Is He or Is He Not?

“And Thomas answered, and said unto him, My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28)

“And Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

The purpose of this study  is to attempt to make those, who cannot see all the Biblical evidence for themselves, help them to believe what the Bible, both Old and New Testament, teaches us about our Lord and Saviour, called Jesus the Christ in the New Testament, the Messiah of the Old Testament.

Over the years it has become evident to me, in Bible study groups and conversations with other Christians, that there are a good number of believers that either doubt or disbelieve the Deity of Christ to the extent that they get angry and leave a Bible Study in a huff when told to study and examine Biblical evidence supporting the Godship of Jesus Christ.  Their argument primarily is that the Bible says that the Son was begotten of the Father and thus cannot be God. They feel that the Son was created by the Father and thus cannot claim the Godship, that He was created first before the angels and the Heavens and all that followed after. What they fail to see is that begotten in this case does not mean created, but flowing out of the Spirit of the God of the Universe. “In the beginning was the Word [Logos, Spirit] and the Word was with God, and the Word [Logos, Spirit] was God. And the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made…And the Word [Logos, Spirit] was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-3,14) From these verses we can deduct that from the ever present and all knowing Spirit of God flowed the Spirit of the Son, who alone was the Creator of all things, and it was Him, the Son, who manifested Himself to, and had direct dealings with mankind, and not the Universal Spirit of God the Father. The power flowed from the Father but the application belonged to the Son.

Let us now look at some verses in the Bible, where God the Son is manifested and let us see what He is called. First off let us look at Gen. 16:7-14. It is the story of Hagar fleeing from Sarai. Hagar, being with child is found in vs. 7 by the Angel of the Lord, and in vs. 10 the Angel of the Lord tells Hagar that He will multiply her seed exceedingly, an act that no angel can do. Only God could make such a promise. And then in vs. 13 we see that Hagar identifies that Angel as God when she exclaims “Thou God seest me.” In the following 5 or 6 chapters the Lord manifests Himself to Abraham quite a few times. Sometimes He is called God, other times Lord, and on several occasions the Angel or Angel of the Lord. These manifestations in visible human forms are none other than God the Son.

Next let’s look at Gen. 32, from verse 24 on we read how Jacob wrestles with a man during the night. It is during that night that Jacob’s name is changed to Israel, meaning “For as a prince thou hast power with God and with men.” And in verse 30 we read “And Jacob called the name of the place Pentel; for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Gen. 32:30).Compare this with Hosea 12: 4,5) where we read, Hosea talking about Jacob. “Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him; he found him in Bethel [Gen 28:13], and there he spoke with us; Even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial.”

Here we have evidence of three different people meeting face to face with God, namely Hagar, Abraham and Jacob, and we can name at least three more such as Moses, Joshua and Gideon who had a direct encounter with God. Sometimes He is described as an angel or a man, but in Gen. 31:11-13 we read that the Angel said to Jacob, “I am the God of Bethel”, and in Ex. 3:2-6 the Angel said to Moses, “I am the God of thy Father, the God of Abraham. So you can see that in their encounters, whether as an angel or a man, God appeared to those people in person and not as a spirit. In John 1:18 we read “no man has seen God (the Father) at anytime; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” And in John 6:46 Jesus Himself states, “Not that any man hath seen the Father, except he who is of God; he hath seen the Father.” So if no man has seen God the Father, it stands to reason that the God that Hagar, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Gideon encountered was none other than God the Son, the Creator of all things.

Next let’s look at what David had to say in Ps. 45:6, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter.” So who is the ruler and King of the Kingdom? In Rev. 11:15 we read that the Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and Rev. 17:14 calls our Lord Jesus, Lord of lords and King of kings. Yet David calls Him God. Compare this with Heb. 1:8 and there we read, “But unto the Son he saith thy throne O God, is forever and ever.” Here the Son is directly identified as God. I could go on quoting verse after verse, but I think that it is apparent that the Scripture quoted, without a doubt, establishes the Godship of the Son.

If Christ was not truly God, as the dissenters claim, that He, knowing full well the will of God and being sinless and without blemish, would have been guilty of blasphemy, when He said I and the Father are one, and thereby claimed equality with God. Furthermore, if Christ would have had committed but the smallest of sins, He would not have qualified as the Sacrificial Lamb of God, to be slain on Calvary’s cross. But, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God [the Father] hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.” (Phil. 2: 5-11).

In Isaiah 9 verse 6 we find the prophecy about the birth of Christ and the names attached to Him. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father [another indication of the equality of Father and Son], The Prince of Peace.” With all the evidence presented here, as found in our Bible, can there really be any doubt as to the Godship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? I think not!

To those of you who do not believe that Jesus Christ is truly God, I say, study your Bible thoroughly, starting with the verses that I have quoted, and there are many more that I have neither time nor space to get into, and let the Bible be your guide, let not your pride and stubbornness stand in the way of what the Holy Scriptures have to say. Just like Paul wrote to Timothy “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” (2Tim. 2:15). In order that we may be able to say, just as Thomas said, “My Lord and my God”.

I would like to close with the admonition of Paul as found in Colossians 2 v 8-10, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Amen.