Almost
all world religions have some respect for Jesus. According to Islam He was a
prophet; according to the Baha’i faith He was a “manifestation” of God; according
to Hinduism He was a perfect example of “self-realisation”; according to
Sikhism He was a holy man. But what about the Bible? There is no doubt the
Bible teaches that Jesus has a much higher status than these religions afford
Him, but just how high? Does the Bible ascribe to Him dignity or deity? We will
see in this article that the Bible doesn’t place Jesus at the top of creation; rather,
it places Him above and outside it – because He is the Creator.
In
a book called Putting Jesus in His Place[1], Robert Bowman and Ed Komoszewski look
at five lines of evidence proving the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is God.
They use the acronym HANDS to show:
1. Jesus
receives the Honours of God
2. Jesus
has the Attributes of God
3. Jesus
bears the Names of God
4. Jesus
does the Deeds of God
5. Jesus
shares the Seat of God.
We
shall follow the same acronym.
Jesus receives the Honours
of God
The
Bible is clear that God alone is to be worshipped. In Matthew 4:10 the Lord
Jesus countered the devil’s desire for worship by saying, “You shall worship
the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve” (NKJV).
Worship
is never to be given to mere men, no matter how godly they may be. When someone
bowed to worship Peter (Acts 10:25-26), and when the people of Lystra attempted
to worship Barnabas and Paul (Acts 14:11-18), they were immediately rebuked.
Worship
is never to be given to angels, no matter how great they may be. Twice over in
the book of Revelation (19:10; 22:8-9) John is so overwhelmed with the sights an
angel had shown him that he fell down in worship. On both occasions the angel’s
response was a swift rebuke and correction: “See that you do not do that . . . Worship
God” (NKJV).
Godly
men refused worship. Awe-inspiring angels refused worship. Jesus of Nazareth
never refused worship. Over and over again in the Gospels people worshipped
Him, yet He never said, as Peter did, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.” He
never said, as did Barnabas and Paul, “Men, why are you doing these things? We
also are men with the same nature as you”. And He never said, as did the angel,
“See that you do not do that... Worship God.”
On
every occasion when people bowed before Him in worship He accepted it. Matthew
14:32-33 is a particularly powerful example. The disciples were in a terrible
storm on the sea, and Jesus came to them walking on the water. He then calmed
the storm, with the result that those in the boat worshipped Him and proclaimed
Him as the Son of God. Psalm 107:23-30 tells us about sailors in a storm who “reel
to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then
they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their
distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their
desired haven.” What Yahweh does in Psalm 107, Jesus does in Matthew 14. Note: the
disciples didn’t turn to God in heaven and worship Him for calming the storm. Rather,
they turned to Jesus and worshipped Him, proclaiming Him as the Son of God. He
didn’t say, “No, I didn’t do it, God did. Worship Him, not Me!” A good man, no
matter how great, does not accept honour that belongs to God alone, unless He
is God.
It’s
not simply that Christ accepted worship; God the Father actively commands it.
Hebrews 1:6 tells us that, when Christ comes again, God will say, “Let all the
angels of God worship Him.”
He
is not merely worshipped as only God should be, He is praised and prayed to as
only God should be (e.g. Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; Acts 7:59-60; 1 Cor 1:2; 1 Tim
1:12). Everything the Bible says should go only to God goes also to Jesus
Christ.
Jesus has the Attributes of
God
Some
attributes of God, such as grace and mercy, can be shared to some degree by His
creatures. But some attributes belong to God alone. Only God is omnipotent
(all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (present and active
everywhere) and eternal (having no beginning or ending). These attributes distinguish
God from His creation. But when we look at what the Bible says about the Lord
Jesus, we find that He is on the divine side of that divide in that He
possesses the unique attributes of God. Many places in the Bible establish
this, but for convenience we will look at just one passage:
God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being
the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high... (Heb 1:1-3)
The
writer identifies Christ as eternal, because He created the ages (the word
translated “worlds” actually means ages, identifying Christ as the creator of
time itself). The writer tells us that Christ upholds all things. If He upholds
all creation He must be omnipotent. If He upholds all things He must know about
all things, and therefore be omniscient. And if He upholds all things He must
be active at all points in creation, and thus is omnipresent.
This
and many other passages present Christ as having the attributes God alone possesses.
