Tuesday: Christ’s Divine Nature: Part 1
The deity of Christ is the foundation of our faith. A human being could never be our savior, no matter how extraordinary his life may have been. Throughout the entire New Testament, we have evidence of His divinity. We will focus on what Jesus Himself taught about this subject.
Image © Darrel Tank from GoodSalt.com
It was, for starters, not a simple matter for Jesus to explain who He was. His mission required Him to make known that He was the Messiah, God in the flesh; however, there is no record of Him saying publicly, I am God or I am the Messiah. Had He done so, His life could have immediately been taken. Therefore, He chose to hint at His divine nature and indirectly led His hearers to know His deity.
As Jesus gradually revealed His divine nature, most of His hearers understood Him but refused to accept His claim because it didn’t fit with their preconceived idea of the Messiah. This is evident by their request: How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly (John 10:24, NKJV). Unfortunately, the context shows that their question was not sincere.
As we saw yesterday, Jesus made many references to His special relationship with His Father. This was one of the methods He used to reveal His deity. Many understood clearly that when He said that God was His Father, He was making Himself equal with God (John 5:18).
Read Luke 5:17-26. In what very powerful ways did Jesus here reveal His divinity without openly saying it?
It required nothing less than creative power to restore health to that decaying body. The same voice that spoke life to man created from the dust of the earth had spoken life to the dying paralytic. — Ellen G. White, TheDesire of Ages, p. 269, 270.
Jesus claimed the divine prerogative to forgive sins. He also said that He Himself will sit on the throne of His glory (Matt. 25:31, NKJV) and judge all the nations, deciding the eternal destiny of each one, something that rests on God’s authority alone. How much more could He have done here to reveal who He really was?
Think about how hard-hearted some of these leaders were toward Jesus. And these men were supposed to be the spiritual guardians of the people? How can we make sure we don’t become hard-hearted in our own ways, as well?
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The paralytic man had remarkable friends who exercised faith in the divinity of Christ. Seemingly, the man's condition was hopeless, but his friends did not stop intervening for his health. Do you know someone who is like the paralytic man? Do you know someone who is wasting his/her life as a drug addict? Do you know someone with chronic immorality? Do you know someone whose health is failing? Do you have rebellious children and you have given up on them? I am encouraged to persevere before the throne of God to tap into DIVINE power to fix that which is humanly impossible to repair.
The story of the Paralytic is a true example of a person that truly want to be healed. First! it is a MUST for anyone to take Jesus at His word. Second! that person must believe in the healing power of God. Third! the heart must completely willing to change.
God will never force Himself to no one. Only those who are willing to fully obey, and ready to make a change in their lives......The Spirit of Prophesy laid it out real well...
Counsels for New Believers
I saw that those who profess the truth should hold the standard high, and induce others to come up to it. I saw that some would have to walk the straight path alone. Their companions and children will not walk the self-denying pathway with them.
But if your companions and children will not come, if you cannot win them to yield to the claims of truth, make their lives here as pleasant as possible; for all they will ever enjoy will be this poor world. But let not your duty to them interfere with your duty to God. Pursue a straightforward course. Let nothing they may do or say provoke an angry word from you.
You have a hope that will yield you consolation amid the disappointments and trials of life. Your companions and children who will not be induced to tread the narrow, cross-bearing pathway with you, have not this divine consolation. They should have your pity, for this world is all the heaven they will have.—Ibid., 2:266, 267.
It seems to me that Jesus made His mission well known to the Samaritan woman and her whole town.
(John 4:25,26)The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
Jesus made it well know to the Jewish leaders that He was the "I Am" (God).
(John 8:57,58) Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
I agree totally with Donald Litchfield's first statement. However, I think that you will find that it is not quite correct to suggest that Jesus ever told anybody that he was the “I am”. In fact the very fact that John 8:58 does not make sense grammatically should suggest to us that there is a problem with the translation.
The Greek phrase translated as “I am” in this verse are the words “Ego eimi”. Exactly the same phrase is used in many other places in the New testament and it is usually translated as “I am he” or something similar. It is only translated as “I am” in John 8:58. In particular it is used several other times in John's Gospel, i.e. John 13:19; John 18:5, John 18:6 and John 18:8 and is always translated as “I am he”. (KJV)
The phrase “Ego eimi” as far as I know is not used as God's name. Even in the Septuagint, which is a Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible in to Greek (I am using the Apostolic Bible which is translated from the Septuagint), the Greek does not have Jehovah saying his name is “Ego eimi”. In Exodus 3:14 Jehovah describes himself with the Greek phrase, “Ego Eimi Ho Ho Eimi” (as far as I can divine from the Strongs Greek references for the Apostolic Bible). This is translated in the KJV as “I Am Who I AM. He continues in Exodus 3:15 to give the name that He wants to be known by, but this is not used in the Septuagint, since the Jews at this time think it wrong to use the name Jehovah (JHVH) and put the Greek word “Theos” instead. The name is used in the Hebrew: “JHVH”, and this is the name that is used throughout the rest of the Old Testament. I am given to understand that this is a play on the words used in Exodus 3:14. The name JHVH is translated in the Strongs concordance as meaning “Self-Existent” or “Eternal” which is a really mind-blowing concept, far beyond our understanding.
So, in short, it would seem to be only a mistaken translation that has Jesus describing himself as the , “I am “ (“Ego Eimi”) and JHVH never described himself thus.
Lowell, the context is what determines the meaning in many cases. We cannot get at the meaning by an analysis of isolated words alone.
Jesus did not say that "before Abraham was I was." He said "Before Abraham was I AM." John 8:58. You make clear in your explanation that the phrase used is in the present tense. So Christ is using the same "I AM" that Moses heard out of the burning bush, except that this time it is in Greek, rather than in Hebrew. That comes through in other translations as well as the generally very accurate German Luther translation. By using the present tense projected into the past, He is essentially calling Himself the Self-existent One.
