The Deity Of The Lord Jesus Christ

by J. Drain | Category: The Deity Of The Lord Jesus Christ | Aug 1956

Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again" (Matthew 27.63). With these words the leaders of the Israel nation approached Pilate the Roman governor to request that a guard be posted at the sepulchre in which lay the body of the Lord Jesus. To those leaders the One whom they had seen nailed to the cross was "that deceiver." In the profound and important matter which we wish to examine in this article, the issue is very clear: Christ, who lived and died on earth and who has gone back to heaven, is God the Son, or else He was "that deceiver." To say that He was a good man, but not God, is sheer folly. If He was not God He was not a good man. He made explicit claims to Deity and He allowed His disciples to believe that He was God. If, therefore, these claims were false, Christ was false.

Our knowledge of the Deity of Christ is drawn from the word of God, the' Sacred Writings. We unhesitatingly affirm our acceptance of the inspiration of the Scriptures. Though men were used to write the Scriptures, they have come to us from God, not from the minds of men. They are fully authentic and authoritative, and to their authority we gratefully bow. We shall find that they bear clear and conclusive testimony to the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the revelation of God contained in the Old Testament a prominent feature is the frequent reference to One who was to come. When Philip spoke to Nathaniel about Christ, he said, "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets, did write" (John 1.45). As we trace the revelation through the Old Testament Scriptures we observe that it tended towards the great mystery of the Incarnation. In Isaiah's prophecy the promise relating to the

Coming One is expressed in such words as, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (that is' God is with us) (Isaiah 7.14 and margin). "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9.6).

We read in Matthew 1.18-21 of a visit by an angel of the Lord to Joseph to enlighten him concerning the coming birth of a child to Mary, the virgin who was betrothed to him. The angel said, "She shall bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His name JESUS." Then we read, " Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us." The Babe which later lay wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger outside the inn at Bethlehem was God manifest in flesh. One possessed of the full Deity had partaken of blood and flesh. God had" sent forth His Son, born of a woman" (Galatians 4.4). It was not that God was dwelling in a child born by natural generation. John, in his Gospel, writes of Christ as the Word, and tells us, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1. 1). These words tell us of One of eternal and absolute existence; of One of distinct identity; One of full Deity. In John 1. 14 we read concerning the Word, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." Here is vital truth. The Word became flesh. He was eternally God. He became flesh. Mary's Babe is Jesus. He is also Immanuel, God is with us. The critic may cavil about the physical impossibility of the virgin birth, but the witness of Scripture is unmistakable. Mary's Child, miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, is the Son of God.

A very short time before the Babe was born to Mary, a son was born to an aged couple, Zacharias and Elisabeth. This child was John; and he was raised up by God to be the forerunner of the Christ. Isaiah had written, "The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God "(Isaiah 40.8). Of John the Baptist we read, "This is he that was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness ... " (Matthew 3.3). John's mission was indeed an important one. He was to prepare the way for Jehovah, the Messiah who was coming after him. He was to proclaim to the people, "Behold, your God" (Isaiah 40.9). His witness was clear, "I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God" (John 1.34). John had seen the Spirit descending as a dove and abiding upon the Man Christ Jesus, whom he had baptized. And John's testimony was in perfect agreement with what had been announced on that occasion by the voice out of the heavens, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased " (Matthew 3.17).

Very important proof of the Deity of Christ is found in the claims and implications of His own words. Only a few of these words can be examined within present limitations.

Christ claimed to come from heaven. He said, " I am come down from heaven" (John 6.38). The significance of these words is seen in the argument of the Jews who heard Him. " Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? how doth He now say, I am come down out of heaven" (John 6 4.) If Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary by natural generation then he was of the earth like all others of Adam's family. But He was of heaven. No mere human being could claim this.

Christ claimed to come from God. He said of God the Father" I know Him , because I am from Him, and He sent Me" (John 7.29). "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is from God, He hath seen the Father" (John 6.46). No mere man hath seen the Father. But here is One speaking who has seen Him. How could He have seen Him? Because He is more than man: He is from God. To His disciples Christ said, " I came out from the Father, and am come into the world" (John 16.28). To His Father He said, "And now, 0 Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was " (John 17.5). Words such as we have quoted can mean nothing less than that the One who was called Jesus had come forth from God. He was co-equal with God the Father, and had been sanctified and sent forth into the world.

It is not that God sent an equal to be His Son. He sent His Son who is His Equal. Christ said, "All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine" (John 16 15) And speaking to God the Father He said. "All things that are Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine" (John 17 10) Can we conceive of a created being claiming in his own right what is contained in these words? They are the claims of Deity.

Christ's claim to equality with God was not missed by the Jewish leaders. In John 5 we read of the healing of a man who had been thirty-eight years in his infirmity. This miracle led to some talk between the Jews and the Lord Jesus He said " My Father worketh even until now and I work" (verse 17) The Jews saw immediately the implication of this expression For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him because He not only brake the Sabbath but also called God His Own Father making Himself equal with God Did Christ repudiate any claim to equality with God ? Instead He fully substantiated such a claim in His wonderful address to the Jews on that occasion.

On another occasion Christ said to the Jews, "I and the Father are One"(John 10.30). He did not mean that He and the Father were one in purpose only. That they were so is true, but they were One as having the same Being, the same Essence, the same Nature. They had the same attributes. They were One. The Jews took up stones to stone Him. Why? Because they understood what His words meant. "For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God" (John 10.33). Did Christ contradict them? Had His words been misunderstood? Did He really claim to be God? His words had not been misunderstood. He was God, and claimed to be God, and He did not withdraw His claim.

It seems incredible that men can say that Christ never made any claim to Deity. His words are entirely meaningless if they do not show that He claimed, both by work and word, that the witness of His forerunner John and of His Father, God, was true, that He was the Son of God, God the Son. Yet the teaching of Modernism says that Christ never claimed to be God

The words of the apostle Peter, recorded in Matthew 16.16, are valuable evidence in this matter. The Lord Jesus raises the question of His identity. Men have their opinions. But to His disciples the Lord says, "But who say ye that I am?" Then comes the clear answer of Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Do these words suggest that Peter saw only a good man? Why should the Lord say, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven"? What had been revealed to Peter was not that Jesus was a man but that Jesus was God. Human observation could prove that He was man. But it required divine revelation to disclose that He was God-God the Son, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

After His resurrection from the dead Christ gathered His apostles and commanded them to go and make disciples of all the nations This important work included the preaching of the gospel. The gospel is the gospel of God concerning His Son. "who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1.4). As we have already seen, the expression "the Son of God" as used of Christ refers to Him as One who is of the same being and nature as God-God the Son. Hence the message of God for men and women has for its theme a divine Person, even Christ the Son of God. Paul writes of "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the Image of God." Christ is the absolute likeness of God, and this is something which only One possessing full Deity could be. The glory of Christ is the glory of Deity. As we read through the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the New Testament we are left in no doubt as to how the early servants of Christ regarded Him. He was for them, in the words of Peter, "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And in the uncontradicted words of Thomas, He was "My Lord and my God" (John 20.28).

J. Drain | Aug 1956
The Deity Of The Lord Jesus Christ