Jesus bears the Names of God
The
Lord Jesus is frequently referred to in the Bible with names and titles that belong
uniquely to the one true God. We will take just three examples.
Yahweh
Yahweh (or
Jehovah) is the great personal name
of the one true God. Many Old Testament verses that refer to Him are quoted in
the New Testament as applying to Christ. For example, in Psalm 102 Yahweh is
praised as the one who “laid the foundation of the earth.” Hebrews 1:10 quotes this
passage, which is addressed to Yahweh, the writer telling us that this is what
God the Father said to the Son: “Thou Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundation of the earth”. So we have the very highest authority for calling
Jesus Yahweh – God the Father did it.
In
Psalm 34:8 we are told to “taste and see that the Lord [Yahweh] is good”. This
passage is quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 2:3. Verse 4 makes it clear that he is
talking about none other than Jesus Christ.
In
Romans 10:13 Paul quotes from Joel 2:32 which tells us to call on the name of
the Lord (Yahweh) to be saved, but verse 9 of that same chapter makes it clear
who it is we have to call on – we are to confess that Jesus is Lord.
The
very name Jesus means Yahweh Saviour. Israelite parents might
so name their sons as an acknowledgement that Yahweh saves, or as an aspiration
that He would save, but why was Christ given that name? The angel told Joseph
the reason: “thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from
their sins” (Matt 1:21). Christ was named Jesus because He is Yahweh the Saviour.
God
In
many passages Jesus is directly called God (e.g. John 1:1; 20:28; Rom 9:5; Heb
1:8; 2 Pet 1:1). But He is also called the
mighty God (Isa 9:6), the great
God (Titus 2:13) and the true God (1 John 5:20).
Alpha and Omega
In
Revelation 1:8 God refers to Himself as the Alpha and Omega, a uniquely divine
title. But in Revelation 22:12-13 we read these words of Jesus Christ: “behold,
I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give everyman according as his
work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and
the last.” Obviously there cannot be two beings who are the Alpha and Omega.
This
is just a small sampling of moments when the Bible gives Jesus the names of
God.
Jesus does the Deeds of God
There
are actions only God can do. Such actions are far beyond any creature’s
ability, but the Bible teaches that they were carried out by Christ.
Creation
In
Isaiah 44:24 God says that He created everything in heaven and earth by Himself
and that no one was with Him, yet the New Testament insists over and over again
that the Lord Jesus created all things (John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2, 10). To
the person who denies the deity of Christ this presents a massive problem and
an irreconcilable contradiction – the Old Testament says that Yahweh created
all things by Himself while the New Testament says that Christ created all
things. Those who accept the deity of Christ have no problem.
Salvation
In
Isaiah 43:11 God says, “I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no
saviour.” The proclamation of the New Testament, however, is that Jesus Christ
is the only Saviour (Acts 4:12).
Redemption
Psalm
49 teaches that no one can redeem his brother because the price is too great
(vv 7-8). Only God can do it (v 15). The New Testament tells us that Christ is
the redeemer (Titus 2:13-14).
Giving the Holy Spirit
Joel
2:28 prophesies of a time when God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. In
Acts 2:33 Peter says that Christ poured out the Holy Spirit.
These
are some of the works Christ does which only God can do.
Jesus shares the Seat of God
In
Isaiah 6, the prophet has a vision of Yahweh on His glorious throne, and
testifies that “mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (v 5). Referring
to this experience in John 12:40-41, the apostle says that the glory Isaiah saw
was Christ’s glory.
Isaiah
42:8 and 48:11 tell us that God does not give His glory to another, but in John
17:5 the Lord Jesus requests that He be given glory alongside the Father, glory
which He had before the world was.
In
John 5:22 the Lord Jesus says that the Father judges no one but has committed
all judgment to the Son. In Revelation 20:11-15 John’s vision of the judgment
of the Great White Throne reveals that small and great “stand before God”. They
aren’t standing before the Father, but they are still standing before God. The One
on the throne is the Son, sitting in the place where only God can sit.
Conclusion
In
John 20:27 the risen Christ invited Thomas to “behold My hands”. The result was
that Thomas acknowledged Him as “My Lord and my God.” We too have looked at the
hands of the Lord Jesus – His honours, attributes, names, deeds, and seat. Our confession should be the same.
[1] Robert M. Bowman Jr & J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the
Deity of Christ, Kregel, 2007.
