Let me start off by saying God Blesses us in mysterious ways. I've been praying for a new job; preferably in a law office somewhere. I've also been praying for kids and a deeper faith. I've prayed for God to take away my spirit of laziness and just dive into reading the Bible and studying its word. I've made plans that I never followed, bought books that would take me step by step through the word that I never finished and just kinda chalked it up to...I wasn't going to be the best child of God because I never really studied the word.
Don't get me wrong...I believe..with all my heart believe. I pray everyday...multiple times a day (even though I still don't feel like I am sufficient in that area.) I go to church, I'm active in the church, but I KNEW that because I wasn't diving into the word like we've been taught to that I was missing some crucial part of my faith and it was haunting me.
So back to the mysterious blessings...on June 6th I was offered a job with a construction company. I snapped it up! Working in this office has been so enjoyable I can't begin to tell you how much this company has blessed me! It is a Godly office. Everyone is a believer and spends time during their day pouring over the Bible. The owner has a home church and spends a lot of time preparing lessons and such during the week. My boss...the Office Manager...has asked me so many faith questions that get me thinking and encourages me to read this portion or that and to have a deeper relationship with Christ. I've started leaving my Bible at work along with a study by Beth Moore that I am working through on my own called Living Free. It's here that I come to my Biblical Question....in the study...Beth Moore refers to Jesus as God quite frequently. It started my brain buzzing and I've never heard it put that way.
I've always been taught Jesus is the son of God. But there are strong arguments out there that Jesus is God because of the miracles he could perform. God is also referred to as I AM and Alpha and Omega and in Revelations 22:13 & 16 Jesus calls himself the Alpha and Omega. And I can't find the scripture again but refers to himself as I AM also. I guess my questions are:
1) Have I been living under a rock or not listening to the word and Jesus really is God?
2) Do you believe Jesus is God?
3) Would you help me with some scripture that supports or disproves that Jesus is God?
I'm actually shook up about this because I feel as if I've missed some really important piece of my belief system. HELP...anyone?
This is what my friend Alyssa sent me earlier:
ReplyDeleteI do believe Jesus is God.
Here are some scriptures that help me believe this.
Colossians 2:9 (King James Version)
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
John 14:9
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Jesus had two natures. He was fully God, but Jesus also possessed a human body, and a human will. The difference between Jesus' fleshly nature and ours is that he didn't inherit our sin, and he was born perfect and innocent (not to mention the fact that he was God) Jesus' human, fleshly will was in perfect submission to his divine will.
Jesus prophesied that He would resurrect His own body from the dead in three days (John 2:19-21), yet Peter preached that God raised up Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24)
Jesus said He would send the Comforter to us (John 16:7), but He also said the Father would send the Comforter (John 14:26)
Jesus will raise up all believers at the last day (John 6:40), yet God the Father quickens (gives life to) the dead and will raise us up (Romans 4:17; I Corinthians 6:14)
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteCertainly the divine part of Jesus could not sin and could not even be tempted to sin (James 1:13). The human part of Jesus, when viewed alone, theoretically had the capacity to sin. But this is only theoretical, and not actual. Viewed alone, it seems that the humanity of Christ had the capacity to choose sin. However, His human nature always willingly submitted to the divine nature, which could not sin. So, as a practical matter, Jesus Christ - viewed as the combination of humanity and divinity that He was - could not sin. The Spirit was always in control and Spirit-controlled humanity does not commit sin. (See I John 3:9 for an analogy.)
The Son of God is not a separate person in the Godhead, but the physical expression of the one God. The Son is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:13-15) and "the express image of His [God's] person" (Hebrews 1:2-3). Just as a signature stamp leaves an exact likeness on paper, or just as a seal leaves an exact impression when pressed in wax, so the Son of God is the exact expression of the Spirit of God in flesh. Man could not see the invisible God, so God made an exact likeness of Himself in flesh, impressed His very nature in flesh, came Himself in flesh, so that man could see and know Him.
Many other verses of Scripture reveal that we can only use the term "Son of God" correctly when it includes the humanity of Jesus. For example, the Son was made of a woman (Galatians 4:4), the Son was begotten (John 3:16), the Son was born (Matthew 1:21-23; Luke 1:35), the Son did not know the hour of the Second Coming (Mark 13:32), the Son could do nothing of Himself (John 5:19), the Son came eating and drinking (Matthew 11:19), the Son suffered (Matthew 17:12), a person can blaspheme against the Son but not the Spirit and be forgiven (Luke 12:10), the Son was crucified (John 3:14; 12:30-34), and the Son died (Matthew 27:40-54; Romans 5:10). The death of Jesus is a particularly good example. His divine Spirit did not die, but His human body did. We cannot say that God died, so we cannot say "God the Son" died. On the other hand, we can say that the Son of God died because Son refers to humanity.
The fleshly nature of Jesus was the "Son" and the divine nature of him is the Father. His fleshly nature is also known as the "Lamb of God". When Jesus was praying to the Father, it was his fleshly will that was submitting himself to God. Fully man, yet fully God.