the deity of Christ

Jesus IS God!

It is imperative that we get the message of the gospel right.

It is the message of the gospel that saves. .

If we preach another gospel not only are we condemned but those who we are speaking to will also be condemned.

What is the Gospel?

The classic Sunday school answer. It is the good news. Mans Condition

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:10-12

Gods provision:

Introduction:

It is imperative that we get the gospel right. Paul says in

If we do not get the gospel right Paul warns us that not only are we under strict condemnation but those who believe the false gospel we propagate are as well .

Though there are thousands of nuances and truths found throughout the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation they are all tied together with the interwoven theme and story of the Gospel. From the good news of God creating the heavens and the earth and giving man life and man sinning against a Holy Perfect Righteous God, God giving that insubordinate creature a promise of a redeemer (Proto-Eongalion) the first Gospel. To Revelation where we see the consummation and everlasting fulfillment of the Gospel all the way through every book of the Scriptures we see where they looked for the promise for the one who would set them free from there sins to the New Testament where the redeemer Christ Jesus appears and lives a perfect sinless life and seeks and saves the lost . The central theme is the good news, the gospel.

What is the Gospel?

Paul Summarizes the gospel message clearly in ,. “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” .

1. God demands perfection. He is a Holy just righteous God.

But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.

2. Mans Condition: We are sinful not perfect.

2. Mans Condition: We are sinful not perfect.

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

3.Gods provision: The Lord Jesus Christ.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

4.Mans Response; Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

5. Gods Guarantee eternal life;

11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

The Gospel is the hinge upon which the door closes or shuts to eternal life and in fact Jesus is the door. If you recall Jesus’s third I

am statement found in the Gospel of John is () Jesus proclaims “truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep and

in verse 9 he says “I am the door; if anyone enters through me he will be saved.” By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

What if we get the person of Jesus wrong? What if you are putting your faith in the wrong Jesus? What Jesus are we talking about?

about? I mean have you ever thought about or pondered who Is Jesus? Is he John the Baptist? Is He Elijah? Is He Jeremiah or one of the other prophets as some in Jesus’s day thought. If you ask a Muslim or someone from the Baia faith who Jesus is they would say Jesus is a wise teacher who we can greatly learn and benefit from but not God. If you ask a Mormon who Jesus is they would say well he’s the spiritual brother of Satan. . Gnosticism was the most ramped heresy for the first three centuries it espoused what is referred to as dualism that says all matter is evil and spirit is good they taught and believed that the spirit of God or of Christ as they put it descended upon Jesus at his baptism and left him before the crucifixion and deny the resurrection altogether. So here we have a Jesus who is really not divine not really human because matter is evil never rose from the dead. If you were to ask a Jehovah Witness who Jesus is they would say he’s pretty high up there in all the realm of creation but he is still a created being. If you were to ask an Atheist who Jesus is well he is not. So what Jesus are we to put our faith in? Who is Jesus? In his gospel account John the apostle answers this very question in the first 5 verses. Now The book of Matthew present Jesus as the Messiah, The book of Mark presents Jesus as the suffering servant the book of Luke focuses on Jesus as being the son of man and finally the 4th gospel of john focuses on Jesus as being the son of God (referring to his divinity). The purpose of the book of John as said by John himself is found in (read). Why should we take Johns word for it? Who is John? John is not only a disciple of Jesus we see him called personally by Jesus in (). Yet he is a friend of Jesus. John most often refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” Was this arrogant or prideful of John? No he just knew he was Loved by Jesus. Jesus and John were essentially best friends as one commentator puts it. Jesus entrusted John with the care of his Mother, witnessed the transfiguration and later had the privilege of receiving the visions of Christ as recorded and authored by the apostle John in the book of Revelations. John was the first disciple to believe in the resurrection () . John knew Jesus personally, intimately and totally. says “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. And the life was manifested and we have seen and testify and PROCLAIM to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us, what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you to may have fellowship with us ; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His son Jesus Christ. Who was the Jesus that John knew and PROCLAIMED? It is Jesus as God!!!

