The Jews were expecting the Messiah to be a man, much like King David. If they read Daniel 7, perhaps they would have seen “The Son of Man” as an archangel, perhaps a divine judge of God. Even if they read Isaiah 53 and cried out like John did, “there goes the lamb of God”, I still don’t think any of them thought that the Messiah would be God. Two thousand years later, we still seem to struggle with this issue. The historical Jesus movement tried hard to strip divinity away from Jesus, and the Jehovah’s witnesses and Mormons have also attacked this doctrine.
No discussion of Jesus’ divinity should begin anywhere other than John 1:1. Actually the whole Gospel of John reads like a textbook on the Trinity at times. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. From the whole passage, it is clear that John is referring to Jesus as the Word, a concept and a name from the Greek Logos. Jesus is preexistent and equated with God. A Jehovah’s Witness tried to explain to me one time how this isn’t saying Jesus is God. Lame! Note that though Jesus is God here, God and Jesus are discussed separately. God is Himself and is with Himself. Right.
Just as the passage in John moves on to the incarnation of Jesus (1:14 “Word became flesh”), so does the passage in Paul’s Hymn of Christ in Philippians 2. Here we are told in 2:6, “Who (Jesus) though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, by taking on the form of a servant”. Jesus is again equated with God, but separated out in His action of the incarnation. In 2:9, “God has highly exalted Him” speaking of God doing something TO Jesus. How can you do something to yourself? Don’t answer that question. You get my point.
Colossians 1:15 occasionally throws people for a loop because it calls Jesus the “firstborn”. This confusion comes from not understanding the Biblical usages of this term. Sure, it does usually mean the first who was born, but there is a figurative meaning also of “most important” or “highest rank”. For example, in Psalm 89:27 God calls David the “firstborn”. God hasn’t forgotten the story of David in 1 Samuel. David was not literally the firstborn son, yet he was first in rank because God chose him to be king. All you need to do is keep reading in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him (Jesus), the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Jesus didn’t give up His divinity or cease to be God when He incarnated. Jesus was always God.
Put it all together and you get Jesus is God, but God and Jesus are spoken of separately. Doing different things. One is incarnated, the other is not. That is where the fun part comes in. How can one God be spoken of as two “insert your own word here”. What do you mean “insert your own word”??? I mean, the normal word used here is “person”. I don’t know about you, but when I think person, I think of two, completely separate entities, not one God. But, how else do you describe how the New Testament speaks of them in a separate manner?
In the next post, we will deal with two “fun” passages. One is in Mark 13, where Jesus says only God knows when the 2nd coming will happen. Yes, this seems like Jesus is saying even He doesn’t know. How does God keep secrets from Himself? We will also cover 1 Corinthians 15 which throws us another curve ball. In this passage, Paul explains that Jesus in in submission to God (a point he also makes in 1 Corinthians 11). How is God under His own authority? You wouldn’t want to just have all your questions answered in one post. What fun would that be? See you next time.
The Bible Nerd 