Deity and Messiahship
of Jesus
Revelation 3:7: “And to the
angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says he who is holy, he
who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens, and no man shuts; and
shuts, and no man opens.”
“…he who opens, and no man
shuts; and shuts, and no man opens” relates to what He does with the key. This
is based on Isaiah 22:22. It is a claim that Jesus fits and fulfils the
prophecies throughout the Old testament related to the
Messiah. These believers in
The culture eventually wants
us to live in their totally fabricated world view. They are living in a
psychotic construct of reality and they want us to live there too. And we say
no, we won’t; and sooner or later we come into major conflict. That is the kind
of thing that was going on in
1)
The claim of
exclusivity. This isn’t restricted to just one statement by Jesus, it permeates
the Gospels. John 5:22. We have to recognize that it is not opinion. You may
want to go so far as to say it is a matter of opinion or a matter of faith as
to whether you believe Jesus is God, but you can’t say it is opinion that these
books were all written by Jews in the first century who were monotheists. They
believed Jesus was God as well as the Father. If you want to deny that, then
the response to that is, okay now that you are constructing a house that is completely
divorced from reality and has no foundation in history, I am not going to move
into that house and dialogue with you; because if we are going to have a
conversation that has any meaning whatsoever it has to be based on reason and
fact and history. If you want to deny that and create your own reality, fine,
but don’t expect me to live my life based on your redefinition of reality. John
14:6, another claim to exclusivity, as is Acts 4:12.
2)
Trinitarian
claims, that God is a plurality and must exist as a plurality. Exodus 20:3, for
the Jews, “You shall have no other gods before me.” That monotheism is one that
includes within it plurality, it is not a Unitarian or singular monotheism, it
is a plurality of persons within the Godhead. Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is
one LORD:” Is that a singularity or a plurality? The Hebrew word echad means a
plurality that is combined in a unity. The best way to explain that to folks is
to say, ‘Remember, God said about Adam and Eve that the two shall become one
flesh.’ Same word for “one”! In Isaiah 50 the Lord is speaking, ‘Thus says the
Lord,’ and the Lord, Yahweh, who is
speaking says, ‘The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned.’ So it
indicates a plurality of persons there. Cf. Isaiah 50:5. The Lord is speaking
and says, ‘The Lord God has opened my ear.’ Isaiah 48:12: “Listen to me, O
Jacob and
3)
The divine claims
of Jesus Christ. Jesus clearly claimed to be God. John 10:30: “I and my Father
are one.” You can’t get around that. John 8:58: “Jesus said unto them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am.” That
phrase “I am” to the Jews was a claim of God. When Jesus said this they picked
up ricks to stone Him. They understood He was claiming to be God. To them that was blasphemy because they had bought into the Pharisees’
lie of a singular or Unitarian monotheism.
Think through this. The Old
Testament clearly predicted that there would be a Messiah
who would be God and Man, and it starts off with general prophecies and as you
go through the Old Testament they get more and more specific. Ten key verses:
Genesis 3:15: “And I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall
bruise your head, and you shalt bruise his heel.” The key phrase is “her seed.”
The savior is going to be human, the seed of the
woman. The savior has got to be a human being, full
humanity; God cannot die for us.
Genesis
Genesis 12:3, it is narrowed
again; it is going to be through Abraham. “…in you all the families of the
earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 49:10. Then Abraham’s
great grandson is
Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19, “The
LORD
your God will raise up to you a Prophet like me from the midst of your brethren;
him you shall hear… I will raise them up a Prophet like you from among their
brethren [He will be a Jew], and will put words in his mouth; and he shall
speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that
whoever will not hear my words which he speaks in my name, I will require it of
him.”
2 Samuel 7:13: “He shall
build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for
ever.” God entered into a personal contract with David and said that this
promised one is going to come through David. This indicates not only that he is
going to be human because He is going to come from David, but He has to be
divine because He is going to rule forever. Only God lives forever. It is very
subtle but here we have the introduction of deity and humanity.
Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the
Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a
son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God with us].” What virgin? It has a
definite article here, the virgin. It
goes back to the seed of the woman. It is the
virgin, not just any woman. He is human because He is born from the virgin, but
He is divine because His name means ‘God is with us.’
Isaiah 9:6: “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, Counsellor, The mighty God
[Divine], The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Micah 5:2: “But you,
Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth to me that is to be
ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Isaiah 53:10, He will die for
our sins. “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when you
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
Psalm
We have to know these things because
we are in a battle. It is not only a battle for the mind, it’s not only a
battle of spiritual warfare, but as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ it is a
battle for the definition of reality. We are going to be confronted again and
again in our culture with people who not only don’t believe what we believe but
will be hostile to what we believe, and they will be demanding that we move
over and live in their world.
A reminder: 1 Peter 3:15, 16:
“15 But in your
hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an
defence to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that
those who speak maliciously against your good behavior
in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
We are living in difficult
times and it is not going to get any easier. It is going to be more and more
difficult to live as a believer in a pagan culture. In