IS JESUS GOD OR THE SON OF GOD? 
(by D. James Kennedy)
We have just heard "Give Me Jesus" beautifully sung, but who is this Jesus? I’ve
asked many people and have heard some interesting answers. Many are confused. Is
He the Son of God or is He God? I’ve had people say, "WELL, I CAN GO ALONG WITH
THE IDEA THAT HE IS THE SON OF GOD, BUT NOT GOD HIMSELF."
Well, what do the Scriptures say? In the passage in John 20 that I read today,
you may have noticed the last verse said, "But these are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (vs. 31a). So He is the Son of
God. But if you go about three verses back, we read, "And Thomas answered and
said unto him, My Lord and my God" (vs. 28) So Jesus is both - God and the Son of God.
In the same way, the Father is both the Father and God, the Father; the Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit; and the Son is God, the Son. Within the one substance of the Godhead there are three personalities existing, communicating, and fellow-shipping throughout all eternity. We don’t have some barren nomad who gets lonely because he has no one to talk to, and that’s why he creates people. No, God has existed in blessed fellowship within the Trinity forever.
But the greater question today is: Is Jesus divine or is He merely human? There
are people who have strong opinions about that. The great German writer, literatus,
Goethe said: "THE CONFLICT OF FAITH AND UNBELIEF REMAINS THE PROPER, THE ONLY,
THE DEEPEST THEME OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD." The great drama that is unfolding
before us is the drama of the conflict of faith and unbelief. And in the consummation
of that conflict, where all of the rest is merely backdrop, when the last actor falls
from the stage, there will be one Personage, clothed in white robes, standing alone in
center stage - and that person is JESUS CHRIST.
We saw the phenomenal celebration at midnight on January 1st all over the world -
Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Beijing, China; Jerusalem,. Israel; Paris,
France; London, England; New York, and many other places. Gigantic celebrations, and
everywhere there were huge signs in thousands of lights: "2000." I asked some
people, "2000 what? Why 2000? What’s wrong with 1000, 3000, 4000, 1500? Why 2000?"
It’s amazing how many didn’t even catch that. Whether consciously or unconsciously, every sign was bearing testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ is the greatest Person who ever lived. He has divided time in half, reached down and lifted up the stream of the ages and divided it in two. What a glorious thing that the whole world would bear testimony to the importance of Jesus Christ!
JUST WHO WAS IN THE MANGER?
Yes, we’ve seen many people come and go, but as a couple of writers say: THEN COMES THE REAL SHOCK. AMONG THESE JEWS THERE SUDDENLY TURNS UP A MAN WHO GOES ABOUT TALKING AS IF HE WERE GOD. HE CLAIMS TO FORGIVE SINS. HE SAYS HE HAS ALWAYS EXISTED. HE SAYS HE IS COMING TO JUDGE THE WORLD AT THE END OF TIME.
Now that is a very unusual person, to say the least. The great C. S. Lewis, who taught
at Oxford and Cambridge, put it this way: I AM TRYING HERE TO PREVENT ANYONE SAYING
THE REALLY FOOLISH THING THAT PEOPLE OFTEN SAY ABOUT HIM (LIKE): "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 A
LEVEL WITH THE MAN WHO SAYS HE IS A POACHED EGG - OR ELSE HE WOULD BE THE DEVIL OF HELL.
Note well, my friends. Millions upon millions of people have died because they believed
the teachings of Jesus Christ. They believed Him when He said, "He that trusteth in me
shall live forever." "I AM THE RESURRECTION, AND THE LIFE," (John 11:25) "HE WHO
RESTS IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE, BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE." And so they went to the Colosseum.
They were covered with pitch, lighted and put in Nero’s gardens. They were fed to lions.
They were put in sacks with serpents and every other thing that the diabolical and fiendish
minds of fallen men can conceive - all because they believed the teachings of Jesus Christ.
If he were just a man, even a great moral teacher, they all died in vain and horribly, at
that.
Poached egg or the Devil from Hell or the living God - those are our three choices. There is none other. You can spit at Him as a demon, or you can lock Him up as a madman, but let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He had not left that option open to us, and He did not intend to.
So, I ask you what Jesus asks each one of us: "WHOM SAY YE THAT I AM?" Now as far as
the Bible is concerned, it’s very clear from the first verse to the last that Jesus
Christ is divine. If you go to the first book of the Bible in the first chapter of
Genesis and look at the first words, you find this: "IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED
THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH" (Genesis 1:1). Now the word for God in Hebrew is "El," and
ELOHIM, like cherubim and seraphim, is plural. So that could literally be translated, "IN
THE BEGINNING, GODS CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH."
Go down just a little farther in that same chapter, and you read, "AND GOD SAID, LET
US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS. . . " (Genesis 1:26). Who is the "us," and
who are the "our" there? We know that the persons of the Godhead are speaking.
The Scripture goes on to say, therefore, that God created man in His own image and
in His likeness. So we go from the plural to the singular and back to the plural
and back to the singular again, indicating that there is one God within whose essence
there are three personalities: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And in Isaiah,
God says, "WHOM SHALL I SEND, AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?" (Isaiah 6:8). Again, singular,
then plural.
When we come to the New Testament, it is even clearer. In baptism we are commanded to
baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Did you notice
that we are not to baptize in the "names" of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
but in the NAME of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? The name of God is Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
We just read Thomas’ response when he saw that Christ was alive from the dead, and His
hands were pierced and His side was rent; he fell on his knees before Him and said, "MY
LORD AND MY GOD’ (John 20:28). Throughout the Scriptures we find the same thing over
and over again.
How does the Father address the Son? Well, it’s interesting. In the first chapter of
the book of Hebrews, God (God, the Father) speaks to the angels, and then God speaks to
the Son. And this is how He addressed Him; this is how the Father addresses the
Son. "THY THRONE, O GOD, IS A THRONE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS - AN ETERNAL THRONE." God
calls Jesus "GOD." Any questions about that? "FOR I AM GOD, AND THERE IS NONE
ELSE; I AM GOD, AND THERE IS NONE LIKE ME" (Isaiah 46:9). He is, as scores of
other passages in the New and Old Testaments make very clear, the Eternal One.
(To Be Cont’d)
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