Last time we were introduced to an essential doctrine of the Christian faith called the Deity of Jesus Christ, meaning that Jesus is divine or that He is God.
Today we will continue on that subject as we turn to the Gospel of John, chapter five.
Before we get to chapter five in the Gospel of John we find Jesus in chapter one beginning His public ministry where He begins calling His disciples. In chapter two He does His first recorded miracle by turning water into wine at the marriage in Cana.
When Passover was nearing we find Jesus in the temple cleansing it of all those making merchandise of God’s house of prayer. The Bible says in 2:23 that many people were believing on Jesus because of the miracles He was doing but Jesus didn’t entrust Himself to them because He knew what was in their hearts (vs. 25).
Chapter three of John opens up with a secret, clandestine meeting at night with Jesus and Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jews. Jesus challenges Nicodemus to be “born of the Spirit” as He believes in the Son of Man who would be lifted up for the healing of many from their sins ((vs. 14-15). At the end of chapter three we find John the Baptizer testifying of himself saying, “I am not the Christ; I’m just the forerunner sent ahead to announce His coming…He must increase, but I must decrease” (vs. 30) and “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (vs. 36)
Chapter four begins with Jesus being thirsty and stopping at a well in the forbidden city of Samaria (for the Jew) and getting a drink of water from a Samaritan woman. Jesus “witnesses” to this woman, telling her all about her sinful self. She believes in Him as the Messiah and goes back into her town and brings back all the townsfolk who become followers of Jesus as well!
Before chapter four concludes, Jesus commits another act that was taboo among the Jesus. Thus far He has entered into the Temple, turning over the tables, whipping the merchandisers with a cord and driving them out. He has a secret meeting with one of the Jewish rulers under the cover of darkness; He enters into a town that is not kosher and talks to a woman (Jewish men were not allowed to converse with a woman who wasn’t family). This woman, a Samaritan, was considered a half-breed and unclean.
But now, if that wasn’t enough, at the end of chapter four Jesus heals the son of a Gentile royal official.
Now we are in chapter five. It is on the Sabbath (vs. 9b) and Jesus heals a man who had been ill for 38 years. But again, He did it on the Sabbath. The religious leaders of the Jews were already upset, and this healing did not make things better for Jesus, but worse.
In order to understand what is going on here we need to shed some light on the Sabbath observance as it had become by this time. Remember, the original command given by God in Exodus 20:8-11 was to cease from work and to rest. God exemplified this in Genesis chapter two where after He created the heavens and the earth, the Bible says God, “ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Thus the children of Israel were to cease from work.
By the time the Lord Jesus begins His earthly ministry, the concept of Sabbath rest has drastically changed.
Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Mat 12:2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"
Again, the Sabbath was to be a day of “not working.” We do not find any more detail than that in the Scripture—just rest, recuperation, restoration and worship. But by the time we get to the days of Jesus, the Pharisees had taken the liberty to interpret this one command into literally thousands of sub-commands.
Historian Alfred Edersheim wrote a classic work called, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. In this book he has researched what is called the Talmud, a Jewish book that was written some time after Jesus Christ that is a collection of rules and laws the Jewish have come over time to lay down and follow.
When it came to the Sabbath, the Talmud contained hundreds of instructions on what the Jew could do and could not do on that day.
For example we find that Jewish leaders during Jesus day interpreted the Sabbath law to mean that you couldn’t travel. If you had to go somewhere, you had to travel less than two thousand feet. This meant that you couldn’t go more than nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps, if you take the two thousandth step, you've violated Sabbath.
Now if you had to get to a neighbor or a relative’s house and if they lived close by, you could lay a piece of rope or wood on the street virtually extending to the entrance to your house or your neighbor’s house and squeeze in another nineteen hundred and ninety-nine steps.
By the way, in the Talmud there are 24 chapters of Sabbath laws. One rabbi said he spent two and a half years studying just one chapter to figure out all the particulars…things like you could lift something up and put something down, but only from a specific place to other specific places.
You could lift it up in a public place and put it down in a private place, or you could lift it up in a private place and lay it down in a public place.
