The Deity of Jesus Christ
Who is Jesus Christ? Is He the Son of God? Is He God Himself? Is He a mere prophet? Is he a moral teacher or a philosopher? Or was he just a delusional man w/ a god-complex? Or something far worse? The Bible proves the deity of Jesus Christ.
Through a Word study of Old Testament descriptions of God the Father and New Testament descriptions of Jesus, and an exact parallel in language, the Bible proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is not only God’s Son, but God Himself manifest in the flesh, the incarnation of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Matthew 16:13-17
People have tried to answer this same question for the last 2,000 years and have come up with varying answers.
I don’t usually quote authors in my sermons …
… and I don’t agree with this particular author & theologian on some very important doctrines, but there is a great quote by C.S. Lewis on the identity of Jesus Christ.
• And I’m not gonna give CS Lewis a free pass!
• So let me give you some vet bad quotes by CS Lewis first … & then we’ll get to the 1 good quote.
Because I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about CS Lewis.
Because when you compare his writings w/ the doctrines of the Bible, I would go so far as saying he’s not even saved!
• So has everyone here heard of CS Lewis?
CS LEWIS didn’t believe in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on our behalf, but believed that Jesus’ death was more of a ransom to Satan.
If you remember in his book, the Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan, the figure that represented Christ …
… was actually a sacrifice to the Witch (or Satan figure of the book) in a sacrifice which he referred to as “black magic”!
CS Lewis also did not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture.
He was also a Universalist.
In Mere Christianity, he wrote: “There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it … For example, a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background … the Buddhist teaching on certain other points.“
CS Lewis also did not believe in the Biblical Creation account.
In his book, The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis wrote: “… for we have good reason to believe that animals existed long before men… For long centuries God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself …”
In Mere Christianity, He called man, “the highest of the animals …”
In his book, Reflection of the Psalms, CS Lewis wrote: “I have therefore no difficulty in accepting … the view of those scholars who tell us that the account of Creation in Genesis is derived from earlier Semitic stories which were Pagan and mythical.”
In his work, Letters to Malcolm, CS Lewis exposed his belief in purgatory and praying for the dead.
In The Great Divorce, CS Lewis promoted the belief that the damned could one day find their way out of Hell into heaven.
So I’m in no way endorsing CS Lewis.
But he has 1 GREAT QUOTE on the DEITY of JESUS CHRIST.
And so now that I’ve completely shattered your image of CS Lewis … let me give you the 1 great quote on the Deity of Christ!
CS Lewis narrows down our options about Jesus’ to 3 logical conclusions!
(1) Either Jesus Christ was really who He said He is: God in the flesh … the Son of God, and the very God of Gods Himself! Or
(2) He was a deluded lunatic, or
(3) Something much worse: the devil himself masquerading as God.
These are the 3 logical choices, when you consider the statements that Jesus made about Himself!
Here is the quote, by C.S. Lewis: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing 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 either be a lunatic — on the 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 with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Our choices are very narrow, when we attempt to answer the same question that Jesus asked of His disciples.
“Whom say ye that I am?”
How we answer that question ultimately determines our place in eternity.
& The best way to answer that question is to LOOK TO THE BIBLE, & COMPARE SCRIPTURE TO SCRIPTURE …
…. of how GOD, GOD THE FATHER, or JEHOVAH, DESCRIBES HIMSELF in OT passages compared to NT passages of how the Bible describes Jesus ….
• So if you have your hand-outs that were on your chairs, let’s compare Scripture to Scripture …
• FIRST, we know that Jesus is God based on His eternal nature:
(So first, we’re going to look at OT verses about God.
Then we’re going to look at NT passages.
& Pay attention to the words & language and parallels between them.)
Let’s start w/ Isaiah 44:6, which speaks of God’s Eternal Nature: Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
Sound familiar?
Compare that to Revelation 1:17: Jesus said, “… Fear not; I am the first and the last:”
In Revelation 22:13 Jesus again says: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Jesus is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, not because He had a beginning …
… but because as the Creator of all things all things that have a beginning and an end, find their origin in Him.
Look next at Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. [This is God speaking].
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
• So God does not change; Jesus does not change; because they are both eternal in nature.
Psalm 93:2: “… Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.”
Micah 5:2: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
It’s an exact parallel in language, one describing God, the other a Messianic prophecy about Jesus.
Of course, in Micah 5:2, the modern corruptions of the Bible change “everlasting” to “ancient times” …
… removing the eternal existence of God, & thereby attacking the deity of Christ.
Psalm 45:6 says of GOD: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.”
HEBREWS 1:8 says of JESUS: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
In Exodus 3:14, Moses asked for God’s name when He appeared to Him at the burning bush: And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
“I AM” is the name of the Eternal God. It comes from the verb “to be”, but in the present form.
… it’s the equivalent of saying, “I EXIST” or I exist ETERNALLY, without a beginning or an end.
In John 8:58-59, Jesus identified Himself as the same pre-existent, never-ending I AM:
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him …
When Jesus identified Himself as the same God who appeared to Moses, the Pharisees wanted to stone Him for blasphemy!
