{"id":120,"date":"2019-11-23T19:03:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T19:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/?page_id=120"},"modified":"2020-12-04T00:30:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T23:30:20","slug":"reserve","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/?page_id=120","title":{"rendered":"The testimony of John"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-accent-color\">Historically and from a&nbsp;confessional standpoint we can consider the Gospel of John  ( not the younger but John the late follower of Christ that is ) as conveying some of the true essentials of the    universal Message of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-accent-color\">It is of fundamental importance that Jesus Christ did use the term &#8220;God&#8221; with reference to the higher power with a direct identification to the <strong>Father<\/strong> in Heaven. In this Gospel Jesus is most frequently cited in speaking of the <strong>Father<\/strong>, i.e. well over a hundred times. So this issue is of great significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-accent-color\">It is furthermore of profound ethical importance that Jesus Christ never used the expression &#8220;guilt&#8221; in reference towards man&#8217;s responsibility. Jesus Christ never used or applied it in terms of His attitude towards and evaluation of our faith and the deeds of man. Not even so towards those who betrayed Him like Judas and Peter. He did not initiate the guilt-complex of man. The guilt-complex and the guilt system were introduced by man himself, by his institutions, religious as well as political. And we are all witness of the tragic results of it everyday. Being worthy as a full-grown entity, man is fully responsible for all his\/her  thoughts and actions, but Christ and His Heavenly Father never applied the guilt-system over mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-accent-color\">The only relation and attitude He taught&nbsp;to man with reference to God was that to a <strong>Heavenly Father<\/strong>. A Heavenly Father from Whom we distantly originate, and Who cares for us and loves us. This has been brought very near to us in His Son, the <strong>True<\/strong> <strong>Loving Christ<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"978\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Cross-and-Babe-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Cross-and-Babe-1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Cross-and-Babe-1-245x300.jpg 245w, https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Cross-and-Babe-1-768x939.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"color:#a30000\" class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center\">He came as the Babe from Bethlehem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center has-accent-color\">And as the Son of Man, He walked His way from the <strong>Cradle,  <\/strong>over many lands and seas, towards<strong> the Cross.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-accent-color\">He taught us the unconditional <strong>Love <\/strong>and he fulfilled in the final stages of His earthly life His Mission to forgive everyone and all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center has-accent-color\">And so He Accomplished His <strong>Forgiveness Work<\/strong> on the Cross for all mankind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"440\" height=\"525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/JCH-Ortho-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/JCH-Ortho-1.jpg 440w, https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/JCH-Ortho-1-251x300.jpg 251w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-large-font-size has-accent-color\">And it is in the <strong>19th chapter<\/strong> of this <strong>Gospel<\/strong> that John witnessed the <strong>Victory <\/strong>of Christ on the Cross:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center has-larger-font-size has-accent-color\"><strong>&#8220;It is Finished!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center has-accent-color\"><strong><em>&#8211; John 19:30 &#8211;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center has-accent-color\"><strong>That was Christ&#8217;s&nbsp;victory and it will  forever be.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Historically and from a&nbsp;confessional standpoint we can consider the Gospel of John ( not the younger but John the late follower of Christ that is ) as conveying some of the true essentials of the universal Message of Christ. It is of fundamental importance that Jesus Christ did use the term &#8220;God&#8221; with reference to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cross-of-christ.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}