JESUS AS THE ETERNAL SON OF GOD – ONE GOD IN THREE PERSONS
Galatians 1:6-9 says that there is only one
Gospel of Christ, and even if “we or an angel from heaven should preach to you
a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (1:8-9.)
The purpose of this paper is to encourage people not to abandon the historic
and biblical Christ for a fake, inadequate Jesus!
The triune nature of God is a fundamental tenant
of each of the three major branches of Christianity: (1) the Eastern Orthodox
Church; (2) the Roman Catholic Church; and (3) the Protestant church. They have
all always been in agreement that there is one God who exists in three persons
with one nature or essence. The word, “persons,” refers to qualities of nature
and character – things like intellect, emotion, planning, organization,
purpose, creativity, expression, communication, etc. – all qualities that
distinguish God from an impersonal force.
Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox all
subscribe to the Apostles Creed, from about 140 AD, in which belief is directed
to one God in three persons: the Almighty Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the
Holy Spirit:
I believe in God, the
Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only
Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried; He descended
into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven,
and [sits] on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall
come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy
catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen. (Justin S. Holcomb (2014-04-29). Know the
Creeds and Councils (KNOW Series) (p. 27). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.)
From that creed alone we know that faith in a
God who exists in three persons is essential to the Christian faith. The
Council of Nicaea, in 325 (slightly modified in 381), issued a statement that
addressed the heresy of Arius – that there was a time in eternity past when
Jesus was not. The Nicene Creed described Jesus as “very God of very God” and
“of one substance with the Father.” The Nicene Creed also stated that the Holy
Spirit is to be worshipped as God.
Where did the church fathers and these creeds
derive these ideas about the triune nature of God – three persons with one
nature and essence? Those ideas came from the Word of God. We have the same
Word today and we can study it for ourselves. Any creed that does not square
with the Word is not worth following. The tri-unity of God also came from the
traditions passed down by the original apostles and their disciples, but those
traditions were always secondary to the Word of God itself. Any tradition
without a foundation in the Word was not and is not worth keeping.
Jesus Is God: Specific Examples Where The
Greek Word, Theos (“God”), Is Applied
To Jesus (ESV)
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In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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No one has ever seen God; the only God,
who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
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Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
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To them belong the
patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ
who is God over
all, blessed forever. Amen.
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… waiting for our blessed hope, the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior
Jesus Christ …
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But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God,
is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is
the scepter of your kingdom.”
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To those who have obtained a faith of
equal standing with ours by the righteousness of
our God and Savior Jesus
Christ …
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The Jewish, Monotheistic Context of the New Testament
Jesus and His disciples were guilty of
blasphemy, unless Jesus is God. For a monotheistic Jew to attribute the name
and quality of God to a man would clearly be blasphemy and would arguably violate
the oneness of God at the heart of Judaism – Deut. 4:35, 6:4, Exod. 3:14, Is.
42:8, 43:11, 44:6, Zech. 14:9. Monotheism is taught throughout the New
Testament by the same authors who describe Jesus as God: John 5:44; Romans
3:30; 16:27; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6; Galatians 3:20; Ephesians 4:6; 1 Timothy
1:17; 2:5; James 2:19; Jude 25.
Jesus clearly claimed to be and do things that only
the one true God Himself could do. Jesus claimed, or is represented in
Scripture to be (this is a very incomplete list):
1. The One who is able to forgive the sins of others – Matt. 9:1-6, 26:28;
Mark 2:5-11; Luke 5:20-26, 7:47-49, 24:47; Act 13:38-39; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:4; 1
John 2:12
2. The One who has authority over nature – Matt. 8:23-27; Matt.
14:22-33; Matt. 15:32-39, 21:18-24; Luke 8:22-25; John 2:6-11, 6:1-15, 6:16-21
3. The One who has authority to heal – Matt. 8:1-4, 14-17, 9:27-34;
11:4-6; 12:9-14; 14:34-36; 15:28-31; 20:29-34; Luke 4:38-39, 5:12-26, 6:6-11,
7:1-10, 21-23
4. The One who has authority over spiritual beings – Matt. 8:28-33, Matt.
17:14-18; Luke 4:31-37
5. The One who has authority to raise the dead – Matt. 9:18-26;
28:1-10; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:17-27, 32-40, Ch. 20
6. The One who created everything – John 1:3, 10; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col.
1:16-17; Heb. 1:2-3, 11:3; Rev. 4:11
7. The One who existed before He was born and before Abraham – Matt. 17:1-5 (cf.
Deut. 18:15); John 1:1-5, 9-12, 14-15, 18, 8:56-59, 17:5; Psalm 110:1 (Matt.
