Posted by
gnome1special on Monday, December 11, 2006 1:44:55 PM
Is Jesus God?
Last week, while reading various comments in response to Dennis Prager, I noticed a smattering of discussion centered on the question, ‘Is Jesus God?’
My reading Saturday from The One Year Bible included Revelation 1:17&18 which says, ‘…When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”’ John was having a vision of an amazing Being who said an amazing thing especially in light of a few other scriptures.
Let’s first take a look at the phrase ‘I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore’; Romans 6 is one passage of many that fully describe how Jesus is the Redeemer and how we must be saved as a way of explaining John 3:16. Romans 8 further wraps up the idea that Jesus is the Savior, the Christ and exactly what that means to those who accept His sacrifice on our behalf. And what exactly was that sacrifice, but the death and resurrection of the perfect Lamb of God, so He who said in Rev. 1 is either the Redeemer, or the redeemed in reference to Romans 6, but the speaker clearly identifies himself as the Redeemer (Jesus) as we look at the next step, and He is saying much more as we will see!
If we go back more than 600 years before Jesus was born to Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; and 48:12, we find these quotes where God establishes himself as the first and the last, but let’s take a close look at the second one (Is. 44:6); “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me…’” ‘There is no God besides Me’ is not all that exceptional, but take a look at the first part, ‘Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.’ What? Two people ‘…Lord…and…Redeemer…’ are saying, ‘There is no God besides Me’? Amazing! In light of the acknowledgement that Jesus redeemed us by His death and resurrection, Revelation 1:17&18 is in full agreement with Is. 44:6 if and only if we accept the premise that Jesus is God and is speaking at the same time as God the King! What other explanation is there? Granted, this leaves many questions unanswered, but so does a foundation without a house beg the question: what will the house look like?
One last example, though there are many more: Matthew 14:33, after Jesus, walking on the water in a storm came to the Apostles says, “When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying “You are certainly God’s Son!” If Jesus were truly just a good man or a prophet he would have not accepted the worship since God alone is worthy of worship. This leaves three other options: He was crazy, a liar, or truly God. Lies and insanity can be ruled out by observing the rest of His life, death and resurrection as attested by four distinctly separate witnesses we call the Gospels. Not to mention; 10 of his original 12 apostles were martyred for their beliefs that Jesus was neither a liar nor a lunatic.
After having explored this question for myself, I am left with but one conclusion: Jesus is God. I would hope that everyone explores this question thoroughly as I have (including the reliability of the Scripture) and answer this question for themselves as it is a life-changing revelation!
Joy to the World, the Lord is Come! Merry Christmas!