Questions and Answers about the Deity of Jesus Christ
Richard P. Bailey
QUESTION #1: "WHY DO CHRISTIANS COVER UP THEIR ABSURD TEACHINGS ABOUT GOD
BY CALLING THEM A MYSTERY? ISLAM IS CLEAR IN SAYING GOD IS ONE!"
(Western converts to Islam often express their relief to find that, "Islam's
teaching about God is straight forward, and void of the mysteries of
Christianity, such as the trinity and the deity of Christ, which never made sense
to me.")
ANSWER: If, after so many years of scientific research, the physical universe, in
which we live, is still beyond our complete understanding, why should we think it strange
that we cannot fully understand the invisible Creator of this universe? In fact if we
could completely understand God, then we would be equal to Him! The Bible tells us:
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8,9)
How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. (Romans 11:33)
QUESTION #2: "DO YOU BELIEVE IN THREE GODS?"
ANSWER #1: "Jesus Himself said that God is One": Someone asked him
about the commandments of God : "The most important one, answered Jesus,
is this: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.""
(Mark 12:29)
ANSWER #2: "The Bible categorically states 28 times that God is One!":
- In the Torah (Taurat): Deut. 6:4,5 - "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God,
the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your strength." (see also Deut. 4:35; Deut. 4:39; I Kings 8:60; 2 Kings 19:19);
- In the Psalms (Zabur): Ps. 86:10 - "For you are great and do marvelous
deeds; you alone are God."
- In the books of the prophets: Isaiah 44:6,8 - "This is what the Lord says ...
I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God." "You are my
witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."
(see also Is. 37:16; Is. 37:20; Is. 43:10,11; Is. 44:24; Is. 45:5; Is. 45:6; Is. 45:18;
Is. 45:21; Is. 46:9; Is. 48:12; Hosea 13:4)
- In the New Testament (Injil): 1 Tim. 2:5,6a - "For there is one God and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for
all men." (see also Mark 12:29; John 5:44; Rom. 3:30; I Cor. 8:4; Eph. 4:6; I Tim. 1:17;
James 2:19; Jude 25)
ANSWER #3: God created all things by Himself: I am the Lord, who has made
all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.
(Isaiah 44:24). He uses several metaphors to describe how He did it:
- by His Wisdom: I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence ... The Lord brought me
forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given
birth ... I was there when he set the heaven in place ... Then I was the craftsman as his
side... (Proverbs 8:1-31) Did God ever exist without wisdom? No! Did God create his own
wisdom? No! God's wisdom is "from eternity, from the beginning." God's wisdom
was "brought forth" at the time of creation, and by His wisdom God created
everything. But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and
stretched out the heavens by his understanding. (Jeremiah 10:12)
- by His Right Hand: My own hand laid the foundations of the earth and my right
hand spread out the heavens. (Isaiah 48:13) Does this mean that God's right hand created
instead of God Himself? Of course not! God created everything by His right hand - by His
power.
- by The Breath of His Mouth: By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth ... For he spoke, and it came to be; he
commanded, and it stood firm. (Psalm 33:6,9) These verses clearly show that the breath of
God's mouth and God's word are the same.
- by His Word: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without
him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3) The Word of God is the communication
or manifestation of God. God's Word is God Himself; not a second God. The Word was
"with" God (two?) and yet the Word "was" God (one)! Now notice verse
14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the One and Only, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Somehow, by
the power of God, God's eternal word became a human being like us named Jesus!
(God can do anything!) Jesus is God's word, the breath of His mouth, His right hand and
His wisdom, through whom all things were created.
QUESTION #3: "HOW CAN JESUS BE GOD? WHY DO YOU BLASPHEME BY CALLING JESUS
GOD?"
GENERAL ANSWER: Explanation from John 1:1-3,14: "The eternal Word of God,
which was with God (seems like two) in the beginning, also was God (one; not two).
