The New Testament is Jesus' book. It begins with His family tree and ends with His future triumph. In between are amazing
accounts of His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His acclaim. But who is this man? Does His book really
tell us? Can we trust the record? Sure He healed the sick, but was He just a first-century snake oil salesman with good connections?
Sure He fed the hungry, but could He just have been a sleight-of-hand magician? Sure He wowed the masses, but could He have
been no more than an ancient superstar?
To find out, we have to go behind the stories of what Jesus did. We
have to find out what those people who observed Him said about Him. A biographer who writes about someone who is no longer
on the scene talks to those who either knew the subject or at least knew about him from those who knew him. We too can "interview"
Jesus' contemporaries to clarify our view of Jesus. Let's turn first to a man who knew Jesus well, the apostle John.
The Viewpoint of the Apostle John. Did the apostle John
actually set out to show that Jesus was God? To begin answering that question, let's turn first to the opening words of John's
gospel.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made
that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (1:1-4).
Once we understand what John meant by the term Word, it becomes difficult to read anything into this passage
other than the deity of Jesus. Here, as in three other passages in the New Testament (John 1:14, 1 John 1:1, and Rev. 19:13),
the designation Word or Logos refers specifically to Jesus. That John is referring to Jesus becomes clear when we look at
verse 14, where he said, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Notice in John 1:1-4 that the following characteristics
of Jesus are traits that can belong only to God.
"In the beginning." Anyone in John's day who was
familiar with the sacred Scriptures would have recognized his allusion to the book we now call Genesis. In that era, Genesis
was commonly referred to as "In the beginning," so the reader of John's gospel would automatically think of the creation record
and its assumption of God's eternality. John boldly declared that Jesus was with God before the worlds began.
"The Word was with God." This clause indicates
that although Jesus was God, He was a distinct entity who had, as the preposition with implies, communion and fellowship with
God the Father.
"The Word was God." Here it is: A definitive statement
of Jesus' deity. This does not say that He was "a God," as some suggest. That rendering of this clause results from an unscholarly
interpretation of the fact that the Greek word theos (God) appears here without the definite article the. Those who do this
fail to recognize that John omitted the article to point out that Jesus is God, just like the Father is God. Had he used it,
he would have implied that Jesus alone is the God. Yet those who deny the deity of Christ continue to insist on interpreting
this phrase "a god."
There are two problems with this. First, the New Testament is filled
with references to God without the use of a definite article in the Greek (282 times). In fact, even the translators who render
John 1:1 to read "a god" translate the exact same phrase as "God" in 94 percent of the other 281 instances. To be consistent,
these should say "a god." This construction occurs 20 times in the gospel of John alone. Should John 1:18, then, be translated,
"No one has seen a god at any time"?
Besides the problems with the grammar, there is another difficulty
posed by this mistranslation. If indeed the verse were to be translated "a god," then we would be faced with a concept of
polytheism that is totally foreign to anything in the Christian faith. If Jesus is "a god," then there must be others. Yet
Scripture is clear in this matter: there is only one God. Calling Jesus "a god" among other gods would have been as unacceptable
to the first-century reader as it is to the 20th-century theist. John's contemporaries were thoroughly schooled in monotheism,
and any departure from that well-established doctrine would have been rejected.
"All things were made through Him." Who but God
can be credited with creation? Referring again to the first verse of Genesis, we are reminded that "God created the heavens
and the earth." And now John revealed Jesus as the active agent in creation. How else can this be reconciled but to conclude
that Jesus the Savior is also God the Creator?
The Viewpoint of the Apostle Paul. John wasn't alone in
saying that Jesus was God. The apostle Paul also made this doctrine a strong part of his writings. Here is a sampling of verses
written by Paul that attribute deity to Jesus.
- Romans 9:5
- Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God.
No amount of interpretive gymnastics can deny the simple grammar of
this verse that Christ is God.
- Philippians 2:5,6
- Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being
in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.
Here we get a picture of Jesus in both of His essential natures--as
God and as man. First, He had always existed as God in His essential nature. Second, He voluntarily laid aside the majesty
and glory of being God to become the God-man--the humble Servant who was obedient to death. Jesus, then, was God and remained
God by nature, even when He became a man on earth.
- Philippians 2:10,11
- At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, . . . every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
God would not allow anyone other than Himself to be worshiped. For
Him to let people worship one lesser than He would be to violate the first commandment (see also Matt. 4:10).
- 1 Timothy 3:16
- Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.
The God who was manifested in the flesh was Jesus, for He did all that
this verse said He did.
- Titus 2:13
- Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God
and Savior Jesus Christ.
A literal translation of the grammar of this sentence indicates that
Paul was referring to only one person here: God the Son
