Why I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ
One late night I was watching the David Letterman Show when he did one of his sometimes funny top 10 lists, and I got an idea. But then, no way a Jewish, not obviously religious, talk show host would do my top 10 list. Then Denver traded former Gator quarterback Tim Tebow to the Jets, and I said what would his list be; he will probably be on the show one day…probably “the top ten reasons I Tebow”, but why not the top 10 reasons I believe? And this is in keeping with Tim’s marketing persona.
So I told Fr. John that I had I found something that has been meaningful to me that I wanted to share with you. This is not my own list or thoughts, but hopefully I have summarized adequately and added a little value.
A few years ago at a Davidson College Reunion, Elizabeth and I went to the library to see if we could find some information on her ancestors. Walter Lingle, her great grandmother’s brother’s son, (i.e. her 2nd cousin) was president of Davidson from 1929-1940 and part of her family tree had roots in that area. They opened the archives for us, and we found a treasure trove. While she looked for family genealogy, I looked through some of Walter Lingle's writing. He had died before I was at Davidson, but he was a well-known name as the Church there was Lingle Chapel and going to church and chapel was compulsory. Beyond Davidson he was a professor of Hebrew, Greek, Church History and Missions at Union Theological Seminary in VA; a Presbyterian pastor at numerous churches including First Presbyterian in Atlanta; and Dr. Lingle supervised the publication of the Presbyterian Hymnal and a revision of the Book of Church Order (that’s like our Blue Book and Red Book). He was also very active in the development of what is now the Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina for those of you who spend time in the mountains. He was a prolific writer, and I found a speech he had written in 1936 and Xeroxed a copy. Why I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ. This is a core question I have had, and probably each of you have had too at one time or another. I remember, I think it was during or following Confirmation class, so about age 13, being asked what I was learning. I recall saying we were discussing the Trinity, and I got the Father and Holy Spirit OK, but how did we make Jesus into God and have a Trinity when we believe in One God. The answer I got was that we did not make Jesus a god; God made him God, He manifest Himself in Him; and God can do pretty much anything, just look around you and in the Bible at what God can do.
Being a thinker as opposed to a feeler, I wish that I had had this outline as a guide. It is an interesting way to organize one’s thoughts when reading the Bible. It can also help us articulate and support what we largely must take on faith.
I am going to count down the list on a flip chart and after each give a few of Dr. Lingle’s quotes or references:
10. because He Himself proclaimed it.
9. because those who knew Him intimately as a man believe it.
8. because of His personality.
7. because of His sinless life.
6. because of His deeds.
5. because of His teachings.
4. because of the way He died.
3. because of His resurrection.
2. because of His influence on men and upon the world.
1. because of the Christ of Christian experiences.
Let’s start the Countdown
10. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because He Himself proclaimed it.
a. Jesus made statements in all 4 Gospels which could only be made by someone who believed himself to be one with God.
i. I am the light of the world
ii. I am the bread of life
iii. I am the way…no man cometh to the Father but by me
iv. When the Son of man shall come into his Glory, and all the holy Angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory and before Him shall be gathered all nations.
b. John 14:9 “He that has seen me hath seen the Father.” John 10: 27-33 talks about us as His sheep which His Father gave to him; and Jesus says, “I and my Father are one.”
c. Talking with the woman of Samaria, John 4: 25-26, Jesus made the claim he was the Messiah foretold by the Prophets…and the Prophets prophesized a Deity: Immanuel.
d. What one says about himself is not always convincing. The value of a man’s testimony about himself or anything else depends on his character. Seems to most of those around him that his character was pretty remarkable…so let’s get to the next reason.
9. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because those who knew Him most intimately as a man believe it. Dr. Lingle says that whether their writings were done by them or others, the testimony of the Apostles and those who knew Him must be given weight.
a. After about two years of following Him, Jesus asked in Matthew 16: 13-18 “Who do men say that I am?” John the Baptist; Elijah or a prophet. “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Christ = Messiah=The Anointed One…and the expected Messiah was not a mere man, but a Deity come down to earth. And Jesus did not rebuke him… but He blessed him saying that the great truth had not been revealed by Peter, but by the God in heaven.
b. How about our own St. Thomas, you know the story in John 20:28. On the evening of his resurrection Jesus appeared to 10 disciples, breathed on them and blessed them; but Thomas was not there. When told, Thomas did not believe them; and even if he saw with his own eyes he needed to put his fingers in the nail prints and hand into the wound to convince himself of the reality of what he saw. A week later Jesus appeared to his disciples again, and Thomas made an even greater confession than Peter as he looks at Jesus and proclaimed: “My Lord and my God.”
c. John in the opening of his Gospel gives the greatest testimony. “In the beginning the Word was with God, and the Word was God…all things were made by Him…And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
8. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of His personality. Personality is difficult to define…it is almost an instinctive feeling when we come into the presence of a great person. It is a combination of charisma and authority…great magnetism; Jesus must have had something like that.
a. John said, “We beheld his glory… full of grace and truth.”
b. He had to have something special to get people to drop everything, leave their families and careers, and follow him…to make moneychangers cower…to make the mob that came after him at Gethsemane go backwards and fall to the ground.
c. It is difficult to think that the subsequent writers and scribes could have created out their imaginations the personality that is portrayed across the Gospels. Who would have been capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or imagining the life and character? Uneducated Galilean fisherman could not have created a character like Jesus. They could only relate to what they saw and lived.
7. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of His sinless life. Of course, this is part of personality, but it is so distinctive that is shows that Jesus was more than mere human. Dr. Lingle said, One of the most remarkable things about Jesus is that he never betrayed any consciousness of sin or wrongdoing. How is it that Jesus never had any consciousness of his own sin as did even the greatest of saints? The answer is that there was no sin in Him.
a. He taught us to ask, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” yet he never made that petition himself.
b. He challenged his enemies, “Which of you convicts me of sin?” and they were never able to find fault with him.
c. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, “We have not a high priest who… was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin” meaning Jesus was different than the best of us. Paul said it another way, “He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
d. According to Dr. Lingle, a sinless Christ is a miracle as great or greater than walking on water and in keeping with His claim to Deity.
6. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of His deeds.
a. Some find it difficult to believe in miracles, but they bear on the claims of Jesus as Deity. They are part of His total character depicted in the Gospels. We cannot separate the wonderful works from the wonderful teachings.
b. As Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we know that thou are a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”
c. John the Baptist bore witness to the fact that Jesus was the Christ. He told his own disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” But later in prison his doubts arose and he sent his disciples to Galilee to ask Jesus, “Art thou he that should come or should we wait for another?” Jesus said, “Go and show John the things which we do: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.” These were his credentials.
d. He says it Himself in John 14:11, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”
5. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of His teachings.
a. One day the authorities sent some officers out to arrest Jesus. They found Him addressing a crowd. They must have heard something special, because they did not take him. When the authorities ask why they answered, “Never did a man speak like this man.”
b. Think of the Sermon on the Mount…what else in literature is like it?
i. Simple yet profound
ii. Concise yet comprehensive
iii. He summarizes all the great ethical teachings of the law and the prophets in one verse: The Golden Rule
c. The Parables
d. His farewell address in the 14th chapter of John
i. If anyone love me, he will obey my teachings. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.
e. The plan for salvation He gave us. John 3:16 sometimes called the greatest verse in the Bible.
4. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of the way He died.
a. In Mark’s Gospel when the Centurion saw him die he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
b. The thief on the cross beside said, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into Thy Kingdom.” And Jesus’ answer, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
c. Dr. Lingle quotes Rousseau the skeptic who said that Socrates died as a philosopher, but Jesus Christ died as a God.
3. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of His resurrection.
a. Thomas Jefferson created a book, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, by cutting out all the mystical elements from the Bible and called the remainder the greatest standard of behavior ever written. Someone said if you cut the supernatural out of the Gospels they will bleed to death. Lingle believed this was a reason Jefferson’s extraction never circulated widely. Elizabeth and I recently saw and article in the Sunday newspaper a few weeks ago that said Library of Congress republished it and put it online him hopes someone might read it.
b. What if the Easter story was, “There they laid Jesus and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed.” THE END…and there never would be such a thing as Christianity.
c. Lingle reminds us, He did not remain in the tomb…quoting John on Patmos: “I am the first and the last, the Living One. I was dead and behold I am alive and evermore.”
d. Paul believed this was proof of His Deity…Jesus “was declared the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by His resurrection from the dead.”
2. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of His influence on men and upon the world.
a. He has transformed the ethical and moral ideals of man in all the relationships of life.
b. His impact has lasted for 2,000 years and can lead humanity for all future ages.
c. He is today what he has been for centuries:
i. The object of reverence and love for the good.
ii. The cause for remorse and change, penitence and hope to the bad
iii. Moral strength for the morally weak
iv. Inspiration for the despondent
v. Consolation for the desolate
vi. Cheer for the dying
vii. A motive for giving for the benevolent
viii. A persuasion to selfless obedience to the selfish
ix. A living ideal guiding youth, ennobling manhood and mellowing us as we age
d. Lingle attributed to. J.T. Stone of Chicago, “…all the armies that have marched, all the navies that have sailed, all the parliaments that have sat, and all the kings that have reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as has that One Solitary Life.”
1. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ because of the Christ of Christian experiences. We see Christ in people throughout history and in people around us.
e. Dr. Lingle said one of the greatest arguments is found in the hearts of the saints and mystics.
i. Many people have had mystical experiences; maybe you have and that give you even more reason to make Christ part of your life.
ii. Apostle Paul’s writings are more about his experience of Christ than about the life of Jesus. Like Paul, many of the saints have testified, “Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God.” (Galatians)
f. Lingle quotes Henry Drummond, a 19th century Scottish evangelist, “the best evidence of Christianity is a Christian. If Christ lives in us, surely we will reflect something of His image to the world about us.” The early Church fathers use to say, “He became what we are, that He might make us to be what He is.” The more of his likeness that we bear, the more we become living witnesses to the Deity of Christ.
Lingle concludes in his summation. What difference does it make whether Jesus was only a great man or whether he was the Divine and Eternal Son of God? It makes all the difference in the world.
If Jesus were a mortal man, no matter how good or great, we would have a great teacher and example, but we would have no savior to save us. A mere mortal cannot save sinners like you and me. Dr. Lingle asks, “Do you know any man who is so good and wise that you would have him as your friend and advisor as long as you live…whom would you turn to in the hour of death and ask him to save your soul as you launch out into eternity?”
Jesus is asking each one of us the question that He asked His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”
Dr. Lingle’s closing prayer for us: May God give us the grace to look up into His face and say with Peter: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” May He give us the grace to make an even greater confession to kneel with our St. Thomas and say with all our hearts and beyond all doubt: “My Lord and my God.”
No comments:
Post a Comment