Everything Allah created, He created by saying, Be! - He created everything
by His Word. Allah's Word is not another God; Allah's Word is Allah's communication of
Himself. Can Allah exist without His Word? Was there ever a time when Allah's Word did
not exist? It is like my word or communication, which is in one sense a part of me, but
is not a second being, separate from me. So Allah is One, and He has Word, which comes
out from Him and communicates Him. Jesus is Kalamat Ullah, the Word of Allah,
who came out from Allah and came into the world as a human being. God in His sovereignty
chose to reveal Himself to us - by His Word, Who became a human being and lived among us,
having become one of us."
THERE ARE REALLY THREE PARTS TO THIS QUESTION:
QUESTION #3a: "HOW CAN JESUS BE GOD WHEN HE DID THINGS
GOD DOESN'T/WON'T DO? After all:
- Jesus talked about God as His God, but God has no God.
- Jesus prayed to God instead of to himself.
- Jesus got hungry and thirsty (Matt. 4:2; John 19:28),
but God never gets hungry or thirsty (Psalm 50:9-13; Acts 17:25).
- Jesus was tempted by the devil (Matt.4:1 & Heb.4:15),
but God cannot be tempted (James 1:13).
- Jesus got tired (John 4:6; Matthew 8:24), but God doesn't get tired
(Psalm 121:4; Isaiah 40:28).
- Jesus learned obedience and grew up into a mature and perfect man (Hebrews 5:9),
but God never changes (James 1:17).
- Jesus was born and also died, but God is everlasting."
ANSWER: #1: "The description of Jesus we read in the Injil is the description
of One Who became a human being. Notice it does not say that a man somehow become
God; it says Allah's eternal Word became a man. In Hebrews 2:17 it says Jesus became like us
in every way - bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh! Therefore, because He
became a real human being just like us, He did things we do. If he didn't do those things
he wouldn't really be one of us.
"Jesus is Almighty God, but for our sake when He became a man He chose to no
longer function as God. He is still God and could use His powers as God, but chose
instead to only function as a man.
"As a human being, He was born, grew in knowledge and maturity, got hungry &
thirsty, got tired and sleepy, prayed to His Father in heaven, was tempted in
every way that we are (but he never sinned), and died (but God raised Him up victorious
over death). All these things prove He became a real human being. Jesus is not an
apparition nor was he just pretending to be a man. As a human being, he had all of our
needs and limitations, except for our sinful, fallen nature. One reason He is called
the last Adam (1 Cor.15:45) is because he became just like Adam was before
he sinned."
QUESTION #3b: "HOW CAN JESUS BE GOD AND MAN AT THE SAME TIME? How can
he be on earth praying to God in heaven, talking about God as my Father and
He and the Father still be one God?"
ANSWER #2: "God can do anything! Just as in the act of creation, God's eternal
Word came out of Him when He spoke to create all things (but He did not become two gods),
so when he spoke His eternal Word into the virgin Mary, God's Word remained God and at the
same time became a man like us. Jesus never stopped being almighty Allah's Eternal Word.
It says, The Word became flesh ... (John 1:14); not The Word changed
to flesh. He is not sometimes God and sometimes man, nor is He half God and half
man. He is both fully God and fully human at the same time!"
QUESTION #3c: "BUT WHAT NEED WOULD GOD HAVE TO DO SUCH A THING? He doesn't
need Jesus or anyone else to die for us. God can forgive whomever He wants to forgive!"
ANSWER #3:
- God's Love: One of God's greatest attributes is love. True love is self
giving (not taking) for the sake of another. God gave Himself to us in order to forgive us
and save us from eternal judgement/death.
... he too shared in their humanity (flesh and blood) so that by his death he might
destroy ... the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their
fear of death ... (Hebrews 2:14,15)
He learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect he became the source
of eternal salvation ... (Hebrews 5:8,9)
- God's Justice: God's justice requires Him to do this.