PROPOSTIONAL STATEMENT:

JOHN PROCLAIMS JESUS AS GOD IN 3 WAYS THAT YOU AND I MUST BELIEVE AND EMBRACE IN ORDER TO RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE. Notice my wording, not just believe because as we all know even the demons believe and tremble () and demons by no means have eternal life but we must embrace! Meaning cherish treasure value above all else these 3 attributes of Jesus as God as I have said before so know I say again… These attributes, characteristics, facts are that Jesus is God are… 1. Jesus is pre-existent, 2.Jesus is Creator, and Jesus is 3.eternal life (life and light).

MAIN BODY

Jesus is Pre-existent

If you remember Johns purpose of his gospel is so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ. The subject and main character of Johns gospel is Jesus. It takes a little bit of digging however to see that John in this opening verse is speaking of Jesus. In the beginning was the word. The word WORD here is the Greek word Logos it means the embodiment or expression of an idea. The Greeks were very familiar with the word Logos, Greek philosophy said that the Logos (the word) was the unknowable, transcendent force behind all creation. They could not define the Logos though they just looked at the Logos as the mediation between the spiritual and material world. (INSERT CONVERSATION WITH ABDUL, eternal spirit). The eternal spirit is unknowable undefinable to Abdul as well as to the Greeks. John the apostle here in the first verse of his gospel does exactly this he defines the Logos. We must fast forward a little bit in the book to see what or who should I say is the Logos. most clearly, emphatically states what the word is “and the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us” The Logos the Word is embodied in Jesus as God. Logos meaning the expression or embodiment of an idea says… The word is Jesus! In Revelations 19:13 when John the apostle is seeing and recording the details of the second coming of Christ he refers to Jesus as the word the Logos. Now that we have defined exactly who we are talking about in these first verses we can move on to unpacking our first point. The first attribute that we are looking at that we must embrace and cherish of Jesus being God in order to receive eternal life is the fact that Jesus is pre-existent meaning he always was and was not created.. My main point here of how we see Jesus as God and I believe that John points out as well is His pre-existence. A primary tenant that makes God well God is his preexistence. He was not a created being. Jesus is eternal. In the beginning was the word, now see the wording it says in the beginning now this takes us back to “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” so the beginning here is the beginning of the physical world. But it says that in the beginning was the word. The word was already present before what we see going on in In in his high priestly prayer says “now Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.” It’s important that we understand that Jesus is man because if he is not he cannot sympathize with us or die for our sins and It is crucial that we understand that Jesus is God because if he is not we have no hope of every receiving eternal life because only God can raise himself from the dead and forgive our sins. where Jesus heals the paralytic man and forgives his sins the scribes said “why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God” . So the religious leaders did not equate Jesus with God and ultimately from a human point of view that is why they crucified him because He made himself equal with God. Jesus’s deity and pre-existence was something they could not wrap their heads around. In John chapter 8, Jesus dialogue with the Jews there going back and forth about Abraham. Jesus says “you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free” the Jews reply “we are Abrahams descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone, we are Abrahams children and he is our father” Surely they said “you are not greater than our father Abraham, who died” Jesus reply “ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad” “you’re not even 50 years old and have you seen Abraham” what Jesus’s response? Before Abraham was I AM! Now we have to do a bit of cross referencing to understand what Jesus meant but the Jews knew exactly what he meant and that’s why the picked up stones to kill him. I AM takes us back to when Moses is commissioned to lead the Israelites out of bondage to the Egyptians, Moses is doubting that no one will listen to him or heed his authority and Moses says “What shall I say when they asked who sent me?” God says tell them I AM WHO I AM has sent you” I am is best defined by (a psalm written by Moses) “before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world , even from everlasting to everlasting you are God” meaning that God is eternal from eternity past to eternity future God IS!! He is pre-existent and has his existence within himself. Back to John is saying that the word (Jesus) is eternal from everlasting to everlasting, before any created thing Jesus the word was. The word was with