Luke 21:8

Christian, Be Not Deceived!

CHAPTER TWO 

JESUS CLAIMED TO BE GOD: HIS WORKS AND HIS TEACHINGS SUPPORT HIS CLAIM. 

Jesus not only declared plainly that He was God, but the whole of His ministry on earth cannot be explained on any other ground. By His words He showed that He knew all things; God and man; life and death; angels and devils; time and eternity. Concerning everything, He spoke as One having authority and possessing all knowledge. He never uttered one speculation, He never merely expressed an opinion, He never hesitated, He never had to alter or retract any of His words. By His works and His miracles He showed unhesitating mastery of sea and land, body and soul, life and death. He declared that His works proved His Divinity–see John 10:25, 32, 33, 36-39. As shown in these verses, the Jews sought to apprehend Him for blasphemy. 

Claiming to be the same in Person, nature, and attributes, as His Father, Jesus said: "If ye had known Me, ye should have known the Father also: and henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him ... He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:7-11). When we read the Record of what Jesus actually said about Himself we cannot help being profoundly impressed with the staggering nature of His claims. And we are compelled to conclude that He is either what He declared Himself to be or the greatest fraud the world has ever known. He says: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." He either possesses all this omnipotent power, and hence is quite able to fulfil all His wonderful promises, or else He has deceived those who have trusted in Him. The multiplied millions who have placed their all into His hands were terribly deceived if He is not the Almighty Son of God. He could not be called "a good man" if He has been such a deceiver. But thanks be to God "we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:16). He is all that He claimed to be. He is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

God the Father addressed His Son as "God" and "Lord"—see Heb. 1:8-10. The prophet Isaiah declared that the virgin's Son would be called "Immanuel", a name which is interpreted by an angel of God to mean, "God with us" (Matt. 1:21). Isaiah also prophesied that this same Child to be born into the human family is "The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of 

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Peace" (Isa. 9:6). Paul declares that Jesus was "God manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16). He declared that this was the Almighty God Who led the children of Israel from Egypt through the wilderness to the Promised Land—see 1 Cor. 10:4, margin. 

While upon the earth Jesus openly exercised the prerogative of God, namely, to be able to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-11; Luke 7:48-50.) The Jews were right in saying: "Who can forgive sins but God only?", because Jesus was God incarnate. Jesus claims to be able to be present "where two or three are gathered together in His name". No matter where Christians gather for worship, Jesus says: "There am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). See also John 3:13 for further thought-provoking study concerning the omnipresence of Christ—by His Spirit. When Jesus was many miles away He knew all that was happening at the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary (John 11:11-14). When Nathanael thought no one was looking, and quietly and secretly slipped under a fig tree to pray, Jesus saw Him. Jesus said: "When thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto Him, Rabbi, Thou are the Son of God" (John 1:48). Nathanael was astounded that Jesus knew anything about him. When Jesus approached him the Master told him his character. In reply Nathanael exclaimed: "Whence knowest Thou me?" Jesus knew all about this man and his secret prayers under the fig tree, though humanly they had never before met face to face. 

The Lord's omniscience is further indicated in many passages of Scripture. One of these is John 2:24, 25: "But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man." 

There can be no doubt that Christ's Omniscience is brought to view in the incident of the woman taken in sin and brought before Jesus by her accusers. When Jesus "stooped down, and wrote on the ground", these hypocrites "went out one by one". Jesus revealed to them that He knew their innermost thoughts. They were before their infinite judge, with their secret sins laid bare before them by One Who knew all about them. They disappeared before the thunders of His wrath broke over them—see John 8:3-9. 

Jesus professed to have the power to give eternal life to all those upon whom He, with His infinite wisdom, saw fit to bestow this priceless gift. "The Son quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father" (John 5:21-23). He revealed that He had complete 

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mastery over nature, and possessed creative power—see Luke 9:16, 17; John 2:9; 10:28; Mark 2:5-12; etc. 

Jesus received worship which belongs only to the Deity. The angels–even the highest who stand before the throne of God and who have been used as God's special messengers–refuse worship. John, when the mightiest angel in heaven had revealed to him the secrets of the eternal One, says: "And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not . . . worship God" (Rev. 19:10; 22:8, 3). Satan had the audacity to tempt our blessed Lord, saying: "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:9, 10). Yet Jesus received approvingly the worship that was offered Him. -After the incident of the miraculous draught of fishes Peter "fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord" (Luke 5:8). Concerning this miracle, the Lord's servant says: "This miracle, above any other he had ever witnessed, was to him a manifestation of Divine power. In Jesus he saw One who held all nature under His control. The presence of Divinity revealed his own unholiness" (DA. 246).  

