About Jesus    Steve Sweetman

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Jesus is Lord

The name "Lord" was given to Christ in the New
Testament. Lord is a very strong suggestion of Deity.
Once again, here are some more passages to read.

John 20:28
"Thomas said unto Him, My Lord and my God."

Luke 2:11
"Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to
you, He is Christ, the Lord."

Acts 16:31
"They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall
be saved..."

Phil. 2:11
"...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."
I especially like the verse in Luke 2:11 because it is
not a man that is attributing the title of Lord to Jesus.
It is an angel. What man says could be wrong, yet isn't in
this case. It would seem to me that an angel would be
accurate in his estimation of Jesus. Besides, the angel
was sent from God Himself.

I have always liked Phil. 2:11. Everyone will confess
Jesus as Lord someday. Some will fall on their knees in
humility and thanksgiving because they have met face to
face their Lord. These folk will be greatly humbled and
full of thanksgiving, knowing that Jesus has saved their
souls. Others who have rejected Jesus along the way will
fall on their knees in disgrace, wishing fervently that
they would have seen Him as Lord at some prior date. Yet
for them it will be too late. Whatever the case Jesus is
Lord. Jesus is Deity. All of the created universe will
recognize this fact some day.

Jesus is Son of God

The next title of Deity that we will look at is "Son
of God". It is interesting to note that Jesus never calls
Himself the Son of God, except in one scripture. John
10:36 reads, "Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy,
because I said, I am God's Son". All other passages
stating Jesus being the Son of God were applied to Him by
others. Jesus never refuted these claims of Sonship. I
wonder if there is a point to be made here. Jesus referred
to Himself as the Son of Man many times, yet only
once is it recorded that He called Himself the Son of God.
To me this is what Phil. 2 and the humility of Christ is
all about, that is to say, Jesus being God did not refer to
Himself as Son of God, but Son of man. Let us look at some
Sonship  Scriptures.

John 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."

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and
only Son..."

John 5:22-23
"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them
life, even so the Son gives life to whom He pleases to
give it. Moreover the Father judges no one but has
entrusted all judgement to the Son."

Jesus Is God

We have just seen some scriptures noting that Jesus is
the Son of God. Now let us look at the seven places in
the New Testament where He is actually called "God". To
me and my understanding these are convincing verses.
These are major bricks in the building of the Trinity
doctrine, and especially the doctrine of the Deity of
Christ.

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

Before carrying on to the other verses we need to stop
and comment on the grammar of this verse. In the original
Greek there is no article (the) before "God", as there is
before "Word". Also the order of words found in the
original read as, "and God was the Word". Thus the
subject of the phrase is the word God. The point is thus
made that it is not a matter of who God is, but who
the Word is, and it is clearly evident that "God is the
Word". It is also evident that because of the context
that Jesus is the Word, thus you can say, God is Jesus
(the Word).

John 1:8
"No man has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who
is at the Father's side. He has made Him known."

Once again we need to look at some textual information
on this verse. The NIV says the phrase "God the only
Son". He is the only one that has seen God. Yet the word
"Son" is not found in the original text. The word
"theos", or "God" is the word used. So to be exact the
verse reads, "No one has ever seen God, but God the only
begotten". If you look at your Interlinear Bible this
will become very clear to you. Thus the point to be made
here is that only God has seen God. Yet in the context of
what is being said, and therefore the reason why the NIV
reads as it does, we see that Jesus is the God who has
seen God. It is also quite interesting to note the
Interlinear translation of "the Father's side". It reads,
"the Father's bosom". To me this suggest the Son (God
Himself) being within God instead of beside Him. The
point then is made that the two are one, not two that are
side by side. I admit that this is conjecture. Whether beside
or in, we do see Jesus as God in this verse.

John 20:28
"Thomas said to Him, My Lord and my God."

One could argue, and it has been argued, that just
because Thomas makes this exclamation, it doesn't make it
true. I suggest that Jesus' immediate response tells
a different story. He says, "because you have seen me,
you have believed". Jesus did not refute Thomas's claim.
He actually affirmed it by telling Thomas that He finally
believed. What did Thomas believe? Thomas believed in
the resurrected Jesus who was Lord and "God".
Thus another passage showing the Deity of Christ.

Titus 2:13
"...while we wait for our blessed hope, the glorious
appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

Heb. 1:8
"But about the Son He says, Your throne, O God, will
last forever..."

2 Peter 1:1
"...To those who through the righteousness of our God
and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious
as ours."

1 Tim. 3:16
"Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is
great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the
Spirit, was seen by angels, was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory."

These last four verses are pretty clear. Jesus is
referred to as God. 1 Timothy 3:16 in the NIV does not
specifically say that Jesus is God. It says, "He appeared
in a body". Some manuscripts say, "God appeared in a
body". No matter, it is clear from the context that the
"He" refers to God. Therefore the appearing of God in a
body means Jesus, for Jesus was God in a body. Thus Jesus
and God are of the same essence.

