Post 20 - Jesus is God

Recap: In the past several posts, we have been constructing a firm foundation for sound Christian doctrine. We began with a brief exploration of the holiness of God (Post 18). Last week, we looked at the value of God's glory as the visible expression of his holiness (Post 19). We saw where everything created was created to glorify God, including us. With regard to his glory, God gets the maximum "bang for his buck" from people who are supremely satisfied in him. That's why, when it comes to his relationship with people, God chooses goodness, grace and mercy (in lieu of power, wrath, and destruction) as his favored glory-revealing instruments.

Jesus is God

A couple of thousand years ago, a simple fisherman named John sat down to write a story... and the Spirit moved... and what came out of the end of his pen were these words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1 ESV).

I believe that God, inspiring John to write those words, wanted us to be stunned. He wanted us to be blown away with a revelation that has caused more chaos, friction and strife... and more peace... than anything ever written. Right off the bat, the Holy Spirit, through the pen of John, wanted everyone to know that the Word was Jesus, and Jesus is God.

In the last couple of posts we saw where God has gone to great lengths to reveal his holiness to us with various expressions of his glory. He has given us all of creation - a daily display of his holiness. And if that is not enough, he has given us the Bible to reveal his love for humanity and his plan for the world. And if his revealed nature in Scripture is not enough,

in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:2-3 ESV).

Jesus is the expression of holiness in human form, the radiance of God's glory. He embodies all of God's attributes, the exact imprint of his nature - righteous and just - full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Jesus is God.

The Holiness of Jesus

After a hard teaching in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, all of Jesus' followers leave him except the apostles. Jesus turns to the Twelve, his chosen disciples, and asks them if they are going to leave him also, to which Peter replies,

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69 ESV).

It is my belief that the apostles were divinely enabled to recognize the incarnate Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, and they were witnesses to his holiness. Yet, they were not the only ones to recognize and respect the holiness of Jesus. The demons also knew that Jesus was like no other man. He was holy.

"Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God." (Luke 4:34 ESV)

The Deity of Jesus

It is not the existence of the historical Jesus that is so controversial, but it’s his holiness and the claim of his deity that is the great scandal of the Christian faith. Many (Jews, New Agers, etc.) believe that Jesus was a good teacher, but not God. Some (Jehovah Witnesses, for example) believe that Jesus was an angel, a created being, “a god” – but not God. Others (Muslims) believe that Jesus was a prophet, but certainly not God. Yet Jesus made a number of claims that seemed to be intentionally and prophetically directed at to those who would deny his deity. Here are three such claims:

• “I am the First and Last” (Rev 22:13)

Both the Jew and the Muslim would confirm that this is a claim that only God/Allah, himself could ever make because we find it in the Jewish scriptures - "This says the LORD... I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6), and in the Quran - "He (Allah) is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate, and He is, of all things, Knowing" (Surah 57:3).

God alone is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Jesus is God.

• "Your sins are forgiven" (Mark 2:5)

In the 2nd chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells a paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven. The Jewish leaders are incensed - "Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Mark 2:7 ESV). The Muslim could not dispute that this claim to forgive sins is a claim to deity: "... and who can forgive sins except Allah?" (Surah 3:135).

Only God can forgive sins. Jesus is God.

• "... the Son gives life... " (John 5:21)

For both the Jew and the Muslim, the power of resurrection is a claim unique to God. We see it in the Jewish scriptures: "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up (1Samuel 2:6), and in the Quran: "And [that they may know] that the Hour is coming . . . Allah will resurrect those in the graves" (Surah 22:7).

Only God can give life. Jesus is God.

And if those three claims were not sufficient, the coup de grace when it comes to the deity of Jesus is his statement in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John.

For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him (John 5:22-23 ESV).

Of course, we honor God with our worship. Jesus says that the Son is to be honored in the same way. We are to worship the Son. Then, Jesus says something really shocking, Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. Whoever does not worship Jesus isn’t really worshipping God!

Final Thought

In the end, we need only to look to Jesus - "the radiance of the glory of God; the exact imprint of his nature" - to see and to savor God. As Brennan Manning said in his book, Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God - "... all of our prevailing images and understandings of God must crumble in the earthquake of Jesus's self-disclosure... If we do not allow Jesus to change our image of God... then we cannot profess him as [Lord]."

Jesus is God.

Next Post: Man is the pinnacle of God's creation. In the next post we'll begin to examine our nature in the eyes of our Creator. Here's a link to the next post:

https://www.bibleinsights.net/post/post-21-the-human-enigma