Deity of Christ

The fourth and final assertion about God in the Here We Stand series: He is the God of inscrutable tri-personality. Pastor Martin gives a simple statement of the doctrine from the Shorter Catechism, lays out the four biblical categories that force Trinitarian belief upon the church (monotheism, the Godhood of Father/Son/Spirit, their distinct personhood, and their unity in the one divine essence), traces the doctrine's history as latent in the Old Testament, patent in the New, and articulated in controversy, and draws out two practical implications: the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and of all our comfortable dependence on Him.

Introducing the section on the central figure in salvation, Pastor Martin begins a sub-series on the mystery of Christ's person by laying out why the doctrine is of supreme importance. He argues from Scripture that individual salvation depends on a right confession of who Christ is (John 20:31; John 8:24), the church is built upon a right confession (Matthew 16:13-18), the gospel cannot be maintained or proclaimed without a right view of Him (Romans 1:1-4), and this doctrine is the critical test of any professed work of the Spirit (1 John 4:1-3). He closes by pressing the personal question: Who is Jesus Christ to you?

Pastor Martin gives the simple statement of the biblical doctrine of Christ's person from the Shorter Catechism (truly God, truly man, two distinct natures united in one person forever), traces how the Athanasian Creed and Chalcedon articulated this confession in response to heresy, and then begins the biblical basis by expounding the first category of texts — those that explicitly designate Christ as God. He handles John 1:1, John 20:28, and Romans 9:5, pressing the conclusion that only one clear witness is needed to prove Christ's deity and calling hearers to fall with Thomas before their Lord and God.

Continuing the biblical case for Christ's deity, Pastor Martin brings four more witnesses (Philippians 2:6, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 1:8, and 1 John 5:20) in which Jesus Christ is explicitly called God in contexts that admit no lesser meaning. He summarizes the sevenfold witness in Colossians 2:9 — in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily — and applies the doctrine: the one who invites sinners is God able to fulfill every promise and every threat, He demands supreme religious affection, and He is the object of faith, worship, and a jealous guarding of the heart.

Moving to the second line of evidence for Christ's deity, Pastor Martin considers the distinguishing attributes of God that Scripture ascribes to Jesus Christ. He demonstrates three of them in this message: eternal existence (John 1:1; John 17:5; Colossians 1:17; John 8:58), changelessness or immutability (Hebrews 1:10-12; Hebrews 13:8), and omnipresence (John 3:13; Matthew 18:20; Matthew 28:20; Revelation 2-3). Each attribute is applied to the believer's walk and to the unconverted's need, showing that Christ in the full plentitude of Godhood is perfectly suited to the needs of sinners.

Continuing to display the distinguishing attributes of God possessed by Christ, Pastor Martin devotes this message to the omniscience of Christ. He expounds John 1 (Christ reading Nathanael's heart under the fig tree), John 2 (He knew what was in man and needed no witness), Revelation 2 (He searches the reins and hearts), and Matthew 11:27 (no one knoweth the Son but the Father, and none the Father but the Son). He applies the doctrine as a source of great consolation to struggling believers (with Peter: 'Lord, thou knowest that I love thee') and a source of conviction to those dallying with sin.

Pastor Martin introduces the third group of witnesses to Christ's deity: passages where He performs works that only God can do. He shows from John 1, Colossians 1:15-17, and Hebrews 1:2-3 that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, then from John 17:2, Ephesians 1:21-22, Colossians 1:17, and Hebrews 1:3 that He is the upholder and governor of providence, in whom all things hold together and by whom all things are upheld by the word of His power — the same Christ who made purification for sins.

Pastor Martin continues the third group of witnesses to Christ's deity by showing from Isaiah 43-45, Hosea 13:4, and Psalm 130 that salvation is exclusively Jehovah's work — there is no God but Jehovah and no Savior but Jehovah. He then gathers four lines of New Testament evidence that the name Savior, the activity of saving, the blessings of salvation, and the object of saving faith are all transferred to Jesus of Nazareth. The conclusion is inescapable: either Christ is an impostor undermining Jehovah's exclusive saviorhood, or He is Jehovah Himself manifested in flesh. The sermon applies this to the adequacy of His saving activity and the urgency of His saving entreaties.

The final demonstration from the third group of witnesses to Christ's deity: He performs the work of raising the dead and executing final judgment, a work only God can perform. Pastor Martin expounds John 5:17-29 as the central passage, shows how all the resurrection and judgment texts attribute to Christ the power to raise the dead by a word, the omniscience to judge secret deeds and thoughts in their full context, and the omnipotence to execute the sentence. He closes with solemn warning to the impenitent and blessed assurance for believers who are acquitted by the Judge who bore their hell.

Beginning the fourth group of witnesses to Christ's deity — names and titles of deity given to Him — Pastor Martin takes up the title Son of God. After establishing that names in biblical thought are revelatory of character, he traces the frequency of this title from Christ's conception through His ministry and apostolic testimony, then defines its meaning from John 5 and John 10, where Jesus' claim that God is His own Father and that He and the Father are one asserts an interpenetration of divine essence — He is God the Son. He applies the doctrine as essential for life, overcoming the world, and right confession, climaxing with Romans 8:32, 'He that spared not his own Son.'

Pastor Martin argues that "Son of Man" — often misunderstood as a mere title of Christ's humanity — is actually a title of His deity, drawing from Daniel 7 and Christ's own self-consciousness. The title points simultaneously to Christ's heavenly pre-existence, His present state of humiliation, and His future glory. Son of God and Son of Man occupy common ground as ascriptions of deity: the former emphasizing that He who is God is God, the latter emphasizing that He who is God is truly man.

Pastor Martin brings in a fifth group of witnesses to Christ's deity: the fact that divine worship is directed to Him and received by Him without rebuke. Beginning with the strict monotheism of the Old Testament and Peter's and Paul's refusal to receive worship, he traces how calling on Christ's name, being baptized into His name, looking to Him for grace, and the worship of heaven itself all demonstrate that Christ is truly God. The sermon closes with searching questions: Is this the Christ you worship? And a lament over the cheap, flippant "Jesus" of much modern preaching.