Kindle Edition
Amazon
willyminnix.com
Category:
Religion
Publisher: Water Moccasin Press
ISBN-10: 1499601867
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 146
Copyright: Jun, 26, 2012
ISBN-13: 9781499601862
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
Willy Minnix, author, musician and pastor delivers a collection of sermons, essays and thoughts about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Topics covered in this book include the Divinity and Humanity of Christ, Christ our Savior, the Judgment of Christ, Christ's Forgiveness, the Body of Christ, Christ our Coming King and several other topics related to Jesus Christ. Each topic is discussed with Biblical clarity. This book was written to answer some of the most common questions that every day people have about the Christian faith. For those who want to know Jesus more, join in as Willy explores what the Bible teaches about the life and person of Jesus, Son of God.
Willy Minnix, author, musician and pastor delivers a collection of sermons, essays and thoughts about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Topics covered in this book include the Divinity and Humanity of Christ, Christ our Savior, the Judgment of Christ, Christ's Forgiveness, the Body of Christ, Christ our Coming King and several other topics related to Jesus Christ. Each topic is discussed with Biblical clarity. This book was written to answer some of the most common questions that every day people have about the Christian faith. For those who want to know Jesus more, join in as Willy explores what the Bible teaches about the life and person of Jesus, Son of God.
Excerpt
2 CHRIST’S DIVINITY
As I mentioned above, the two great errors that people make about Jesus concerns either His Divinity (God nature) or his Humanity (Human nature). There are many people out there that would like to argue that Jesus was a mere human, and never claimed to be anything other than a human. Yet the Bible gives great detail about how Jesus did claim to be God.
Some of the talking points for this sermon series were based upon notes in the Baker’s Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, and if you don’t have that book, you need to get it if you’re at all interested in Christian Apologetics, or in other words, the defense of the Christian faith.
The difference between my series and what is covered in Baker’s and other apologetics books however has to do with the fact that I have compared and contrasted the talking points to the writings of Thomas Jefferson and C.S. Lewis, two brilliant thinkers, though from different backgrounds theologically. Many Americans like to think that Thomas Jefferson was probably a great Christian. So much so that one recent political organization has published pictures similar to Barack Obama’s original campaign posters from the 2008 election, with an image of Thomas Jefferson over the word “Faith.”
I would point to several quotes by Thomas Jefferson that would demonstrate otherwise. If he was a man of faith, it was most certainly not the Christian faith. To be a Christian means that you believe that Jesus was God in the Flesh. I suppose if he really did regard the sayings of Jesus with such high regard, as he claimed, he could possibly be called a Jesus-ite, or a follower of the philosophical teachings of Jesus, but he could not be a Christian because the very word Christ is a reference to His messiah-ship, which Jefferson rejected.
–Thomas Jefferson, Quotes
"Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and imposters led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."
"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors." –Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823
The following is a quote from Jefferson that I use in my sermon series on him. This is from a letter from Jefferson to Benjamin Rush.
"To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense he wished anyone to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other."
Now we have established that Thomas Jefferson and people who would lean towards his thinking believe that Jesus never claimed to be God. I think the best argument against that was made by C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish things that people often say about Him: “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 rather 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. (Mere Christianity 55-56)
Lewis makes the point that there are only three ways to take Jesus, either He was who He claimed to be, or He was a liar, or a lunatic. There was no middle ground. Jesus claimed to be God and only people unfamiliar with what the Bible says would claim otherwise.
In the next couple sections we are going to explore the claims, titles and words Jesus used to describe Himself, and discover that, yes indeed, Jesus did claim to be God.
Jesus Claimed Equality with God using OT references to God
The first area where Jesus claimed equality with God was by using Old Testament references to God that Jews of the first century would recognize.