22:44, Luke 20:42-43); Isaiah 9:6-7; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 12:1, 10. In John 6:20,
8:24, 28, 58 and 18:5, Jesus made absolute “I AM” statements – statements that
he always, eternally existed, making Himself equal to the “I AM” statement of YHWH in Exodus 3:14-15 – “I AM that I
AM.”
8. The One who is greater than the Temple, greater than the Sabbath, and
greater than the prophets and kings – Matt. 12:1-8, 36-42
9. The One who accepts worship as God – Matt. 14:22-33 (note that Jesus accepted
the “worship” of the disciples in Matt. 14:33, as they proclaimed that, “truly
(amen) you are the Son of God.” Matt.
16:15-20; John 6:68-69, 20:26-29
10. The One who is the eternal, pre-existent Messiah promised in the Hebrew
Scriptures – Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; Psalm 2:1, 7, 10; Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7, 42:1-4,
44:6, 49:6-7, 50:6-10, 52:13-53:12; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 12:1, 10
11. The One who knows things that only God could know – Matt. 12:38-42,
17:21, 27, 18:22-23, 20:17-19
12. The One who said things about himself that only the crazy and gullible
would believe, unless they were true – John 6:33-36, 40, 44, 48, 50-51, 53-57, 62, 8:12,
23b, 34-38, 46, 51-52, 56-58, 10:28-30, 37-38, 14:1-11, 17:1-5, 18:36-37
13. The One who is the “lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” - John 1:29.
14. The One who is the Son of Man described in Daniel – 7:13-14. The
religious leaders sentenced him to death for claiming to be the person
described in Daniel 7:13-14. See Matt. 26:63-68.
15. The One who always was and is and is to come, the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and end of all things and the One in whom all things hold together – Rev. 1:8, 22:13 –
compare Is. 41:4, 44:6, 48:12, which say that YHWH is the first and last,
beginning and end.
The Witness of the Early Church Fathers
Bishop Irenaeus was the disciple of Bishop
Polycarp, of Smyrna, who was the disciple of the apostle John. Irenaeus wrote
one of the first major defenses of the Christian faith against heretical
attacks. Around 180 AD, he wrote the a defense of the three-in-one nature of
God:
“God the Father
uncreated, who is uncontained, invisible, one God, creator of the universe;
this is the first article of our faith…And the Word of God, the Son of God, our
Lord Jesus Christ…who, in the fullness of time, in order to gather all things
to Himself, He became a human being amongst human beings, capable of being seen
and touched, to destroy death, bring life, and restore fellowship between God
and humanity. And the Holy Spirit…who, in the fullness of time, was poured out
in a new way on our human nature in order to renew humanity throughout the
entire world in the sight of God.”
… the Son of God became a son of David and a son
of Abraham; for in the accomplishment of these things, and in their summing up
in Himself, in order to give us His own life, the Word of God was made flesh
through the instrumentality of the Virgin, to undo death and work life in man
….
Therefore the Father is
Lord, and the Son is Lord, and the Father is God and the Son is God; for He who
is born of God is God. And thus God is shown to be one according to the essence of His being
and power; but at the same time, as the administrator of the economy of our
redemption, He is both Father and Son: since the Father of all is invisible and
inaccessible to creatures, it is through the Son that those who are to approach
God must have access to the Father. Moreover David speaks clearly and most
manifestly of the Father and the Son, as follows: Thy throne, God, is for ever
and ever; Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity, therefore God hath
anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. For this means that
the Son, being God, receives from the Father, that is, from God, the throne of
the everlasting kingdom, and the oil of anointing above His fellows. And "
oil of anointing " is the Spirit, through whom He is the Anointed, and
"His fellows " are the prophets and the just and the apostles, and
all who receive fellowship of His kingdom, that is, His disciples. (From his
work, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching.
