On Jesus Christ: Who did Jesus think He was?

Who did He think He was?: The Deity of Jesus Christ Connecting the Dots Series 11/3/21 Who The Apostles Believed Jesus to Be: 13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. Matthew 16:13-20 -The Apostles ____________ to Jesus’s Messianic role. - The Apostles attributed the _________ and ________ of God to Jesus • • • • • • • • • • κύριος, kyrios, “lord” used of both YHWH (Septuagint) and Jesus 1 θεός, theos, “God” used of both YHWH (Septuagint) and Jesus (Jn 1:1, 18; 20:28; Rm 9:5; Tt 2:13; Hb 1:8; 2 Pt 1:1) YHWH is Creator (Is. 44:24) and Christ is Creator (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16) Isaiah saw YHWH’s glory (Is. 6:1-5) and Isaiah saw Christ’s glory (Jn 12:41) YHWH is the “I am” (Ex 3:14) and Jesus utilizes the “I am” moniker (Jn 8:58) YHWH is the Savior (Is 43:11) and Jesus is the Savior (Tt 2:13) Only YHWH forgives sins (Is 43:25) and Jesus forgave sins (Mk 2:5-7) Only YHWH gives life (Dt 32:39; 1 Sm 2:6; Ps 119) and Jesus gives life (Jn 5:21) The angels answer and belong to YHWH (Luke 12:8-9; 15:10) and they answer and belong to Jesus (Mt 13:41) The Kingdom of God belongs to YHWH (Mt 12:28; 19:24; 21:31, 43) and to Jesus (Mt 13:41). 1 Kyrios is used in the Greek Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) in place of God’s self-given name YHWH and Adonai. Whenever an Old Testament verse is used to reference Jesus in the New Testament and “Lord” is present, in the Old Testament reference the passage most often includes one of God’s names in the Hebrew. Thus through the usage of these passages, the New Testament authors are equating Jesus with God. For more discussion on this see Erickson (631) and Grudem (544-545). J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 1 Who Jesus Believed Himself to Be: - Jesus spoke from His own ____________ (Mk 1:21-22; Mt 7:28-29) - Prophets would say “Thus says the LORD” - Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you…” - “Jesus never retracted anything He said, never guessed or spoke with uncertainty, never made revisions, never contradicted Himself, and never apologized for what He said. He boldly asserted that ‘heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away’ (Mark 13:31).”2 - Jesus claimed to be the _________, the ____ __ _____,3 and ____ _________. • 2 Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”4 Example of Kyrios and YHWH being used for the same passage: Isaiah 40:3 ‫קֹורא בַּ ִּמ ְד ָּ֕בר פַּנּ֖ ּו ֶ ֣ד ֶרְך יְ הוָ֑ה י ְַּשרּו בעֲר ֵ֔בה‬ ֵ֔ ‫֣קֹול‬ ‫אֹלהינּו׃‬ ֵֽ ‫ְמ ִּסלּ֖ה ל‬ The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Mark 1:1-4 Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ. 2 Καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ· Ἰδοὺ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου· 3 φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, 4 ἐγένετο Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτίζων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ κηρύσσων βάπτισμα μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. 1 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.” 3 “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ ” 4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Rhodes, 143-144. “When Peter added, ‘the Son of the living God,’ he was making a statement that was stunning in its implications. The expression ‘son of’ was a well-known Hebraic expression: to be ‘son of something, or someone’ meant ‘to have the nature of that something, or someone.’ Thus, to call Jesus ‘the Son of the living God,’ is to call Hi God. For Peter, a pious Jew, committed to the faith of Israel (see Deut. 6:4ff), to utter this stunning declaration is quite amazing.” (Zuber, 143) 3 4 “Jesus calls himself ‘the Son of man.’ This title is used eighty-four times in the four gospels but only be Jesus and only to speak of himself…In the rest of the New Testament, the phrase ‘Son of man’ (with the definite article ‘the’) is used only once, in Acts 7:56, where Stephen refers to Christ as the Son of Man. This unique term has as its background the vision in Daniel 7 where Daniel saw one like a ‘Son of Man’ who ‘came to the Ancient of J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 2 • • Matthew 11:25-27 - 25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. John 8:57-59 - 57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” 59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.5 The Divine Quadrilemma:6 The Options: (1) Jesus was a _______ (2) Jesus was a ________ (3) Jesus is ________ 1. If Jesus was a real person, then Jesus claimed to be God and Jesus is a good moral teacher. 