The Deity of Christ
The writers of the New Testament make it clear that Jesus deserves the Divine title of God. This fact takes on added significance when one remembers that with the exception of Luke, all those writers were Jews, strongly monotheistic and not predisposed to using the Divine titles carelessly. One must understand, therefore, that their testimony to Jesus' deity sprang from the deepest, Holy Spirit-inspired conviction.
How do the following passages make the case for Jesus' deity?
Matthew 3:3 harks back to Isaiah 40:3, where Isaiah uses the word "Yahweh," the most sacred name for God in the Old Testament. The construction of the John 1:1 passage in the original language leaves no doubt about what John was saying. Some sixty-five years after His death, Jesus is being expressly called God by one who had been in close association with Him. In regard to John 1:18, the Greek expression used in the passage calls Jesus, in effect, "the unique God."
Then how about John 20:28? Was this simply an exclamation, an expression of surprise on Thomas' part, the same way people today would use the name of God to express astonishment or shock? To come to that conclusion would be to read a modern practice back into the New Testament. In the first place, the Jews, careful as they were to stay clear of blasphemy, did not have the expression in their vocabulary. Furthermore, the very construction of the passage militates against such an interpretation. The passage says: "Thomas said to him" (NIV). Thomas, in other words, was addressing Jesus; it was an expression of faith, not an exclamation of surprise. And the fact that Jesus did not rebuke him shows that He was satisfied with Thomas' confession.
| Jesus as God, is the same Jesus who offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. How much more should the Cross mean to us, knowing that it was God—God!—hanging there for our sins. |
| THURSDAY | April 10 |
And There's More
The New Testament is full of evidence for Jesus' deity, but space prohibits more detailed elaboration here. We might have dealt, for example, such attributes as eternity and creatorship applied to Jesus; His claim to forgive sins; His claim to be the final judge of the last day. In addition, we find the name of Jesus associated with that of the Father on a footing of equality, as in the baptismal formula (Matt. 28:19). Also, in John 14:9, Jesus uses words that would constitute obvious blasphemy on the lips of any other human being: "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (NIV).
Take a look at the following passages. What do they teach about Christ's divinity?
The above passages put Christ on an equal footing with the One whom we have come to call "God the Father." And this all measures up with Jesus' own declarations when He walked the dusty streets of Palestine. In John 10:30, for example, He declared: "I and the Father are one" (NIV). The neuter form of the Greek used here for "one" implies a union as close as our minds can conceive. Jesus and the Father are of one substance, one nature, yet not one and the same Person (in which case He would have used the masculine gender). If you have trouble plumbing the depths of all this, you have lots of company. The deeper you probe the subject, the more keenly you understand the depths of your ignorance.
But imagine a situation in which the being we have come to know as God the Father came to die for us, and the one we have come to know as Jesus stayed back in heaven (we are speaking in human terms to make a point). Nothing would have changed, except that we would have been calling each by the name we now use for the other. That is what equality in the Deity means.
Review the life of Jesus, keeping in mind the points we have touched on this week. What does all this tell us about the character of God? Why should we, knowing what we know about God, be so full of hope and joy and trust, even in difficult difficult circumstances?
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