See also, his multi-volume apologetic, Against
Heresies.)
The Paradox Of Ascribing Human Reason To A Doctrine That Could Not Be
Invented
We have been blessed with intellect and reason.
We want to understand how things work. We do the same in trying to understand
God. The problem, of course, is that our intellect and reason are finite and
God, if there is a God, is by nature infinite. To finite people, the idea of the
infinite is incomprehensible. How can a perfect, infinite God explain and
reveal Himself to flawed, finite people?
There is no parallel idea about a triune God in
any other religion, although a strong argument for the tri-unity of God can be
made from the Hebrew Scriptures – as discussed below. The triune nature of God
revealed in the New Testament is necessarily revealed, because it could not be
logically invented. If God is in fact the Creator of everything that exists,
then it naturally follows that there are things about God that are necessarily
incomprehensible to the creation. If we can fully and logically explain our
God, then He is likely to be a god of our invention. Thus, the incomprehensible
nature of the Trinity is something that actually supports the truth of so
unlikely a characterization of the nature of God.
The Witness of Secular Historical Sources
Around 112 AD, Pliny the Younger, a Roman
governor, wrote a letter to the Emperor Trajan, asking what to do with the
Christians. In describing the Christians, he includes the following language:
“They asserted,
however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they
were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn
to Christ as to a god, and to
bind themselves by oath, not to do some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft,
or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when
called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to
assemble again to partake of food — but ordinary and innocent food.”
Thus, Pliny’s investigation of the Christian
faith included the fact that the Christ was worshipped as a god, and that led
to the worshippers to embrace exceptional morals and values.
In the work of Josephus, the Jewish/Roman historian,
The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, Josephus makes the following
historical statement about Jesus. Josephus wrote this in the mid-70s AD.
About this time there
lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one
who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the
truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ.
And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had
condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease.
He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of
God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the
tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not
disappeared.
In other words, very early after Jesus’
resurrection, Josephus documents the resurrection and the fact that Jesus
seemed other-worldly, even though Josephus never put his trust in Jesus. Can a
mere man rise from the dead – that was the question that Josephus asked, and
seemed afraid to answer. He affirms, however, that Jesus’ followers’ faith did
not waiver, but increased after the resurrection.
The Witness of the Hebrew Scriptures
(1) YHWH,
(2) The Angel of the LORD or of His Presence, and (3) The Spirit of the LORD
The triune nature of God can be established
through the Hebrew Scriptures, which we understand better because of what God
has revealed through the New Testament. There are many examples and a complete
Hebrew Scripture assessment of the triune nature of God is well beyond the
scope of this brief paper.
What we call the Old Testament is the Hebrew
Bible, although some of the books in the Hebrew text are in a different order.
The third word in the Hebrew text of the Bible, in Genesis 1:1, is אֱלֹהִ֑ים or
ʾĕ•lō•hiym, which is the masculine, plural, absolute form of God. It
sometimes refers to angels. Despite the plural form of the word, it is always
used with a singular verb when it refers to the one true God. Thus, within
the first three words of the Hebrew Scriptures, we see that there is both a
plurality and oneness about the one true God. This is a clue that should cause
us to look carefully at what this means in the rest of Scripture. In fact, ʾĕ•lō•hiym
is the word used for God throughout Genesis 1.
As if to highlight the plurality of the name, ʾĕ•lō•hiym,
Genesis 1:26 says, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Genesis
1:27 then summarizes what occurred by stating that God made man in “his own
image,” and “he created,” thus using the singular pronouns in place of the
plural of 1:26. We deduce that there is no inconsistency in using both the
plural and singular pronouns to describe the one true God. In addition, since
mankind (singular) is described in the plural, as male and female, that plural
is together representative of the image of God. The plural form of God, ʾĕ•lō•hiym,
is then used at various times throughout the Hebrew Bible. While this word does
not prove the “trinity,” it gives us insight that the one true God is somehow
both plural and singular.