The first and strongest of these references is Jesus’ use of the term Yahweh, or the Latinized version Jehovah, for Himself. Yahweh was the name that God gave to Moses in Exodus 3:14 when He appeared to him in the Burning Bush. If you recall the situation, Moses had killed a man in Egypt and fled to the land of Midian. While tending the sheep, Moses saw a bush on fire that would not burn up. When Moses approached, a voice called out to him and told him to take off his sandals because he was on holy ground. Moses did and approached the bush. From out of the bush, God called Moses to go to the children of Israel who were captives in Egypt and demand that they be released.
If you are familiar with the story you will remember that Moses asked the Voice in the bush what he should tell the people that they would believe him, and the voice said: “I Am Who I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.” (NLT)
I asked myself, how would the Children of Israel recognize this name, and yet God was convinced that they would. So I decided to dig a little into Genesis to see if this phrase was used before, and sure enough it was. In Genesis chapter 28 Jacob has a dream where he sees a stairway leading up to heaven with angels ascending and descending to and from the throne of God. And in verse 13 God says, “I Am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac.” (NLT) Oftentimes, ancient Hebrews used the title “The LORD” as a way to say Yahweh, without saying the name or spelling it out. Though it cannot be proven that this was used when God addressed Jacob, it seems to me that a strong case could be made that it was. However, even in the event that the case can’t be proven of the use, we still see “I Am” being used to preface the use of “the Lord.” I believe that this must by why the people of Israel would have been able to recognize who Moses was talking about when he told them who sent him.
An interesting side note: in addition to calling Himself the I AM, as we will see in a moment, Jesus also referenced the stairway in John 1:51, in a sense comparing Himself with Jacob’s stairway to Heaven.
We don’t have a lot of the original dialogue between the first introduction between Abraham and the Lord, because it says in Genesis 12, “Now the Lord said to Abram…” (NASV) The word “said” there is more accurately translated “had said” in modern translations, indicating a time in the past when God had spoken to him. Also some translations say, “Now Jehovah said to Abram…” Indicating that Abram also knew the “I AM” name of the Lord.
So it is pretty clear that when Moses went to the Israelites, they knew that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was called the “I AM.”
There are several spots in the New Testament where Jesus makes the claim that He is the “I AM.” One of the most famous is in John 8:58. Here Jesus comes right out and states “…before Abraham was, I AM.” (NLT) This is the most blatant use of this Name of God, and some might argue that this is a misinterpretation of Jesus’ words here, however, there are other passages that support this claim as well, and by taking the totality of the passages, you can see that Jesus did claim to be the I AM.
In Mark 14:62, we see Jesus making the claim that He is the Messiah, and also equates it with the use of the phrase I AM. He connects this with the Daniel imagery of the coming of the Son of Man seated on clouds. The claim was so outrageous to the High Priest that he tore his clothes and said that what Jesus said was blasphemous and that He should die.
This sets up a pattern that I have seen nearly every time Jesus makes a claim at divinity, you can look to see the response of the Pharisees, Sadducees and teachers of the Law. When He makes these claims, their response is to try to kill Him. You see this over and over. The only reason they would want to kill Him is because He is making claims to divinity, claims that no Jew would ever make for themselves, in their mindset, unless you really are the Messiah, God in the Flesh. So you will see each time, that when Jesus makes a divine claim, the educated elite around Him respond by seeking to end His life.
Again in John 18:5-8 we see Jesus making the claim that He is the I AM, when they come to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They ask Him if He is Jesus of Nazareth, and He responds with the use of the name of God, “Jehovah,” or “Yahweh,” i.e. “I AM.” The response is miraculous. A whole contingent of Roman Soldiers or Temple guards where thrown down when He spoke these words.
This shows as well the power that is in the Name of the Lord, and so many people want to use His name in vain. It is such a sad, sorrowful state of our world, when the most beautiful name ever uttered; the most powerful name for healing, comfort and answered prayer, is demeaned and cheapened as a curse word.
Other Old Testament Claims
Not only did Jesus make the claim that He was God by using the name of God, “I Am,” He also made the claim using Old Testament references that most people reading the Bible today miss.
