The Trinity 15
The Deity of Christ 4
Christ in the OT
2/17/13
When Julia, my granddaughter, was just beginning to eat solid foods she would eat anything you put in front of her. But like most children she has become rather fussy about she will eat. It used to be you would put her dinner in front of her and she would have it gone in short order.
Now a-days she fusses about what she has. Her little eyes scan the room for something else she can have beside what is on her plate. As a child she would much rather eat candy and cupcakes than carrots and meat. Dinner time, at our house anyway, is a lot about trying to get Julia to eat her food.
As a pastor, I sometimes feel the same way about you. I think of the words of Jesus to Peter in John 21. Jesus gives the command for Peter to “feed His sheep”. Elsewhere in the Scripture, in 1 Peter, pastor or elders, are called shepherd the flock of God, that the Chief shepherd will be glorified.
So I have this command as a pastor/teacher to feed the sheep of Christ, that is you. But sometimes I get the feel, that like Julia, you do not want to eat what is given. Sometimes I am feeding you carrots and meat, but you would rather have candy and cupcakes.
I recognize that sometimes my sermons are not all that entertaining. Sometimes my sermons are not filled with comments that make you feel good inside. Sometimes I know that some of what I say you may not even understand. But friends, I am not here to entertain you, I am here to feed you and sometimes it may be stuff that you don’t want to eat.
I strive to feed you truths that will help each one of you to grow. Admittedly that is not always an easy task. And what might help one person to grow in their faith, may go over the head of another. And what might make others grow, may seem rather basic to others.
So I sincerely try to make sure that all of you get fed spiritual food. Spiritual food that will help you to grow in your walk with Christ. Just as Julia will not grow unless fed properly, we will not grow unless fed properly.
With that said we are continuing in our study into the Triune nature of God. That is to say that “Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
The teaching on the Trinity I believe is spiritual food that every Christian must partake in. Over the last two weeks we have been looking at the deity of Christ and his preexistence as the eternal Son of God. This week we will look at the second of the six categories we are looking at in regards to the deity of Christ and that The Deity of Christ in the OT.
There are several Bible passages that show us that Jesus Christ was Yahweh or LORD (capitals) of the OT. We are going to be looking at a few of those today. So we are going to be jumping around a lot this morning in our Bibles. This also I will add is not a comprehensive list, there are many more than we will get to today and next week. I do want to give to you some of the more obvious ones.
I give you these verses not so much to be used as a list to try and win arguments with those who deny the Jesus Christ is God, but for your own edification, that you can see that it is the clear testimony of the Bible that Jesus Christ is God. We must understand that apart from the working of the Holy Spirit, people will not believe in the deity of Christ, in fact it will be foolishness to them.
As we are told in 1 Cor. 2:14; “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
So I stress that this is not a list of proof texts for debate, but verses for your own learning and growing in your walk with Christ.
I am going to put up most of the verses, but some of them will be to long for that so I will just give the reference. Turning to the verses however will help one to be more familiar with the Bible.
I want to start by looking at a couple of verses in the OT. First Numbers 14:22; “none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,”
Now Numbers 21:5-6; ““And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.”
Here we have God speaking to those people whom He brought out of Egypt who have “put in the test” because of their disobedience. At one point God sends serpents among as a judgment.
Let us now look over to the NT, 1 Corinthians 10. First look at verse 4-5; “and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
Notice what is stated in vs. 9; “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,”
We know from Numbers that it was The LORD, Yahweh that was put to the test. In 1 Corinthians 10 we are told that it was in fact Christ who was there, it was Christ who was put to the test.
Thus it is clear that Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, equates Christ with Yahweh. There is no other way to take this passage.
Lets us look over to Psalms, there are two verse there I want to look and compare them to two passage in the NT that are close together.
Psalm 45:6; “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;”
Pretty clear that it is God that is spoken of here.
Now, Psalm 102:26-27; “They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.”
It is quite clear from vs. 24 of Psalm 102 that the Psalmist is talking about God in this passage.
Lets turn over to Heb. 1:8-12, “But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.””
Here the writer of Hebrews quotes both Psalm 45:6 and Psalm 102:26-27. Psalms that clearly are talking about God, yet the writer of Hebrews applies them to Jesus Christ the Son of God. Yet at the same time, he acknowledges that there is a distinction between the Son and the Father.
To any honest person who reads Hebrews 1 it is abundantly clear that the deity of Christ is being taught there. The writer of Hebrews is obviously a religious Jew. If you read that epistle you will see that the writer clearly has a very good knowledge of the Old Testament. Any Jewish person who knew the OT as this writer seems to know it, would never think of apply those passages in Psalm to anyone other than God. So he must have believed in the deity of The Son, that Yahweh was indeed Jesus Christ.
Let us look at one more from the book of Psalms. Here we have an interesting reference to the OT because it is the Lord Jesus Himself who applies this passage to Himself.
Look at Psalm 110:1 “The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”” Then look down at verse 4 where we get a further description, “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.””