On the Sabbath the Jew couldn’t carry an item that weighed more than a dried fig but he could carry something that weighed half as much as a dried fig: two times.
If you put an olive in your mouth and rejected it because it was bad, you couldn't put a whole one in the next time because the palate had tasted the flavor of a whole olive.
If you threw an object in the air and caught it with the other hand, it was a sin. If you caught it in the same hand, it wasn't.
If a person was in one place and he reached out his arm for food and the Sabbath arrived while he was reaching, he would have to drop the food and could not retract his arm, or he would be carrying something and that would be sin.
A tailor couldn't carry his needle. The scribe couldn't carry his pen. A student couldn't carry his books. No clothing could be examined lest somehow you find a lice and mistakenly kill it.
Wool couldn't be dyed. Nothing could be sold. Nothing could be bought. Nothing could be washed. A letter could not be sent even if it was sent by way of a non-Jew. No fire could be lit.
The Sabbath system that developed over time was unbiblical and forced down upon its followers a heavy load and an unbearable yoke.
So Jesus arrives on the scene in the midst of all this “Sabbath bondage” and we have the makings of a “standoff” in a passage found in John chapter five.
Let me back up a little to those passages of Scripture in the earlier chapters of the Gospel of John. We need to know that when the Bible says that the people “believed” it is making the point that people believed who Jesus said that He was.
When John the Baptizer came on the scene, he didn’t preach Himself, He preached Jesus the Messiah, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29)
When Jesus called His disciples and when they professed that He was the “Son of God” and “the Messiah” (1:41, 45, 49)
When Jesus turned the water into wine the Bible says in John 2:11, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
When Jesus stormed the Temple and overturned the moneychanger’s tables, He referred to God as “My Father” making Himself to have the same essence as God, meaning He was claiming to be God. We will soon see how the Pharisees felt about that.
When Jesus talked to Nicodemus at night He referred to Himself as “God’s Son.”
When the woman at the well said to Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." Jesus responded by saying to her, "I who speak to you am He."
So when the Bible says that the people “believed” it is making the point that people believed who Jesus said that He was and He was claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
In chapter five, Jesus heals a man that was sick for 38 years and He does so on the Sabbath.
Joh 5:10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed."
Joh 5:11 But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.'"
Joh 5:12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?"
Joh 5:13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
Joh 5:14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you."
Joh 5:15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Joh 5:16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
So the Jews confront Jesus about violating the Sabbath. Instead of backing off and trying to soften their hostility on that issue, He elevates it by saying, “I’ll do anything I want on the Sabbath because I’m God.”
That starts in verse 17 where Jesus says, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Jesus' claim to be God continues through to the end of verse 29 and we know the Jews interpret it that way because in verse 18 they confess that He’s making Himself equal with God.
Joh 5:18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
If Jesus was not God, when the Jewish leaders were getting all bent out of shape, He would have put His hands out in objection saying, “No, no you all got it wrong, I never said I was God, I just said I was a son of God!” But He didn’t.
Pastor John MacArthur says, “He raises the confrontation over the Sabbath to a Christological issue, to a discussion about His identity and what He says is, you will remember, starting in verse 17 and running all the way to verse 29, is that I am equal to God in essence or nature, I’m equal to God in works, I do the same things that God does, the same way that God does them. I am equal to God in power. I have the power to give life. I’m equal to God in authority. I rendered final judgment on everyone. I’m equal to God in truth. I am equal to God because everything I say and everything God says are equally true. In every sense Jesus claims to be equal to God. And then that amazing statement in verse 23, “Since all of that is true, I deserve equal worship…equal worship. And if you don’t honor Me, you don’t honor God.”
Last time we looked at several popular TV, Radio and Internet preachers and teachers who deny that Jesus is God, yet here we have one of the many passages of Scripture that prove that He is God.
When these false teachers deny the deity of Christ, they are essentially saying that:
Jesus is not equal to God in essence or nature,
Jesus is not equal to God in works
Jesus does not do the same things that God does, the same way that God does them
Jesus is not equal to God in power. He does not have the power to give life.
Jesus is not equal to God in authority and does not render final judgment.