In Isaiah 42:8 there is an old testament reference to God as the First and Last. We see Jesus use this phrase for Himself in John 1:1, John 17:5 and in Revelation 1:17.
Twice in the Old Testament, in Psalm 23:1 and Ezekiel 34:11, God is referred to as the Good Shepherd – And yet in John 10:11, Matt 25:32 and Matt 26:31 Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd. In John 10:11, you can see that the people were divided. Why were they divided if He’s just saying that He is a good shepherd who takes care of His sheep? Because they knew the reference was to God. They knew who the Good Shepherd was that Jesus was referring to, and it confused them that a fellow Jew would be claiming to be that Good Shepherd.
We also see in the Old Testament that God is referred to as the Judge. In Joel 3:12 and Deut 32:35 we can find this title of God. Again in Matt 25:31 and John 5:27 Jesus is shown that He had the authority to Judge, again in Revelation we see that at the end of time Jesus will be the Judge sitting on the throne, separating the sheep from the goats at the Great White Throne of Judgment.
Another reference is to the Bridegroom. Many people will argue that there were many bridegrooms throughout time, in fact every single married couple had a bridegroom, but there is a special reference in Isaiah 62:5 and again in Hosea 2:16, where God is referred to as the Bridegroom. And in the New Testament we see that as early as John the Baptist in John 3:29, Jesus was being referred to as the Bridegroom. Also in Matthew 9:15, 25:1-10, Mark 2:19 and Luke 5:34 this phrase is used of Jesus.
Finally, one of the more famous quotes of Jesus as being the “Light of the World,” is a reference to Psalm 27:1 where God is shown to be Light.
So in light of all of this evidence, and there is still a great deal more that can be demonstrated if we had the space, I think the truth that Jesus did indeed claim to be God is valid. So for people like Thomas Jefferson who would say that Jesus never claimed to be God, they need to go back and read the Bible again, instead of cutting the Bible up to make a nice book of quotations and illustrations that take the power of the Divinity away from Jesus.
But not only did Jesus claim to be God. His disciples thought He was God. Why would they believe that if Jesus never claimed it in the first place? I have never heard anyone present a decent argument to answer that question. Jesus taught them that He was God, and He rose from the dead to prove it. So as we will see in the following section, there are several spots in the New Testament that demonstrate the belief that the disciples held that Jesus was in fact divine.
Early Christians Believed Jesus Was God
Despite what Jefferson believed, Paul taught that Jesus was God in Col 1:15. Of course, there are many people out there today that want to say that Paul was a false teacher and perverted the Christian faith early on. Thomas Jefferson was one who believed this. However, he and people like him obviously never read where Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends and disciples, backed up Paul’s authority in II Peter 3:15-16.
“And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him – speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.” (NLT) Notice Peter says “just as they do with other parts of Scripture.” Here Peter is giving the full weight of Scripture to Paul’s writings. So when Paul says in Colossians that Jesus is the “visible image of the invisible God.” He is making the claim that Jesus is God, as far as our limited human brain can perceive Him.
But not only Paul believed that Jesus was God, the writer of Hebrews believed Jesus was God. I put this in a sub category below Paul. Some claim that Paul was the actual writer of Hebrews, and many claim that he was not. I do not know who wrote Hebrews, but I believe the case against Paul actually writing Hebrews seems to be pretty strong. So I will say that it is another early Christian who believed in Christ’s divinity.
We see in the very first chapter of Hebrews in 1:1-12 a short discourse on the divinity of Jesus, where we see God commanding the angels to worship Jesus. This kind of shoots in the foot any claim by groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus was an angel, or by Mormons who would claim that Jesus is an ascended human. We see in this passage, that Jesus was not merely an ascended human, because ALL creation, not just the universe that He rules over as they teach, is destined to bow to Him. He was God in the Flesh.
Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, believed Jesus was God when he cried out “My Lord and my God,” when he touched the holes in Jesus hand and side in John chapter 20.
Another one of Jesus’ disciples Philip was told by Jesus that He was looking at the Father in John 14:9.
