30. The Deity of Christ

The following varies in style and content from my usual but I thought it well worthwhile to share it with you.

Seven Biblical references that clearly and plainly reveal the deity of Jesus Christ:

# 1- Hebrews 1:10
The fact that Jesus is Jehovah was really made clear to me, like a revelation, one night through the words of Hebrews 1:10. This verse unmistakably says Jesus Christ is the Creator (elsewhere found in the NT such as in Colossians 1 and John 1:3, which in itself confirms His deity), and the word “Lord” here is “Jehovah” in the Old Testament in the verse from which this quote comes. We must go to the Old Testament for the word Jehovah because the New Testament does not have a specific word for this Name which distinguishes the Triune God apart from all others.

# 2- John 1:1
The following statement was made by the well-known Greek scholar Bill Mounce and chair of the English Standard Version translation committee (who also has written books teaching Greek):

In brief, its emphatic position [theos, the word for God, is written first] stresses its essence or quality: “What God was, the Word was” is how one translation brings out this force. Its lack of a definite article [“the” before God] keeps us from identifying the person of the Word (Jesus Christ) with the person of “God” (the Father). That is to say, the word order tells us that Jesus Christ has all the divine attributes that the Father has; lack of the article tells us that Jesus Christ is not the Father. John’s wording here is beautifully compact!”… Jesus Christ is God and has all the attributes of the Trinity. All this is concisely affirmed in “kai theos ein ha logos”.

He goes on to explain it again in another way, demonstrating the significance of the order of the words. John 1:1 reads in order: “and God was the Word”. If it were “kai ha logos ein ha theos” [and the Word was the God] it would mean the Word was God the Father. If it were “kai ha logos ein theos” [and the word was [no article] God], it would mean “and the word was a god”.

(from Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, Second edition, Zondervan, 2003, P27-28. Please excuse my transliteration if it is not proper. He used the Greek characters.)

So we do indeed have another clear statement in Scripture regarding the deity of Christ.

# 3- Philippians 2:6
“who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (ESV)Here we read that Jesus Christ is equal with God.

Satan said,
Isa 14:14 “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
and for this was condemned to hell forever. If Jesus Christ were not God’s Son and truly God, Philippians 2:6 could not have been written. Philippians goes on to say that God has highly exalted His Son above all others. This could not be apart from the fact that He is God’s eternal Son. The place the New Testament gives to the Son could not be given to anyone other than one who is equally divine with Him. The idea of another taking the preeminence along side God is foreign to the Bible (Col. 1:15-19).

# 4- John 12:41
“These things said Esaias [Isaiah], when he saw His glory, and spake of him.”
This may not be as plain as the other three, but I think it is plain enough. The “His” here is best understood to be the glory of the Lord Jesus. Isaiah 6, from which the quotation in verse 40 comes, refers to Jehovah.

# 5- John 20:28
“And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.” [ha kurios mou kai ha theos mou, “the Lord of me and the God of me”]
The doctrine of the Trinity did not come to be little by little over time. Thomas expressed it right there after His resurrection. The Lord expressed it in John 11:25 when He stated “I Myself am the resurrection and the life…” and Martha acknowledged: “Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (v27, ESV)

# 6- Revelation 1:8,11-18
Rev 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
This verse without question refers to God.

Rev 1:17-18  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:  I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
These verses without question refer to Christ.
Who else but God is the first and the last?

# 7- Revelation 5:11-14
Rev 5:11-14  And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;  Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.  And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 19:10 affirms God is the only one to be worshipped. The Lamb here is given equal worship to the One sitting upon the throne (God the Father).

Old Testament:
An Old Testament reference linking the Father and Son as God I believe is Isaiah 49:7, and note the other references to “Holy One” in Isaiah. Then compare these to how Christ is revealed in the New Testament.

Isaiah 9:6 ESV “and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The Son is revealed in the New Testament, and links to the Old from the New reveal the deity of Christ in the Old Testament, as explained above.

We must take the plain testimony of Scripture even when it does not make sense to us. Jesus Christ took a body and took on humanity, but His body was apart from sin and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3). He is not said to be of the seed of Adam, but God promises the victory of the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15. The curse came through Adam, not the woman’s seed. Nor was Christ an ordinary man: He was conceived of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). None other could say, “I am the root and the descendant of David” (Rev. 22:16 ESV): both David’s originator and descendant.

The marvel of eternity is that God showed true love in taking the place of His own creation when we sinned and rebelled against Him, the Creator of all things. Jesus Christ never ceased to be God, though He walked with a body among men. He manifested the glory of God in every action, yet men refused to believe on Him.

Nicodemus was one of the few who came to realize who He really was. He had to understand that Christ was more than just a teacher come from God before He could be born again (John 3). The Samaritan woman had to understand that He was more than a prophet (John 4). In Hebrews we are told that He is more than an angel (Heb. 1:4): He is the Son of God, the exact imprint of God’s nature (1:3, ESV).

Jesus and God are distiguished in various Scriptures. However, we are to understand this as a distinction between the Persons of the Godhead (Father and Son) rather than a denial of the deity of Christ.

Finally, let us consider this truth: to know God the Father is to know the Son, and to know the Son is to know the Father (John 14:7-9; 10:27-30; 17:3).