This is further corroborated by the fact that the Jews understood this as blasphemy. They understood His claim to be Yahweh/JHVH. That's why they took up stones to stone him. (John 9:59)
Inge, I think that your comments are based on the fact that Lowel did not complete his argument by providing a better translation for the context of John 8:58. I think his point is that it is fair to say that if a phrase is translated differently in one place compared to everywhere else, this suggests that there may be a problem with the translation. And I would say that this is the case no matter who translated it.
The context of John 8:58 is that Jesus is telling the Pharisees that he is the Messiah. He does this in several ways, starting from John 8:12 by telling them that he was the “Light of the World”. The Pharisees are not prepared to hear him. Finally, after Jesus called them “sons of the Devil”, and they introduced Abraham into the discussion he tells them, “Abraham saw my day and rejoiced” (John 8:56). Note the tense here. He talks as if Abraham was a contemporary and the Pharisees pick this up (John 8:57). He then goes on to say, “...Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am he.” (John 8:58). In other words, “Listen. I am the one who was prophesied before Abraham was even born!” I am not saying this is the correct translation or even a good one, but it can fit in with the context, and it uses the same translation of the phrase used elsewhere in the scriptures.
Now the Pharisees understand properly that he is telling them that he is the Son of God, so they decide to stone him.
This is not the only time the Pharisees tried to stone him because he said that he was the “Son of God”. It happens again in John 10:30-36. Here the Pharisees are about to stone Jesus because they say that he made himself God. This is their interpretation of what Jesus said and I do not think that they were accusing Jesus of claiming to be Jehovah. Jesus himself makes this clear in his reply, “do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, You blaspheme, because I said, I am Son of God?” (John 10:36). In this verse he distinguishes himself from God, and repeats what he actually said.
Somethings are humanly impossible,but with this name(JESUS)nothing impossible.
few days ago I watched a video on the '' might of God" and I was amazed how vast the universe is. I learnt that there about a hundred billion stars in just our galaxy which is the milky way and there are estimated to be about a hundred billion galaxies. wow! and all this was made by the God we serve? why should we worry when we serve such a GOD.
Hard to grasp isn’t it Richard? Our galaxy, the Milky Way is 120,000 light years from one end to the other. Thus, if Adam had started from day 1 to cross the Milky Way at the speed of light, at this moment, he would be only 1/20th of the way across. And the Milky way is only one of what some guess are up to 500 billion galaxies. And yet, the Creator knows when a single sparrow falls… What an amazing God we are invited to spend eternity with.
But we never answer Jesus' question.
Which is easier to say?
1. Thy sins be forgiven thee.
Or
2. Take up your bed and walk.
I think it's easier to say #1. It does nothing visible. The miracle (#2) showed that Jesus was God because it demonstrated that he actually had power to heal and restore (forgive sins).
In other words, the Pharisees had missed this fact all along as Jesus was healing people.
I do not think that Jesus'divinity was shown by his healing of the paralytic. If that were so, then Elisha, Paul, Peter and John were also divine because they healed and some even raised the dead. Jesus divinity was declared by his forgiveness of sins as only God can forgive sins.
Shorey I think you make a very valuable point that we should not overlook concerning the miracle discussed in Lk 5:17-26. The focus of the whole thing was not the miracle but whether or not Jesus had the authority to forgive sins.
I think Andrew is correct in saying that to humans it is easier to say a few words than to heal someone but that is not how those church officials were viewing the situation. To them, you forgive sins, you claim divinity therefore you commit blaspheme and are subject to being stoned – which incidentally they tried to do several times.
Therefore, essentially what Jesus was doing here was the same that He did in the raising of Lazarus when He prayed, “’Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me’" (Jn 11:41-42 NKJV).
By doing the miracle Jesus was demonstrating that the Father not only put His stamp of approval on the forgiving of the man’s sins but also that He gave Jesus the authority to do it (Jn 5:26-27; Jn 14:10). It was an obstacle that the Pharisees had a lot of trouble getting over. It was one more sign that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God and not just another prophet.
It seems to me that the miracles Jesus performed were proof of His divinity or at least connection with God. Like the author stated, the healing of a wasted body shows creative power that only God can claim. But when the Jews asked Him for His credentials they failed to recognize this and many other loving deeds of Godliness as His credentials. Instead, they wanted Him to receive His credentials through the "church" or maybe the "school".
Do we have similar expectations today?
though Jesus came in the human nature from he was in his divine nature the view point is in Mathew 24:30 where its talks of the power and the glory he will have unlike Daniel also explains that explains the coming son of man in the ancient days which we in
Jesus' connection with his Father was unmistakable. No other human being has ever matched the miracles he performed.
That text in Matt:5 is powerful!
Bro. Shorey,
When Elisha, Paul, Peter and John healed, they did it in the name of Jesus, or when Elisha raised the boy, he prayed to God. When Jesus healed, it showed his creative power. The woman who had the issue of blood, touched his garment, and Jesus turned and said, "who touched me?" These miracles showed Jesus's divinity.
I don't agree. These miracles showed his connection with the Father.
I agree with Shorey. Jesus healed but so did the apostles. Elisha and Peter raised people from the dead by the same power that Jesus relied on, the power of the Father.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. John 5:19
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:10-12
This man friends shown remarkable faith in Jesus, I don't know if they met him before or even heard of him, but they believe that Jesus can do something for their friend. And their friend was willing to allow them to help him. Something we have to recognise that we need one another and be willing to be helped to have an encounter with Jesus Christ, maybe we lacking faith and we need a brother or sister to strengthen us in pray. A chat, some counsel, to point us back to Jesus who only can heal us.