The Bible teaches that although God has the power to do anything
("For nothing is impossible with God". - Luke 1:37), He cannot do things
like lie ("...it is impossible for God to lie..." - Heb. 6:18) or be unfaithful
to His promises ("If we are faithless, he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself." - 2 Tim. 2:13) because He would be violating
his own character and would no longer be God! He would self-destruct!
To illustrate this, suppose I were to steal a very valuable item
from your home and sell it to buy drugs or to gamble, and by the time you
found me I had already wasted all the money. If I were then to confess my
sin and beg your forgiveness, you would have a choice of either forgiving
me and absorbing the loss or gaining some satisfaction by having me
arrested and prosecuted. If you chose to forgive me, the cost of your
forgiveness would be the value of the item I stole from you plus the shame
of being burglarized. You would have to be willing to accept all that loss
by choosing to give it to me. Suppose the judge took pity on me and
decided to forgive me. You would certainly feel that judge was unjust! My
family and friends could not forgive me no matter how much they might love
me. No one but you could forgive me unless someone was willing to pay you
the full value of the item I stole from you and you were willing to accept
payment as compensation. Forgiveness is never just a matter of words
because it is never free! Forgiveness can only be given by the person who
is willing to absorb the injury, loss or cost involved. God is certainly not
an unjust judge who would simply declare us forgiven because He wants to.
We seem to be faced with a dilemma. If God forgave our sins without
giving us the full punishment according to His own law, He would be
unjust and would be violating himself. But if we are not forgiven we could
never endure the eternal punishment in hell that we deserve. Therefore,
the eternal Word of God became a man (Jesus) so he could take our
punishment upon himself (God cannot die, but a man can die). He did this
so that he could forgive us and be just in doing so. "... God presented
him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement...He did it to demonstrate his
justice at the present time, so as TO BE JUST and THE ONE WHO JUSTIFIES
those who have faith in Jesus ..." (see Rom. 3:22-26).
OTHER BIBLE ANSWERS REGARDING THE DEITY OF CHRIST:
ANSWER #4: The greetings and salutations in the New Testament epistles seem
to imply His deity in a unique way. All of these letters were written after Jesus had
ascended to heaven and was no longer physically present with his people. Still the
apostles presented him as:
- the co-author (with God the Father) of grace, peace, mercy and faith. Can
these things come from a man?
- the co-sender of His apostles. Who else but God can send from heaven?
- our Savior in the same sentence where God is presented as our Savior.
- the one who is given glory for ever and ever. Who else but God can receive
glory for ever and ever?
- one with whom we have fellowship just like we have fellowship with the
Father, even though he is in heaven.
- the one who keeps us and brings us to eternal life. Can anyone but God do
these things?
HERE ARE THE VERSES:
- "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ." (Rom. 1:7)
- "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(I Cor. 1:3)
- "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you." (I Cor. 16:23)
- "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(II Cor. 1:2)
- "May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (II Cor. 13:14)
- "Paul, an apostle - sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God
the Father...Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(Gal. 1:1-3)
- "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers."
(Gal. 6:18)
- "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(Eph. 1:2)
- "Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ." (Eph. 6:23)
- "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(Phil. 1:2)
- "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." (Phil. 4:23)
- "To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ." (I Thess. 1:1)
- "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." (I Thess. 5:28)
- "To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(2 Thess. 1:1,2)
- "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you...The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."
(2 Thess. 3:16,18)
- "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ
Jesus our hope...Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord." (I Tim. 1:1,2)
- "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."
(2 Tim. 1:2)
- "...by the command of God our Savior...Grace and peace from God the Father and
Christ Jesus our Savior." (Titus 1:3,4)
- "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(Philemon 3)
- "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." (Philemon 25)
- "...through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
(Heb. 13:21)
- "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." (James 1:1)
- "who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ..." (I Pet. 1:2)
- "to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have
received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." (2 Pet. 1:1,2)
- "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him
be glory both now and forever! Amen." (2 Pet. 3:18)
- "...And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ."
