Sixteen Fundamental Truths Part 2 C

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Exposition by Dr. Randy Colver. Copyright © 2006. Graphics developed by Cathy Garland. Each of the Sixteen Fundamental Doctrines will be introduced and quoted. Each quote will be highlighted in orange font in the text. Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ The AG Statement of Fundamental Truths states: The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. The Scriptures declare: His virgin birth (Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:31, 35). His sinless life (Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22). His miracles (Acts 2:22; 10:38).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ His substitutionary work on the cross (1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21). His bodily resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:39; 1 Corinthians 15:4).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ The AG Statement of Fundamental Truths points us to the deity and humanity of Christ. Jesus Christ was born physically, though supernaturally through the Holy Spirit. “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’”—Lk. 1:35

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ He lived a human life where He experienced real emotion and physical suffering—joy and pain.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “He is described as a baby in the manger and subject to human laws of growth (see Luke 2:40, 52). He learned; He became hungry, thirsty, and tired (see Mark 2:15; John 4:6). He suffered physical and mental pain, and succumbed to death (see Mark 14:33, 37; 15:33-38)” (Menzies 63).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Yet He lived a sinless life that enabled Him to be a substitute for our sins. “Such a high priest [Jesus] meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”—Heb. 7:26-27

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ rose from the dead bodily, thus demonstrating His humanity and His authority over life and death. “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”—1 Cor. 15:3.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’”—Lk 24:38.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ We must conclude that Christ is both God and man. Stanley Horton wrote, “The truth, then, is that in the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ dwells a fully divine nature and a fully human nature, two natures residing in one Person” (63).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ This is known as the “hypostatic union.” The Athanasian Creed (fourth or fifth century) and the Council of Calcedon (A.D. 451) affirmed both the humanity and deity of Christ, asserting that Christ was a single person with two natures—the God-man.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Before we address the deity of Christ, we need to answer why Christ had to be human. If Christ was not human, then He really didn’t suffer or die for us. If we deny His death because we deny His flesh, then we also deny the certainty of His resurrection. If we deny the resurrection, then we also deny the purpose for which Christ came: to save sinners!

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ The doctrine of Christ’s deity also constitutes a fundamental component of the gospel. It is at the core of Christianity. Just as the humanity of Christ is necessary to effect a real atonement, so the deity of Christ is essential if we are to be really saved. If Christ is a created being, then Christ needs God to die for Him, for only God is a perfect sacrifice and needs no atonement.

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Further, the solution to the problem of suffering comes from the incarnation of Christ—God really suffered for us as a human. Peter Kreeft explained: “God’s answer [to suffering] is the Incarnation. He himself entered into all that agony, he himself bore all of the pain of this world, and that’s unimaginable and shattering and even more impressive than the divine power of creating the world in the first place” (Strobel 46).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ A created being cannot provide the atonement for another created being, since both need atonement (Ro. 8:20-21). Therefore, only God Himself can die for our sins. The New Testament declares that God took on human flesh so He could die for us (Jn. 1:14; Ro. 5:6-10; 1 Pt. 3:18; 1 Jn. 5:6).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ The Bible explicitly reveals the deity of Christ in many verses. Here are just a few: “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.’”—Is. 40:3-4

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.’”—Jer. 23:5-6

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’”—Jn. 8:58 “I and the Father are one.”—Jn. 10:30 “Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”—Jn. 20:28 “Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.”—Ro. 9:5

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “…while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ...”—Titus 2:13 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”—He. 1:3

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “But about the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.’”—He. 1:8 “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

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ In addition, the Scriptures show us Christ’s unquestionable supremacy in many passages. He was worshipped: “Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’” (Mt. 14:33). He had authority to forgive sins: “‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....’ He said to the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home’” (Mk. 2:10).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ He performed amazing miracles: He changed water to wine (Jn. 2:1-11). He stilled the storm (Mt. 8:23-27). He healed the blind (Jn. 9:1-7). He fed the multitudes (Mt. 14:15-21). He raised the dead (Mt. 9:23-25; Jn. 11:1-44).

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ He received the honor due God (see Is. 42:8): “…that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father” (Jn. 5:23). In fact, the Father and the Son in close, co-equal relationship is an important theme in the Fourth Gospel. Several Scriptures are given below to illustrate this:

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Jn. 5:17-18 - As the Father worked, so the Son worked. Jn. 5:21-23, 26 - As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life. Jn. 7:16-17 - The words that the Father gives, the Son gives to others.

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Jn. 8:28, 38; 12:49-50 - The Son speaks the things He sees the Father doing. Jn. 10:15 - As the Father knows the Son, so the Son knows the Father. Jn. 14:9 - If you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father.

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Jn. 15:18-19, 23 - To not honor the Son is to not honor the Father. Jn. 16:15, 17:10 - All that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son.

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ John’s prologue (Jn. 1:1-18) to his Gospel may provide the richest source of information describing Christ’s deity. Here John personifies the pre-existence of Christ by using the term “Word” (probably meaning “God’s ultimate self-disclosure” (Carson The Gospel According to John 116). The following are a few verses from the prologue of importance to Christ’s deity:

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (Jn. 1:1-3, 18).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ The Word was “in the beginning.” Thus Christ pre-existed. He was not “after” or “from” or created. He exists in the beginning. The Word “was with God.” A. T. Robertson noted that the word “with” is not the usual Greek word for “next to” or “alongside” (meta), but rather one that means “toward” (pros) and suggests a “face-to-face” relationship of equals (39).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “The Word was God...” John flatly stated that the Word was God (theos). As God He is co-equal with the Father, with whom He enjoys an intimate relationship. John 1:3 states that Christ is the Creator of all things. Logic demands that if Christ created all things, then He Himself is uncreated.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ John 1:18 declares Christ to be “the one and only” or “unique” God. (For the meaning of “only –begotten” or “unique, see Carson Exegetical Fallacies 29.)

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ In Christ the human and divine unite to provide our salvation. In His humanity Christ knew the heat of the day, weariness, and thirst. The Divine set aside His privileges to serve us, sacrifice His life for us, and suffer and die for us.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ In His deity Christ brought us back into fellowship with God. Thus, Christ is both human and divine.

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Since Christ is both human and divine, we must be careful to understand when the Scriptures refer to Christ’s humanity or when they refer to His deity. In His humanity, Christ can say, “the Father is greater than I” (Jn. 14:28). But in His deity, Christ can say, “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30).

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Perhaps Scripture best portrayed the humanity and deity of Christ in the climax of John’s Gospel when Thomas touched the wounds of Christ and then worshiped Him as deity, proclaiming “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28).

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Just like Thomas’ response, a deep, heartfelt awareness of the deity and humanity of Christ provokes worship. It is from the joining of the human and the divine in Christ that we find the most sublime reason for worship: God has met our deepest need through the sacrifice of Himself.

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ It would be fitting to end with the words of C. S. Lewis regarding Christ: “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.”

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ : 

3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “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.”

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3. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ “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” (Lewis 52).

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Carson, D. A. Exegetical Fallacies. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984. ________. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991. Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1980. Menzies, William and Stanley Horton. Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective. Springfield: Logion Press 1993. Robertson, A. T. The Divinity of Christ in the Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1916. Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000. Works Cited