After Jesus had calmed the raging of the elements and spoken the words which stilled the angry sea, "Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of God" (Matt. 14:33). Jesus also received the worship of the man healed of his life-long blindness. On that occasion Jesus asked him: "Dost thou believe on the Son God? . . . And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him (John 9:35-38). He also permitted His followers to worship Him on the day of His resurrection (Matt. 28:9). Our incomparable Lord approved of the confession and testimony of Thomas, who said: "My Lord and my God" (John 20:27-29). Jesus gently reproved him that such recognition was belated. John states that the only reason for which he wrote his gospel was that we might believe Jesus to be the Almighty Son of God, Possessor of all the power and splendours of the Deity—see John 20:31. 

Here are a few of the many texts which reveal that Jesus claimed to be equal in power with God the Father, possessing the same attributes: 

John 5:23–The same honour as the Father. 

• 21–The same power as the Father. 
• 17–The same work as the Father. 
  
• 18–"equal with God". See also Phil. 2:6. 
  

John 8:51-59–He existed before Abraham and is the "I AM", the Almighty Jehovah Who liberated the Israelites from Egypt. 

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John 10:30–"I and My Father are one." 

• 33–"Makest thyself God." 
• 36–"I am the Son of God." 
  
• 38–"The Father is in Me, and I in Him." 
  
• 17, 18–No man could take away His life. "I lay down My life..no man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."
  

Luke 7:39, 40–Jesus could read their innermost thoughts (Matt. 9:4; 2:24, 25). 
John 1:47-50—Jesus sees those who pray in secret. 
John 6:64–Jesus from the very beginning knew the future actions of all His followers. 
John 18:5, 6–When Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane declared Himself to be the ”I AM”, His opponents "went backward, and fell to the ground." Matt. 5:20, 22, 26, 28, etc.—His word is law. 
Matt. 10:37, 38–Jesus claimed Kingship over the lives and souls of men. Matt. 11:27-He claimed to know God in a way no one else can know Him. John 6: 47-He declared that if we believe on Him we shall have everlasting life. 

• 51–Eternal life is dependent upon believing on Him. 

John 6:39, 40–The resurrection of the dead depends upon Him. John 5:26, 27–He is to be the judge of all men. 
Matt. 25:31-36–In the great day of judgment all nations will be gathered before His throne. 
John 12:48–"The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."

John 8:46–Jesus claimed to be sinless. 
John 8:24–He claimed that unless we believe in Him as the Divine One, we will perish. 

It would be utterly impossible for Jesus merely to be a good man and make such claims. No other good man ever made such professions. Was He a blasphemer, or was He God in the flesh? Was He the greatest imposter the world has ever seen, or incarnate Deity? Was He the worst or the best of men? Should He be hated or worshipped? He is all He claimed to be or He is not. We must either reject Him, stone Him, or accept Him and worship Him. 

Horace Bushnell states: 
"Certain it is that no man could take the same attitude of supremacy toward the race, and inherent affinity or oneness with God, without fatally shocking the confidence of the world by his effrontery. Imagine a human creature saying to the world, 'I came forth from the Father'; 'Ye are from beneath, I am from above'; facing all the intelligence and even the philosophy of the world, and saying, in bold assurance, 'Behold, a greater than Solomon is here' ; 'I am the Light of the World', 'the way, the truth, and the life'; publishing to all peoples and religions, 'No man cometh to the Father, but by Me'; promising openly in his death, 'I will draw all men unto me'; addressing the infinite Majesty, and testifying, 'I have glorified Thee on earth'; calling to the human race, 'Come unto Me', 'follow Me'; laying his hand upon all the dearest and most intimate affections of life, and demanding a precedent love, 'He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me'. Was there ever displayed an example of effrontery and spiritual conceit so preposterous? Was there ever a man that dared put himself on the world in such pretensions-as if all light was in Him, as if to follow Him and be worthy of Him was to be the conclusive or chief excellence of mankind! What but mockery and disgust does He challenge as the certain reward of his audacity! But no one is offended with Jesus on this account, and, what is a sure test of His success, it is remarkable that, of all the readers of the Gospel, it probably never even occurs to one in a

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hundred thousand to blame His conceit or the egregious vanity of His pretensions. 

"Nor is there anything disputable in these pretensions, least of all any trace of myth or fabulous tradition. They enter into the very web of his ministry, so that if they are extracted and nothing left transcending mere humanity, nothing at all is left." Nature and the Supernatural, pp. 289, 290. 

