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By Nick P.
















Seeing Jesus as God-A Personal View.

Today I am going to write a personal view on the deity of Christ. This is not to meant a hard defense of the Trinity and deity of Christ answering such questions like "How do you explain John 17:3?" "How could Jesus be God if he grew in wisdom and stature?" "How do you deal with Jesus being given the message in Revelation 1:1?" These are all good questions but they won't be answered here. Some deep issues will be touched but such issues have been touched in many other places. This writing is just meant to make this truth personal.

Now to get this to work for a time being I will ask the reader if they are not a Trinitarian to assume for argument's sake that I am correct. Let us assume that Jesus was God incarnate on the Earth though he was not the Father which we should all agree upon. This man walking on Earth though was really God incarnate. Let us just assume this for the sake of argument.

The question is "Why?" Why would God allow himself to become a man? Well let's look at God first off in his entirety. I am sure we could all assume that God is perfect in every virtue. God cannot improve on virtue in anyway. We cannot think of a time when God would be more loving than he is now because he is as loving as he can be now.

Pride has always been a sin God has hated but he has honored the humble. Take this passage from James for instance.

Jas4:10

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

As well as 1 Peter.

1Pe5:6

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time;

And this in contrast to what the Proverbs say about pride.

Pr8:13

The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.

While God is the most awesome and wonderful being in the universe, he does not have pride and he is humble. We must recall that when Jesus was on this Earth he lowered himself to the place of a servant and washed the feet of his disciples, including Judas knowing he would betray him! Then, he was on the cross and in a naked and torn body to be humiliated before the world but prayed that they be forgiven.

Thus, we can safely say that becoming a man is not something too low for God to do. If God wants to take on the flesh of a man, he'll take on the flesh of a man. If he wanted to take on the flesh of a donkey, he'd take on the flesh of a donkey. If he wanted to take on the flesh of a hyena, he'd take on the flesh of a hyena.

But why would he? We look at the nature of God. He always has given of himself. He speaks in Leviticus of his generosity.

Le17:11

For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.

God has given the blood. God has given all creation. We are never told to create something ex nihilo and then offer it to God. God never spoke to the Israelites and said "Create a lamb and sacrifice it on my altar." God gave it all every time.

And God revealed more and more of himself as time went on. It is doubtful, for instance, that Abraham knew what the prophet Micah knew, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Peter makes it clear in the first chapter of his first epistle that the prophets didn't understand fully what they were prophesying and that even angels longed to look into those things.

God revealed himself in a flood for instance where he destroyed humanity aside from 8. Then he revealed himself in judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them up. He also revealed himself to a Pharaoh through his dreams and an interpreter named Joseph and to a second Pharaoh with 10 plagues.

Moses was an example as well of God's revelation as he did many miracles in the wilderness. He also brought down the Ten Commandments which revealed the holiness of God and gave the law. This man spoke with God face to face and when he came down from the thundering mountain his face shone. When enemies challenged his ministry they got leprosy on them or the earth swallowed them whole.

On an aside, we can understand what the Pharisees and Sadducees kept saying. They knew Moses had spoken with God but where did this fellow Jesus come from? Jesus made an astounding claim when he said "Moses said to you, but I say unto you....." The Hebrews writer does the same thing in Hebrews 3 when he says Jesus is greater than Moses.

God later reveals himself through the prophets and one of the first major ones was Elijah followed by his assistant Elisha. Both of them did many wonders and miracles to point people to YHWH. Then other prophets came speaking on behalf of God. They urged the people to repent and return to God but they also spoke of a coming Messiah and each one revealed a different piece of the puzzle.

God revealed his judgment allowing Israel to go into exile and the temple to be destroyed. He was not a magic charm meant to protect the people of Judah and Israel. While in pagan nations, God revealed himself through the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, through the miracles of Daniel, and through the adventures of Esther.

Upon returning, God sent his final prophets. He also allowed the wall to be rebuilt and the temple but after the coming of the prophet Malachi there was silence from the heavens for 400 years. Then there appears a man on the scene named John the Baptist. There is reason to believe he was the last prophet along the lines of the types of OT prophets.

Mt11:13

For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

And now John speaks of a greater one coming. This one is so great that the last of the prophets can't even untie his shoes. This was one job that students would not do for their rabbis as it was below them even but John said that he was not worthy of even doing the lowest task of all for Jesus. This Jesus must have been someone extraordinary then.

Now that we've reached him, we're ready to look at the man to see why God did what he did in taking on flesh in the person of Christ. We will look at his words and we will look at his actions and we will look at his personality. I do not intend to look at what I believe are explicit claims of deity (John 1:1, 8:58, 10:30, 20:28 etc.), but at the implicit claims.

