By John H. Gerstner

The Deity of Christ
But now we find ourselves in an extraordinary situation. If we admit, as the world does, that Christ is the perfect man, we must also admit that He is God then!

"Why," you ask, "if we acknowledge Christ to be the perfect man must we also acknowledge Him to be God? Is there not a great difference between man and God, even between perfect man and God? Why should the admission of the one require the admission of the other? Why must the perfect man be God?"

It is for this reason: Because the perfect man says He is God. And if He is not God, then neither could He be a perfect man. We despise any man who claims to be God when we know that he is not; and if Jesus Christ is not God, we must despise Him also, for He claims far more clearly than other impostors that He is God. We must therefore either worship Christ as God or despise or pity Him as man.

"Just a minute," you say, "what proof do we have that Jesus Christ ever claimed that He is actually God?"

My answer is that we have overwhelming evidence that He entertained this high opinion of Himself. For example, this is what He says of Himself:

"I and My Father are one" (John 10:30).
"No man cometh to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6).
"He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).
"Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).
"I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God," the high priest asked. "Thou hast said," was Christ's reply (Matthew 26:63-64).
"Baptize," He commanded, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19).
"Whom do ye say that I am?" He asked His disciples. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," was Peter's reply (Matthew 16:16).
"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven," He said (Matthew 16:17).

"Well," you might say, "is this not a characteristic way for religious teachers to speak? Do not all of them make grandiose statements?"

It is true that Bronson Alcott once said to a friend, "Today I felt that I could say as Christ did, 'I and the Father are one!' "

To which his friend replied, "Yes, but the difference is that Christ got the world to believe Him."

The significant thing is this: not one recognized religious leader in the history of the world has ever laid claim to being God, except Jesus. Moses did not. Paul was horrified when people tried to worship him. Mohammed insisted that he was merely a prophet of Allah. Buddha did not even believe in the existence of a personal God, and Confucius was skeptical. Zoroaster was a worshipper, but he was not worshipped. I repeat, of the recognized religious leaders of all time, Jesus of Nazareth, and He alone, claimed to be eternal God.

Not only did Jesus definitely affirm His deity on various occasions, but it is perhaps more telling still that He always assumed it. Take, for example, the Sermon on the Mount. This is regarded as predominantly moral instruction. No heavy theology here, people say. This is Christ telling us what we are to do, not what we are to believe about Him.

It is true that He does not directly claim to be God in this passage. Indirectly, however, He says a great deal about Himself and lays impressive incidental claim to His divinity.

Note these six distinct pointers to His supernatural being in this one sermon on Christian morality (Matthew 5-7). First, He says with absolute authority who shall and who shall not inherit the kingdom of God in the section of this sermon we call "the Beatitudes." If I, for example, said anything like that on my own authority you would smile pityingly or frown.

Second, He said that His disciples would be hated and suffer persecution for His sake. Suppose that I said that Martin Luther suffered for my sake; what would you think about me?

Third, "but I say unto you" is a constant refrain throughout this sermon, by which Christ assumes His right to speak with the authority of the very Word of God on which He was commenting.

Fourth, He says that in the last judgment people will say to Him, "Lord, Lord." And then He will profess unto them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity."

Fifth, the sermon concludes with the parable of the two houses, one built on sand and the other on a rock; one will fall and one will stand. What is this rock? His teaching.

Sixth, and finally, the people sensed the supreme dignity of this Person who had taught them, for they observed that "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

What did Jesus' contemporaries think of Him? "Behold the man," said Pilate. "Truly this was the Son of God," said the centurion who watched Him die. "Never man so spake," the people said. "Behold the Lamb of God," was the testimony of John the Baptist, whom all men recognized as a prophet. "My Lord and my God," said doubting Thomas.

When Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was, Peter, standing near Caesarea Philippi, a city built in honor of Caesar, who was claiming divine honors, and not far from the grotto to Pan, the god of nature whom many worshipped, said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." John said of Him, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." And Paul adored Him with a most abundant variety of expressions as his great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. For example, Paul uses the expression, "the unsearchable riches of Christ," and other expressions concerning Christ's riches in his epistles. What does Paul mean by such a phrase? That is the very point. It is impossible to put enough meaning into the expression to do justice to the feeling of the apostle. Rendell Harris, attempting to translate this expression from Ephesians 3:8, threw up his hands in despair and cried, "The unexplorable wealth of Christ!"

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This is part twelve of John H. Gerstner's small book entitled Theology for Everyman, originally published in 1965 (Moody Press, Chicago). That book was subsequently republished by Soli Deo Gloria in 1991. It has since fallen out of print and we thought it would be good to revisit this book here on the blog. Over the next couple of months, we'll work our way through the book. Here is where we've been so far: Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.