Jesus is not equal to God in truth and everything he says and everything God says are not equally true.
Jesus does not deserve equal worship and honor as God the Father does.
Joh 5:19 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
Joh 5:20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
Joh 5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
Joh 5:22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
Joh 5:23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Joh 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Joh 5:25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
Joh 5:26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
Joh 5:27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Joh 5:28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice
Joh 5:29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Joh 5:30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
Joh 5:31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
Joh 5:32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.
Joh 5:33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
Joh 5:34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
Joh 5:35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
Joh 5:36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
Joh 5:37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
Joh 5:38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
Joh 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
Joh 5:40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Joh 5:41 I do not receive glory from people.
Joh 5:42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
Joh 5:43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
Joh 5:44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Joh 5:45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
Joh 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
Joh 5:47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"
A very kind and loving 90-year-old grandmother came to the conclusion one year that buying Christmas presents for both family and friends had gotten to be a bit too much for her, so she wrote out checks for everyone to put in their Christmas cards and in each card she wrote, "Buy your own present" and then sent them off.
After the Christmas festivities were over, she found the checks in her desk! Everyone had gotten a Christmas card from her with the words, "Buy your own present" written inside, but the checks were missing!
Today there are groups who deny the deity of Jesus Christ—they deny that Jesus is God.
This is like giving the Christmas card without the check.
One major group that rejects the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ posted the following on their website:
Jesus today is neither a man nor God Almighty. Rather, he is a mighty spirit creature, a reigning King.
The denial of those who reject the deity of Jesus Christ can be distilled to seven basic arguments. Over the course of this message I would like to cite these arguments against the deity of Jesus Christ and then respond to them from the Word of God.
Argument (1):
The Scriptures teach Jesus was a man and therefore had attributes (or characteristics) different from God's.
The person who rejects the deity of Jesus Christ thinks Jesus can either be one or the other—God or man, but not both. But the Scripture teaches that He was both God and man!
To prove Jesus was truly a man is not hard to do. The Scriptures ascribe to Him characteristics of humanity, which no one denies. The genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke testify of His natural human lineage (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-37).
Jesus also referred to Himself as having normal human “inner man” features such as body and soul (Matthew 26:26, 28, 38)… “this is my body; take eat”... “my soul is exceeding sorrowful…” Luke 2:40 tells us that Jesus grew and developed like other humans do.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus displayed common physiological needs:
* He experienced fatigue (John 4:6);
* His body required sleep (Matt. 8:24),
* He needed food and water in order to live (Matt. 4:2; 21:18, John 19:28).
Jesus also displayed human emotional characteristics:
* Jesus expressed joy (John 15:11) and sorrow (Matt. 26:37);
* He showed compassion (Matt. 9:36) and love (John 11:5); and
* He was moved to righteous indignation (Mark 3:5).
Therefore, when someone argues from the obvious humanity of our Lord Jesus, their argument doesn’t prove anything except that which is already agreed upon by everyone anyway, i.e., that Jesus was truly a man. The real heart of the question is not whether or not Jesus was proclaimed to be a man, but whether or not He was proclaimed to be God.
Argument (2):
Because the Father was superior (John 14:28) to the Son they can't be equal.
In other words, how can a son be equal to a father that has authority over the son? The answer is simple; the Bible says Jesus voluntarily took upon Himself the form of a servant and obeyed the Father even to the point of His substitutionary death on the cross. (Phil 2:5-8).
When someone tells you that because the Father decrees and the Son carries out the will of the Father, this says that Jesus is less than the Father, you tell them that the Son’s submission describes the kind of relationship between the Father and the Son and nothing of their essential natures.
For example, if you were to hear of a prince carrying out a plan designed by his father; just because the prince was doing the king's bidding you wouldn’t conclude the prince was somewhat less than human. If so, you would be following the same line of reasoning the denier of the deity of Jesus Christ is using in his argument.
The problem with this type of reasoning is obvious. You will not find out much about the intrinsic nature of the Son by looking at what His position is in relationship to the Father.
