Understanding Divinity

I reckon that the most misunderstood character in the entire Bible is God. This stems from the fact that Satan and his agents have been very successful in misrepresenting God’s true identity and character to the extent that many view God as an evil tyrant and the thought of Him evokes fear. Satan has also inserted this idea that God is a God of wrath who is prepared to punish anyone who dares to transgress His commands. What result from all this is a tide of legalism that brainwashes people to think that God is pleased if they are able to fulfil the various round of rites and ceremonies and observe His commandments. Then there is another group of individuals who hold God accountable for all the bad things that happen around the world and because of this they turn to atheism. This misunderstanding of God is not only widespread today, but it was prevalent even when Christ was here on earth. This fact is uttered by Christ in His prayer to the Father just before His crucifixion.

“O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee…” (John 17:25)

The fact that God is love has lost its significance in the light of the prevailing misrepresentation of His character by Satan and his agents. In order to deal with this problem, God manifested His unflinching and unconditional love to humanity by sending His only begotten Son to this world, not just to take the place of the rebellious race on the cross but to exhibit the kind of Being that He really is. (John 3:16, 1 John 4:9) Jesus alone is the solution to this problem because He is in the “express image” of the Father’s person. (Hebrews 1:3). He alone possesses the character of the Father; and in His incarnation, it was one of His undertakings to reveal the true God of the universe. Concerning this matter, the apostle John declared, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:18). Jesus also said, “And I have declared unto them thy name, and I will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26). So, in order to know God for what He really is, Christ’s life is the lesson book that we ought to study and ponder upon. So, without any further delay, let us delve into the life of Christ, starting at the very beginning.

The Bible repeatedly and emphatically states that Jesus is the Son of the living God. His Sonship to the Father is a literal thing. It is not a metaphorical or allegorical connotation as many Christians today teach and uphold. Jesus was literally born of the Father. Both the Old and the New Testaments confirm this. Christ, under the title of wisdom, through Solomon declared concerning Himself that He was born of God.

“The LORD possessed me in the beginning of His way, before his works of old, or ever the earth was. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or even the earth was. When there was no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.” (Proverbs 8:22 - 25)

This passage in Proverbs reveals three things. The first one being that God is the Father. The second point is that Jesus was ‘possessed’ or literally born of God. The third and final point is the fact that He was born before the earth was created. In fact, Jesus declared that He was established from everlasting, that is, He came into being before time had even come into existence. No human mind or words can fully comprehend this time before time began. We can only express this period as ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternity.’ We can be sure of this fact when we read verse 27 where it says that when God prepared the heavens, Christ was there. In fact, Christ was born of the Father before anything was even created. This truth is spelled out in John 1:3.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3)

And again, while He was here on earth, Jesus mentioned multiple times that He was begotten of the Father. He did this to send home the message that He was the Messiah, the Sent of God who came to seek and save the lost. He declared Himself as the “only begotten Son,” the One who “proceeded forth… from God” and the One who “came out from God.” (John 3:16; 8:42; 16:27). This is a true and biblically sound doctrine about the identity of the Father and His Son. This truth in turn, is the key to better understand God’s character. Now it makes perfect sense when the Bible says that God is love and He chose to manifest that love to us by sending His only and very own Son. How many parents are willing to sacrifice their own children for the sake of others? In light of this fact, we can begin to see a different picture of God, not like the one presented by Satan. Christ’s literal sonship to the Father forms the core and the basis of His divinity because a divine Being would give birth to another Being that possesses the same divine nature of the Parent. This fact is illustrated in the creation of Adam and Eve. Eve essentially came out from Adam. She, in turn, possessed the same humanity that Adam had. As Adam was perfect from the moment He was made, Eve was likewise untainted by sin. But at the same time, Eve was not the man nor was Adam the woman. In this aspect, Adam and Eve differ. This principle illustrates the relationship that exists between God and His Son. Because the Father is God, His Son is also God but the latter is not the God. In other words, the Son is certainly not God Himself, though He possess divine nature. And because God is love, so is His Son. The character of God is manifested in the Son. For this very reason, the word of God says that in Christ “dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9). And that He is “the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15).