The chief objection to the Trinity is that God
is one (Deut. 6:4) and cannot be divided. That is a fundamental tenant of Judaism
and Christianity (and even of Islam). However, as described by Nabeel Quereshi
in, No God But One: Allah or Jesus (Zondervan, 2016) (hereafter, “Quereshi”) at
pages 67-68, the word for “one” in Deuteronomy 6:4 is the Hebrew word, ʾe•ḥāḏ
(echad), which is frequently used
throughout the Hebrew Scriptures to refer to the oneness of multiple or
complex parts, such as morning and evening being parts of “one” day (Gen.
1:5) or such as two sticks becoming “one” in Ezekiel 37:17. In the Zohar
(pre-Christianity), Jewish mystical thought explained the oneness of God in
Deuteronomy 6:4 as a “mystery of the threefold Divine manifestations … three
modes which yet form one unity.” [Quereshi cites Zohar, Bo, 2:43b; found in The
Zohar, ed. M. Berg (New York: Kabbalah Centre International, 2003), at p. 121.]
Quereshi goes on to cite non-mystical Jewish
scholars who observe that before the time of Christ there were Jewish
rabbinical scholars who argued for an interpretation of Torah that viewed the
one God as more than one person. Those views were later suppressed as a
reaction to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. (See Quereshi, at page 68.)
From the very beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures
we see God described in the plurality. The Spirit of God is referenced in
Genesis 1:2. The Holy Spirit is referenced in Psalm 51 and Isaiah 63. The
Spirit of the LORD is referenced in Samuel 10:6 and 16:13-14, 2 Samuel 23:2, 1
Kings 18:12. There are many other Hebrew references to the Spirit of the LORD
and Spirit of God. Thus, we know that God manifested Himself in the Hebrew
Scriptures through His Spirit, who often came upon people. Thus, between the
Spirit of the LORD and the Spirit of God, at a minimum, there is a duality of
God – YHWH manifested in and through
the Spirit.
We also know that YHWH manifested Himself through the angel of His presence, who is
usually referenced as “the angel of the LORD.” We see various appearances of
God in human or angelic form in the Hebrew Scriptures. (Gen. 16:7, 10–11, 13,
18:1–33; Ex. 3:1–4:31, 32:20–22; Num. 22:35, 38; Judg. 2:1–2, 6:11–18). One of
the most striking manifestations is in Genesis 18, where God himself appears as
a man with Abraham and two angels and eats dinner and drinks milk with him. How
is it that YHWH can appear as man?
18:1, 10, 13-14 - And
the LORD [YHWH] appeared to him by
the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. …
The LORD [YHWH] said, “I will surely
return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.”
And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. … The LORD [YHWH] said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah
laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard
for the LORD [YHWH]? 22 … but Abraham
still stood before the LORD [YHWH]. … 33 And the LORD [YHWH] went his way ….
Some rabbis teach that this wasn’t really God,
but an angel that was representing God or it was someone speaking for God. The
text never represents the men as angels, although as to the non-speakers, that
can be implied, especially when we see the two angels in chapter 19. The man
speaking in chapter 18, however, is speaking as YHWH and asserts authority to judge and act as YHWH. When this man departs, we learn that YHWH departed from Abraham’s presence. There is no textual reason
not to believe that this is a bodily
manifestation of the one true God who eats and drinks with Abraham. In his work,
Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, Irenaeus says that Genesis 18
describes the Son of God appearing in human form, speaking and eating with
Abraham and having the authority to judge sin in the world – as he judges
Sodom.
In Genesis 32:22-32,
we see another bodily manifestation of God, this time wrestling with Jacob.
Again, some rabbis would say that this was an angel or something else, but the
text quotes Jacob as stating, ‘I have seen God (YHWH) face to face, and
yet my life has been delivered.” (32:30, ESV.) The text describes Him as a
“man.” That God-man wrestled with Jacob and dislocated his hip. (32:25.)