The Jews of Jesus day would certainly have understood this as messianic text, that is foretelling of the Messiah.
Now look at Matthew 22 beginning in vs. 41. “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”
Please note carefully what is said here. Jesus is asking the Pharisees a direct question regarding the Christ, or messiah, specifically whose son is he?
To the Pharisees that would be a pretty easy question. Any Jew worth his salt would know that the messiah, the Christ would be the son of David.
Notice how Jesus replies. He does by quoting from Psalm 110. But see how he does it. In vs. 43 He confirms that David is the author, but more so than that, David was “in the Spirit”, that is writing in the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus also points out that this is indeed a messianic text, that is it tells us something about the messiah and that David calls the Messiah Lord, thus confirming that David was inferior to the Messiah.
Jesus then in verse 44 quotes Psalm 110:1; “The Lord (that is God) said to my Lord (that is the messiah)…”, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’?”
Then in verse 45 Jesus states, “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
The point Jesus is making is how can David’s son be greater than David. This stumps the Pharisees who do not have an answer.
Jesus is not only making a point of how the coming Messiah is in one sense David’s son, that is in the flesh, but He is greater than that, He is the Son of God. He goes outside the bounds that the Pharisees had in their thinking of the Christ.
But this goes deeper than that. The very fact Jesus applies Psalm 110 to Himself as the Christ, He is also claiming for Himself what the Psalm as a whole says about the Christ, that He has vs. 4 states, “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Thus Jesus makes a claim to the eternal nature of His priesthood, that is the priesthood of the Messiah.
Lest someone accuse me of going too far with this, I would point you to Hebrews 5:5-6 where we read this, “So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
So I believe we can indeed see the deity of Christ in Psalm 110. Which, by the way, is the most quoted OT verse in the NT. Each time it is quoted it is used of Christ, and points to His eternal nature. The fact that the writers of the NT knew that these verses would, could, and should be taken this way, is a testimony to the fact that they believed in the deity of Christ, and were writing to others who shared that common belief.
Let us turn our attention to a passage in Isaiah 6. This is a passage that many of you are probably familiar with. Isaiah 6:1-10. Let me read that passage to you; “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.””
Here we have the extraordinary vision of the prophet Isaiah where he see the Lord sitting upon His throne. Isaiah sees the different heavenly hosts. We see that it is a very humbling experience for Isaiah for he cries out, “Woe is Me!”, he cries out in despair at being present before a being who is Holy, Holy, Holy!!!
I want us to carefully note His words, “…for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Literally, “My eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Host”. Keeping in mind that when you see LORD in the OT is the proper name of God.
Isaiah looking now to verse 10 and what Isaiah is told to tell the people, “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” It is important that you remember those two verses.
Now I want you to turn with me to John’s gospel 12:35-41; “So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.”
Here in John’s gospel, we see John explaining to his readers the unbelief of the people even though they had seen “many signs”. According to John there is a supernatural reason for their unbelief that the Prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled. John then quotes from two passages of Isaiah. First from Isaiah 53:1. John then quotes part of Isaiah 6:10 which we just read.
Now look at what John states in 12:41 this is key; “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” Whose glory did Isaiah see? According to Isaiah 6 he saw the glory of the Lord of Hosts. Yet here in the Gospel of John we are told that Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, and spoke of Christ in that passage.
So John certainly wants His readers to make the connection here. The vision the Isaiah had was a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ.
Some may make the argument that the “he” and “him” of John 12:41 is speaking of God, not Christ.
But that does not work. Read John 12:41-42 together, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;”
Are we to believe that the “he” and “him” in vs. 41 is not the same “him” of vs. 42? And if one states that the “he” and “him” in these two verses are speaking of God the Father, that does not make sense either, for why would the authorities be scared of confess that God was God to the Pharisees. No one would be put out of the synagogue for confessing God.
It is quite clear that in John 12, John clearly and indisputably tells us that vision Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah 6 is a vision of the pre-incarnate Son of God. There is no other rational interpretation. I have read the arguments against seeing the deity of Christ in John 12. They either ignore the context, and go off on some meaningless tangent or they show a total lack of understanding in regards to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
I also want to point out that this glory that Isaiah saw, this glory of God, was the glory of that the Son shared with the Father before the foundation of the Word. As Jesus states in John 17:5 prior to His death and resurrection. “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
So much more could be said the connection between Isaiah 6 and John 12 but we are out of time for today. We will continue next week to look at some other passage of Scripture that show Christ in the OT.
In closing my prayer is that you see how important these passage are. They are important for our growth as Christians. That we may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They are important because through them we become firm in our faith.
They are important because of what Jesus states 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.” To believe the Jesus Christ is God is necessary for salvation, it is part of the gospel that is the power of God to salvation. The gospel that calls on us to repent and believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that He rose from the dead, and sits that the right hand of the Father as the eternal Son of God. May God grant you the grace to believe in that gospel.
LET US PRAY