(I John 1:3)
- "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's
Son, will be with us in truth and love." (2 John 3)
- "To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by
Jesus Christ..." (Jude 1)
- "Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ to bring you to eternal life." (Jude 21)
- "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with God's people. Amen."
(Rev. 22:21)
ANSWER #5: Study of Philippians 2:6-8: We read that Jesus, being in very
nature (morphae) God ... made himself nothing, taking the very nature (morphae) of a servant,
being made in human likeness." Notice how the eternal God took upon Himself
the very nature of a servant in becoming a man.
ANSWER #6: When did Jesus begin to exist?:
- He was before John the Baptist (the prophet Yahyah) even though he was born
3 months after him. "This is the one I meant when I said, A man who comes after
me has surpassed me because he was before me" (John 1:29,30). He is both before
and after John; both God and man!
- He was before David who lived about 1000 BC. Jesus was born in the lineage
of King David, but he is called, "I am the root and the offspring of David"
(Revelation 22:16) because he existed before Him. He is both before and after David;
both God and man!
- He was before Abraham who lived about 2000 BC. Jesus said, "before
Abraham was born I AM." (John 8:58). "I AM" = "Jahwah."
He is both before and after Abraham; both God and man!
- He was before the world began. Jesus said,"And now Father, glorify me
in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." (John 17:5).
He is both God and man!
QUESTION #4: "WHY WAS IT NECESSARY FOR JESUS TO BE BORN WITHOUT A HUMAN FATHER?"
ANSWER: Jesus was born of Mary so that he could be truly human, "bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh." It was necessary for him to be born without a human
father in order to reveal his divine origin - to show he is from heaven; the eternal Word
of God made flesh (John 1:13-14).
- "The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from
heaven." (I Cor. 15:47)
- "... the one who came from heaven ... The one who comes from
above ..." (John 3:13,31)
- "...He who comes down from heaven ... For I have come down from
heaven ..." (John 6:33,38)
- "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." (John 6:51)
- "... I am from above ... for I came from God." (John 8:23,42)
[also many times Jesus said his heavenly "Father" had sent him]
QUESTION #5: "ISN'T ALLAH FAR ABOVE ALL HUMAN EMOTIONS? Isn't it
wrong for us to sing or laugh in our worship of Allah? Isn't Allah above such human
emotions as laughter, joy, grief, or love?"
ANSWER: More and more I am impressed with the truth of God's emotional make up.
I have started collecting verses that talk about His grief, envy, jealousy, wrath, hate,
rejoicing, singing, laughing, pleasure, delight, compassion and love. God has all these
emotions, and we have them because we were created in His image. God is not like a human
being; rather humans are like God! We sing, laugh, cry, get angry, grieve and rejoice
because God does!
grief - Eph. 4:30 & Gen. 6:6
envy - James 4:5
jealousy - Ex. 20:5
wrath - Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6
hatred - Isaiah 61:8; Malachi 2:16
rejoicing - Zeph. 3:17 & Is. 62:5
singing - Zeph. 3:17
laughter - Psalm 2:4
pleasure - Isaiah 42:21; Matt. 3:17; Psalm 51:18
delight - Psalm 35:27; 147:11; Zeph. 3:17
compassion - Hosea 11:8; 2 Corinthians 1:3
love - 1 John 4:7,8
QUESTION #6: "HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO HAVE AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP
WITH ALMIGHTY GOD?"
ANSWER: God is so great (Allah-u-Akbar) and His love is so complete, that He
enables us to have a relationship with him more intimate than any human relationship!
Just look at what God's Word says:
- "This is what the high and lofty One says, He who lives forever, I live
in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit."
(Isaiah 57:15)
- "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have
fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus
Christ." (I John 1:3)
- "this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3)
- "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but
you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The
Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." (Rom. 8:15,16)
- "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within
him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have
not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may
understand what God has freely given us." (I Cor. 2:11,12)
Articles by Rev. Richard P. Bailey
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