I and my Father are One

The next thought follows on from the above, yet may be
a little anti-climactic. The idea of Jesus and His Father
being one can be seen in the following scriptures.

John 10:31
" I and the Father are one."

John 17:11
"I will remain in the world no longer, but they are
still in the world, and I am coming to you, Holy Father,
protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave
me - so that they may be one as we are one."
It is noted by scholars that the Greek word for "one"
in John 10:30 is neuter, and not masculine. Trinitarians
thus say this oneness is a oneness of substance and not
merely of personality, and especially not of purpose.

Jesus Is Worshiped As God

Ex. 34:14 says, "Do not worship any other god, for the
Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." This Old
Testament passage states that there should be only one
person in this universe that men should worship. That one
person is the Lord God Himself. Jesus also repeats this
truth in Matt. 4:10 where it reads, "Jesus said to him,
away from me Satan. For it is written; worship the Lord
your God and serve Him only". We see by these two
scriptures who really is the one who should be worshipped.

With this thought in mind people in the New Testament
did give such worship to Jesus, which He did not refuse.
Matt. 14:33 is one of many examples. It reads, "Then
those who were in the boat worshipped Him, saying, truly
you are the Son of God". Jesus did accept such worship,
with the understanding that only God should be worshipped.

You can take this point one step farther by saying that
Jesus asked for such worship, as can be seen in John 5:23.
This verse reads, "that all may honour the Son just as they
honour the Father". Another very convincing passage along
these lines is found in Heb. 1:6 which also says, "...when God
brings His firstborn into the world He says, let all God's angels
worship Him". Thus Jesus received divine worship and the Bible
tells us to worship Him as we worship God Himself. You can thus
draw the conclusion that Jesus is God.

Recapping Deity

This has been a lengthy discussion concerning the
Deity of Christ. Let me sum it up briefly for you. We
have noted that Jesus was Creator and Sustainer of all
things. He did works that only God could do. He had
various names ascribed to Him showing that He was God.
The Son of God is one such title. The name Immanuel is
another title meaning "God with us". To me this is quite
convincing. We see Jesus accepting worship that only
God could receive. Then finally there are certain scriptures
that clearly state that Jesus is in fact God.

Accepting the truth of the Deity of Christ is vital to
the doctrine of the Trinity. Without this truth there is
no Trinity. Without this truth Salvation makes no sense.
It is a basic foundation stone in our Christian belief
system, yet I feel the church as a whole has left this
truth to the theologians and Bible scholars, thinking it
beyond them to figure out. This should not be. All
Christians should take great interest in knowing who Jesus
is, and the first thing to know about Jesus is, "He
is God".

The Holy Spirit is God

The next step in proof of the Trinity is to show the
Deity of the Holy Spirit. Just as we saw that Jesus is
God, so also we can see that the Holy Spirit is God.
Before we look at the Spirit's Deity let us make sure
that we understand that He is a personality. There are a
number of ways to see this but let's look at a couple of
the more conclusive ones.

The Holy Spirit is referred to using the personal
pronoun "He". This means that the Spirit is not an "it"
but a "He", a person.

John 14:16-17
"I will ask the Father and He will give you another
Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever.
The world cannot accept this Counselor, because it neither
sees Him nor knows Him, for He lives with you and will be
in you."

One verse should suffice concerning the personal
pronoun. It appears throughout scripture and is quite
obvious.

Another point of personality is that there are three
personality traits that can be seen in the Holy Spirit.
These are: the possession of an intellect, sensibilities,
and will. His intellectual ability can be seen in the
following passage.

1 Cor. 2:11
"For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except
the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows
the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God."
The next verse shows that the Spirit feels, or has
sensibilities.

Rom. 8:26-27
"...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself
intercedes with groans that words cannot express. And he
who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit.
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance
with God's will."

The last point of possession of personality is the
"will". The Spirit has a will.

1 Cor. 12:11
"All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
and He gives them to each man. just as He determines."

Thus we see that the Holy Spirit thinks, feels and
makes choices. These are attributes of a real person.
Now more could be said on this point but for our study
this should be enough to note that the Spirit is a "He"
and not an "it".

The same characteristics of Deity attributed to Jesus
are also found in the Holy Spirit. The first is His
eternal nature as seen by the following.

Heb. 9:14
"How much more then, will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to
God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,
so that we may serve the living God."
The Holy Spirit is also omniscient.

1 Cor. 2:9-11
"...no mind has conceived what God has prepared for
them that love Him, but God has revealed it to us by His
Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep
things of God."

The Holy Spirit is also omnipotent.

Luke 1:35
"The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you..."

The Spirit is omnipresent.

Psa. 139:7-10
"Where can I go from your Spirit. Where can I flee
from your presence. If I go up to the heavens you are
there. If I make my bed in the depth you are there...
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will
hold me fast."

Like Jesus, divine works are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit as well. For example, creation, regeneration, and
inspiration of scripture. You can see this in the
following three verses.

