another astonishing instance of this apparent retrojection of Jesus into the OT in John 12:37-41, where Isaiah's vision of "the Lord" exalted and enthroned (Isa 6:1-5) is declared to have been a vision of Jesus' glory.

propose that the emphasis on God's acts as the basis of knowledge of God is why in the NT "God" is identified distinctively and so emphatically with reference to Jesus, for the NT