Practically everything recorded of Jesus in the New Testament testifies to His Divinity. It is not a matter of selecting some special verses which can be manipulated to bolster up some belief of His Divinity–this fact enters into the very warp and the woof of every narrative and all doctrine and instruction. The Bible teachings on creation, on redemption, the heavenly ministry, the judgment, the second advent, the resurrection, immortality, the home of the saved, the destruction of the wicked, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, of the angels, of the church on earth-all of these and any others that may come to mind, are inseparable from the Almighty power and infinite wisdom of the Lord Jesus. The Gospel commission reads: "Go ye therefore, and teach [make followers of Christ in all nations—see margin], baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:18-20). Only One equal with God and the Holy Spirit could give such a commission and make such a promise. The benedictions coming from the Godhead through inspired men corroborate the fact that Jesus is equal with God and is God–see Num. 6:24-26; 2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 22:21; etc. 

At His birth into this world the angels declared His divinity. He could feed multitudes from a few pieces of bread. The bread multiplied in His hands. He turned water into wine without the media of grapevines. He could have turned stone into bread, or otherwise Satan's temptation would have been meaningless. At His word storms hushed their angry voices, and the heaving deep sank to rest at His behest. When He spoke the blind received their sight, the lame ran as the deer, the deaf heard, the grave gave up its dead. 

Soon the opening heavens will reveal Him at the head of a vast retinue of heavenly beings. "And on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" Rev. 19:11-16). Then, as His Almighty word rings round the world, numberless multitudes of sleeping saints rise to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:16-18; John 5:28, 29, etc.). 

One of Paul's favourite expressions concerning Jesus was: "God our Saviour'” (Titus 2:10, 13; 3:4, 6). 

The Deity of Jesus, the Almighty Son of God, is not only one of the grand teachings of the Bible, but it is a very necessary truth for all Christians, and particularly for those who will pass through 

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the dark days of the coming conflict, to grasp thoroughly and tenaciously. They, especially, will need to know that that Almighty God their Saviour will be with them all along the difficulties of the way; they will need to know from an experience born of heaven that Jesus is almighty and infinite and can save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him. With Thomas they will be able to say to Jesus with warmth and fervour: "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). 

Further Extracts from the Spirit of Prophecy Concerning The Deity of Jesus. 

"The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was received by Him as His right. This was no robbery of God." Rev. & Her., April 5, 1906. 

"From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father; He was 'the image of God', the image of His greatness and majesty, 'the outshining of His glory’. He came ... to be 'God with us' (DA. 19). 

"The personality of the Father and the Son, also the unity that exists between them are presented in the seventeenth chapter of John, in the prayer of Christ for His disciples ... that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they may be one in us.... They are one in purpose, in mind, in character, but not in person) It is thus that God and Christ are one.” (Min. o f Healing, 441, 442) 

"When Christ passed within the heavenly gates, He was enthroned amidst the adoration of the angels. As soon as this ceremony was completed, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in rich currents, and Christ was indeed glorified, even with the glory which He had with the Father from all eternity."(AA. 38, 39).  

"In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through the dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him" (Signs of the Times, Aug. 29, 1900). 

"Here Christ shows them that, although they might reckon His life to be less than fifty years, yet His divine life could not be reckoned by human computation. The existence of Christ before His incarnation is not measured by figures." (Signs of the Times, May 3, 1899.)  

"Christ, the Word, the only begotten of the Father, was one with the eternal Father–one in nature, in character, in purpose–the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. 'His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace' (Isa. 9:6). His 'goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting', Micah 5:2" (P.P. 34).  

"Jesus is not only our Shepherd ; He is our 'everlasting Father'. And He says, 'I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know My Father'. What a statement is this!--the only-begotten Son, He Who is in the bosom of the Father, He Whom God has declared to be 'the Man that is My fellow',–the communion between Him and the eternal God is taken to represent the communion between Christ and His children on earth!" (DA. 483.) 

"The only way in which the fallen race could be restored was through the gift of His Son, equal with Himself, possessing the attributes of God. Though so highly exalted, Christ consented to assume human nature, that He might work in behalf of man and reconcile to God His disloyal subject. When man rebelled, Christ pleaded His merit in his behalf, and became man's substitute and surety" (Rev. & Her., Nov. 8, 1892). 

"All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are the recipients of the life of the Son of God. However able and talented, however large their 

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capacities, they are replenished with life from the source of all life. He is the spring, the fountain of life. Only He who alone hath immortality, dwelling in light and life, should say, 'I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again"' (Youth's Instructor, Aug. 4, 1898). 

"His divinity was veiled with humanity . . . revealed God . . the Deity ... the Infinite. . . The all-merciful God. ... He was the incarnate God, the light of heaven and earth. His glory was veiled, His greatness and majesty were hidden, that He might draw near to sorrowful, tempted men" (DA. 23). 

