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The Deity of Christ · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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  take a look at various source materials and try to pull out
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  the key ideas for you. And today, we're digging into
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  something absolutely foundational.
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  That's right, the deity of Jesus Christ.
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  We've got biblical texts, some historical accounts, theological
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  analysis lined up. Yeah, and according to these
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  sources, this isn't just, you know, a minor point.
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  Christian faith really stands or falls on Jesus being God in the
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  flesh. Not just a great teacher or a
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  prophet. No, something much more.
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  Views that step away from that are presented here as well,
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  missing the core of who he is. OK, so our goal for this deep
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  dive is pretty clear. First unpack the biblical
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  teaching on who Jesus is. Then see how some historical
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  views stacked up against that. And finally, yeah, what
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  difference does it actually make to you, right?
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  Where do we start? The Bible seems like the obvious
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  place. Definitely scriptures presented
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  here as the main witness we have regarding Jesus nature.
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  It's where the first followers recorded their understanding.
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  So let's get right into it. What did Jesus think about
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  himself? Did he, you know, go around
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  saying, hey everyone, I'm God? Well, the sources show it wasn't
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  usually quite that direct. He didn't often use those exact
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  words, I am God, but he made claims and he accepted titles
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  that in his Jewish context were unmistakable claims to divinity.
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  Like what for example? Well, think about when he talks
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  about his angels or his Kingdom. Matthew 13 has that.
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  Whose angels? Whose Kingdom Attributing
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  personal ownership like that is significant?
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  Implying a certain authority. To divine authority.
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  And then there's the forgiveness of sins.
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  That's a big one. Mark chapter 2.
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  Yeah, exactly, he tells the paralyzed man.
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  Son, your sins are forgiven and the reaction from the scribes is
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  immediate blasphemy. Because they knew only God could
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  forgive sins. Precisely.
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  And Jesus, he doesn't correct them on that point.
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  He doesn't say, oh you misunderstood me.
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  Instead he double s down. He heals the man to show he has
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  the authority, linking it to his identity as the son of man.
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  He basically accepts their understanding of his claim.
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  So the people hearing him, especially his opponents, they
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  got the message. They absolutely did.
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  He also talked about judging the world.
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  Matthew 25 paints this picture of him on a glorious throne
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  separating people for eternity. That's God's job description.
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  What about the law? Things like the Sabbath.
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  Another key area he claimed authority over Sabbath.
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  Remember, the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.
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  Right Mark 2. To claim lordship over a
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  divinely instituted command like the Sabbath, well, that implies
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  you're on the same level as the one who instituted it, equal
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  with God. So he wasn't just explaining the
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  law, he was claiming to be above it in a sense.
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  In the sense of having the authority of its author, yes.
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  Then you get into John's Gospel and the claims become even more
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  explicit in some ways. Like I am the father of one.
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  John 10.30 Yes, a claim to essential unity.
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  And he tells Philip, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
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  John 14. That's pre direct.
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  It is. And then there's that really
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  charged statement in John 8 for Abraham was born.
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  I am. Ah yes, the I am.
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  The use of I am E do I me? In Greek, especially set against
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  Abraham's historical beginning. It's strong only suggests more
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  than just preexistence, it points towards an eternal being.
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  Echoing God's name in Exodus. Many interpreters see a clear
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  link to Exodus 3 Yes, and the reaction of the crowd confirms
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  how they heard it. They immediately try to stone
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  him for. Blasphemy.
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  For blasphemy under the law, Leviticus 24, that was the
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  penalty. Their actions show they
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  understood he was claiming to be God.
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  No ambiguity in their minds. None at all.
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  He also claims power over life and death itself.
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  John 5, John 11. Giving life, being the
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  resurrection and the life. That's divine power.
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  And how did he speak compared to, say, the Old Testament
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  prophets? That's another interesting
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  point. Prophets would say thus says the
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  Lord, they were delivering a message.
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  Jesus often says you have heard it said what I say to you.
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  Placing his word alongside or even above scripture.
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  He speaks with an inherent authority, not a delegated one.
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  His word carries divine weight on its own.
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  So people around him seem to pick up on these claims.
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  Definitely look at the title Son of God.
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  While it could have different meanings, the way Jesus used it
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  and how the leaders reacted shows it was understood in a
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  unique divine sense. They accused him of making
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  himself equal with God precisely because he called God his own
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  father. That's in John 5.
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  Which brings us to his trial. The ultimate test, Yes.
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  A critical moment. The high priest puts it to him
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  directly. Are you the Messiah, The Son of
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  God? Matthew 26.
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  And Jesus answer referencing the Son of Man coming on the clouds.
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  It's an affirmation and the councils verdict is immediate
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  blasphemy. He deserves death.
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  They clearly understood him to be claiming divine status.
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  Unmistakably, he had every chance to clarify if they had
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  misunderstood. He didn't.
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  And then after the resurrection, Thomas famous statement.
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  Another key piece, When Thomas sees the risen Christ, he cries
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  out, My Lord and my God, John 20.28.