One of the first things I notice is the unusual nature this man acted with against society. He had disciples around him who he encouraged to NOT fast while he was with them. Some of his followers were women like Mary and Martha. He allowed himself to eat and drink with prostitutes and tax collectors, the lowest of the low. He washed the feet of his disciples, which was the job of the lowest slave in the household. He would not hesitate to enter a Gentile's house as he was prepared to go into the house of the Centurion and he went into the house of Pilate. He openly talked with women like the woman at the well.

This man was constantly an enigma. Imagine a man coming to your town and committing every social taboo but at the same time being the nicest and most wondrous person you'd ever met. You can kind of picture the way the common folk saw Jesus then. His following was so great that the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to kill him to stop such a following as they enjoyed their power under Rome.

Jesus also took extraordinary implicit claims about himself. He claimed, as I have already pointed out, that his words had more authority than Moses. It is worth noting that he never said "Thus sayeth the Lord," but would instead say "Truly, truly, I say unto you." This was something astounding.

He also claimed to be able to forgive sins. Now if you sin against me I can certainly forgive you but if you sin against me, I cannot have my sister in my presence and have her forgive you. Only the person you sin against can forgive you. However, Jesus treated sin as sin towards him but yet said to his opponents an astounding threat never answered.

Joh8:46

Which of you convicteth me of sin? If I say truth, why do ye not believe me?

That Jesus forgave sins to me shows something amazing about him. This man took what kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden as something personal to him. When the Israelites went to sacrifice their offerings, he treated the reason for the sacrifice as something against him. For them, sin was very serious to them. For him, sin was very serious to him.

Jesus also claimed to be greater than the temple and to be Lord of the Sabbath. Who gave the Sabbath but God? Jesus looks at this institution though and claims to be the Lord of it. Look at the glory of the temple that existed back then and if you ever get a chance to see a remake of what Herod's temple would have looked like, I urge you to do so. This structure though that was most amazing to the disciples as the Olivet Discourse shows, Jesus claimed to be greater than. This temple that housed the very presence of God could not compare to Jesus because Jesus was a walking Shekinah glory as John 1:14 states. It could literally be read, "God pitched his tent among us."

Jesus went further though from a young age. He claimed the temple was his Father's house. As an adult, he entered the temple and tore what was going on to shreds. It was the most violent he ever acted on Earth and the disciples remembered that the Psalms said "Zeal for your house will consume me."

Jesus also claimed to have authority over the Law. He told people the things that they could do on the Sabbath which no one else would touch with a ten-foot pole. He declared to his disciples that despite what the Law said, all foods were clean. At the same time though, no one honored the Law like he did. He said he didn't come to destroy it but to fulfill it. He encouraged people to keep the commandments and he reminded them of the greatest and second greatest commands in the Law.

Jesus also prayed unlike anyone else before. All the Israelites consecrated themselves rigorously to approach God. They knew utter perfection was needed. What did Jesus do when he prayed? He called God "Abba" which was a child's way of saying "Daddy." Imagine looking to the most powerful and holy being in the universe and saying "Daddy." This was unheard of.

We also see Jesus never apologizing. We never see him praying for his own forgiveness. We never see him going to the temple to offer a sacrifice. We never see him correcting himself. Everything he says is completely casual but at the same time it's deadly powerful. As G.K. Chesterton said, his pathos was natural. Stoics prided themselves on hiding his tears. Jesus showed his openly. Diplomats prided themselves on hiding anger. Jesus caused an uproar in the temple and asked the Pharisees how they would escape the damnation of Hell.

But are there any benefits to this person being God? There are several. One of the first passages that comes to my mind is this one from the Hebrews.

Heb4:15

For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

It means much to me when I pray that I can address Jesus and can share with him my difficulties because he's been there before. The musical group Down Here has a song that says "You came down to know just what it's like to be me." I can really relate now. God knows what it's like to be me. He is not distant. He became as personal as possible.

When I am depressed, I can see Jesus saying in the garden "I am weary with sorrow even unto the point of death." I can see Jesus crying and though it's not explicitly mentioned in the gospels, I can see Jesus laughing. When I wonder how God would act in a situation, I only have to look at Jesus.

And when I look at the Godhead entirely then, I see it as more living and active. I see a constant relationship going on. I see love which is outwardly focused going from each member of the Trinity to the others. Thus, love finds its fulfillment. God doesn't need to create people because he needs someone to love as a professor of mine once said.

God is also perfect virtue and some virtues do require two people. Submission is one. God has submission within himself which is why we see the Son submitting to the Father and we see the Spirit submitting to both. To think of the relationship is amazing.

Thus, these are some of the personal reasons why I see Jesus as God. This figure to me in history is so astounding that in the end, I can't help but fall down and say as Thomas did "My Lord and my GOD!"

In Christ,
Nick
















Email the author at ApologiaNick@wmconnect.com