2. Jesus was a real person. Days’ and was given ‘dominion and glory and kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away’ (Dan. 7:13).” (Grudem, 546). “Here a sufficient response to prove Jesus’ eternity would have been, ‘Before Abraham was, I was.” But Jesus did not say this. Instead, he made a much more startling assertion: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8:58). Jesus combined two assertions whose sequence seemed to make no sense: ‘Before something in the past happened [Abraham was], something in the present happened [I am[.’ The Jewish leadership recognized at once that he was not speaking in riddles or uttering nonsense: when he said, ‘I am,’ he was repeating the very words God used when he identified himself to Moses as ‘I AM who I AM’ (Ex. 3:14). Jesus was claiming for himself the tile ‘I AM,’ by which God designates himself as the eternal existing One, the God who is the source of his own existence and who always has be and always will be.” (Grudem, 545). 5 C.S. Lewis introduced what is affectionately labeled the “Divine trilemma.” After C.S. Lewis, there were some who attempted to argue for a 4th way to understand the sayings of Jesus: that Jesus never claimed to be God. This has created, for apologetics purposes, the “Divine Quadrilemma” which must also argue for the historicity and accuracy of the words of Jesus. “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (Lewis) 6 J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 3 3. Therefore, Jesus claimed to be God and is a good moral teacher. 4. If Jesus did not believe he was God, then Jesus is not a good moral teacher. 5. Therefore, Jesus did believe he was God. 6. If Jesus is not God, Jesus was insane. 7. If Jesus was insane, Jesus was not a good moral teacher. 8. Therefore, Jesus was not insane. 9. Therefore, Jesus is God. 10. If Jesus is God, then Christianity is true. 11. Therefore, Christianity is true.7 (4) the Jesus of the Bible is a _________ -The Jesus Seminar (1985-present) authored The Five Gospels (1993) which included the 3 Synoptic Gospels (Mt, Mk, Lk), the Gospel of John, and the gnostic Gospel of Thomas. They highlighted in red, pink, and gray the words they believed the “historical Jesus” to have most likely spoken, possibly spoken, etc.8Those words in black were those the Seminar voted Jesus did not speak at all.9 - Evidence against the Jesus Seminar - How early the church started worshipping Jesus.10 -How long the church has been worshipping Jesus.11 -Jesus crucified with “King of the Jews” over him is considered historically viable because of the dissimilarity criterion.12 7 Craig, Will. 8 Craig, William Lane, 299. 9 For more detail, examination, and critique on the process of the Jesus Seminar, see Huggins. 10 Craig, William Lane, 300. 11 Acts 5:33-42 - 33 When they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them. 34 Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them: “Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. 37 After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. 38 And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; 39 but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.” 40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Namely that “Jesus’ pretensions to be the Messiah could in turn be presented to the Roman authorities as treasonous; hence, his execution as ‘King of the Jews.’ The conspiration of so many factors, each enjoying ratification independently by factors such as multiple attestation, Palestinian milieu, dissimilarity, and so forth, 12 J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 4 - Passages like Mark 12:1-12,13 referencing Isaiah 5. Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 11 This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”12 And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away. 1 The Quality and Quantity of Deity Divine Qualities: -Jesus has ______ the qualities of God. Below are some examples: • • • • • Omnipotence – “all powerful” (Mt 8:26-27; 14:19; Mk 4:38-41; Jn 2:1-11) Omniscience – “all knowing” (Mk 2:8; Jn 1:48; 2:25; 6:64; 16:30; 21:17) Omnipresence – “all present” (Mt 18:20; 28:20; Jn 14:23) Sovereignty – “all authoritative” (Mt 5:22,28,32,34,39,44; 11:25-27; Mk 2:5-7; Jn 3:36) Worthy of worship – (Phil 2:9-11; Hb 1:6; Rv 5:12-13) makes for an extraordinarily powerful case that Jesus of Nazareth did regard himself as the promised Messiah.” (Craig, William Lane, 307). 