In Judges 6:11-27, we
are told the story of the LORD’s appearance to Gideon. The person speaking to
Gideon in the narrative to called both, “the angel of the LORD” and “the LORD”
[YHWH]. In 6:34, the “Spirit of the LORD” clothed Gideon. Thus, we have YHWH,
the Sprit of YHWH and the visible manifestation of YHWH - all three persons of the trinity.
In Judges 13, the
“angel of the LORD,” also called, “the angel of God,” appeared to Samson’s
parents. This angel had the appearance of a “man.” (13:6, 8, 11.) Samson’s
father, Manoah, describes this man as “God” in 13:22. The “Spirit of the LORD” [YHWH]
stirred in Samson in 13:25, 14:6, 19, and 15:14. Thus, we again see the
three-part manifestation of God.
Romans 8:9 refers to the Spirit of God dwelling in
believers, and then refers to that same Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. Jesus
said that God the Father is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him
in Spirit and truth (John 4:24). If God the Father is Spirit (as Jews believe
and as Jesus stated in John 4:24), then who came to earth and ate bread cakes,
curds, milk and lamb with Abraham in Genesis 18? If God is Spirit, then who
wrestled with Jacob and dislocated his hip in Genesis 32:22-32? Who appeared to
Gideon and Manoah?
The Hebrew Scriptures clearly distinguish between
God and the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of the LORD. The Hebrew Scriptures
also clearly and strongly suggest that the “angel of the LORD” or the “angel of
the LORD’s presence” was a physical, human manifestation of God. In Luke
24:25-27 and 44-47, Jesus teaches that the Hebrew Scriptures were describing
Him. He told His disciples to read the Hebrew Scriptures looking for Him. As a
Christian looking for Jesus as the God-man, we can rationally and logically see
that the “angel of the LORD” and the manifestations of God in human form are
likely the pre-incarnate Christ, who has always been interceding for God’s
people. See 1 Cor. 10:4.
Isaiah
9:6, in speaking of the Messiah, says:
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his
shoulder,
and his name shall be
called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government
and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his
kingdom,
to establish it and to
uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and
forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will
do this.
Thus, the Messiah is a son who is also
called mighty God and everlasting (eternal) Father. In John 14:9-11, Jesus told
his disciples, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father.… Do you not believe
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? … Believe me that I am in the
Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works
themselves.”
Isaiah 63:7-10, starts with the “steadfast love
of the LORD” in 63:7, and then says at the end of verse 8 and following:
“And he (YHWH) became
their Savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted
them up and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his
Holy Spirit ….” (ESV)
Thus, we see (1) the LORD God, (2) the angel of
His presence, and (3) the Holy Spirit – three persons who are all
personifications of the One true God.
Savior/Redeemer, Messiah/King
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, we are told
that both YHWH and the Messiah – the
Anointed One – are “Savior” and “Redeemer” and the One who pays the “ransom price.”
How was the ransom price paid? How are people redeemed and how is YHWH their
Savior? The coming Messiah will both save His people from their sins (something
only God can do) and rescue and redeem them from their enemies, becoming their
eternal king, whose reign will never end. Since both YHWH and the Messiah are said to do the same things, the question
has to be asked, is the Messiah also in some way YHWH as opposed to just being a representation of YHWH?
In Psalm 2, the nations are raging against YHWH and His Anointed (2:2). YHWH sets His king on Zion (2:6). That
king is YHWH’s Son – begotten of YHWH
– meaning that He shares the nature and character of YHWH, coming from YHWH.
In 2:12, the nations are told (in Aramaic – fitting to the language of the
surrounding nations) to “kiss the Son” and “take refuge in Him.” In other
words, demonstrate loyalty to and surrender to the Son in exchange for the
blessing of the Son.
Jumping to Psalm 110:1, and tying it into Psalm
2, we see YHWH say to David’s Lord (master/king),
“Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” To sit at the
right hand of YHWH is to be a co-regent
with YHWH. The statement makes
David’s Lord (whoever that is) equal with YHWH.
This is one of the most cited Hebrew texts in the New Testament, mentioned
either directly or by inference in Matt. 22:42-45, 26:64; Mark 12:35-37; Luke
20:41-44; Acts 2:34-25; 1 Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:20, 22; Heb. 1:3, 13, 2:8, 8:1,
10:12-13, 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22.
