There is no truth more fundamental to Christianity than this, that Jesus Christ is God; and for this reason, Satan is doing his utmost to nullify this precious truth and blind the minds of people to it. Such religious cults as Eddyism, Russellism, Unitarianism, Seventh-day Adventism, and Mormonism, are his most glaring ministers to this end; since, in the ultimate analysis, all their teachings will be found to deny the deity of our holy Lord. We cannot afford to be neutral or indifferent here, for if Jesus be not God, we have no Saviour, our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins, and are of all men most to be pitied (i Cor. 15:19); and to be neutral here is to be unfaithful to Christ.
The tremendous strides which this blasphemous sophistry is making towards permeating all our seats of learning, and all our pulpits and public utterances, is simply appalling, and it is high time that we '' should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation; ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 3, 4). The New Trans. is rather more exact, "Denying the only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."
But Scripture is plain enough to those who have not already given it up. What saith it? "What think ye of Christ ? Whose son is he ? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in Spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool ? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son ?" (Matt. 22:42-45). "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day:and he saw it and was glad. . . Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:56, 58). This was the name by which He would be known to His ancient people Israel, when He came down to deliver them (Exod. 3:14), There they were, a nation of slaves, in bondage to the Egyptians, and the time had come for the Lord to deliver them; so He sends Moses to them. This is evidently a crucial moment, and it is of the utmost importance that the people be assured who has sent Moses on this emancipating errand.
Moses realizes the importance of this, and seeks a definite name for Israel's God, one which shall carry weight, and express the intrinsic character of the One who had sent him, and at the same time be his credentials for coming to them.
The name given is eh-yeh asher eh-yeh, 1:e., kal first person singular imperfect of the verb hah-yah, meaning "to be," " to exist; " this is repeated with the relative pronoun between, which means "that," "I who," "he who." The sentence might very properly be rendered "I am He who is"-the self-existent, self-sufficient One. The name Jehovah is from the same root, and might in brief be well rendered " The Eternal." So when Jesus said," Before Abraham was, I AM," the Jews, not believing Him to be divine, and well knowing the import of the words, took up stones to cast at Him. (Query, Are the deniers of His deity not ready to do the same today ?)
In Isaiah 6:1-4 the prophet sees "the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up," and the seraphim crying one to another " Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts." (The reader no doubt understands that in the Old Testament wherever the word "lord" is in small capitals, it stands for "Jehovah" in Hebrew.) Again, in Isa. 53:i we read, "Who hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm of the lord (Jehovah) revealed?" The Spirit of God, by the apostle (John 12:37-41), applies this very distinctly to the Lord Jesus, saying "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of Him." Thus we see very clearly that Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.
We turn now to a few scriptures which show conclusively His divine character.
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God " (John i:i). He did not begin in the beginning; in the beginning He "was." In personality distinct-"with God," and yet Himself "was God." However far science may find it necessary to push back its beginning, He was there, and was "with God." ("The same" is "He" emphatic.) "All things came into being through Him, and without Him came not one thing into being which came into being." This could not be said of a creature, however eminent or angelic, for even an archangel "came into being" through Him, and of course could not bring himself into being. Nor indeed could Christ, though from a very different cause, for in the beginning "He was." His birth and naming are the fulfilment of Isa. 7:14, "The Lord Himself shall give you a sign:Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." " Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel; which, being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt, i:22, 23). This agrees with i Tim. 3:16-"God has been manifested in flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."
Another very clear testimony is found in Isa. 9:6, 7-"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder:and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Father of Eternity, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."
The place of His lowly birth is thus designated by the Spirit of God, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Mi. 5:2). When Herod, and all Jerusalem with him, was troubled at the advent of the Messiah, and demanded of the chief priests and scribes where He should be born, they could refer him to the above scripture (Matt. 2:3-6), but they omit the portion which speaks of the eternity of His being, and do not themselves go to see Him.
"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the lord of hosts:smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered" (Zech. 13:7). Who would dare to think of a mere creature, even an archangel, as Jehovah's "fellow?" He will not give His glory to another.
