Truly the Son of God
What the Bible Teaches about Jesus
Robert P. Mills
By Robert P. Mills, Director, PLC Publications
Introduction
Truly this man was the Son of God!
— Roman centurion
Who is Jesus?
Is he simply a good moral teacher, a wandering philosopher or
a miracle worker who lived long ago and whose example remains
influential today? Or is he truly the Son of God, as the Roman
centurion confessed at Jesus’ crucifixion (Mark 15:39)?
The 12 lessons in this study explore what Scripture and the
Church say about who Jesus is, what he did in his life on
earth, and what he does today. The goal is to help Christians
grow in their knowledge and love of the Triune God.
How are these studies organize?
Truly the Son of God follows a time-tested, Reformed
approach to the study of Scripture and Christian doctrine.
Each lesson begins with a brief overview and the reading of
one or two biblical texts. The studies are then divided into
three sections: The Text, The Teachings and The Life of the
Church. Discussion questions conclude each of these sections.
The Text
identifies key words and phrases in the
biblical text and explores them in some detail. Taking the
time to read and consider the other Scripture references given
in this section will yield valuable insights into the verses
being studied. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture
quotations are from the New International Version.
The Teachings
explain the historic Christian
doctrines that have emerged from the biblical texts.
Christians need to study Scripture to learn what God has
revealed through Jesus Christ about his character and conduct.
However, a critically important, if often overlooked, part of
the Christian vocation is recognizing false teachings and
learning how such teachings distort or even contradict
Christian faith. Christians with a limited knowledge of
Scripture and the historic teachings of the Church, unaware of
the existence or the dangers of false doctrines, may easily be
led along paths that lead away from God. Thus a key feature of
Truly the Son of God is its identification and
examination of teachings that are contrary to Scripture.
The Life of the Church
reflects on how the texts and
teachings relate to our Christian faith and daily life. This
section is intended to show how biblical texts and Christian
doctrines help to shape the daily lives of the people of God.
At the end of each lesson is a question for reflection
followed by a brief passage of Scripture that may be prayed or
used as a model for prayer. Praying the Scripture simply means
reading the verses, aloud or silently, offering them to God as
our own prayer, much as we pray the Lord’s Prayer. This
historic Christian practice has been little used by
Protestants in the modern era. Its recovery would offer yet
another opportunity for Christians to share the mind of Christ
(Phil. 2:5), who prayed Scripture even while hanging on the
cross (see Lesson 9).
Who could use these studies?
Truly the Son of God may be used by a variety of
individuals and groups. With the Introduction and the Table of
Contents as an overview, the study could be used for a 13-week
adult Sunday school course. A class that desires more time for
discussion could have a 26-week course, exploring The Text one
week and The Teachings and The Life of the Church the next.
A monthly meeting of elders or deacons could use
Truly
the Son of God in its devotional time, completing it in a
year. It would also provide a year-long study for Presbyterian
Women, Presbyterian Men and similar organizations. Groups that
meet nine times a year could combine certain lessons (such as
Lessons 6-8 on the threefold office of Christ or 9-10 on the
crucifixion and resurrection) to fit the material into their
schedule. Study leaders should feel free to combine or divide
lessons, adapting this resource to meet the needs of less
formal Bible study gatherings.
Certainly the material presented in each lesson is far from
exhaustive. The study leader who wishes to provide more
background, or study participants who wish to explore the
topics considered in more detail, will find a list of
additional resources at the end of every lesson. Each lesson
has been prepared so that it may be used “as is” or
as a resource for a teacher preparing a lesson plan.
The study of Jesus
“It is of great importance for Christian believers to
have, from time to time, a reasonable, sane, mature person
stand up in their midst and say ‘God is ...’ and go
on to complete the sentence intelligently. ... The theologian
offers his mind in the service of saying ‘God’ in
such a way that God is not reduced or packaged or banalized,
but known and contemplated and adored, with the consequence
that our lives are not cramped into what we can explain but
exalted by what we worship.”¹
It is my hope that these studies will lead to the worship of
Jesus Christ – the Son of God, the Incarnate Word, the
second person of the Trinity – by speaking to the mind as
well as to the heart. Although most Christians know the
command “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength” (Mark 12:30), the modern age has tended to
value feelings over facts. As a result, the modern church has
been inclined to emphasize that which warms the heart over
that which fires the mind.
In response, I have looked to those who have offered their
minds in the service of God and have tried to draw together
resources from throughout “the Great Tradition,”
which stretches back to the early church, through the
Reformers, and is continued in the best of current evangelical
scholarship. For if we are to strengthen our souls, we must be
careful to nourish both our hearts and our minds, a concern
Paul voices so eloquently in his prayer “that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened …” (Eph. 1:18).
It is my prayer that those who participate in this study –
all of us by definition theologians, those who speak a word (
logos)
about God (
theos) – will do so with the goal of
more fully knowing, contemplating and adoring our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, who is truly the Son of God.
Endnotes
- Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder: The Revelation
of John and the Praying Imagination (San Francisco:
Harper and Row, 1988), pp. 3-4.
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