JESUS: WITNESS OF THEOLOGY

THEOLOGICAL WITNESS TO THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST

1.         Jesus Christ is the “I AM” (Jn. 11:25).

2.         Jesus Christ is called God (Jn. 1:1, 20:28; Acts 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Tit. 2:13; Heb. 1:8; 1 Jn. 5:20-21).

3.         Jesus Christ is the object of worship (Lk. 24:52; Jn. 5:23-29, 9:38).

4.         Jesus Christ is Creator (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16-17).

5.         Jesus Christ is the express image of God (Jn. 14:8-9; Heb. 1:3).

6.         Jesus Christ forgives sins (Mk. 2:5-10; Jn. 8:11).

7.         Jesus Christ is eternal (Jn. 1:1).

8.         Jesus Christ is omniscient (Jn. 1:48), omnipresent (Mt. 28:20), and omnipotent (Jn. 10:18).

9.         Jesus Christ is judge (Jn. 5:22).

10.       Jesus Christ is equal to God in works (Jn. 5:17-19), knowledge (Jn. 10:15), and nature (Jn. 10:30).

      Jesus pre-existed (Jn. 17:5-24; 1 Pet. 1:20) as the eternal Son of God (Jn. 1:1; Heb. 13:8; Rev. 1:8) before creation (Prov. 8:22-30), before the Old Testament (Jn. 8:56-58; Dan. 3:25 ), and before His birth in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). Jesus came as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). David Smith wrote, “The life of our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ differs in one momentous respect from every other which has ever been lived on earth. It did not begin when He was born.” The person and nature of Jesus never changed in His birth–only His form or image changed (Phil. 2:5-8). Though being originally in the “form of God,” Jesus did not retain His divine place of existence. Jesus temporarily emptied Himself not of His divine nature but of His environment of glory (2 Cor. 8:9). Jesus took the “form of a servant” (carpenter ) and appeared outwardly in the “likeness of man” (Rom. 8:3; Is. 53:2). The deity of Christ required the virgin birth of Jesus (Mt. 1:18-25; Lk. 1:27-35; Gen. 3:15; Gal. 4:4). Jesus did not inherit the sin nature of Adam (Rom. 5:12-18). Jesus’ birth occurred apart from human work but through the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came as fully man (Jn. 1:14; Heb. 2:14-18; 1 Jn. 1:1) and fully God (two natures in one person).

Nicene Creed. “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. . . .”

Westminster Confession. “The Son of God. . . of one substance and equal with the Father. . . . So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.”

      C. S. Lewis wrote, “I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.”