Is Jesus God?

The Jews didn't think Jesus was God. They still don't. Neither do the Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other groups. Jesus, many say, was a great man, but only that. Not God in the flesh.

Bright and sincere men and women have contemplated long and hard who Jesus is and have reached differing conclusions. In the earliest days of the church, a lot of spiritual and intellectual energy was spent striving to express who Jesus was. Much of the impetus for the statements of understanding, called creeds, came from controversy. For example, around the year 325 AD, a man named Arius denied that Jesus was God. He said Jesus existed prior to Creation, but did not eternally exist with the Father. His famous line regarding Jesus was, "before he was begotten, or created, or purposed, or established, he was not" (from his letter to a man named Eusebius). In other words, there was a time when Jesus did not exist. Therefore, Jesus was not God.

To deal with the conflict of beliefs, the emperor gathered Christian leaders together to work it out. Leaders with great names like Athanasius and Basil declared that Arius missed the bigger picture and, for posterity's sake, a statement needed to be written to make clear the "ortho" (right, true, straight) "doxy" (opinion, praise). The right thinking, or orthodoxy, since then was summarized in the following statement:

"We believe in one God. The Father Almighty. Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end" (emphasis added).

How did they get to this conclusion? They did so from Scripture.

Arius understood "begotten Son" to mean that he was created. The rest of the church leaders understood it to mean that Jesus and the Father were of the same "essence," the same stuff. Just like birds beget birds, so God begets God. Same stuff.

But the opinion that won the day won because of the weight of Scripture is with their conclusion. This morning in church I spoke of a few passages of Scripture that support this. Thomas called Jesus, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). The Jews thought Jesus thought he was God when he forgave the sins of a paralyzed man. In their mind, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Mark 2:7). Indeed. Only God can and only God did when Jesus forgave the sins. Jesus was asserting his divine nature.

When we have conversations about Jesus, we must decide for ourselves who Jesus is. Will we go the way of the Jews, Muslims, or Jehovah's Witnesses and say that Jesus was a great and enlightened man? Will we stop there? Will Jesus be ONLY a great man? Or will we go the way of the early church leaders and understand Jesus to be so much more?

I cannot conclude as others have that Jesus is only a great man, miracle worker or righteous man of God. He is so much more. The pastors, elders, leaders and people of this church have not been smushy on this subject. We have declared with full voice that Jesus is God. Jesus is true God of true God, begotten not made and of one "stuff" with God the Father.

When I talk about Jesus, the first thing I try to communicate is that Jesus is my GOD. I hope you do too.