For example, God said in His Word that I am the spiritual head of my wife (Ephesians 5:23). Does this mean that I am superior to my wife? No. Paul says later that the husband and the wife are “one flesh.” The Apostle Peter says in chapter three of his first letter that they are “fellow heirs.”
You don’t want to make the mistake of confusing the relationship that the Son and Father have with the essence or the nature of deity they share.
Argument (3):
Jesus is called the "Son of God" not "God the Son;" therefore, Jesus must be less than God, with God being His originator or creator.
One rejecter of the deity of Jesus writes in his book that Jesus is definitely called the "Son of God" over 50 times and only "appears" to be referred to as "God" 4 times. He then goes on to say, "This evidence alone, 50 to 4, should prove that Jesus is not God.”
Let’s talk about the expression, “Son of God.” Christians are sons of God but we get our son-ship through what means? Adoption.
The name "Son of God" when it refers to Jesus refers to His nature or having the same “essence” as the Father. How could a father have a son with a different nature than the father?”
Even the Pharisees realized this and sought to kill Jesus for blasphemy. In John 5:18 they said Jesus "... was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." They understood perfectly what Jesus meant when Jesus called God "His Father" and how that statement reflected upon His own nature and implied His own deity.
If you continue in John 5 you'll see that not only did Jesus state He was the Son, but also claimed He should receive honor on a par with that due to the Father.
John 5:21 Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the Son gives life to those he wants to.
John 5:22 Nor does the Father himself judge anyone. He has given his Son the full right to judge,
John 5:23 so that all will honor the Son in the same way as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
How do you honor the Son? In the same way you should honor the Father. This statement would be blasphemous unless Jesus really was worthy of our honor and worthy of our worship as the eternal God.
The "50 to 4" argument therefore, doesn't hold up because the term "Son of God" points to Jesus' divine nature and not against it.
Argument (4):
Jesus Christ was created by God at the time the virgin conceived.
The upshot of this argument is “If the Son is a creature then He cannot be the eternal God of the Scriptures.” But if the Scriptures prove the Son is not a created being and that He is eternal, this proves He has to be God.
In John 1:1-2 we find these words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This one was in the beginning with God.”
Those who deny the deity of Christ interpret "with God" to mean Jesus "was in God's foreknowledge" or that Jesus was “in God’s mind.” But in the Greek, the force of the preposition "with," refers to a “face to face” fellowship.
John was saying that “in the beginning” the Son was in “face to face” fellowship with the Father, not just in the Father’s mind. In addition to this, John the Baptist says of Jesus that "He existed before me" (John 1:15-30). But if you look at Luke 1:36 you will find that John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus.
Let’s slow down to think about this for a moment. John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus was born. Yet, John the Baptist says that Jesus existed before John was born.
In John 8:56 Jesus says to the Jewish authorities, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad.”
In the following verses the Bible says, "The Jews therefore said to Him, 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus responded, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I Am!' Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him.”
Not only does Jesus say He existed before Abraham was born more…some 1500 years before Jesus' conception…but He takes the very name God used to describe Himself in Exodus 3:14 and applies it to Himself. (The essential meaning of Jehovah is "I exist")
Jesus dared to say that He was The Self Existent One…the One in need of nothing, totally self supporting, and ever present. This is how God described Himself to Moses and this is what Jesus says of Himself. The Jews understood exactly what He was saying, but rejected it, so they immediately tried to stone Him for blasphemy saying, "Because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God" (John 10:33.).
Listen to another Scripture where Jesus says: "And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with Thee before the world was" (John 17:5). Jesus is saying, “before the world was made, I existed!”
Lest you think John is the only one that writes of Jesus' pre-existence, let us look elsewhere in the Scriptures.
The prophecy of His coming in Micah 5:2 speaks volumes concerning Jesus' pre-existence. "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."
You may like to compare this with Isaiah 9:6 where the Messiah is spoken of as “Father of Eternity” and thus God.
There is found in the book of Isaiah the account where he sees Jehovah (Isaiah 6:1ff) in the temple with the Seraphim crying out saying "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD [Jehovah] of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory."
Who do you think Isaiah is referring to? God the Father or the Son? The Apostle John tells us that Isaiah was speaking of Jesus, "These things said Isaiah, when he saw His [Jesus'] glory and spoke of Him." (John 12:37-42).