And, of course, you have the 7 clear I AM statements that Jesus made about Himself:
John 6:35: I am the bread of life
John 8:12: I am the light of the world
John 10:9: I am the Door.
John 10:11: I am the good shepherd.
John 11:25: I am the resurrection, and the life
John 14:6: I am the way, the truth, and the life
John 15:1: I am the true vine.
But in fact, there’s more than 7 I AM Statements, if you dig a little deeper.
For example, John 18:5-6:
5 They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am [he]. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.
6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am [he], they went backward, and fell to the ground.
This refers back to Deuteronomy 32:39 when GOD says: “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal …”
Jesus also said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:26: “I that speak unto thee am he.”
This was no accident, Jesus chose His words intentionally …
He referred back to Where God said in Deut 32:39: “I, EVEN I, AM HE”.
When they came to arrest Jesus in John 18:8: “Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:”
We see this repeated throughout the Bible, just to make the point that Jesus is referring Himself back to the GREAT I AM.
• We also see from the Bible that Jesus is GOD THE CREATOR.
Isaiah 44:24 God says of Himself: I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
But Colossians 1:16 says of Jesus: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
John 1:3, speaking of Jesus, the WORD says: All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.
• So how can God be the only Creator & if the Bible says Jesus created all things?
• Remember in Isa 44:24, God says He ALONE stretcheth forth the heavens.
• So how is it that the Bible says Jesus created all things, if God alone did it?
• Because they’re 1 in the same.
• Jesus is 1 aspect of the Godhead, which is three in One.
The Bible also says that ONLY GOD CAN FORGIVE SINS.
Isaiah 43:25 [This is GOD SPEAKING]: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
• So only God has the power to forgive sins.
Psalm 103:3 also says that it is God: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”
• But Jesus forgave sins & also healed:
Mark 2:5-7 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts. Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
Jesus was frequently accused of blasphemy.
[What is blasphemy, but to make thyself out to be God].
In John 10:31-33, Jesus said:
30 I and [my] Father are one.
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
• Everything Jesus said & did proclaimed His deity!
• Before I got saved, I read the Bible to disprove Christianity.
• The first Bible I ever picked up was an old King James Gideon’s Bible that I found in a hotel room …
• And the more I read it, the things that Jesus said & did could only be said & done by God Himself.
• And that was what convinced me.
• Now, there were many other events in my conversion story, but that was a major component.
• I thought nobody could say & do the things that Jesus said & did, without being God!
& When Jesus said “I and my father are One” …
This held a lot of meaning for the Israelites.
This was Jesus’ DELIBERATE reference to Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
So He’s saying that “I and my Father are ONE [LORD}.”
The Pharisees would have understood this, and that’s why it angered them to the point of casting stones at Him!
Jesus was saying that He was none other than the One True God standing before them in bodily form!
In John 12:45, Jesus said: “And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.”
In John 14:7-9, Jesus said to the disciples:
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father …
• That’s not something a good & moral teacher would say, UNLESS IT’S TRUE!
1 John 5:7: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. [Referring to the One True God].
• But you only find this verse in the KJV! It’s been chopped in half & the clearest passage on the Trinity has been removed!
Zechariah 14:9, speaking of the DAY OF THE LORD: And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
But how can God be ONE LORD, when Revelation 19:16 speaking of Jesus says: And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
• That’s only possible if Jesus IS God.
• God WILL NOT SHARE His glory with another!
Isa 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Joh 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
John 5:23: “… all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father …”
Isaiah 43:11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
• Jesus is repeatedly called the “Savior”.
1 John 4:14: “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”
2 Peter 3:18: “… our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Luke 2:11: “… a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
Jude 1:25 says of Jesus: “… to the only wise God our Savior.”
Remember, God said in Isaiah 43:11: “beside me there is no saviour)”.
• So the choice we have is that either GOD is lying or Jesus Christ really is GOD!
• Nobody else would have been the perfect sacrifice … for our sins … but GOD HIMSELF.
• That’s why HE had to become flesh. Nobody else would satisfy God’s justice.
• The Bible also says that God & Jesus will have the victory over death.
Isaiah 25:8 says of God: He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces …
2 Timothy 1:10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death …
Isaiah 40:10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Revelation 22:12 [Speaking of Jesus] And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
• The Bible calls God the “HOLY ONE”
Psalms 71:22 calls God: “… O thou Holy One of Israel.”
Psalms 78:41 says: Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 89:18 For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
Isaiah 10:20 God is called: “… the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
God is repeatedly referred to as the “HOLY ONE”.
Speaking of Jesus in Act 3:14 Peter the Apostle says to the JEWS who had taken part in His crucifixion: But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
In Acts 2:27 he makes the same reference, just to make sure that the Israelites got what he was saying: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
So it comes down to this: If you’re authority is in the Bible, there’s AMPLE proof that JESUS CHRIST IS GOD!
And there are people, even after showing them all this, will still deny that Jesus Christ IS God …
… because ultimately their authority is not in the Bible, but in something else!
