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“Why is the Deity of Christ important?” one may ask. “Isn’t the Sermon on the Mount just as powerful and beautiful, even if He wasn’t the Son of God?” That may be so but if he is not the Son of God, He was deceived about His own nature because He claimed a unique Sonship. Moreover, He deceived others by His claim. (The Jews clearly understood His claim of Deity, although most of them chose to disbelieve it, [Mat.26:63–65]). Further, Jesus allowed others to make this claim about Him. Now, if He was merely a man or even a created angelic being in the form of a man, as some modern unbelievers allege, He is not what He claimed to be. This destroys His integrity. Such a misguided person could not quality as the Savior of one man, much less of the whole world. Also, if we disallow Jesus’ Deity, we must discard the Bible because the Bible gives us both the claims and the evidence to support the claim of His Deity. Consider some of this Biblical evidence:
- Prophetic fulfillment. Over 300 prophecies are fulfilled in the events of Jesus’ ancestry, birth, life, and death. These were not mere vague predictions, lucky guesses, or trends of events that might come in a few weeks or months. They were specific statements of events centuries removed from the prophets who spoke them (e.g., Deu. 18:15–19; Isa. 53, etc.). No one else in all of history has been so much the subject of God’s prophets as Jesus of Nazareth.
- His Virgin Birth. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” declares John (John 1:14). But how could this be? Seven hundred years before the New Testament times began, Isaiah said that God would give a sign to Israel, consisting of a virgin’s conception and birth of a son, whose name would be Immanuel (Isa. 7:14). A tender, moving account of this fulfillment is given in the beginning of the New Testament (Mat. 1:18–25). Mary, the mother of Jesus, conceived her first son before she ever knew a man (Mat. 1:18; Luke 1:34). The seed was implanted in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit (Mat. 1:20; Luke 1:35). This unique occurrence fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah (Mat. 1:22–23) and was the means by which Jesus Christ was both Son of Man and Son of God. Those who reject His Deity take their place with the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees who accused Him of blasphemy when He identified Himself with God and His power (Luke 5:20–22).
[Note: I wrote this article for, and it was published in the “Bible Thoughts” Column for the Hood County News, Granbury, Texas, August 10, 1980.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