Jehovah’s Witnesses will say, “We’re not denying that Jesus is a god, we are saying that Jesus is not the God, Jehovah.” Yet God says in the book of Isaiah, "Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I even I, am the Lord;" (Isaiah 43:10b, 11a).
Was Jesus created or was He the Creator? Let’s allow the Bible to speak for itself on this question.
"For in Him, (Christ, the head of the Church) all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16, 17).
"But of the Son He says,... 'Thou Jehovah, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands'" (Hebrews 1:10).
"All things came into being through Him (the Word which became flesh), and apart from Him nothing (literally: not even one thing) came into being that has come into being" (John 1:3).
These Scriptures clearly declare Jesus created absolutely everything that exists and that He is the eternal “I AM (Jehovah)”.
Jesus is both God and man. Even though we don't fully comprehend how humanity and deity can be joined, the simple testimony of the Scriptures is that they were; so we believe it.
Argument (5):
The rejecter of the deity of Jesus Christ says the Jews did not expect the Messiah to be God.
This argument is false from the beginning. The Jews did expect the Messiah to be more than a human and that is clear from such passages as Psalm 110:1 which Jesus used to point to His deity, "The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." Jesus says in Matthew 22:45, “If David then calls Him "LORD," how is He David’s son?”
In other words, Jesus is the offspring and descendant of King David, yet David refers to Jesus, the Messiah, as his “LORD.” This is telling us that the Messiah is more than a mere man, the Messiah had to be a “super-man;” He had to be God.
The Jews, who knew the Scriptures, did expect the Messiah to be God. Psalm 45:6 says, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever" which the writer of Hebrews says is referring to the Son (Heb 1:8).
Isaiah 9:6 says, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called (i.e., He will be described as) Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."
Argument (6):
The denier of the deity of Jesus Christ says God the Father has attributes that Jesus does not share, like (1) being the most holy, (2) without equal, and (3) alone holding the power of salvation.
If Jesus does not share these attributes then it would be hard or impossible to say Jesus could have the same nature as God. But on the other hand, if Jesus does possess these characteristics then we are driven to the unavoidable conclusion that Jesus is God.
Let’s look at the Scriptures to see if we might find these attributes in Jesus.
Was Jesus "most holy"?
Paul says Christ "knew (by personal experience) no sin" (2 Cor 5:21). The author of Hebrews describes Jesus in His high priestly office as "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinner's" (Heb 7:26). Peter confessed Jesus was "the Holy One of God" (John 6:69). Even the unholy demons called Jesus “the Holy One of God.” (Luke 4:34; Mark 1:24).
Is Jesus equal with the Father?
Jesus said, "That no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son" (Matt 11:27). Here Jesus is saying that only He knows the incomprehensible infinite Father with the same inexhaustible knowledge the Father possesses of the Son. Here Jesus is claiming to be equal in knowledge with the Father.
Paul says God is the "King of Kings and the Lord of Lords" (I Tim. 6:15-16); but in the Revelation to John, the Lord Jesus is seen with the name on Him: "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." (Rev 19:16). Here the Father and Son share one of the most exalted titles of God.
Does "God alone hold the power of salvation?"
Please notice how carelessly or perhaps purposefully Paul interchanges God and Jesus Christ as Saviors. In Titus 1:3 he writes, "God our Savior.” In the very next verse Paul writes, “Christ Jesus our Savior.”
In Titus 2:13 Paul writes, “…Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” In chapter 3, verse 4 of the same letter Paul writes, “God our Savior” and in verse six he writes, “Jesus Christ our Savior.” Apparently Paul believed Jesus was as much our Savior as God the Father was.
The Scriptures not only speak of the Father as Savior and the Son as Savior but both equally as Redeemers. For example Paul exhorts the elders at Ephesus "to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28).
Jesus possessed characteristics that identify God as God. How can it be possible for another to have the attributes that belong to God alone? We are left with only two choices.