In referring to Psalm 110:1, Jesus asked the
Pharisees in Matt. 22:42-45, “If then David calls Him [the Christ/Messiah]
Lord, how is He [Messiah] his [David’s] son?” In other words, the Messiah is
both in David’s royal lineage and is David’s Lord/Master – how is that
possible? Jesus is trying to get the Pharisees to understand that this Messiah
pre-existed his birth – He is not just another man, but came into the world as
David’s Master/Lord. The Messiah both pre-existed and came after David, which
is not something that can be said about mere mortals. In addition, this
Messiah/Lord/King will be a “priest forever” (110:4; Heb. 7:21). He is not a
Levitical priest, but a forever priest as well as being king in the Davidic
lineage. Only Jesus satisfies this requirement. Jesus came first as priestly
intercessor and he is returning as the conquering King of kings.
In Job 19:25, Job prophesies that his Redeemer
lives (present tense for Job) and that in the last day, that same Redeemer will
“stand on the earth.” Again, how does the God who is the Redeemer of Job and of
the Jewish people in the Hebrew Scriptures, “stand upon the earth,” unless He
stands as the man who is also God, and who pre-existed His birth as man?
In Psalm 16:10, David says, “For you (YHWH) will not abandon my soul to Sheol (the place of the dead), or let
your Holy One see corruption (or dwell in the pit of death).” Throughout the
Hebrew Scriptures, the term, Holy One, is almost always a reference to YHWH himself. There are a few
exceptions, such as for Moses and Aaron as holy ones interceding before God for
the people. Psalm 16:10 was and is believed to be a reference to David as a
“holy one” before the ultimate Holy One. However, the text says that this “holy
one” will not have a body that is corrupted by death.
If you go to Israel today, there is a place in
the basement of a building in the Mt. Zion area of Jerusalem where the orthodox
Jews have a shrine to David. They call it the Tomb of David, because they
believe that David was buried in that area, but they have not been able to
identify the actual tomb. In that same building, on the second floor, is what
is called the Upper Room. It is the place that tourists are taken as the Upper
Room. The building is only about 1,000 years old, so it is too new to be the
actual upper room, but the Upper Room was likely in that area, perhaps even on
that spot.
This brings us to Acts 2. The disciples were likely
in the Upper Room in that same area of Mt. Zion. Peter has been filled by the
Holy Spirit and is announcing to the “men of Israel,” who are in town from the
nations, that Jesus who was crucified, has risen from the dead. He then quotes
from Psalm 16:8-11. After quoting those verses that the Jews believed were
about David, Peter says, “I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David
that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day … He
foresaw and was speaking about the resurrection of the Christ
(Messiah/Annointed One), that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh
see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”
(Acts 2:22-32.) Peter then quotes Psalm 110:1 as a reference to Jesus ascending
to the right hand of God and being the Davidic king. (Acts 2:33-36.)
Thus, to this day, in the place where David was
buried, the Jews remember David’s life and death and the fact that David cannot
be the subject of Psalm 16:10. In that same place, Christians are reminded that
the prophecy of the Holy One was that his body would not decay through death,
but would be resurrected to demonstrate that He alone conquered death for those
who believe in Him. Jesus is the Holy One who is a priest forever in Psalm
16:8-11. He alone is the Redeemer of His people and the King of kings. He alone
is qualified to serve in all of these roles because of His eternal,
pre-existent divine nature.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12, describe the suffering and
atonement that the Messiah would make for His people. Somehow, this Messiah
would carry the sins of the people and the nations on Himself. He would be
afflicted and suffer on their behalf for their sins. In doing so, He alone
would be the perfect offering that would take away the sins of the people and
would “make many to be accounted righteous” before YHWH. He not only bore the sins of many, but continues to make
intercession for them (see the last clause of 53:12).
How is it possible for any mere man to
supernaturally accomplish what is described in these verses? Only a perfectly
holy person can be such a perfect and eternally effective sacrifice, and only
God alone is perfect. How can a mere man eternally intercede for transgressors?
