Who Is Jesus Christ (Part 1)? The Son of God.

It isn’t a coincidence that I have followed up a series about the decay of morality in our modern society, as well as a decay within the walls of our modern church, with a series about Jesus Christ. After all, I did say that the hope for both to turn around was to set their eyes upon The Christ. But, in order to effectively set our eyes upon Jesus, we need to understand who Jesus is. Notice that I didn’t say who “was” Jesus. To use the term “was” would imply that the person in question had existed and ceased to exist. This would apply to many historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Elvis, but it does not apply to Jesus, who sits at God’s mighty right hand and lives through the Holy Spirit. As the old hymn says, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.” But to grasp Jesus, we need to focus on His various attributes. He called Himself the “Son of Man”, but He also was the “Son of God” and He also possessed the “name above all names”. This week I would like to focus on His divinity as the Son of God.

It seems almost as an idea to scoff at. A mere mortal man who walked the earth was also the Son of God. But not just the “Son” of God, but also God incarnate, or the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. Jesus Himself proclaimed to be God. In John 10:30 He said “I and My Father are one.” He also said “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” (John 5:17), this after healing on the Sabbath. The response from the Jews? “Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” (v. 18). Not just did Jesus (here and in other various places) claim to be God, but even His disciples understood it. “But Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” (John 6:68-69). “[Jesus] said to [the disciples], ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” (Matthew 16:15-16). The demons understood that He was the Son of God. “And suddenly [the demons] cried out, saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:29). Even Satan knew that Jesus was the Son of God when he tempted him in the wilderness in Matthew 4 when he constantly tried to trick Jesus into sinning by saying “If You are the Son of God…” To claim that Jesus was indeed God is a bold proclamation and a hard pill to swallow for many who do not understand Christianity and God’s Word. In John 6 many of the people who were following Jesus turned away because they found His teaching on His divinity as being hard to take. Is Jesus truly God?

In Hebrews 1 the author writes “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Vv. 1-4). The author not just states that Jesus is heir of all things, that He created everything and upholds that creation, and that He is above the angels, but that Jesus is the “express image” of God. The Greek word that is being used here is charaktēr, which denotes that something is the exact reproduction in every aspect to something else. Jesus isn’t like God or possesses some of God’s characteristics, but He is God in every aspect. He even said “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” (John 14:9-10). He also said in John 17 “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (V. 21). It should be noted that Jesus confirmed that He and God are one by simply using one word…”us”.

Jesus and various New Testament writers may have proclaimed that Jesus is the “Son of God”, or in actuality “God”, but is there truth to that statement or is it just lunacy? Jesus had mentioned in John 14 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.” (Vv. 10-11). One of the things that verified Christ’s divinity and backed up His claims are the various works that He performed. He did what no one had done before Him and no one after Him has been able to do (although heretic Kenneth Copeland once claimed to have stopped a tornado by simply telling it to go away). Jesus had the power over the elements when He turned water into wine, the power over nature when He calmed the sea and walked on water, the power over infirmities when He made the blind, deaf, dumb, and lame whole again, and the power over death when He called Lazarus out of the grave. However, there is no clearer evidence to Jesus’ divine claim as to His power over His own life and death. In John 10 He says “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”(Vv. 17-18). That is a bold proclamation! That one can actually decide when to die and when to come back to life is a ridiculous notion. How many people do we know had actually made the choice as to which breath was going to be their last? We see later in John’s gospel, as Jesus was hanging on the cross, it says “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30). The Greek term for the phrase “gave up” is paradidōmi. This term denotes giving, delivering, and permitting or allowing. It means that the one who had something (in this case Jesus’ spirit) had given it over or allowed it to be taken. Can any mortal man give his life away or even give death permission to come and take his life away? Who do we know that walks as flesh and blood actually has the power over death to allow it to stop our hearts from beating? Who do we know that walks as flesh and blood that has to give permission to death in order for it to stop us from breathing? As far as I know no one has that kind of power over life and death. But Jesus…. Jesus had that power. He always had as He created, and He always will as He sustains as the heir to all things. Jesus is the “Son of God”, which is more than just being begotten offspring. As the Jews had determined, it makes Him equal with God.

I could go on and on about this. Just ask my former professors. My 5-8 page assignments turned into a 15 page assignment. I just can’t stop talking about how great is our God. But that leaves an important question. If I have succeeded in briefly describing Jesus’ evidence of divinity and convincing you of such, then why on earth would God the Son leave His throne and the glories of Heaven to come to this filthy and wretched place in order to suffer like the rest of us? Even to the point of being mocked, beaten, tortured, and suffering a criminal’s death upon a cross? We will see next time when we explore the “Son of Man” and the Lamb who was slain.