13 “Even skeptical scholars like those in the Jesus Seminar recognize the authenticity of this parable, since it is also found in one of their favorite sources, the Gospel of Thomas (65), and so is by their reckoning multiply attested…The parable also contains interpretive nuances rooted in the Aramaic targums (paraphrases) of Isaiah 5 which were in use in Jesus’ day…What, then, does this parable tell us about Jesus’ self-understanding? It tells us that he though of himself as God’s only Son, distinct from all the prophets, God’s final messenger, and even the heir of Israel itself.” (William Lane Craig, 311). J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 5 Divine Quantity: - Jesus has always been ________ God. • • Colossians 1:19-20 - 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Colossians 2:9-10 - 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. - When Jesus took on humanity, he did not lose his deity, nor did his deity and humanity mix to become something new entirely. -Jesus was, and now is, _________ God and _________ man. Wrong Solutions to the Incarnation: • • • • Jesus Christ was not God: o Arianism: Jesus was the greatest created being; all other things were created through/by him. (Modern adherents: Jehovah’s Witnesses). o Ebionism: Jesus was a normal human, born of normal human processes,14 “possessing unusual but not superhuman or supernatural gifts of righteousness and wisdom.”15 The Christ descended upon Jesus at Baptism, putting his work within the will of God for a time, before the Christ departed from Jesus toward the end of His life. Different aspects of Jesus Christ were divine and human o Apollinarianism: The person of Jesus Christ was made up of a human body, without the mind or spirit of a human, and his mind and spirit were divine. (See figure 1). Jesus Christ’s Humanity and Divinity were separate o Nestorianism: Jesus Christ contained two separate persons: his human person and his divine person. Each person acted and took control at different times, without unified mind and purpose. (See figure 2) Jesus Christ was not fully divine 14 A negation of the virgin birth naturally leads to the problem of sin/sin nature being present within the life of the individual born, namely Jesus. This is one of the many issues with the teaching of the “immaculate conception” within Roman Catholicism. They teach that Mary’s parents immaculately, though through human methods, conceived Mary which would then allow Mary to be sinless, however the logic and theology of this does not follow. Seemingly, even the heretical Ebionites recognized this: birth by natural means makes you “normal” and introduces a sin nature of sorts. 15 Erickson, 634. J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 6 o Monophysitism (Eutychianism): Jesus Christ had only one nature, comprised of the result of combining the divine nature and human nature. Thus Jesus is no longer 100% God and 100% Man, but is 100% Godman. (See figure 3) o Kenosis Theory: Jesus emptied himself / gave up some of his divine attributes when he came to earth, thus making him not fully divine while on earth. Right Solution to the Incarnation: The Chalcedonian Creed (451 AD) “We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.”16 16 See translation and translation notes here: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds2.iv.i.iii.html J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 7 Works Cited: Craig, Will. “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?: Overview of Lewis’ Famous Argument” Mathematical Apologetics: A Mathematician’s Perspective on Math, Faith, and Life. https://mathematicalapologist.com/2021/04/20/liar-lunatic-or-lord-overview-of-lewis-famousargument/. April 20, 2021. Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics 3rd Ed. Crossway: Wheaton, Illinois, 2008. Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1994. Huggins, Ronald. “Jesus, Abba, and the Seminar.” Midwestern Journal of Theology 8.1 (Fall 2009): 4156. MBTS: Kansas City, MO: 2009. Lewis, C.S.. Mere Christianity. HarperCollins: New York, New York, 2001. Rhodes, Ron. “How Do We Know That Jesus is God?” The Harvest Handbook Of Apologetics. Harvest House Publishers: Eugene, Oregon, 2018. Witherington III, Ben. “The Christology of Jesus Revisited.” To Everyone An Answer: A Case For the Christian Worldview. Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove, Illinois, 2004. “What is the Jesus Seminar?” Got Questions. https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-seminar.html. April 26, 2021. Zuber, Kevin D.. The Essential Scriptures: A Handbook Of The Biblical Texts For Key Doctrines. Moody Publishers: Chicago, Illinois, 2021. J.C. Andrews The Deity of Jesus Christ Info Packet 8