Deity
SABBATH AFTERNOON Read for This Week's Study:
Isa. 9:6; Mic. 5:2; Matt. 16:13-17; John 1:1, 14, 18; 8:58; 17:5; 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 13:14.Memory Text:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:1-3, NIV).Leaving the historical overview, we come to the Scriptures themselves. We want to see what they tell us about Jesus, whose life has commanded so much attention through the centuries. As we do so, we ought to keep in mind the crucial exchange between Jesus and His disciples at Caesarea Philippi. Upon hearing Peter's confession of Him as the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus reminded him that this insight did not spring from human investigation, but was disclosed "by my Father in heaven" (Matt. 16:17, NIV). (See Matt. 16:13-17, also Matt. 11:25-27). "Flesh and blood" (Matt. 16:17, KJV), our own unaided, human wisdom, is inadequate in the presence of the supreme mystery of the ages.
To believe in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God is to affirm, indirectly, that He did not have His origin in Mary's womb. It is to affirm His essential differentness from the rest of humanity, however much He may be like us in other ways. In short, it is to believe that He existed before His time on earth; that, quite simply, He preexisted. He was "the image of the invisible God," by Whom "all things were created" (Col. 1:15, 16, NIV). "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (vs.17, NIV).
*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 12.
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