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  And Jesus's reaction. He accepts it.
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  He doesn't rebuke Thomas or correct him.
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  He affirms Thomas's faith, accepting worship, accepting the
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  title my God. It's a powerful confirmation
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  from Jesus himself. OK, so the picture from Jesus
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  own life and words and how people reacted seems pretty
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  consistent according to these sources.
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  What about the rest of the New Testament?
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  Do the apostles and other writers back this up?
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  Oh, absolutely. It's woven throughout their
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  writings. John's Gospel starts with that
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  incredible prologue. In the beginning was the word.
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  And the Word was with God, and the word was God.
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  John 1.1 The grammar there is really specific in the Greek.
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  It asserts the words full deity while still distinguishing Him
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  from the Father. Can't get much clearer than
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  that. It's hard to imagine how.
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  Then look at the book of Hebrews.
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  It calls the sun the radiance of God's glory and the exact
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  representation of His being. Hebrews 1.3.
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  Not just a reflection, but the very shining 4th of God's
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  nature. Exactly.
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  And even more pointedly, Hebrews 1.8 directly addresses the sun
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  as God, quoting Psalm 45. Wow.
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  OK. And Paul he so much of the New
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  Testament. Paul is completely aligned with
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  this. He calls Christ the image of the
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  invisible God in Colossians 1. He says in him all things hold
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  together. That's a cosmic divine role.
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  And Colossians 2.9. That's maybe the most explicit,
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  for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily
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  form, Not just some divine attributes, but the fullness of
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  God's essential nature. Paul also talks about judgement
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  right? Yes, he assigns the role of
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  final judge to Christ Jesus. Second Timothy 4, Second
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  Corinthians 5 again a divine prerogative.
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  And Philippians 2 is huge, talking about Christ existing in
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  the form of God before his incarnation, implying shared
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  divine essence. What about the title Lord?
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  That seems to be used a lot for Jesus.
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  It is, and it's hugely significant.
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  The Greek word Curious Lord was the standard term used in the
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  Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, to translate God's
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  sacred names like YHWH or Adonai.
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  So when the New Testament writers call Jesus curious.
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  They are often consciously applying texts about YHWH from
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  the Old Testament directly to Jesus.
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  Think Romans 10.13 quoting Joel. Everyone who calls on the name
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  of the Lord will be saved. Paul applies that directly to
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  calling on Jesus. Indicating they saw Jesus as
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  fulfilling the identity of the Lord.
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  YHWH from the Old Testament. Exactly.
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  The sources argue that the apostles used curious for Jesus
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  in its highest possible sense, attributing divinity to him.
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  Sometimes it's even ambiguous whether a passage refers to the
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  Father or the Son as Lord, suggesting a shared divine
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  identity. OK, the scriptural case feels
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  very strong based on this material, Yeah.
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  How does the resurrection play into confirming Jesus's
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  identity? The resurrection is presented in
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  these sources as essentially God's own vindication of Jesus,
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  God's. Stamp of approval.
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  More than that, even from the perspective of 1st century
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  Judaism, as one source here explains, A resurrection like
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  this wasn't just a miracle, It signaled the dawn of the end
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  times. Jesus, as the first fruits,
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  meant God's future had broken into the present through him.
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  The beginning of the new creation.
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  Right. And crucially, by raising this
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  specific man, Jesus, who had made claims that got him killed
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  for blasphemy, God was confirming those very claims.
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  So the resurrection wasn't just proof of life after death, but
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  proof that Jesus was who he said he was.
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  Precisely, it was God the Father validating the Son's identity
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  and claims. It established the unity between
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  the Jesus who walked the earth and the exalted Son of man in
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  heaven. Making the resurrection the
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  ultimate confirmation of His divinity.
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  That's how it's presented, God revealing himself finally and
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  fully in Jesus. And the sources also point to
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  the historical evidence of the rapid rise of Christianity.
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  The disciples transformation, the empty tomb accounts is
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  supporting the reality of the resurrection event itself.
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  So the biblical witness seems internally consistent on this,
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  but as you mentioned, history wasn't always uniform.
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  The sources talk about challenges to this view.
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  Yes. Almost immediately different
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  understandings emerged. You had groups like the
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  ibianites for instance. What was their main issue?
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  According to the sources, their primary concern was protecting
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  strict Jewish monotheism. They couldn't reconcile Jesus
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  being fully God with the idea of one God.
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  So how did they see Jesus? As a purely human figure, born
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  naturally, not via virgin birth, perhaps a great prophet may be
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  uniquely empowered by God's Spirit, the Christ power which
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  they thought descended on him at baptism and left before the
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  crucifixion, but fundamentally human, not divine in his being.
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  And they rejected parts of the New Testament, yes.
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  They reportedly rejected Paul's letters and the virgin birth
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  narratives, basically anything that conflicted with their view.
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  It solved the monotheism tension for them, but at the cost of
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  ignoring a lot of the scriptural evidence we just discussed.
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  So there's Arianism, which is a much bigger controversy.
