THE CHURCH IN PROGRESS

JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD

Continued

It was also Isaiah who prophesied concerning John, the forerunner of “the Christ.” “The voice of one that crieth Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isa. 40:3; Matt. 3:1-3). Malachi also spoke of John as the messenger of “the Christ,” saying: “Behold I send My messenger, and He shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple; and the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in, behold He cometh, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Mal. 3:1). John is the messenger or forerunner and Jesus is the Angel or Messenger of the Covenant. This is the same One who was worshipped as the Angel of Jehovah and Jehovah Himself (Gen. 17:1; Ex. 3:3; Judges 6:11).

In Peter’s confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matt. 16:18), indicates that “the Christ” was commonly used that way. But even if the phrase “Thou art the Christ” were left off, “the Son of the Living God would be proof of his deity. The Apostle Paul puts the human and the divine side by side when writing to the brethren at Rome. He spoke of himself as “a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:1-4).

Jesus was not only declared to be “the Son of God by the resurrection,” but also by the Father in heaven. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (Jn. 1:18). “The only begotten Son” is here contrasted with man. This agrees with God’s giving of “His only begotten Son” (Jn. 3:16) as the measure of his love. This loving gift is transferred to Christians today through the blessings that come through Christ. “He spared not his own Son, how shall he not with Him freely give us all things” (Rom. 8:32). This special kind of Sonship makes Jesus Christ unique in that “no one knoweth the Son save the Father, neither does any know the Father save the Son” (Matt. 11:27).

Jesus regarded His Sonship as including his divine Nature. The Jews also regarded Jesus as claiming to be equal with God by calling God His own Father, even though they condemned Him to death as a blasphemer for such a claim. Either Jesus claimed his equality with God or He did not. If he did not, he could have said so to the Jews and saved his life, and kept them from committing a great crime. As he accepted their charge, and died for such a claim, he proves he was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Therefore, he fulfilled the requirement that “the Christ” should be divine, thus fulfilling the Scriptures prophesied about Him.

Many other proofs could be presented of the deity of Christ in both the Gospels and in the Epistles. Two will suffice. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (Jn. 1:1,2,14,18). His equality is affirmed in Phil. 2:1-11, and His superiority to angels, the Creator of the heavens and earth—the Eternal One in the book of Hebrews. Will your faith in Jesus being “the Christ” motivate you to climb to the top of the mountain to partake of the Tree of Life?

-Gene A. Ellmore-