Page 4
, Back to pages
1,
2,
3
Study QuestionsJohn 8:31-51
Jesus said that the people who are truly His disciples are the ones who abide
in His Words. He said that the ones who would abide in His words would know the
truth and that knowing the truth would set them free.
When the Jews heard this they said that they were Abraham’s seed and that
they were enslaved to no one. Jesus explained back to them that the one who
practices sin is the slave of sin. Jesus further explained that the Son will
remain in the House of God forever, but that the person who is a slave of sin
would not. He then went on to say that the only person who can set us free from
slavery to sin is Himself and that when he does we are truly free.
Jesus then asked them if anyone of them could convict Him of sin. Since they
could not and since He was speaking the truth, He asked them why they did not
believe in Him. Jesus then told them that the person who is of God hears the
Words of God. He then told them that they were not able to receive what He
was saying because they were not of God. In making this statement Jesus
was declaring to them that He was God.
As a result, in response, they told Jesus He had a demon. Jesus responded
back by saying that the one who would keep His Word (notice His
word, God’s Word) would not see death (spiritual death). Understanding that He
was again claiming to be Yehovah God they again accused Him of being demon
possessed.
They said that Abraham and the Prophets had died and wanted to know If He
thought He was greater than them. They wanted to know who He made Himself out to
be. They wanted Him to state it clearly straightforwardly. Jesus told them in
response that Abraham leaped for joy when he saw the day Jesus became a man to
save men from their sins. The Jews said in Response, "You are not yet fifty
years old (in His humanity), and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them
in response, "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham came into being, I
AM." He used the name in Hebrew for Yehovah God, given here in John
in the Greek Formula egw eimi.
How do we know this was what He meant? We know Because the next thing the Jews
did was pick up stones to stone Jesus because they clearly straightforwardly
heard Him say He was Yehovah God. Leviticus 24:16 stated plainly that the
penalty for blasphemy was death by stoning. They were giving Jesus a proper
response if He were only a man. In response, John tells us that Jesus was hidden
and went forth out of the Temple unharmed.
Jesus talks about His Divinity in John 5:20-21,
"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself
is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also
gives life to whom He wishes."
In this passage Jesus states that He is completely aware of everything the
Father is doing. Only Divinity has infinite capacity mentally and
intellectually. Jesus raises men from the dead and gives life to whom He wishes.
Only Divinity can create life and give it back again. Josh Mcdowell in His book Evidence
That Demands a Verdict states,
"Jesus claimed to be God, He did not leave any other options. His claim
to be God must be either true or false. . . . If, when Jesus made His claims he
knew that he was not God, then he was lying. But, if He was a liar, then he was
also a hypocrite because He told others to be honest, whatever the cost, while
Himself teaching and living a colossal lie. And more than that, He was a demon,
because he told others to trust Him for their eternal destiny. If He could not
back up His claims and knew it, then He was unspeakably evil. Last he would also
be a fool, because it was his claims to being God that led to His
crucifixion."34/104-105
C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity said the following about
Jesus’ claims to Deity,
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that
people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we
must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said
would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level
with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of
Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or
else a madman or something worse."91/40-41
"You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a
demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not
come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He
has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."91/40-41
"No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the
bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." (John 1:18)
John the Apostle states that no man at any time has seen the Father. Jesus
Himself in John 5:37 stated that no man has at any time seen God the Father’s
form or heard his voice. Jesus further tells us in John 4:24 that God is a
Spirit. Yet, Abraham in Genesis 18 has three visitors from heaven: two were
angels and the third he refers to fourteen times as Yehovah. If no man
has ever seen God the Father or heard his voice then Yehovah must be
Jesus Christ. John tells us in John 1:18 that Jesus Christ, Yehovah God, has
revealed to us the Father. Genesis 19:24 tells us, "Then Yehovah rained on
Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yehovah out of heaven." Walter
Martin states,
"Moses here reveals a glimpse of the composite unity in the Triune God.
. . . This unquestionably is the only solution to this dilemma. God the Father
rained fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, and God the Son spoke and ate with Abraham
and Sarah. Two persons... are both called ‘Yehovah’ (Genesis 18:21, 19:24;
Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2), and both are ‘one’ (Echod) with the Holy Spirit in
‘composite unity’ (Deut 6:4). God the Father was in heaven, God the Son died
on the cross, God the Holy Spirit comforts the Church till Jesus shall come
again."80/62
"For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill
Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His
own Father, making Himself EQUAL with God." (John 5:18)
Jesus was a Jew talking to Jews and the Jews clearly understood in their
language and culture that Jesus was calling Himself God, equal with God the
Father. Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible defines ison
(ison) as "Equal to, the Same as"5/205 Walter Martin
in Kingdom of the Cults gives the following discussion on ison,
"The Greek word for equal is ison, which according to Thayer’s
Greek Lexicon (p. 307), an acknowledged authority, means ‘equal in quality as
in quantity, to claim for one’s self the Nature, rank, authority, which
belong to God’ (John 5:18). Dr. Thayer... was a Unitarian who denied Christ’s
Deity;... yet, being honest, he gave the true meaning of the Biblical terms even
though they contradicted his views."80/58
From this study it is clear that Jesus and his followers declared
straight-forwardly that Jesus was Yehovah God in the flesh. It is also clear
that by the response of His enemies that they believed Jesus to claim He was
Yehovah God in the flesh and thus why they hanged him on the cross.