Either there are two Gods, or Jesus is God. The first choice is denied by the Scriptures (Deut 6:4-The Shema - (Shema Yisrael, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad), "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one”!, but the second is claimed by apostles, prophets, angels, God, and Jesus Himself.
Argument (7):
The one who disbelieves the deity of Jesus Christ says it is a sin to worship any other god than the one and true God. If Jesus is not God then it would by idolatry to worship Him.
This one argument we must agree with for the Scriptures say, "You shall worship the Lord Your God and serve Him only"(Luke 4:8).
But we need to quickly add that if Jesus is God, then He is deserving of our worship and failure to do so would be an insult to God for "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." (John 5:23) We must also add that if the Son is worshipped then He must be God, come in human form.
What is worship? Worship is the "act of paying divine honors to a deity" (Unger's Bible Dictionary).
Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who deny that Jesus is God say that the acts called “worship” in the New Testament are nothing more than humble salutations to authorities.
JW’s say the word “worship” is used in classical writings to refer to one who gives humble greetings to someone in authority. In fact, in their translation of the Bible they often substitute the word worship with the word “obeisance” (oh-bey-suhns), which means to curtsy or bow.
But as students of the Bible, we primarily get our definitions from the way the writers of Holy Scripture used it. The Greek word that is used exclusively as worship (proskuneo) occurs 60 times in the New Testament: 27 times it is used for worship of God or the Father only, 15 times to the worship of Jesus, 17 times to the worship of idols and there is only one case of it being referred to a man.
Now if we were to determine from these statistics the common usage of this word, it would be abnormal to say the worship offered to the Son was only a salutation or a respectful greeting.
To prove this another way, consider the temptation of our Lord. Luke records the following words in his gospel narrative:
Luke 4:5-7, “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. “Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."”
Did Satan merely want to have Jesus give him a salutation? Did Satan merely want Jesus to give him His respect or to curtsy? Our Lord certainly didn't think so for He answered Satan with a Scripture that forbids idolatry.
Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"
But let us go further, when there was a possibility that homage or worship was being offered to a man or angel, like the case of Cornelius to Peter (Acts 10:25), or by John to the angel on Patmos (Rev 19:10), it was always rebuked and directed to the Creator instead of mere creatures. “See that you do not do that! …Worship God! …”
But notice that Jesus never rebuked people when men worshipped Him. People worshipped Jesus and asked for things that only God could grant them (i.e. forgiveness of sin, life, etc.). He always accepted their worship. How could the perfect Son of God accept worship if He knew it would be a sin for anyone to worship anyone besides the only true and living God? (Exo. 20:3-6).
Paul says "that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, of those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth" (Phil 2:10). Compare this declaration with Isaiah 45:23 which says the same thing except it refers to worship given to God the Father. In Hebrews, God is quoted as saying, "Let all the angels of God worship Him (the Son)" (Heb 1:6).
Yes, “it is a sin to worship any other god than the one and true God.” God says in Deuteronomy 5:9 that His name is Jealous. He goes on to say, "I will not give My glory to another, nor my praise to idols" (Isa 42:8).
Furthermore, Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:13 that we are to "serve Him” (Jehovah) and “cling to Him” (Deut 10:20) and Paul says, "It is the Lord Christ whom you serve" (Colossian 3:24). David prayed to Jehovah and said, "Into Thy hand I commit my spirit; Thou hast ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth" (Psalm 31:5), while the martyr, Steven, makes a similar prayer but says "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" (Acts 7:59).
Or consider what kind of man would have the audacity to say he “would always be with us even to the end of the world?” (Matt 28:20) What kind of man could promise to be “wherever two or three are gathered together in His name?” (Matt 18:20) What manner of man could listen to, understand and do something about all of the prayers offered to Him by Christians every day? (1Cor 1:2). Surely Jesus the Son must be at least Omnipresent and Omniscient to accomplish all of this!
The name of this message is: The Incarnation: Seduction or Salvation. The Scriptures say in 1 John 2:25-26, “And this is the promise that He has promised us; eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to seduce you.”
There are some who believe that the doctrine of the Incarnation is a doctrine of seduction but we have heard today that it is in reality a doctrine of salvation. 1 John 4:2 says, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God…”
