In considering the two sides, we believe that we must be able to give more than adequate responses used to argue that Jesus is not God. Or, we must show that Scripture ascribes to Jesus every major name, attribute, and title of God. Furthermore, we must show from Scripture that Jesus received worship or otherwise. But, it would be much easier if it was only a matter of sincerity, but it is not. It is a matter of which is true. Why would God become a man? How can finite human beings such as us understand an infinite God? It would be hard for any of us to comprehend abstractions like truth, goodness, or beauty apart from visible examples of them. We come to know beauty as it is seen in a beautiful object, goodness as it is focused in a good person, and so forth. But what about God? How could anyone grasp what God is like? We could to some extent if somehow God focused Himself in a form that human beings could understand – by being another human. That is the message of the New Testament. Paul said that in Christ all the fullness of DEITY dwells in bodily form. Jesus became human so that human beings could have some understanding of the infinite God.
A second reason God chose to become a man was to bridge the gulf between God and humankind. If Jesus had been only a man or a created being, then the hugeness of the gulf between God and humanity – the infinite and the finite, the Creator and the created, the Holy and the unholy – would have remained. For us to be able to know God, God had to step down to us. No created being could have bridged the gigantic gap between God and human beings, any more than a piece of clay could aspire to understand and reach the level of the sculptor. Out of love, God took that step down to us. He wanted to open a way that all might come to know Him. The strongest argument for the deity of Christ is the one that most incensed Jesus’ contemporaries. He took to Himself the Old Testament names and titles for God and also allowed others to call Him by the same names and titles. When Jesus called Himself by those titles of deity, it so angered the rulers of the Jews that they tried to kill Him for blasphemy. The Jewish authorities had no doubt. This Galilean teacher was claiming to be Almighty God. One could object, saying that Jesus’ claiming those divine names and titles did not make Him and God one and the same. Several people may have the same name and title. Say, a certain Juan dela Cruz can be a man, husband, friend and vice president of sales all at the same time. Some names and titles, however, are exclusive and can be held for only one person. For example, there can be only one President of the Philippines at any one time. Many of the names and titles that the Bible uses for Jesus were those that only one person could rightfully have – and that was God. God is unique. Only He is uncreated. He is the creator and sustainer of the whole universe – the source of creation rather than a part of creation. We can see God’s handiwork or imprint on created things, but His handiwork is not a part of God or the same as God Himself. If Jesus Christ is truly God, then he must possess the attributes of God, not just mirror them. We should examine five exclusive attributes of God and see that Jesus Christ possesses those attributes.
First, God is in everything; all of God is everywhere present at each point in the universe. That is what being omnipresent means. But to believe God is ‘in’ everything does not mean that He ‘is’ everything. By saying that God is everywhere at once, we are not saying that God is in everything at once, we are not saying that God is in everything in the Hindu sense that all creation is in some way a part of God. Just as God is omnipresent in a personal sense and thus is able to help, deliver, love, defend and meet His people’s deepest longings and needs so the new Testament describes Christ also as omnipresent. Paul said that He who descended is Himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things. Christ has claimed to indwell the hearts of all who place their faith in Him. How could a mere mortal, glorified or not, claim to indwell the hearts of believers around the world? Second, when we say that God is omniscient, we mean that God knows everything that can be known, actual and potential throughout eternity. The New Testament pictures Christ as possessing omnipresence: cognizance of all past, present and future. In the Bible it is stated that Jesus knew all men and know what was in man. The disciples bore witness that he knows all things. In keeping with His omniscience, Christ was said to have foreknown those who would betray Him.
Next, the Hebrew words El Shaddai can be translated “God Almighty.” God is omnipotent or all-powerful. Christ’s miracles evidenced His power over the physical world. But His words and His resurrection proclaim an authority and power over all creation. Another attribute that Jesus and God share is pre-existence. Many passages in Scripture support Jesus’ existence prior to His birth, not as a mere idea in the foreknowledge of God, but in actuality. Many times Jesus said that He had been sent into the world, implying that His origin had been outside the world. He told Nicodemus that no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven. He also said that He is the living bread that came down out of heaven. John the Baptist, who was humanly six months older than Jesus said that He came after him, has a higher rank than him, for He existed before him.
Lastly, the God of the Bible is eternal. He is both beyond time and the source of time. There was never a time when He was not; there never will be a time when He is not. Only God is eternal. Jesus Christ is also eternal. In foretelling the birth of Jesus the Messiah, the prophet Micah said that His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Isaiah, also speaking of Christ’s birth, said that among other designations, the child would be called “Eternal Father”. Jesus said that before Abraham was born, I AM. Few subjects are spoken of in Scripture with more clarity than the subject of worship. Both the Old and New Testaments emphasize that God alone should receive worship. After Jesus healed a man, the person exclaimed that he believed. And he worshiped Him. The same word is used when the disciples worshiped Jesus after seeing Him walk on water. Another time the disciples, seeing Jesus after the resurrection came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Thus, before and after the resurrection, Jesus received worship. In all of those instances, the same Jesus who had rebuked Satan for tempting Him to worship wrongly did not recoil in horror because ‘only God is to be worshiped.’ Instead, He received the worship as His due. In the letters to the Hebrews, the angels of God are told to worship Jesus. In the Book of Revelation, a whole section of praise and worship is devoted to Jesus and to God. In a powerful passage, Paul stated that at the name of Jesus every knee in heaven and earth would bow (implying worship) and confess that Jesus is Lord. The Son of God was worshiped through numerous acts in the New Testament, as He became the object of faith, hope and adoration. Many who deny the deity of Christ maintain that things like the Trinity or the two natures of Christ are impossible or unreasonable. Some would say that God could never have been nailed to a cross because God is Spirit or God would not offer Himself to Himself, or God cannot be born. Those statements ignore the fact of the incarnation, that it was the Son who offered Himself to the Father, that with God all things are possible. We should not let our concepts of what is reasonable or possible sit in judgment on what God has revealed. The issue is what God had said and not whether we understand it or not.
