The most important question that must ultimately be answered is: Who is Jesus? Is Jesus Christ God? On the answer to that question hangs our eternal destiny. If he is God, then he has a right to our allegiance, loyalty and worship. We must follow him. We cannot honestly be indifferent to Jesus Christ. He did not leave us that option.
In this issue we will look at what the Bible claims concerning Christ’s Deity.
The first words in Genesis state: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Well, since God was the Creator, and since the book of Colossians clearly says that Jesus Christ created all things, then the relationship between God and Jesus Christ must be that of equality. Jesus Christ must be God.
Colossians 1:15–17, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.”
Here are some other explicit references to the Deity of Jesus in scripture:
· The apostle Paul refers to Jesus as “God” and “Savior.”
“We wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)
· Peter refers to Jesus as “God” and “Savior.”
“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.”(2 Peter 1:1)
· Thomas refers to Jesus as “My Lord and my God.”
“Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ ” (John 20:28)
· John refers to Jesus as “the Word” and as “God.”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John1:1)
· Jesus even says that He and God the Father are one.
“I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
· In Hebrews, Jesus is called “God.”
“But about the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.’ ” (Hebrews 1:8)
· In the Letter of 1 John, Jesus is called “the true God and eternal life.”
“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20)
· In Philippians, Jesus is described as “in very nature God.”
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” (Philippians2:5–6)
· In Colossians, Jesus is fully God with “all the fullness of Diety.”
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.”(Colossians 2:9–10)
· In the Gospel of John, Jesus is called the great “I AM.”
“ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ ”(John 8:58)
· In Romans, Jesus is called “God overall.”
“Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!” (Romans 9:5)
It was the Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author, C. S. Lewis, who wrote these words in his classic book Mere Christianity: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Christ]: ‘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. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” AMEN!
My precious friend; have you found Godin Jesus Christ? Is Jesus Christ, God with you? There is no other place in which you may find him. You too can come to him, like countless billions have already done, and join your voice to theirs, saying: “The Living Expression became a man and lived among us! And we gazed upon the splendor of his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father overflowing with tender mercy and truth!”(John 1:14 - The PASSION).