This theme is picked up in both Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:24-25. Only Jesus as
the Son of God was qualified for this role. The Son of God is the only means
that God uses to redeem His people who trust in His Anointed One. See John
14:6.
In
Daniel 7:13-14, Daniel has a vision of a person in heaven who looks like a “son
of man,” but to whom is given an eternal, everlasting “dominion and glory and a
kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him....”
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of
heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and
languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting
dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.”
Thus, there is a heavenly person, who is not the
“Ancient of Days” – who is given the authority of YHWH to rule over all things
forever. Who is this person who looks like the “son of man” – i.e., who looks
like a human being? Who is this “son of man” who will come with the clouds of
heaven?
Jesus’ favorite self-designation in the New
Testament is “son of man.” In Matthew 26:64, Jesus applies the words of Daniel
7:13-14 to himself:
Jesus said to him, ’… But
I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of
Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
For that reason, the high priest tore his robe,
accused Jesus of blasphemy (calling himself God) and sentenced him to death.
(Matt. 26:65-66.) Under the Jewish law, Jesus deserved to die for blasphemy, unless
what He said was true and He was in fact God. (See John 8:56-59 where Jesus was
also accused of blasphemy for making himself equal with God. See Rev. 1:7,
where we are again told that Jesus is the Son of Man from Daniel 7:13-14.)
In Zechariah 12, The LORD (YHWH) speaks of
a day of both judgment and salvation for Judah and Israel. As he is speaking,
He says in 12:10 that He will,
“pour out on the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for
mercy, so that, ‘when they look on me,
on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him,
as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over
a firstborn.’”
This raises the question of how it is possible
for God, who is spirit, to be “pierced”? And why does YHWH change the pronoun from “me,” to “him”? How can whoever is pierced be both “me” (YHWH) and “him” (someone else)?
These are the kinds of questions, of course,
that are perfectly answered in Jesus. Jesus alone can be both YHWH and “him” if the trinity is a true
description of God in all His fullness. Jesus, as Messiah, was “pierced for our
transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). He “was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was
the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed … YHWH has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.” (Isaiah 53:5-7 – see the rest of the chapter which is all about the
suffering of the Messiah for his people.)
Jesus is the answer to so the questions raised
and to the prophecies given by the Hebrew Scriptures. We are called to worship
Jesus as the eternal Son of God, because no other Jesus is sufficient to
meet the descriptions of Scripture and fulfill the divine mandate. How tragic for someone to miss heaven
because they have embraced the wrong Jesus!
Galatians 1:6-9 says that there is only one
Gospel of Christ, and even if “we or an angel from heaven should preach to you
a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (1:8-9.)
Don’t abandon the historic and biblical Christ for a fake, inadequate Jesus!
COMPREHENSION AND COMPLEXITY
Quereshi observes that the laws of physics were
seemingly well understood in the late 19th century. However, in the
twentieth century, physicists began to observe conduct at the subatomic level
that did not comply with the known laws. Eventually, the study of quantum
mechanics arose, which posits that subatomic particles can be in more than one
place at the same time – a counter-intuitive idea. Our understanding of quantum
mechanics then led to many modern technological developments. (See Quereshi’s
discussion at pp. 64-65.) If our understanding of the laws of physics had
remained stuck in the 19th century, much of the technology that we
take for granted would not exist. At the same time, physicists concede that
what they observe, they do not truly understand – because of the
counter-intuitive nature of the observations. (See the Wikipedia article on quantum
mechanics, under Philosophical Implications - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics.)
When we determine to understand God in a way
that we can comprehend – something simple enough to wrap our mind around – we
necessarily limit God to the limits of our human capacity to think and
understand. If there is a God who exists outside of time and space (as He must
if He created everything), then that God must be far more complex than what we
can experience and understand within the created order. A God who can perfectly
predict and even pre-determine the future is a God for whom time and space is
not a limitation, much as the sub-atomic particles identified by quantum
mechanics. If that is true of quantum mechanics, it is infinitely truer of the
God who created the laws of physics and put everything in perfect order.
