Jesus Is Fully Divine[*]

    We know that Jesus claimed to be divine. There are only three possible reasons for this. He is a liar, he is insane, or he is correct. There is no other option. We know that Jesus personified love. It is not conceivable that a false claim of divinity would be the path that a loving person would take. Therefore, Jesus was not lying. We have shown that Jesus was sane. Therefore, there is no other possibility but to accept Jesus's claims at face value. That is, Jesus was divine and equal to Elohim. Because Jesus is divine and honest, once we have shown that he believes something to be true, we have shown it to be true. Ordinarily, I do not use arguments by authority, but we have shown that Jesus is no ordinary authority.

    To get a first pass understanding of Jesus's divinity, reread his claims about himself, but now understand them to be true. To get a deeper understanding, learn about God the Father; and then realize that Jesus is in no way less than God the Father, only different. Paul often describes this as Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father (Rom 8:34; Eph 1:20; Col 3:1; for example), and is referencing Ps 110:1. Jesus's all-loving nature is apparent. However, what about the Father's omnipotence and omniscience? Why did Jesus not heal all people if he had the power? The question is a direct reference to the problem of pain. As discussed in that section, there is no requirement that God remove all pain just because he can. Because Jesus is God, he has the same lack of restriction. The greater good is served by Jesus not healing all people.

    We should also mention God's relationship with time and space. God is outside space-time and not bound by it. Every divine person must exist at all times. Therefore, we have the teaching of the pre-incarnate Son of God. Because the Father and the Son have always existed, the relation between them, the birthing if you will, is eternal as well. The Father did not make the Son. The Son is begotten by the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. For scriptural confirmation of this teaching, see Mk 12:36-37; Jn 1:1-15, 6:62, 8:58, 12:41, 17:5, 24-25.

    Because the Son has existed since the beginning and is a full equal with the Father, he must also have a hand in creation. It is not clear from what we have learned already exactly what this relationship to creation must be. However, we learn from the Bible that through Jesus, all things were made (Jn 1:1-15; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2). What this means is that Jesus acts as the interface between the Father and creation. We will learn shortly that Jesus is also the interface between the Father and humanity.

    Before going too much farther, it is important to realize that Jesus is fully human, as well as being fully divine.

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[*] The arguments in this and in the immediately preceding sections borrow a fair amount from C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Chapter 3, and Kreeft and Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Chapter 7.

This page was last changed on 2011/08/28