Why is Jesus a necessary part of the pizza? Why do I need to understand Him before I can be a part of the Christian community?
Here are the essential ingredients to believing in Jesus. He is God’s Son. He was virgin born. He died on a cross. He was buried. He rose again. He is coming again. All of these parts of the story of Christ are essential to believe and understand if one wants to be a part of the true Christian community.
Jesus was not just a man. He did not become the Son of God. He was not born into deity. He is not Thor, Zeus or any other type of mythical god. He is eternal. He is all that the Father and the Spirit are in attributes and power. He was present and active in creation and throughout the Old Testament we see pictures of Christ. As a result of the fall of mankind, Jesus needed to come to earth to provide for us a sacrifice for the payment of our sins. Therefore, He was born of a virgin.
Virgin birth is necessary because the sin nature is passed to all who are born. Because Christ was virgin born He bypassed the natural birth process and therefore was able to be born sinless. He was not born of a sinless person, because none have ever existed since the fall in the Garden of Eden. The virgin birth then was necessary for Him to be the God-man, physical yet God, human yet divine, body yet perfect. Without His sinlessness His death would be of no value to us, because God required the sacrifices to be without blemish.
His death, burial and resurrection are all a part of the redemptive process. Christ had to physically die for our sin. It was necessary for the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin. His death was the cost of our salvation because nothing else could pay the price of our sin. He was buried then three days later He rose again. His resurrection is also necessary for us to conquer death and live eternally with Him in Heaven. Without the resurrection death would win and could not be conquered, so our lives would also be limited by our death.
Finally, He is coming again. The King will one day return to establish His throne. He will come to take all who are alive and remain to Heaven where we will spend eternity. That one glorious moment when all those who have trusted in the Person and work of Jesus will be gathered together and ushered into our eternal home.
All of these items are necessary to have a proper pizza. If you leave any of these items off, you have nothing. Next time I will share with you what makes these thoughts different from so many thoughts that other people have that call themselves Christians. Thanks for reading and I would love to hear from you.
-Pastor Doug
