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remain as to the fact that He did actually confess His own Deity. On the
other hand, if He really laid claim to that position and dignity, it cannot be
denied that His claim was true. This is what actually happened. From our study
of the Gospels and the Book of Revelation it will become clear to our readers
that the Lord Jesus Christ, not only to His own disciples but also on several
occasions in the presence of the Jews and of their learned men too, who were His
enemies, clearly stated and confessed His own divine nature. Hence it was that,
in large measure because of this claim of His, they plotted to stone Him and
kill Him, as we learn from the Gospels.
In dealing with this subject we shall first, with the help of God,
adduce those passages in which Christ claimed for Himself the divine attributes,
or used of Himself the word God, or permitted it to be used about
Himself; secondly, we shall quote the verses in which He asserted His own
Sonship
(ابنيّة); and thirdly, we shall mention the passages in which an angel
or a voice from heaven called Him the Son of God
(إبنُ اْلله). But we shall take the first
and second class of passages in some measure together for the sake of brevity,
because frequently in the same verse in which Christ claims certain divine
attributes He also asserts His Divine Sonship. It will be necessary for us later
on to
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PROOF OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST
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discuss the meaning of the title Son of God, in order to guard against
misunderstandings; but before this we must show that the title is really given
to the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. In order to show what the New
Testament Scriptures teach upon this subject we must appeal to the whole of the
books which compose that volume, and request our readers to study them
carefully, reverently, and with heartfelt prayer, humbly beseeching the Most
Merciful One to enable them to understand what He has revealed therein.
Meanwhile, however, we proceed to quote a few passages from the Gospels, in
which the Lord Jesus Christ uses such language about Himself, His own nature,
His relation to God, His possession of divine attributes, that any unprejudiced
reader, who studies these verses in connexion with their context, will see that
there can be no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God
(كلمةُ
الله) solemnly
and repeatedly claimed for Himself a place and a dignity which could not belong
to any created Being.
i. (1) One of the divine attributes which the Lord Jesus Christ claimed
and exercised was that of the forgiveness
(أمُرزش
ـ مغفرة) of sins. An instance of this is
given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke 1 in their account of the healing of
the
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