Jesus, God in the Flesh

October 21, 2018

If Jesus is God in the flesh, as Christians believe the Bible teaches, then Jesus is the final authority on all matters relating to our worldview.

SERIES TEXTS

RENEW YOUR MIND: Romans 12:1-2, “1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
DEFEND THE GOSPEL: 1 Peter 3:15-16, “15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer (apologia) to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
DEMOLISH DEMONIC STRONGHOLDS: 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

SERIES DEFINITIONS

WORLDVIEW: How you see the world and give an explanation for everything you believe.
A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: Seeing the world through the lens of God and His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
1. Axiom: God exists and has revealed the Bible (sixty-six books) as the foundation for all truth and knowledge.
2. Presuppositions: The Word of God gives the following six categories of knowledge; “God, creation, humanity, Jesus, salvation, and judgment.”
3. Propositions: All implications derived from good biblical exegesis and deductive logic.
4. Best Guesses: All claims based in induction; the scientific method and experience.
EXAMPLE OF USING THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW IN REGARDS TO HOMOSEXUALITY: “Since God’s Word is my foundation (axiom) for all truth and knowledge I presuppose that God has an order for sexuality and make the proposition that it’s a sin and people who act in such a way will perish based on 1 Timothy 1:8-11.

Check our Presuppositional Apologetics Class for more information.

GOD BECAME MAN AS SEEN IN JOHN 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (Isaiah 53:10)

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

VERSES SUPPORTING THE DEITY OF JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Abraham’s Visitor – Genesis 18:1,16-20,33-19:1.
Jacob’s Wrestling Partner – Genesis 32:30,33:10.
Moses’ Friend – Exodus 33:11.
Joshua’s Commander of the Lord’s Army – Joshua 5:13-6:2.
David’s Shepherd – Psalm 23 & John 10:11.
David’s Lord – Psalm 110:1, Psalm 16:2, & Mark 12:35-36.
Isaiah’s Lord Almighty – Isaiah 6:1-3 & John 12:41.
Daniel’s Son of Man – Daniel 7:13-14 & Mark 14:61-62.

VERSES SUPPORTING THE DEITY OF JESUS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The Eternal Word – John 1:1,18.
Thomas’ God Worthy of Worship – John 20:26-29.
Our Great God and Savior – Titus 2:13.
The Image of the Invisible God with all the Fullness of God in Bodily Form – Colossians 1:15,19.
Yahweh/Jehovah like the Father – Matthew 28:19.
The God of Israel on the Throne – Psalm 45:6 & Hebrews 1:8
Peter’s God – 2 Peter 1:1.
The Beginning & the End – Revelation 1:17-18 & Isaiah 41:4.

THE ATHANASIAN CREED CONCERNING JESUS

It is necessary for eternal salvation
that one also believe in the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.

Now this is the true faith:

That we believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son,
is both God and human, equally.

He is God from the essence of the Father,
begotten before time;
and he is human from the essence of his mother,
born in time;
completely God, completely human,
with a rational soul and human flesh;
equal to the Father as regards divinity,
less than the Father as regards humanity.

Although he is God and human,
yet Christ is not two, but one.
He is one, however,
not by his divinity being turned into flesh,
but by God taking humanity to himself.
He is one,
certainly not by the blending of his essence,
but by the unity of his person.
For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh,
so too the one Christ is both God and human.

He suffered for our salvation;
he descended to hell;
he arose from the dead;
he ascended to heaven;
he is seated at the Father’s right hand;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
At his coming all people will arise bodily
and give an accounting of their own deeds.
Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the universal faith:
one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.

(For more on the creed and the Trinity visit here).

BASIC QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q1: If Jesus was God then why did He get tired, have to learn things, and was able to die?

Jesus allowed Himself to be limited to the experience of a true person when He took on flesh. At the same time, He never stopped being God (Philippians 2:5-11). Also, death does not make a soul cease to exist but rather change locations.

Q2: Why didn’t Jesus just tell everyone He was God and command people to worship Him?

Jesus didn’t take on flesh to put on a circus, but to die for the sins of His creation (Matthew 20:28). Likewise, He did act/talk like God and receive worship as God; however, that was secondary to His main purpose.

Q3: If Jesus was God then why did He pray to the Father, receive instruction, and be given authority from the Father?

As a man Jesus was fully submitted to the Father to be our perfect example- remember the Father and Son are not the same person; yet they are equally God in nature (Matthew 3:13-15, 28:19). Prayer is simply talking to God so why would the Son stop talking to the Father just because He is in the flesh? He wouldn’t. Likewise, Jesus received His authority on behalf of mankind because it had been forfeited by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Q4: After Jesus’ resurrection why does He still call the Father His God?

Jesus is forever now the God-Man, thus He will forever be like one of us and show us how to be under the authority of the Father. Also, just because the Son serves the Father as His God this does not mean they are not equal in nature. A wife serves her husband as her head (Ephesians 5:24 & 1 Peter 3:6), yet they both are equal in their human nature (Revelation 5:13-14).

LEARNING HUMILITY FROM JESUS’ INCARNATION IN PHILIPPIANS 2

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Isaiah 45:21-24)

2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Posted in Worldview Series