"By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God.... It was Christ who from the bush on Mount Horeb spoke to Moses saying, 'I AM THAT I AM . .. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you'. This was the pledge of Israel's deliverance. So when He came 'in the likeness of men', He declared Himself the I AM. The Child of Bethlehem, the meek and lowly Saviour, is God 'manifest in the flesh'. And to us He says, 'I AM the good Shepherd' 'I AM the living Bread'. 'I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life'.... 'I AM the assurance of every promise.' 'I AM ; be not afraid.' 'God with us' is the surety of our deliverance. . . . It is the 'Son of Man' whose name shall be called 'Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace'. The I AM is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon both" (DA. 24, 25). 

"And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable Gift–Immanuel, ‘God with us’.” (DA. 26). 

"The babe ... was the Majesty of Heaven, the King of Glory.... He did not think that this babe was He Whose glory Moses had asked to see ... in the Child of Bethlehem was veiled the glory before which angels bow.... This was Shiloh, the peace-giver. It was He who declared Himself to Moses as the I AM. It was He who in the pillar of cloud and of fire, had been the guide of Israel" (DA. 52). 

"He did not employ His divine power to lessen His burdens" (DA. 72). "Divinity flashed through humanity" (DA. 162). 

"Even the demon had testified to the divine power of the Saviour" (DA. 256). 

"The Majesty of heaven.... The wisdom by which He escaped the snares set for His feet, being a new evidence of His divinity, added fuel to their wrath" (DA. 594, 595). 

"Christ had not ceased to be God when He became man. Though He had humbled Himself to humanity, the Godhead was still His own" (DA. 663-4). 

"The miracles of Christ are a proof of His divinity" (DA. 799). 

"Over the rent sepulchre of Joseph, Christ had proclaimed in triumph, 'I am the resurrection and the life'. These words could be spoken only by the Deity.... 'Only He who is one with God could say, I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. In His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death" (DA. 785). 

"He [Peter] now [after the Lord's resurrection] loved Him as God" (DA. 816). 

"The second temple . . honoured . . with the living presence of One in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily–who was God Himself manifest in the flesh" (GC 24) 

"The hand that sustains the worlds in space, the hand that holds in their orderly arrangement and tireless activity all things throughout the universe of God, is the hand that was nailed to the cross for us" (Education, 132). 

"Christ's last and crowning miracle was the raising of Lazarus of Bethany, after he had been dead four days. The Jews were given this wonderful evidence of the Saviour's divinity.” (C.O.L. 265). 

"Christ, the light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendour of His divinity, and came to live as a man among men, that they might, without being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator" (Min. of Healing, 419). 

"That God Who walked with Enoch was our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He was the light of the world then just as He is now" (6T. 392). 

"Christ was a real man; He gave proof of His humility in becoming a man, Yet He was God in the flesh"—Youth's Instructor, Oct. 13, 1898. 

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"The world was made by Him, 'and without Him was not anything made that was made'. If Christ made all things, He existed before all things. The words spoken in regard to this are so decisive that no one need to be left in doubt. Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore." Rev. & Her., April 5, 1906. 

It was the Lord Jesus in His pre-incarnate days Who made gracious promises to Abraham and confirmed those promises with an oath. Paul says "For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself" (Heb. 6:13). This is one of many such passages strewn throughout the Scriptures which, when examined closely, reveal that Jesus as a member of the Godhead was equal with His Father. When Jesus took an oath by Himself because He could swear by no greater, this is tantamount to saying that He is equal with His Father. That this promise to Abraham was made by Christ is obvious in the light of the following extracts: 

"In all these revelations of the divine presence, the glory of God was manifested through Christ. . . All communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ" (PP. 366). 

"The Father has given the world into the hands of His Son for Him to redeem from the curse and disgrace of Adam's failure and fall. Through Christ alone can man now find access to God. And through Christ alone will the Lord old communion with man" (RT. p. 17). 

"The world's Redeemer was equal with God. His authority was as the authority of God. He declared that He had no separate existence from the Father. The authority by which He spoke, and wrought miracles was expressly His own, yet He assures us that He and the Father are one." Signs of the Times, No. 1, Jan. 7, 1890. 

"The Lord appeared of old time to Abraham, and said, 'I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' This is the reward of all who follow Christ. Jehovah Emmanuel—He 'in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge', in Whom dwells 'all the fullness of the Godhead bodily'—to be brought into sympathy with Him . . to possess the unsearchable riches of Christ . . . 'to know the love of Christ ... that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God' "-Mount of Blessing, p. 57.