(Disclaimer, again): I have never read Bill O’Riley’s book called Killing Jesus. The following thoughts came from my own personal study. Any similarities are purely coincidental.)
I am using the word “murder” because it is different than “killing”. Killing can be an accident or defensive. Murder is intentional with malice. Further, the word “murder” in this article is used symbolically to demonstrate how Jesus and His message are denigrated in our society, including in some churches.
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Last time, we looked at how the religious leaders of Jesus’ day belittled and denigrated Jesus’ words, teachings, and example. They sought to murder Him because he cut across their traditions and man-made rules about the Sabbath. Their hatred was so strong for Him that they sought how they might destroy Him!
They also did not know Jesus. They claimed that only God could forgive sins. They were right about that but wrong about who He was. In their midst stood Immanuel (God with us)! Their religiosity blinded them. Indeed, Jesus could forgive sins because He is God, a member of the eternal Godhead.
There is nothing new under the sun. Today, the same two topics of the Sabbath and the divinity of Jesus are constantly called into question even though the Bible is clear on these two topics. They are twisted and degraded, which leads to the murder of Jesus (symbolically). So, as we walk on holy ground approaching this topic of divinity, let us consider the importance of understanding the nature of Christ.
Sometimes, someone else can so clearly express the truth better than me. Rarely do I rely on someone else’s writings, but in this case, I make an exception. A small book written in the 19th century by E. J. Waggoner, Christ, and His Righteousness, follows the scripture closely and fairly to come to a Biblical conclusion about the nature of Christ. While some of the following are his words, mine are interspersed as the Spirit leads me. But, the most important words are the words from God Himself as found in both the Old and New Testaments.
The ultimate goal is to understand the depth of the sacrifice of Christ,
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
Philippians 2:6
If we fall short in our understanding of Christ’s nature, we may attempt to murder Him by minimizing the story of redemption. Let’s begin with the basic question:
IS CHRIST GOD?
In many places in the Bible, Christ is called God. The Psalmist says:
“The mighty God (Elohim), even the Lord [Jehovah], hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is judge Himself.”
Ps. 50:1-6.
It should be clear that this passage refers to the 2nd coming of Christ by two declarations from God’s word:
First, all judgment is given to Christ by God the Father.
Last time, we saw where the Jews sought to kill Jesus, broke their traditions of Sabbath observance, and He made himself equal with God. He did this by forgiving the paralytic’s sins, and in John 5, Jesus claimed that He and God were equal:
“Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.”
John 5:18
Jesus’ answer to them showed the closeness of the work of Jesus and God the Father (verses 19-20). It is logical that if Jesus didn’t think He was equal with God, He would have said so. Instead, He refers back to the Psalmist Asaph’s description of Jesus (God) being given all judgment (Psalm 50: 4-6). His response to the Jews probably surprised and infuriated them because He is showing the power given to Him by the Father:
For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
John 5: 22-23
Is it not clear that honoring Jesus honors the Father, also? More on that later.
Secondly, the description of the Psalmist Asaph matches Paull and Peter’s New Testament description of the second coming of Christ. Asaph refers to God (Elohim) whose coming is destructive and is the time to gather His people. Jesus fulfills this prophecy. Elohim is the same name used at the beginning of Genesis…” In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” and over 2,400 times elsewhere in the Old Testament. This simple comparative chart should help us see the connection between Psalm 50 and the New Testament. This is just one of many connections between the God of the Old Testament and Jesus’ divinity in the New Testament.
| Psalm 50 | New Testament |
| Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous (like a storm) all around Him. V.3 | “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with *a shout, (1 Thess 4:16).” “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be [burned up. 2 Peter 3: 10 |
| The Saints shall be gathered together….God is judge Himself. | And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His [saints) from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24: 31, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” 1 Thess 4: 17 |
*Note: This shout will be the voice of the Son of God, which will be heard by all that are in their graves and which will cause them to come forth. John 5:28, 29.
A prophecy of Isaiah makes it certain that Jesus would be called (among other descriptive names) “the mighty God, the everlasting Father.”
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
Isa. 9:6.
These are not simply the words of Isaiah; they are the words of the Spirit of God. God has, in direct address to the Son, called Him by the same title.
In Ps. 45:6, we read these words:
“Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter.”
The casual reader might take this to be simply the Psalmist’s description of praise to God, but when we turn to the New Testament, we find that it is much more. We find that God the Father is the speaker and that He is addressing the Son, calling Him God. (See Heb. 1:1-8).
But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
Hebrews 1: 8
Christ is the “express image” of the Father’s person. Heb. 1:3. As the Son of the self-existent God, He has by nature all the attributes of Deity. It is true that there are many sons of God, but Christ is the “only begotten Son of God,” and therefore, the Son of God is, in a sense, that which no other being ever was or ever can be.
The angels are sons of God, as was Adam (Job 38:7; Luke 3:38), by creation; Christians are the sons of God by adoption (Rom. 8:14, 15); but Christ is the Son of God by association with the Father.
When Philip said to Jesus,
“Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father”
John 14:8, 9.
This is as emphatic a statement as when He said,
“I and My Father are one.”
John 10:30.
So truly was Christ God, even when here among men, that when asked to exhibit the Father, He could say, Behold Me. And this brings to mind the statement that when the Father brought the First-begotten into the world, He said,
“And let all the Christ And His Righteousness. angels of God worship Him.”
Heb. 1:6.
It was not simply when Christ was sharing the glory of the Father before the world that He was entitled to homage, but when He came as a Babe in Bethlehem, even then, all the angels of God were commanded to adore Him.
The Jews did not misunderstand Christ’s teaching concerning Himself. When He declared that He was one with the Father, the Jews took up stones to stone Him, and when He asked them for which of His good works they sought to stone Him, they replied:
” For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
John 10:33.
If He had been what they regarded Him, a mere man, His words would indeed have been blasphemy, but He was God. The object of Christ in coming to earth was to reveal God to men so that they might come to Him. Thus, the apostle Paul says that.
“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself”
2 Cor. 5:19
In John, we read that the Word, which was God, was “made flesh.” John 1:1,14.
In the same connection, it is stated,
” No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (or made Him known).
John 1:18.
Note the expression, “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” He has His abode there, and He is there as a part of the Godhead, as surely when on earth as when in heaven. The use of the present tense implies continued existence. It presents the same idea that is contained in the statement of Jesus to the Jews (John 8:58),
“Before Abraham was, I am.”
John 8:58
And this again shows His identity with the One who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, who declared His name to be “I AM THAT I AM.” And, finally, we have the inspired words of the apostle Paul concerning Jesus Christ, that
“it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.”
Col. 1:19
What this fullness is, which dwells in Christ, we learn from the next chapter, where we are told that.
” For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;”
Col. 2:9.
This is the most absolute and unequivocal testimony to the fact that Christ possesses by nature all the attributes of Divinity.
Conclusion:
The sacrifice of God the Father and Jesus, who are so intimately associated by their existence and purpose. The plan of the Father and Jesus made Jesus’ sacrifice far exceed the mere blood of bulls and goats. Those poor animals who knew not of their pending death must have kicked and squirmed as they felt the blade of the knife on their tender throats and felt the life go slowly out of their consciences.
But Jesus willingly laid down His life in cooperation with the Father,
Therefore, My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
John 10: 17-18
Let us stand in awe and respond with love for God and the value of sinful mankind that our Creator would die for the created.
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11: 33-36
Next time, we will consider Jesus as our Creator.