• & There are a lot of people who claim to believe in Jesus, including the Jehovah’s False Witnesses and the Latter Day Satans. Aka the Mormons!
But they believe in “another Jesus”, NOT the Jesus of the Bible!
2 Corinthians 11:4 says: For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
Paul was being facetious here.
Paul wasn’t saying to bear w/ people who preach another Jesus … he was being sarcastic.
In Galatians 1:8 Paul says if anyone “preach another gospel … let him be accursed”!
Look also @ Philippians 2:9-11 says, because the Jesus that we worship needs to be the Jesus of the Bible:
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
[Now, think about that, if Jesus’ name is above every name … doesn’t that alone make Him God?
There is no higher name, not even God’s, because He is EQUAL to God, as an aspect of the Godhead or Trinity].
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
[Who do you bow your knee to, but God?]
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
& The KJV calls Jesus ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD in John 3:16.
In Acts 13:33 also, God says: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee …
But when it comes to us, 1 Corinthians 4:15 says that God has begotten through Jesus Christ.
For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
Now the modern perversions of the Bible change this, and remove the word “begotten” in both John 3:16 & 1 Corinthians 4:15 …
Why is that important?
Because there is a huge difference between being God’s son and being God’s ONLY BEGOTTEN Son.
ONLY GOD CAN BEGET GOD.
When you beget something, it comes from your own substance. It’s a PART OF YOU.
When you beget children, your DNA, your cells, your blood, your traits are in that child, your flesh and blood.
And so how can GOD beget anything but God?
Think about that word: “Begotten” – he was “GOTTEN” of God.
Jesus was pre-existent with God (we see that in John 1), but He was begotten when God became flesh and walked this earth 2,000 years ago!
John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
So God created us and gave us a new birth through Jesus Christ (who was fully God and fully man).
But He never begat us directly through Himself.
• The moment that you say something was created, it is no longer eternal, because it had a beginning.
But Jesus is God’s ONLY BEGOTTEN.
We were created, Jesus was never created;
He existed with God from the beginning.
1 Timothy 3:16: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh …
[Not just God’s Son, but GOD].
John 1:14 says: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
[So in v. 1 the Bible says that the Word IS GOD; in v. 14, it says the Word was made flesh].
This is speaking of JESUS being the INCARNATION OF GOD, which means that God took on human form.
It’s also important to understand that as the incarnation of God, JESUS was NOT ONLY 100% GOD, BUT 100% MAN.
Philippians 2:6-7:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Jesus was GOD’S DIVINE NATURE present in the form of man.
Quoting Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23 says: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
Isaiah 9:6: “For 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, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
John 10:28: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
How can Jesus GIVE eternal life if He is not God?
Only God can dispense ETERNAL LIFE.
• ATHEISTS believe in a philosophical or historic Jesus.
• NEW AGERS believe in a hippy Jesus, “Alien” Jesus or a transcendental guru Jesus.
• MUSLIMS believe he was the greatest of the prophets and a Messenger!
Yet they all deny His divinity!
• MORMONS believe that Jesus was Lucifer’s spirit-brother and that he achieved godhood.
• JEHOVAH’S FALSE WITNESSES believe that Jesus was God’s first creation, and that He was separate from God.
In the “New World Translation”, their Satanic version of the Bible [and it really is a Satanic version!] …
.., they change John 1:1 to: the Word was a God (not the GOD).
Here’s the New World Translation: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.
Look what they do to John 1:14: So the Word became flesh and resided among us, and we had a view of his glory, a glory such as belongs to an only-begotten son [not THE only-begotten son].
***
There’re so many more verses that we can cover …
Luke 5:8: “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
People do that when they believe they are in the presence of God.
Isaiah, when he had a vision of God said, in Isaiah 6:5:
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
When Jesus was being tempted by the devil, Matthew 4:10, He said: “… Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
But Jesus never once rebuked anyone in Scripture who called him or worshipped Him as God.
Matthew 9:18: While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him…”
Did Jesus rebuke the man or say, “Do not worship Me? I’m just a man like you?”
Jesus continued as though it was completely appropriate for people to fall down @ his feet & worship Him.
Hebrews 1:6: And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
John 20 when He appeared to Thomas:
27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust [it] into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
29 … Doubting Thomas said, “My Lord and MY GOD”.
So, again, it goes back to the narrow choices that CS Lewis described in his 1 really great quote!
And, look, you can learn from false teachers if you have discernment. They’re not going to be wrong about everything!
But the choices we have, based on Jesus’ own Words, His own actions in the Scriptures … & the way that the Bible describes Jesus & compares Him to the One True God of the OT,
… leaves us with no choice but to either reject Jesus Christ as GOD or to embrace Him and fall down at His feet, and say, “My Lord and my God!”
There is no choice in between, it’s BLACK & WHITE, IF you’re authority is in the Bible!
Matthew 1:23: ”…they shall call his name EMMANUEL, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.”
1 John 3:16: “Hereby perceive we the love of GOD, because he LAID DOWN HIS LIFE for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
Notice that it says that GOD laid down His life for us.
Conclusion:
Colossians 1:12-20