The Trinity 12 - The Deity Of Christ 1 Series

The Trinity 12 - The Deity of Christ 1

1/27/13

One of the central doctrines of biblical orthodox Christianity is the deity of Christ. It is a doctrine that has been attacked by those outside the faith since the early days of the Church. It is doctrine that is still under attack. There are those who will knock on your door and tell you that Jesus Christ was not God. That he was “a god” but not the Almighty God. That he was the Father’s first creation, that he was/is Michael the arch angel. That he was not the creator, but a creature, that God created through Him.

My friends, let me make this clear, if you reject the Biblical teaching that Jesus Christ is God, you reject the Bible, you reject the very gospel itself. You cannot have eternal life without the belief that Jesus Christ is in fact God.

Jesus states this quite plainly in John 8:24; “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.” We will look at that passage a little closer in the future, but in it Jesus is in essence saying, unless you believe that I am God, that I am deity, you will die in your sins.

So we can see the importance of this doctrine of the deity of Christ. It is important that we believe it, it is important that we know where the Bible teaches it, and it is important that we can defend it from attacks.

We have come to the point of our study into the Trinity where we will begin to look at several passages of Scripture that clearly demonstrate the deity of our Lord Jesus. I believe we have demonstrated the trinity of persons in the Godhead, which of course shows that divinity of Christ. But now I want us to spend some time looking at the ways in which the Bible clearly teaches us that Jesus is God.

Please understand that when we say that we love Jesus, when we confess our love for Him, that love should inspire us to want to grow in the knowledge of Him. Think about this for a moment, suppose I said to you have some information about the life of your spouse/loved one that you did not know. That I had some wonderful information about them, that you were unaware of. I am sure you would be very interested in knowing what it was that I knew. I pray that is how you would feel about Jesus and our study of His deity.

I pray that as we look at these passages from the Word of God that you would do so with a desire to understand them. That you would grow in Christ, and grow deeper in love with your Lord and Saviour.

I have, as a Christian, over the last 28 years or so, studied the deity of Christ extensively. And I firmly believe that any honest person who studies the NT, can come to no other conclusion than that the NT does indeed teach that Jesus Christ is God.

Listen to this quote from theologian R.L. Dabney in his work, Lectures in Systematic Theology, he stated, “If the Apostles did not intend to teach this doctrine they have certainly had the remarkable ill-luck if producing the very impression which they should have avoided especially in a Book intended to subvert idolatry.”

In other words, if the writers of the NT did not believe in the deity of Christ, they certainly should have avoided giving that impression. Yet in passage after passage it is precisely that impression that they do give.

In our examination of the deity of Christ we will be breaking it down into six categories. As we look at Bible passages within these categories we will be spending more time on some than other. Some passage are richer in this truth than others.

The six categories are; 1. The Pre-existence of Christ as the Son of God 2. The Deity of Christ in the OT 3. Names of God ascribed to Christ 4. Attributes of God ascribed to Christ 5. Works of God ascribed to Christ 6. The worship of Christ

Looking now to the first category, the Pre-existence of Christ as the Son of God.

If it can be shown that Christ did in fact pre-exist, that is that He existed before creation, then this does away with both the heresies of Arianism or subordinationism, that is the teaching that Christ is a created being and not of the same nature of God. It also does away with the heresy of modalism, which is the heresy that Christ as the Son of God, did not exist prior to his virgin birth. That He and the Father are not distinct persons in the Godhead, but that are both different modes, or manifestations of God.