Up to this point, it is clear that Christ possesses divinity and divine attributes and no one can take away divinity from Him. He was and shall forever be truly divine. And speaking of divine attributes, we normally associate divinity with these three things – omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. But the problem is, we humans focus only on these attributes and point to them as THE basis of divinity. As a result, our estimation of God is flawed. While it is true that God uses these attributes to manifest His presence and power, they are not THE evidences of His divinity. The reason I say this is because this was not certainly true of Christ when He became man. When the Son took upon Himself humanity, He laid aside all the divine powers. But in spite of this, He was still divine. He was basically a divine being without divine powers.

How can we be so sure about this? Before Christ could ever perform any miracle, the first being the turning of water into wine, God declared openly and publicly that He was truly His Son. What God was saying was that in spite of His inability to work miracles, this Galilean clad in simple clothing was actually a divine Being. As a man, Jesus was present only in one place at a time. This pretty much explains why He needed to have physical and personal contact with His disciples and those who needed His help. He ministered to the multitudes individually and not in a corporate manner. And finally, Christ “increased in wisdom.” (Luke 2:52). If He was all-knowing, the Bible would not say this of Him. As a matter of fact, an omniscient being cannot be tempted. This is why James says, “God cannot be tempted with evil.” (James 1:13). Christ, on the other hand, was susceptible to be tempted and could have fallen into temptation because He was prone to be deceived by Satan. Further, it makes no sense for Satan to even think of tempting Christ if Christ had not given up the power of omniscience. This evidence cements the fact that Christ “was temped on all point like as we are.” (Hebrews 4:15).

If these powers that we normally consider as the basis of divinity are not evidences to prove that Christ or even God is divine, then what is the essential element or elements that we have overlooked all along? The answer lies in the character of the One whom Christ came to reveal. This same character, as mentioned earlier, was present in Christ. Satan’s argument that God alone is not good lay at the foundation of the former’s rebellion against the Latter. Satan thought that goodness can also be found outside of God. He reasoned, that things would be even better without God. But it did not take long for Lucifer to come to the realization that every fibre of his being tended to evil the moment he separated himself from Him who was the Source of goodness. Lucifer was perfect from the day he was created till iniquity was found in him. The earth and everything in it was perfect and good till our first parents separated themselves from God and things began to spiral out of control. This expresses the law of nature that without God nothing is good and anyone who is separated from Him can never choose and continue to be good.

This truth is resounded in Christ’s words which He spoke to the rich young man when He said to him, “Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but One, that is, God.” (Matthew 19:17). Some use this verse to say that Christ is not really good. His goodness lies in the fact that the Holy Spirit dwelled in His heart. But what we see in Calvary is a challenge to this line of thinking. God was always with His Son by the Spirit. However, at the cross, Christ, of all men, was forsaken by His own Father. As far as the law of nature goes, it was expected that Christ should have chosen evil over good. But the words, “Unto you I commend my spirit,” revealed that He defied the law of nature and He alone could remain good outside of God. This is a strong testament in favour of Christ’s divinity.

Christ’s entire life was, in fact, a testament of His divinity and the divinity of His Father above. Wherever He went, He carried with Him an ambience that was pleasant and soothing to the soul. People thronged to get closer to Him. Sometimes they did not mind spending an entire day with Him. Miracles alone did not draw people to Him. His love was what attracted the vast multitudes that thronged about Him.

The experience of Elijah, the prophet, is yet another example to show where divinity really lies. After the scene on mount Carmel was concluded and all the prophets of Baal were killed, Elijah fled and hid himself in a cave on mount Horeb because queen Jezebel was not pleased at what the prophet of God had done to her prophets of Baal. While he was lodged in the cave, God exhibited His presence in the form of a very strong wind which altered the surrounding landscape to a certain extent. This was followed by an earthquake and fire. However, God was not in the wind, the earthquake and the fire. These were but manifestations of His power. But God was in the still, small voice that spoke to the prophet “What doest thou here, Elijah?” (Read 1 Kings 19)

We humans are prone to focus our attention on the display of God’s power as an indication of His divinity. But let us be reminded that the Bible does not say that God is power, but it says that He is love. It also says that God does not change. On the one hand, focusing on power leads many to desire the power to heal and perform miracles without the desire to change and on the other hand, it also leads people to think that God uses this power as He pleases and therefore He is a tyrant. Knowing who and what God is, certainly impacts our relationship with Him. I believe that the account of the life of Jesus and Elijah’s encounter with God in the cave on Horeb are God’s purpose to point us to His loving character as a more significant element which affirms His divinity.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalms 34:8

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