Gen. 1:2
"Now the earth was formless and empty...and the Spirit
of God was hovering over the waters."

John 3:5
"Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, unless a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of heaven."

2 Peter 1:21
"For prophecy never had its origin with the will of
man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by
the Holy Spirit."

The Spirit's relationship with the Father and the Son,
and His association with them prove His divinity. This
can be seen in Matt. 28:19 where it says, "go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit..." If the
Father and Son have a divine relationship, so too the
Father and the Spirit.

The best proof of the Deity of the Spirit lies in
scripture where it says that He is God. Look carefully at
the following verses.

Acts 5:3-4
"Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so
filled your heart that you have lied against the Holy
Spirit...You have not lied to men, but to God"

2 Cor. 3:17-18
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of
the Lord is there is freedom... which comes from the Lord,
who is the Spirit."

These two above verses are central to proving that the
Spirit is God, just as Jesus is God. Thus our discussion
concerning the Deity of the Spirit ends. There is less
controversy over this point. There have been some
discrepancies in doctrine over the centuries, but nothing
compared to the difficulties arising concerning the Deity
of Christ.

In Conclusion

It is obvious to everyone that the Father is God. It
is also obvious that the Holy Spirit is God. According to
our above study it should be quite clear that Jesus is God.
I do acknowledge the fact that there have been many disputes
throughout the centuries concerning the Deity of Christ,
but it is my strong opinion, and it is clearly the orthodox view,
that Jesus is God.

Thus the simple point can be made, since all three are
God, and we believe that there is but one God, then all
three are one in the same. That which makes up God the
Father is the same as that which makes the Son and Spirit.
They are of the same essence and the same substance.
What I have done in this article is expanded the general
outline given by Henry Thiessen in his book entitled,
"Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology". I have
considered all the scriptures he has provided and have
come up with the above information and conclusions.
Once again I would like to quote from his definition of the
Trinity (page 135 from the above named book). He says,
"by the Trinity we mean that there are three eternal
distinctions in the one divine essence, known respectively
as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three distinctions are
three persons, and so we may speak of the tripersonality of God.

The Athanasian Creed expresses the Trinitarian belief thus;
we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither
confounding the persons, nor separating the substance."
That may sound like a real mouthful. You may need to reread
this statement until you understand it. I couldn't say it any
better and that is why I write the quote.

There are some observations that I come up with after
doing this study. One is the importance of the Deity of
Christ. As I have said already, this is essential to our
Salvation. It is a truth that we need to understand and
be able to relate to others. The problem is that in
today's modern church it is not properly understood by the
masses. It has been left up to a certain few thinking
theologians to try and figure out. Part of the reason for this
is due to the fact that we are more experientially motivated.
We place a great emphasis on experience and little on
understanding, and good use of our intellect.

Another observation I make is the importance of
knowing who Jesus is, not merely who He was when He was on
earth, but who the Eternal Lord Jesus is right now. This has to
be one of the most uplifting Christian experiences - to study the
Bible and to see our Lord as He is. Again, the modern church
has taught a lot about Biblical truth, including what Jesus has
done: yet there has been little teaching on who Jesus is. It is my
thinking that the real men of God throughout history were men
who knew who the Eternal Lord Jesus is, both in their head and
in their heart. In a limited human way they understood the Christ
of Eternity, the Lord of the heavens, not merely the God-man that
lived for a short thirty three years on this planet.

A very encouraging observation from this study is to see God,
to see Jesus in the exalted place that He is in. There is but One God.
He is the Only God. There is none like Him. There is no one on
His level of existence. He has absolutely no rivals and no competition.
He is Creator and Sustainer of all things seen and unseen.
He is Lord and Master of all that we know and don't know,
of all the universe and more. His Spirit penetrates every
corner of the heavens and the universe. He is the Almighty,
the beginning and the end. He exists from eternity past into
eternity future. He is all there is and without Him there would be nothing.

Knowing the above majestic nature of God and then
realizing that He became flesh and blood for us so that we
could better understand Him, and so that He could redeem
us, is beyond our comprehension of love. This is divine
love. This is God's love directed towards man in a simple
and practical way. We can only accept this love and thank
Him for it. Our best intentions fall light years short
of His work of love. There is no comparison. We are but
a speck of dust when set beside God. In His eyes we are
dear sons that have been adopted into His family by the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God's love.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the central point in all that there
is at this moment of time. Everything revolves around Him.
It is He who we worship, adore and imitate. It is Jesus that
sits on the throne and is worshiped by the heavenly hosts
described in the book of Revelation. One day, as Paul puts it,
He will present it all back to the Father in great perfection
due to His power and grace. The Father will do with it
all as He pleases (1 Cor. 15:10) Father, Son and Holy Spirit
are God. We are created beings made for the purpose of pleasing Him. He will do as He pleases with all creation and with all of us as individuals.  It is our place to submit and give ourselves to Him with a joyful heart of thanksgiving. After seeing a little glimpse of who He is,
is there any other response on our behalf suitable for Him.

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