God. John here is making a distinction in persons of the God head but not in essence of deity. The word and God were both together before the beginning before anything had been created, making the word God because how could any created being be with God before creation? The answer is the fact that the word is God and the word has his existence within himself. And just in case we still don’t believe that the word is God John just comes out and says “ and the word was God”. Notice the progression that John makes here Like a crescendo in a symphony a climax in story the peak of the mountain top. From the word being before the beginning to being with God to being God. V.2 John says it again for emphasis. (read). Bring us to our second point the second attribute, characteristic that we must embrace of Jesus as God is the fact that Jesus is the creator. Note what the JW say. Who but God has the power to create? says “it is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by His wisdom; and by his understanding has sketched out the heavens.” Also if you recall in the book of Job in Chapter 38 and 39 when God speaks to Job and says paraphrasing “where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Where were you when I set its measurements? Who laid its cornerstone? Who created the skies with the stars the seas with the waves? says. . . So in the Old Testament we see verses like this and then you go to the New Testament and concerning creation we read verses like and in when Paul says that they turned from worshiping the creature rather than the creator he is speaking of Christ. Then Paul says in , Paul takes it a step further and is saying that not only did Jesus create everything but he sustains all things he holds everything together. So which is it? It seems here that we have a contradiction. In the O.T. it says that God created all things and in the N.T. it says that Jesus created all things. Well what is it? Is it God or Jesus? The answer is YES! And how can this make sense and be reconciled? The fact that Jesus is God!!!! It is through Jesus that God the Father created all things and that’s Johns point in 1:3. In the creation account found in Genesis when God is creating how does he do it? He speaks, Then God said let there be light, 1:6 Then God said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters. Then God said let the earth bring forth living creatures… So God speaks to create and uses words. As says “by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the WORD the Logos of God. Remember what John refers to Jesus as? THE WORD! “For from Him, and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Verse 4 and 5 brings us to our last attribute, characteristic, fact that we must believe and embrace of Jesus as God and that is Jesus as eternal life. In HIM was Life! So not only is Jesus the creator and sustainer of physical life he is the giver and source of eternal life as well. The life spoken of here is much more than mere physical life as John Calvin points out its more than just motion and breathing. There are 3 Greek words that are used in the scriptures when referring to life. BIOS, PSUCHE, (SUE KAY )ZOE (ZO-AY). where Jesus is giving the parable of the seeds and sower (read) The riches and treasures of this BIOS and bring no fruit of maturity. Where we get our English word biology, referring to the physical body and physical realm. (read) PSUCHE. Where we get our English word phycology. The word here refers to the physiological life and reasoning of the human soul that is the mind the emotion and the will. In when the lawyer asked Jesus testing him what is the greatest commandment is Jesus’s response is “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Referring here to our physiological faculties of life. Then we move to the last Greek word of life spoken of in the scriptures the word ZOE THIS Greek word refers to the uncreated eternal life of God that is possessed only by God and only given by God. put ZOE in this place of life when you read. And John uses the word ZOE for life here in . So not only is Jesus the eternal life but he is the illumination the divine light of eternal life. The divine illumination of eternal life to all men. But as verse 5 goes on to say “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it” I believe the way the NASB and King James version translated it is the best because other versions say The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The Greek word her is KATALAMBANO and technically could be translated either way there is somewhat of an ambiguity to the word but Johns point here is not that there is a battle going on here between the darkness and light and the darkness has not overthrown overtaken or captured the light but the fact that he darkness does not even understand perceive or comprehend the light. The natural man does not understand the things of God as Paul says in . By nature we are all children of wrath the doctrine of total depravity we are all dead in our trespasses and sins and apart from the divine life and light of Jesus Christ we will remain dead with no hope for eternal life.

CONCLUSION: