The Wednesday Word ~ 29 May, 2024 A.D.

What´s all this Nonsense About Jesus Being God
 

by D. G Miles McKee

 
Some years ago, in Maryland, USA, I was ministering at a series of meetings with my good friend Dr. Joel Freeman of the Freeman Institute.  It was ‘meetings’ at night and ‘greetings’ by day. Being out and about one day, we stopped for a quick bite of lunch at a small restaurant and, since the weather was pleasant, sat down at an outside table in the courtyard.
 
 During lunch, I observed two young men moving from table to table, talking to the diners.  Eventually they stopped with us. “Hi guys,” they beamed, “we are Christians and in 15 minutes time we will be having a Bible study over by the fountain.  We’d sure like to have you join us.”
 
“Christians?” I inquired of them with my face covered by a puzzled look.
 
“Oh yes,” they responded with firmness, “we are Christians.”
 
I don’t know what exactly happened at that point, but I smelt a rat.  They troubled something deep within me.  Just then inspiration hit.  I knew I needed to draw them out and make them identify themselves, so I said with a sneering tone, “Christians! Don’t tell me you believe all that nonsense about Jesus being God?” They looked knowingly at one another then at me and said, “Well no, actually we don’t believe that Jesus is God.  We believe he is only the Son of God.”
 
“Gotcha!” I smiled and launched into a proclamation of the gospel.  I told them in no uncertain terms of how the God who had made all flesh and blood had Himself become flesh and blood to redeem ruined sinners at the cross of Calvary.  I gave them an earful, and they were “sore discomforted” and by fleetness of foot secured their hasty retreat to the relative safety of the far side of the courtyard.
 
 Among the doctrines that the Devil hates with a passion, are those which are essential to the gospel.  That´s why he despises Justification by grace alone through faith alone. That´s why he loathes the truths of the Deity and humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
 Remember this, the Prince of Darkness hates Christ and is fully determined to blur and to block His work and identity. His satanic purpose is to blind and to bind unbelievers from seeing the glory and sufficiency of the gospel.  In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read,
 
“ ---  the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
 
One of the marks of the unsaved person is that they cannot see the glory of God in the person of Christ.  Believers, on the other hand, have been given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).  God’s glory, God Himself, is known only in Christ Jesus who is, “the brightness of His (God’s) glory, and the express image of His person (Hebrews 1:3).  The glory of the gospel, therefore, is that the One who undertook our redemption is none other than the Eternal, Mighty God.
 
If we reject the deity of Christ, we have no gospel. Jesus not only taught good news about God, He Himself also is the good news of God.  He is the center of the Gospel, the full and final revelation from heaven.  To reject Him is to reject God: to deny His deity is to deny the deity of God; to reject God’s unveiling of Himself in Christ Jesus is to deny and pervert the gospel! 
 
Gospel believers see that Christ is the revelation and manifestation of God. The mystery of God has been revealed: our blindness to this epic truth has been removed by grace.  When Christ returns, we will see, in Him, the full display of the glory of God (I Timothy 6:14-16).
 
And that´s the Gospel Truth!