And finally, John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, believed that Jesus was God. We see this in John 5:23 when John tells us that everyone should honor the Son as they Honor God.
Jesus Claimed Equality with God by Doing Things Only God Can Do
It is one thing to claim that you are God, it is quite another to do the things that only God can do, and yet we see in many passages where Jesus did do things that only God can do. Some people might point to a lot of the miracles that Jesus performed, but I do not, only in the case of rising from the dead, because many of the other Prophets performed miracles, as well as many of the Apostles. But no Apostle or Prophet forgave sins, accepted worship from other people or commanded that prayer could be requested in their names.
And finally, only Jesus among those who did perform miracles actually rose from the dead Himself. All of the other prophets who were able to pray for someone to be resurrected, did so by bringing the person back to life through the power of God, but only to die again at a later date. Only Jesus rose and conquered death never to die again.
The first thing we mentioned is that Jesus claimed that He had the power to forgive sins. We see in Psalm 19:12, 25:11 and 79:9 that only God can forgive sins. Yet in Mark 2:5-11 we see Jesus forgiving sins. There are actually several people Jesus forgave their sins, the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the crippled man who was lowered through the roof, and others. Jesus made a practice of forgiving sins, and almost every time the Pharisees went nuts, because they knew that only God could forgive sins.
Jesus also accepted worship from people. We see in several passages of the Bible that God did not want people worshiping anyone other than Him. We see this in Exodus 20:1-4 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-9, but it is repeated every single time in the Old Testament when the Israelites begin worshiping other gods. And yet in several spots in the New Testament (Matt 8:2, 9:18, 14:33, 15:25, 20:20, 28:17, Mark 5:6, John 20:28-29, to name a few) Jesus accepts worship from other people. I believe the passage mentioned before with Thomas is one of the most striking examples of this.
One of the very unique examples of Jesus’ claim to divinity was by telling His disciples to pray in His name. In ancient times it was common for a person of status to send his emissaries along with some token of authority to do things in the name of the dignitary. We see an example of this in the story of the Roman Centurion, in Matthew 8 and Luke 7, who came to Jesus for healing of his servant. One of the things that he said to Jesus was that he was a man used to commanding, and when he told one to do something they did it. He has such confidence that Jesus was able to do the same thing. And Jesus commended his faith, so much so that He said He wished there was more faith like that in Israel.
We see in several passages where Christians are commanded to request prayer in Jesus name, most notably in John 14:13-14, John 15:7, John 14:6, I Cor. 5:4 and Acts 7:59. The name of Jesus is a powerful and effective access pass into the throne room of God the Father, and when we pray in Jesus’ name, Jesus assures us that whatever we ask for will be granted to us.
I believe that one of the requirements is that we are to be representatives of Christ in order for prayer to be granted. Just as the person who was the servant of the Roman Centurion had a symbol of authority given from the Centurion, so to those of us who ask for requests in Jesus’ Name should bear the symbol of His authority in our lives. So for prayer to be effective, we should be living in a way that pleases our Lord.
Finally, Jesus had the power to raise the dead. We see in Deuteronomy 32:39 and I Samuel 2:6 that only God has the power to raise the dead. Even when the Prophets were able to raise the dead, it was done through God’s power as a result of prayer. Jesus too, was able to raise the dead, just like the prophets. We see Him raise Jairus’ daughter. We also see it when Jesus raised Lazarus. We see in John 5:25-29 that there will come a day when He will command all of the dead to come to life for judgment. But most dramatically we see in the various gospel accounts of His own resurrection. He said that He was given the power to lay down His life and to also take it up again, and He proved it by coming back to life.
As far as I’m concerned, this is the ultimate proof that Jesus was indeed divine. Later on, you will read about Jesus’ relationship in the Trinity, but I fully confess, that this is a mystery that is too great for my brain to comprehend. I do not believe anyone can understand it fully, but the truth remains that Jesus claimed to be God, and He backed it up. The bottom line is Jesus is God in the Flesh.
|