Rom. 9:5 renders a beautiful testimony to the divine glory of Christ:reading with J. N. D.'s translation, "Of whom, as according to flesh, is the Christ, who subsists God over all, forever blessed." The word rendered "subsists" is the participle of the verb "to be," and is substantially the equivalent of "Jehovah" in Hebrew. (Compare with this Acts 10:36-"He is Lord of all;" and i Cor. 2:8-"Had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.")
In Heb. i:2 we have a very remarkable expression, reading with the new translation, as being somewhat more literal, and giving the sense more clearly:"At the end of these days has spoken to us in Son " (1:e., in the person of the Son). The thought being that in old time God had spoken by means of prophets, God speaking, prophets bringing the message. Now this is changed, God speaks, and God brings the message-God the Son, who "made the worlds " and "who is the effulgence of His glory and exact expression of His essential being, and upholding all things by the word of His [own] power."
" Effulgence of His glory" is just the outshining of what could not otherwise be seen, as light shows what the sun is; and so with "exact expression of His essential being," in beautiful accord with "The Word " (John i:i). A word is the expression of an idea, so is the divine Son the expression of God, God manifest. He did not become the Word when He became flesh, He was ever the Word ("in the beginning was the Word"), but in due time He was manifested. "And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we have contemplated His glory, glory as of an only begotten with a Father), full of grace and truth " (John i:14). " The image of the invisible God " (Col. i:15) is the same thing. "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:all things were created by Him, and for Him:and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist " (vers. 16, 17). " That in all things He might have the preeminence. For in Him all the Fulness was pleased to dwell" (vers. 18,19). " For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). What wilful ignorance, or blasphemy, to apply such language to a creature ? and how dishonoring to the person of Him whom the Holy Spirit has come down to glorify; "He shall glorify Me" (John 16:14).
The first man would climb presumptuously from his status as man to be God. "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" said the tempter (Gen. 3:5). But in strongest contrast with this, we read of the Second Man," subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it rapine to be on an equality with God " (Phil. 2:6). It was not something to be seized upon by Him, since He was intrinsically the Father's coequal ; but He would empty Himself of this; descend into man's likeness, and become a servant, for God's glory and for man's blessing. As a result, "Every knee" is to bow, both of heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings, and every tongue confess Him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father (vers. 6 to n). Having thus humbled Himself into man's likeness, His Person is more inscrutable than that of the Father; "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son; and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him " (Matt, 11 :27). What creature, be he man or archangel, dare say "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30)? Only God's fellow could say it-He whose works testified to what He was (ver. 25)-He who was marked out Son of God in power by resurrection of the dead (Rom. i:4). The Jews well understood the force of the Lord's claim, for they at once take up stones to cast at Him (John 8:58, 59). Their thought being, as with many to-day, that He was a mere man, or an archangel.
Again, " I am the Alpha, and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. i:8).
Further:"And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding that we might know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and life eternal" (i John 5:20). It is the present office of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to glorify Christ here on earth:"He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine:therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:14, 15). Satan is exercising all his craft and his power to rob Him of His glory, and he is most successful when he can use preachers, and so-called teachers of the Bible. "Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light; therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness:whose end shall be according to their works "[(2 Cor. 11:13-15). How then may one be sure that a teacher is one whom it is safe to listen to ? Does the teacher exalt Christ ? That is the great test, an absolutely safe one. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God:every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God; and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God; and this is that power of Antichrist, of which ye have heard that it comes, and now is it already in the world " (i John 4:1-3).
It is surely safe to listen to one whose general testimony is the exaltation of Christ; to honor Him is to honor the Father (John 5:23). "He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son" (2 John 9).
It is an awfully solemn thing not to believe in the deity of our Lord, as He says, " If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins, . . . whither I go ye cannot come" (John 8:24, 21). Jesus says, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). He is the key to Scripture, and no truth can be seen in its proper relation if He have not His place as God; and this is the great antidote to all errors which are leading souls astray today.
May it be ours to cultivate the spirit of the woman in Mark 14:3-9, who lavished her treasure upon the blesssed Lord Jesus, counting nothing wasted, whether of time or means, if lavished upon Him; earning that unique commendation of His,"Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." J. B. J.