Jesus Means Freedom

Here is a book that "tells it like it is" regarding what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in today's world. It is a book that rigorously affirms the freedom of the Christian person, and just as rigorously refutes those who would restrict or negate this freedom in the name of Christian orthodoxy. The author, whose insights were shaped by the agonies of serving as a pastor during the Hitler years in Germany as well as by the discipline of years of careful research in the area of Christian origins, provides here a survey that gets to the heart of the New Testament message. He is ruthlessly honest with himself, with the New Testament, and with the church, as he strives passionately to show that Jesus means freedom - and that this has been so from the beginning. Despite its roots in the experience of the German church in the decades following World War II, Ksemann's work has a broad and enduring relevance. The crisis with which he is concerned is not uniquely that of the German church but affects Christianity throughout the world. It is his conviction that only if the church proclaims boldly the call to freedom that was the Lord's call, and lives in that freedom, can the church remain true to its Lord and of service to humanity.

In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off]. Is who you are today based on what you do, or is it defined by who you are? A distorted identity and life of bondage are not a coincidence. A poor understanding of our identity is the primary cause of bondage amongst Christians today. For your identity directly determines your every decision and how you choose to live your life. A person who is liberated has the right or power to do as one pleases, or freedom without restraint or bondage. Galatians 5:1 declares this reality It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. However, too many sincere believers today are living in some type of bondage when they already have the power to be set free. Therefore understanding who we are and unlocking the power within us as children of God is the key to liberated life. A desire to be all that God created us to be should be our highest pursuit in life. When we understand who we are and our purpose in Christ, we will be able to take hold of all the amazing plans He has in store for us. In this book you will understand the reality of your true identity as a Christian, the purpose of being broken and restored, as well as the importance our thoughts captive. You will discover practical steps to walking in freedom and the significance of becoming all you were created to be. Founded in biblical principles and inspiring stories, this book will help you realize your true identity that can empower you to having long lasting freedom in every area of your life. What other people daily struggle with does not have to be your story too. That there is absolutely nothing which is too powerful or difficult for God to set you free today. No matter your past mistakes or current circumstances, join me as we realize the divine freedom that is ours in Christ.

Edited by Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall, this reference work encompasses everything relating to Jesus and the Gospels.

The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels is unique among reference books on the Bible, the first volume of its kind since James Hastings published his Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels in 1909. In the more than eight decades since Hastings, our understanding of Jesus, the Evangelists and their world has grown remarkably. New interpretive methods illumined the text, the ever-changing profile of modern culture has put new questions to the Gospels, and our understanding of the Judaism of Jesus's day has advanced in ways that could not have been predicted in Hastings's day. But for many readers of the Gospels the new outlook on the Gospels remains hidden within technical journals and academic monographs. The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels bridges the gap between scholars and those pastors, teachers, students and lay people desiring in-depth treatment of select topics in an accessible and summary format. The topics range from cross-sectional themes (such as faith, law, Sabbath) to methods of interpretation (such as form criticism, redaction criticism, sociological approaches), from key events (such as the birth, temptation and death of Jesus) to each of the four Gospels as a whole. Some articles - such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic traditions and revolutionary movements at the time of Jesus - provide significant background information to the Gospels. Others reflect recent and less familiar issues in Jesus and Gospel studies, such as divine man, ancient rhetoric and the chreiai. Contemporary concerns of general interest are discusses in articles covering such topics as healing, the demonic and the historical reliability of the Gospels. And for those entrusted with communicating the message of the Gospels, there is an extensive article on preaching from the Gospels. The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels presents the fruit of evangelical New Testament scholarship at the end of the twentieth century - committed to the authority of Scripture, utilising the best of critical methods, and maintaining dialog with contemporary scholarship and challenges facing the church.

Was Jesus Christ a fallen human being, like us? Was His human nature corrupt and sinful, inherently and necessarily subject to suffering and death? Did He inherit a fallen humanity? If His humanity was fallen how was He sinless? Did He have human ignorance? In what way was His human will involved in the plan of salvation? What effect did the hypostatic union have on His humanity? In Jesus: Fallen?, Emmanuel Hatzidakis, a Greek Orthodox priest, addresses these and other controversial questions pertaining to the human nature of Christ, which are debated in many Christian denominations, and in his own Church. The theology advanced in the book is the traditional theology of the historic Church. In all the modern confusio of multiple Christs, here we have the perennial image of the incarnate God, the Theanthropos Christ. The book should appeal to every serious Christian and student of theology, history of dogma and Church History who is comfortable neither with liberalism nor fundamentalism, but who is searching for the authentically true teachings of Christianity. Hatzidakis draws richly from the patristic inheritance of East and West in an original, refreshing, and accessible way. He refutes opinions formed by many eminent postlapsarian theologians. This pivotal study is the first to address this topic from an Eastern Orthodox perspective and in this regard it constitutes an important contribution to Christology. A well-researched study it sheds light from an Eastern Orthodox perspective on this intriguing and crucial topic. It maintains that the subject of Christ’s humanity and its understanding is neither a theologoumenon nor an abstract intellectual cogitation, but a matter of profound soteriological and anthropological import.