Page 111 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

communicate himself to the world. Fant, when he expresses his theology of preaching, mentions

“Jesus, who was the Christ, most perfectly said God to us because the eternal Word took on

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human flesh in a contemporary situation.”
Jesus’ authority is incarnational in terms of his life and personality. Jesus incarnated his message

through his life. He lived what he preached. He was the illustration of his own preaching. One

of the predominant teachings of Jesus, for instance, is to love:

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and
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the prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40).

Jesus loved the Father to the extent that he demonstrated obedience on the Cross. He loved all

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people and became an asylum for sinners, publicans, outcasts, and the sick. Finally, as the
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ultimate display of his love, he gave his life as a ransom for them. People felt his love and
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followed him; one even washed his feet with tears.

On the night of the Last Supper, he incarnated his teaching on servanthood by washing the feet

of the disciples. Jesus said, “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who

serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

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Clyde D. Fant, Preaching for Today (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1987), 70.
21 Luke 10:27 and Mark 12:30

22 Jesus declared, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are
sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not
the righteous but sinners.”(Matt. 9: 12-13)

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Jesus said to his disciples, “just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:26-28)

24 Luke. 7:36-50.