Conclusion – The Only Jesus Worth Staking Your Life And Your Eternity
Upon
One of the great rational arguments for the
eternal divinity of Jesus Christ as God the Son came from Athanasius, the
eventual Bishop of Alexandria. Athanasius reasoned that only a perfect
sacrifice could forgive sin once and for all time. Only God is perfect, so only
God could be the necessary sacrifice. Only the Son of God could be both man and
perfect. Thus, only the Son of God could be the perfect sacrifice for sin.
(John 1:29.) No one other than a man who was also eternal God could be that
sacrifice. No one other than God could be perfect and sinless and holy and know
that He came into the world for that purpose. (See John 18:36-37.) No other
form of Jesus is adequate for the salvation necessary to make us right with an
eternally holy God. Any other Jesus is not the gloriously eternal and perfect
Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah presented in the Scriptures. Faith in any
other Jesus is ineffective for salvation, because no other kind of Jesus can
save people from their sins and give to them His righteousness. May you exclaim
to Jesus with Thomas, “my Lord and my God.” (John 20:28.)
[See the charts below.]
CHART: CO-ATTRIBUTES OF THE TRIUNE GOD
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Attribute
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Father
|
Son
|
Holy Spirit
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|
Source of Life
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Joshua 3:10
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John 1:4
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Romans 8:2
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|
Omniscience
|
Psalm 139:1–6
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John 4:17–18
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1 Corinthians 2:10–12
|
|
Omnipotence
|
Genesis 1:1
|
John 1:3
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Job 33:4
|
|
Omnipresence
|
Jeremiah 23:23–24
|
Matthew 28:20
|
Psalm 139:7–10
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|
Eternal
|
Psalm 90:2
|
John 1:1
|
Hebrews 9:14
|
|
Holy
|
Leviticus 11:44
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Acts 3:14
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Matthew 12:32
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|
Loving
|
1 John 4:8
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Romans 8:37–39
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Galatians 5:22
|
|
Truth
|
John 3:33
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John 14:6
|
John 14:17
|
|
Creator
|
Gen. 1-2; Job 38:4-7; Ps. 8:3; Is. 40:28; Neh. 9:6
|
Jn. 1:3; Heb. 1:2; Col. 1:16-17
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Gen. 1:2
|
|
|
The Following
Is From The ESV Study Bible,
Focused On The Trinity In
The Gospel Of John
The Work Of The Trinity
Though
the word, “Trinity,”
does not appear in the Bible, by presenting the Father, Son, and Spirit all
doing what no one else ever does, the Gospel of John
gives us the raw material on which this doctrine is based. Observing what God
says and does helps us to know him, and observing which actions are done by
which members of the Godhead helps us to see which roles they play.
|
Action
|
Father
|
Son
|
Spirit
|
|
Give
life
|
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|
Proclaim
future
|
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|
Indwell
believers
|
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|
Teach
|
|||
|
Testify
to Jesus
|
|||
|
Glorify
Jesus
|
Actions Common to Father and Son
|
Action
|
Father
|
Son
|
|
Glorify
the Father
|
||
|
Give
the Spirit
|
||
|
Send
the Spirit
|
Actions Common to Son and Spirit
|
Action
|
Son
|
Spirit
|
|
Be
given by the Father
|
||
|
Be
sent by the Father
|
3:17; 4:34; 5:23–24, 36; 6:29, 57; 7:28–29, 33; 8:16, 26,
29, 42; 9:4; 10:36; 11:42; 12:44–45;
13:20; 15:21; 17:3, 8, 18, 23, 25; 20:21
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|
|
Speak not from himself
|
||
|
Speak
only what he hears
|
||
|
Convict
|
||
|
Be
received
|
||
|
Disclose
what belongs to God
|
God and Jesus Are Both Alpha and Omega
In The Book of Revelation
|
God is
the Alpha and the Omega (1:8; 21:6; cf. Is. 41:4, 44:6, 48:12)
|
God is
the beginning and the end (21:6)
|
|
Jesus is
the Alpha and the Omega (22:13; cf. 2:8; 22:13)
|
Jesus is
the beginning and the end (22:13; cf. 2:8; 22:13)
|