The significance of Jesus’ crucifixion is that it both justifies us before
God and justifies God’s condemnation of man to hell forever if man rejects
Jesus, Yehovah God. Some people say, "How can a good God condemn anyone to
hell?" You judge for yourself: God the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us. He loved us, healed us, fed us and forgave us for our sins. What did we as
man do in response? We rejected God and tried to kill Him by putting His
humanity on a cross. Man’s killing of God’s humanity justifies God’s
condemnation of man to hell. At the same time God tells us in His Word that all
we have to do to be saved from hell and go to heaven is believe that Jesus
Christ is Yehovah God His Son hanging on that cross and He will forgive us our
sins and receive us into His dwellings in Heaven. Jesus said,
"And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven,
even the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have
eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His ONLY
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
eternal life. . . . He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not
believe has been judged already, because he has not believed IN
THE NAME of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that
the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the
light, for their deeds were evil." (John 3:13-19)
All you have to do to be saved is believe that Jesus is God’s Son, Yehovah
God, who came down out of heaven and became flesh, and that His death on
the cross was for your sins. You personalize this by opening up and surrendering
your heart to Jesus and allowing Him to come into Your heart. Jesus said in
Revelation 3:20,
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and
opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him, and he with
Me."
If You reject Jesus Christ, His death on the cross rather than being your
means of salvation becomes God’s just reason for condemning you to hell.
If You want to have eternal life and go to heaven, You must receive Jesus
Christ as Your Savior and Lord. As Savior means Savior from Sins penalty, death,
for you on the cross; as Lord means as Yehovah God Your Creator and Redeemer. If
you believe that Jesus is Yehovah God the Son who became man and died for Your
sins, then pray the following prayer right now and receive Him as Your Savior
and Lord:
Jesus, I believe that You are
the Son of God who became man and died on the cross for my sins. I confess to
You that I am a sinner and repent of my known sins. I ask You now to come into
my heart as Savior from my sins and as Lord of my life. Heavenly Father, thank
You for forgiving my sins through Your Son’s death and shed blood on the cross
and that I now have eternal life. Now take control of my life, and through Your
Holy Spirit lead me into your will and plan for my life; in Lord Jesus Christ of
Nazareth’s name, amen.
If you responded to this prayer for salvation and received Jesus as Savior
and Lord then God’s Word states that I can declare to you the following:
-
One, you are saved, you have eternal life and you ARE
going to heaven (1 John 5:11-13, Col 1:27).
-
Two, you have been adopted as God’s child (John 1:12).
-
Three, you have just begun Jesus’ present and eternal purpose and plan for
your life (John 10:10, 14:6).
It took the Church 451 years to understand fully all that the Scripture
taught about Jesus being fully God and fully man. This understanding was clearly
spelled out in what is called The Nicene Creed of the
Council of Nicea 325 AD, The Chalcedonian Creed of the Council of
Chalcedon 451 AD and The Athanasian Creed 400-500 AD.
Historical Creeds
Nicene Creed:
We believe in one God, the FATHER Almighty, Maker of all things visible
and invisible.
And in one Lord JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the
only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father God of God], Light of
Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (oJmoousion,
homoousios)107 with the Father; by whom all things were made [both in
heaven and on earth]; who for us men, and for our
salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the
third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to
judge the quick and the dead.
And in the HOLY GHOST.95/Vol.1/28-29
Chalcedonian Creed:
Therefore, following the Holy Fathers, we all with one accord teach men to
acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in
Godhead and complete in Manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a
reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his
Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his Manhood;
like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the
Father before the ages, but yet as regards his Manhood begotten, for us men and
for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ,
Son, Lord, Only begotten, recognized IN TWO NATURES, WITHOUT CONFUSION, WITHOUT
CHANGE, WITHOUT DIVISION, WITHOUT SEPARATION; the distinction of natures being
in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature
being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as
parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and only-begotten
God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke
of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the
Fathers has handed down to us.96
The Athanasian Creed:
Whoever wills to be in a state of salvation, before all things it is
necessary that he hold the catholic [apostolic/universal] faith, which except
everyone shall have kept whole and undefiled without doubt he will perish
eternally.
Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in
Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is
one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But
the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory
equal, the Majesty coeternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the
Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; the father
infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal,
the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet not three eternals but one
eternal, as also not three infinites, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated,
and one infinite. So, likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and
the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet not three almighties but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; and yet not three
Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
and yet not three Lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by Christian
truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and Lord; so are we
forbidden by the catholic religion to say, there be three Gods or three Lords.
This is the catholic faith, which except a man shall have believed faithfully
and firmly he cannot be in a state of salvation.166
*Further Reading
Study Questions
Back to pages
1,
2,
3
Bibliography & Notes
Section 3 Chapters
Top
of Page |