These scriptures state explicitly that Christ is God. * There are other scriptures that prove He is God by inference.
1) John 1v1: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God'.
The Word is evidently Christ from the immediate context. See John 1v14.
2) John 20v28: 'And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!''
3) Romans 9v5: 'of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God'.
4) Philippians 2v6: 'who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God'.
Verse 5 of the same chapter shows that the above verse is speaking about Christ..
5) 1 John 5v20: 'And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.'
The five are easy to remember and useful when chatting to a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness.
Scriptures are taken from the New King James version of the Bible.
*Update: When I say 'Christ is God' I mean that Christ is equally God as the Father and Son are. In other words the trinity are the Godhead meaning they share the same perfect will, mind emotions, and attributes. Saying this the trinity are distinct in their individual functions. An example in terms of salvation: the Father decrees or plans salvation, the Son accomplishes salvation by dieing on the Cross, and the Holy Spirit applies salvation by enabling faith and repentance in the believer. Not accepting that the individual members of the trinity have distinct functions is a heresy called Modalism.
'God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.' -Wayne Grudem
5 comments:
Hi Simon,
Not disagreeing with you in any way, but what does it mean to say "Jesus is God"? If you remember your maths (long time ago, I know), "a = b" is the same as "b = a". So does it mean "God is Jesus"? Or is it like "Simon is human"? That's different from "human is Simon". But what does "God" mean anyway? If it means "Father, Son and Spirit" then what does "Jesus is Father, Son and Spirit" mean?
I'm not entirely sure how to explain it myself...
Take care!
Anthony
I see! Maybe some are interpreting me to say that God is exclusively Christ and hence not equal to the other members of the trinity.
I'll add an update to the post...
Thanks!
Thanks for the update mate. It's not you being unclear, but me being unclear about what the Bible actually means!
John 5 and Revelation 5 are good passages to turn to, as they show that Jesus should be honoured and worshipped as (only) God is to be honoured and worshipped.
And have you heard Mike Reeves on the Trinity? Amazing!
But I'm still not sure what "Jesus is God" actually means. E.g., there must be something wrong with this:
1. God is triune
2. Jesus is God
3. Therefore Jesus is triune
What do you think?
Isn't your logic similar to saying:
1) Anthony is human
2) Simon is human
3) Therefore Simon is Anthony
...Doesn't quite work!
Will listen to Reeves on the trinity soon. I was reading an article by B B Warfield today. He was explaing Augustine's thoughts on the trinity eg the loved, the lover, and the love.
What do you think about this illustration?
I don't think so ... "Simon is human" means "Simon is a human", but "Jesus is God" doesn't mean "Jesus is a God", since there is one God.
I hadn't come across that illustration by Augustine. In John it mentions the Father's love for the Son several times, and that seems central. But there's also the Son's love for the Father (14:31). And if the Spirit is the love between the lover and the loved, then that sounds like two persons rather than three?? But I've never read any Augustine or BB Warfield, so I can't comment too much!
Post a Comment