South Metro Worship Ministries: April 2012

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST by Pastor Chad Stafford

In a world where many believe that Christ was just a good man but not a deity, it is more important than ever that Christians understand what they believe and Who they worship. As Lee Strobel argues in The Case for Christ, Jesus Christ was either a liar, lunatic, or Lord. Based upon the clear biblical record of both the Old and New Testaments, numerous witnesses to the resurrection, 2000 years of the gates of hell not prevailing against his church, as well as our personal knowledge of him as Savior, Redeemer, and Lord, we believe and are fully persuaded that He alone is the Son of God and thus fully divine in his essence.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The ‘Word’ here is Jesus Christ himself and God (theos) is supreme divinity, therefore, if the ‘Word was God’ (v.1), then Jesus Christ is (Theos) or supreme divinity. How could Jesus have the power to create all things in heaven and earth, including humanity, if he were not co-equal and co-existent with God (Theos) or the One who is in total essence… Supreme Divinity?

Divinity – to be of, from, or like God; God or divine being; superhuman; more than humanly excellent; holy, sanctified, saintly, heavenly.

Mt. 26:63… "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."

64 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.

66 What do you think?" "He is worthy of death," they answered.

The Pharisees could not take Jesus’s admission of being the Son of God. To them it was a blasphemous statement even though Divine Truth was literally standing before them. This is ultimately why they killed him…because He claimed to be the Son of God.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way"--

3 "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord (kurios), make straight paths for him.'"

2962. kurios, koo'-ree-os; from kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by impl. Mr. (as a respectful title):--God, Lord, master, Sir.

Notice this title is interchangeable with God and is designated for someone with supreme authority. This speaks to His divinity.

Mark 3:11 Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son (huios) of God (theos)."

5207. huios, hwee-os'; appar. a prim. word; a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immed., remote or fig. kinship:--child, foal, son.

2316. theos, theh'-os; of uncert. affin.; a deity, espec. (with G3588) the supreme Divinity; fig. a magistrate; by Heb. very:--X exceeding, God, god [-ly, -ward].

It is not possible to be the child or son of supreme Divinity – God Himself -- and not possess that same essence of Divinity and supremacy at a DNA level. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. It is a mystery but nevertheless the proclaimed truth of the Word of God. We have to believe and embrace this truth by faith in God’s Word.

Luke 1:34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Divinity – to be of, from, or like God; God or divine being; superhuman; more than humanly excellent; holy, sanctified, saintly, heavenly.

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!...

34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God."…

36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Jn. 5:18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.

21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,

23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.

27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice

29 and come out--those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

The Pharisees even recognized that Jesus’ claim as the Son of God was the same as saying that he possessed divinity, therefore making him equal with God. (v.18) People who refuse to acknowledge this simple fact of Jesus’ claim to be Divine or equal with God, not only demonstrate their ignorance of the Word of God, but their outright refusal to believe what they can clearly read for themselves in the Word of God. This goes beyond ignorance to a demonstration of unbelief, disobedience, and rebellion. At the heart of it is rebellion which is as witchcraft, the Bible says. Their evil hearts have caused them to be seduced by evil spirits therefore leading them to further deception and the embrace of blasphemous doctrines of demons.

Satan would like to, if possible, rewrite Christian history by compromising, defaming, and destroying the essence of who Jesus is as the Son of the Living God who was sent to die for our sins that we may have eternal life. If he were successful to that end, then a great lie would be propagated upon the masses and many would be damned to an eternity without God and Christ. If Satan could destroy the divinity of Christ and Jesus’ reputation as the true Messiah, Redeemer of mankind, Creator of all things, and Son of the Living God, then he could destroy the people’s hope in him as the one and only true Savior of mankind. If he could destroy mankind’s hope in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, then Satan and his legions would have free reign to propagate their lies and deceptions upon the earth thus destroying God’s plan for mankind while taking great throngs to hell with him forever. Satan would consider this a great victory in his battle against God. However, we know that many are being saved in these last days and the gates of hell will not prevail against His church!

Satan hates mankind because God loves mankind who has been created in his own image. Mankind is a constant reminder of his own lofty fall from glory. Satan wants to destroy mankind because God wants to save mankind. Satan is using these tactics to wage his global war of rebellion against God himself. Humanity means nothing to him – we are only collateral damage along the way and the spoils of the great spiritual war that he is waging against God the Father and His Son, the creator of all things including mankind.

John 8:58

⁵⁷ Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, ^xbefore Abraham was, ^yI AM.”

⁵⁹ Then ^zthey took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, ^agoing ⁷through the midst of them, and so passed by.

It is clear in this passage that Jesus is claiming to be from eternity and was indeed God, thus making him more important than the most revered Hebrew of all, Abraham, the father of the Israelites.

Jn. 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

Jn. 19:7 The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."

One more proof that Jesus’ claim to divinity is what led to his murder by the God-haters.

Jn. 20:30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

29 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Jesus had superhuman powers that enabled him to perform miraculous signs and wonders while on the earth. He received his power from God himself because He was the Son of God and had divine authority to do supernatural exploits so that He may be glorified and draw all men to Him.

Rom 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God--

2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David,

4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

The further proof of Jesus’ divinity is that he was resurrected from the dead by the Spirit of God just as he said he would. Paul refers to him as ‘our Lord’.

Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Paul proclaims the key to salvation from sin and death is confession that “Jesus is Lord” and believing that God (theos) raised him from the dead.

1 Cor. 15: 17 (entire chapter) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Paul admits here that if Christ was not raised from the dead then Christianity is a sham, we are still in our sins, and there is no hope for true salvation. The resurrection is important because it is proof of His divinity and his equality with God. If he were not God then he would just be a man as we are and therefore could not die for our sins, thus cleansing us and giving us eternal life. He could only give eternal life because he was eternal life incarnate. He came to this world from eternity as Son of God and went back to the Father in eternity as Son of God/Son of Man. He left this earth and was seated on a throne beside the Father where he is today and will judge the peoples of the earth with righteousness in the future. Yes, Jesus is God and He reigns!

2 Cor. 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Gal. 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--

7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.

12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Paul makes it clear that to preach any other gospel other than what we see in the Word of God and what Paul preached is to write essentially your own eternal death sentence. He said, “let them be eternally condemned”! Strong words. People everywhere are tampering with the word of God trying to make it say what their evil hearts want it to say. Even preachers are compromising the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to please people and draw great crowds. The tragedy is that they don’t realize that to tamper with the Word of the Living God is to potentially damn their own souls. Salvation comes by believing the Word of God. If the Word of God is altered or distorted from its original meaning how can one know or believe the Truth? How can one know the Truth, much less experience the promised freedom from knowing the Truth, if one believes a counterfeit gospel not recorded or preached in the Word of God? We must study to show ourselves approved in these last days lest even the very elect be deceived. God meant what he said and said what he meant and he will not tolerate those who try to distort the true meaning and essence of salvation because the to humanity's redemption and eternal destiny is at stake. Let us be faithful to preach and believe the Word and gospel according to Jesus Christ.

x Mic. 5:2; John 17:5; Heb. 7:3; Rev. 22:13

y Ex. 3:14; Is. 43:13; John 17:5, 24; Col. 1:17; Rev. 1:8

z John 10:31; 11:8

a Luke 4:30; John 10:39

7 NU omits the rest of v. 59.

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