A friend of mine, call him Clint, follows Christian Science but struggles with it. He also struggles with biblical Christianity, though—and Jesus in particular. It’s as if he needs to convince himself, and in so doing convince me, that Jesus is not God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity.

The other day he sent me a page from some book about Sir Isaac Newton’s contention that Jesus wasn’t divine. Then a few days later, a notice of his local Episcopal church sponsoring a program on the notorious Prof. Bart Ehrman, Episcopalian turned atheist, who asserts the same thing.

Why any supposedly Christian church would put on such an event is a question for another day. Anyway, I replied mildly to both emails, asking Clint, “Who is Jesus to you, if not the Son of God?” But instead of answering, he turned the question around and asked who Jesus is to me. I was only too glad to respond, dashing off a list that included, in no particular order, the following:

My Savior.

My Lord.

My elder brother.

My best friend.

My King.

The author of my salvation from sin.

The captain of my soul.

My substitute on the cross.

Immanuel, God with us.

Fully divine, fully human.

My intercessor seated at God’s right hand.

The Lamb of God.

The Lion of Judah.

Son of God.

Son of man.

My shepherd.

My judge at the last day.

My forerunner to enter heaven.

The Word made flesh.

The Bridegroom.

The suffering servant.

The way, the truth, the life.

The light of the world.

The bread of life.

The Great Physician.

The Virgin’s son.

The new Adam.

The crucified, risen, and ascended One.

The promised Messiah.

The worldly mind has searched desperately for an alternative identity enabling them to put Jesus of Nazareth in a box and get the better of him, ever since the Lord walked the roads of Galilee. We see his neighbors doing it in Matthew 13:55, his enemies doing it in Matthew 12:24, his own disciples doing it in Matthew 16:13.

On the latter occasion, however, it was the impulsive, intrepid Peter who got the identity question right: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Christian Scientists like my cheerfully argumentative friend Clint are for some reason (probably spiritual pride) unable to accept that declaration at face value. They defer to their leader, Mrs. Eddy, who once again, as so often, purports to explain a point of theology only to explain it away—in this case, with a page of metaphysical gibberish on SH 137.

I can clearly and sympathetically understand Clint’s point of view on this matter, because it was my own point of view for over ten years as I struggled to dethrone Mrs. Eddy in my heart and enthrone Jesus there instead. I am grateful beyond words to have finally—with His help and by His grace—prevailed in that struggle and entered the Kingdom. And I’ll keep up my dialogue with the goodhearted Clint, of course–praying he finds his way from Boston to Calvary in God’s good time.