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  Yeah, 4th century Arias also started from a place of wanting
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  to protect God the Father's absolute uniqueness and
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  transcendence. How did that lead him to deny
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  Jesus? His logic as presented here was
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  that God the Father is the only uncreated eternal being.
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  Therefore the Son, the Word, must have been created by the
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  Father at some point. The 1st and highest creation,
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  yes, but still a creature, not eternal, not eternal, and not of
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  the same essence as the Father. That was the Aryan slogan.
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  There was a time when he, the son, was not.
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  So begotten meant made to them. Essentially, yes, Yeah, they saw
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  the Son as fundamentally different in nature from the
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  Father. May be called God as a courtesy
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  title, but not truly divine in the same way.
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  They pointed to verses they felt supported this like Proverbs 8
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  or Colossians 1.15 first born or Jesus saying the Father is
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  greater than I. How did the wider church respond
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  to Arias? The main response, culminating
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  at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, was that Aryanism
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  fundamentally misunderstood both Scripture and the nature of God.
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  How so? They argued Aryan's misread key
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  texts, first born in Colossians, one, they said, refers to rank
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  and supremacy over creation not being the first created thing.
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  Jesus's statements about the Father being greater were
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  understood to refer to his voluntary submission and
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  limitations during his earthly life, His functional role, not
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  his essential being. And Nicaea's conclusion?
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  Nicaea condemned Aryanism. It affirmed that the Son is Homo
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  usios with the Father meaning of the very same substance or
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  essence eternally begotten, not made.
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  That little vowel difference between homoseo same substance
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  and the semi Aryan homoseo similar substance was hugely
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  significant. OK.
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  Fast forward quite a bit, the sources also mentioned
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  functional Christology. What's that about?
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  This became more prominent in the later 20th century.
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  The idea was to shift the focus away from who Jesus is in his
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  essential nature, his ontology, and concentrate instead on what
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  Jesus did, his function. His role in salvation history,
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  people like Oscar Coleman talked about that.
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  Exactly. Organizing Christology around
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  God saving actions in history. The Hauskashicta some have you.
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  This was more authentically biblical and maybe less
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  influenced by Greek philosophy than later debates about
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  substance and nature. But the sources here offer a
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  critique. They do.
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  Critique is basically threefold. 1 The New Testament actually
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  does talk about Jesus's nature, his being.
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  John 1.1. Colossians 2.9.
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  First, John is very concerned with the reality of the
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  incarnation. 2 The whole idea of a sharp divide between Hebrew
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  functional thinking and Greek ontological thinking is probably
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  overstated. And 3rd. 3rd.
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  Focusing only on function risks ending up with, as one writer
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  put it, a kind of Cheshire Cat Christology.
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  You have the function, the smile, but no underlying
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  reality. No cat function needs a
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  foundation in being. Who Jesus is makes possible what
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  he does. An adequate view needs both.
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  That makes sense. So we've covered the biblical
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  Witness, historical challenges and responses.
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  Let's bring it home. Based on these materials, what
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  are the practical implications? Why does believing in Christ's
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  full deity matter for you, the listener?
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  The sources highlight several key things.
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  First, it means we can actually know God because Jesus is God is
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  seeing him, hearing him, reading about him.
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  That's seeing the Father. He reviews God's character,
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  God's love, God's holiness, not just as a messenger, but as God
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  himself made visible. So it bridges that gap between
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  US and an invisible God. Precisely.
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  Second, it's the foundation for our redemption.
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  The argument is that sin against an infinite God requires an
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  infinite atonement. Only if Jesus is truly God could
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  his death have the infinite value necessary to pay the
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  penalty for the sins of humanity.
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  The sacrifice matches the offense because of who made the
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  sacrifice. That's the theological point
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  being made, yes. Third, it achieves
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  reconciliation. God himself, in the person of
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  Jesus, crosses the divide that sin created between humanity and
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  himself. It wasn't just an ambassador, it
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  was God entering our condition to bring us back.
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  A personal intervention at the highest level you could.
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  Put it that way. And finally, it directly impacts
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  worship. How so?
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  If Jesus is fully God, Co equal with the Father, then he is
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  worthy of the same worship, the same adoration, the same
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  obedience we give to the Father. Worshipping Jesus isn't
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  idolatry. It's right and necessary because
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  He is God. It changes everything about our
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  relationship with Him. OK, so we've seen the biblical
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  case for Christ's deity is presented as strong and
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  consistent. We've looked at how historical
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  views like Ebianism and Arianism departed from that and the
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  church's response. And we've touched on why this
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  understanding is seen as so vital for knowing God, for
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  salvation, reconciliation, and our worship.
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  And perhaps a final thought to consider, drawing from the
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  sources, there's a sense in which one day everyone will
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  recognize who Jesus truly is. Philippians 2 speaks of every
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  knee bowing. But for the believer,
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  recognizing his deity now isn't just future acknowledgement, it
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  defines present reality. It shapes how you live, how you
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  pray, how you understand everything starting today.
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  A powerful point to end on. Thank you for joining us for
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  this deep dive on reform thinking.