Reformed Theology: 5. The Deity of Jesus

Hello and welcome back to the Basics of the Reformed Faith series. Today's topic will be the deity of Jesus. Like Jews and Muslims, Christians are monotheists, but unlike Jews and Muslims, Christians are also Trinitarians.

The Triune God and the Deity of Christ

We believe that the one God is Triune and is revealed as three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When it comes to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Bible everywhere affirms that Jesus is true and eternal God, uncreated and without beginning or end.

Given Jesus's central place in Christianity, no one, of course, wants to say anything bad about Jesus. Non-Christian religions often attempt to co-opt Jesus and make him one of their own, but this is not easy to do since the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ differentiates Christianity from all other religions.

In fact, the denial of the deity of Jesus would put you outside of Christianity and a pseudo-Christian cult. If Jesus is true, the true and eternal God, then the Christian doctrine of God is unique among world religions.

The irony is that while virtually all religions honor Jesus as a prophet or teacher, nevertheless, they all reject implicitly or explicitly the main point the New Testament makes about Jesus, that he is God in human flesh, something Jesus clearly believed and proclaimed about himself.

That the doctrine of the deity of Jesus is not the invention of the early church can be seen by merely scanning the pages of Holy Scripture with its substantial teaching regarding the deity of Jesus in both of the Old and New Testament.

Old Testament Prophecies of the Messiah

One of the most powerful lines of evidence for the deity of Jesus are those verses in the Old Testament, such as the famous messianic prophecy in Isaiah 7 14, written hundreds of years before Jesus's birth.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. The Messiah will be miraculously conceived and given the title God with us.

In Isaiah 9 6 we read,. For unto us a child is born, unto 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.

Isaiah 9 6. This too refers to Jesus Christ. In addition to the messianic prophecies in Isaiah, we have a number of messianic Psalms. Psalm 8, 22 and 23, 89 and 110, in which the Father speaks of the Son as highly exalted and equal in majesty and glory.

We also have the passage such as Proverbs 8 22 through 31, which depicts wisdom personified when we see through this lens of the New Testament fulfillment this is clearly a reference to the Eternal Son who is wisdom from God.

And Micah 5, 2 where the prophet speaks of the one to be born in Bethlehem, Jesus as being eternal. The coming Messiah is repeatedly identified as the Almighty God and the Eternal Father, the wisdom of God, righteous, highly exalted, yet to be born of a lowly virgin.

These prophetic verses can only be speaking of one person, Israel's coming Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who was the God of Abraham, John 8, 58. In the New Testament, Jesus is said to be eternal and pre-existent.

The Eternal Son in John, Paul, and Hebrews

In John 1, 1 we read,. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is described by John as the creator and sustainer of all things. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

And in Colossians 1, 16 through 17, Paul says of Jesus,. By him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Even God the Father attributes creation to Jesus in Hebrews 1, 10. You, Lord, meaning Jesus, laid the foundation of the earth, and in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. Jesus is identified as God throughout the pages of the New Testament.

Jesus as God in the New Testament

In John 20, 28, Thomas falls before Jesus and confesses to him, My Lord and my God. In Titus 2, 13, Paul speaks of Jesus' second coming as the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The author of Hebrews writes of Jesus,. But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of our brightness is the scepter of your kingdom. Hebrews 1, 8. Then there are those attributes predicated of Jesus which can only apply to God.

Jesus is the object of worship, Matthew 28, 16 and 17. He has the power to raise the dead, John 5, 21 and 11, 25. He is the final judge of humanity, Matthew 25, 31 and 32. Jesus has universal power and authority, Matthew 28, 18, as well as the power to forgive sins, Mark 2, 5 through 7.

He not only identifies himself as God, John 14, 8 through 9, but calls himself the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, a divine self-designation, Revelation 22, 13. The deity of Jesus is not a distinctly reformed doctrine, but true of all Christianity and all Christians.

Definite Atonement and the Reformed View of Christ's Saving Work

What distinguishes the reformed understanding of Jesus from all others is his definite atonement. All that Jesus dies to save will be saved. He is a perfect Savior that does not try to save and fail. He saves perfectly all those he came to save.

John 6, 38 tells us all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Matthew 1, 21 tells us she, Mary, will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Jesus is not a Savior who tries and fails, or one who died for the opportunity to be saved.

No, Jesus infallibly saves all that the Father gives him, so that none are lost. He truly saves. Throughout the Bible, Jesus is revealed to us as the true and eternal God, the Almighty, the second person of the Godhead, the creator of all things, and the one whom we must worship and serve.

In fact, whatever we can say of God, we can say of Jesus. So let's do a quick review. Jesus is the true and eternal God of the scriptures. All monotheistic religions except Christianity reject this doctrine.

Both the Old and New Testaments point us to the deity of Jesus. Matthew quotes Isaiah calling the Messiah Immanuel, which means God with us. Jesus is attributed with creation by God the Father, John and Paul.

God the Father calls him God and says his throne will last forever. Well friends, thanks again for joining us. We look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.