My Lord and My God
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
~ John 1:1,14 (NKJV)
In 1985, after 23 years of hearing and reading the Bible—of believing Jesus to be the divine Son of God—I met Jesus the Word of God. The experience of hearing the Word speak with authority was love at first sight. In the 25 years since that day, the Bible has been my first and last authority for faith. It has yet to let me down. It has sustained me through every dark hour. It has lifted me up to pinnacles of love for God and neighbor of which I am otherwise incapable.
And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
~ John 20:28-29 (NKJV)
Having the Bible turn my world upside down made me willing to question everything I'd been taught and measure it against Scripture. When it was proposed to me in 1990 that Jesus being the Son of God did not make Him divine, I readily examined it with an open mind, in search of truth. The texts throughout both Old and New Testament which declare Him God are numerous. The voice of the Holy Spirit has confirmed them repeatedly. The testimony of countless Christians matches what I know by personal experience beyond a shadow of a doubt: Jesus could not do for those He touches the miracles He performs if He were less than God.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~ Philippians 2:9-11 (NKJV)
No entity but Almighty God may be worshiped. To Him alone do we bow the knee in prayer, in faith, in worship. To Him alone do we lift up voice and hands to praise, to exalt, to magnify as Lord. Angels refuse such worship and praise. True disciples of Jesus refuse such worship and praise. Yet Jesus accepted such worship and praise not only because He is worthy of it, but because it brings glory to the Father. Those who wish to exalt God do so by exalting Jesus.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist... He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him.
~ 2 John 1:7-10 (NKJV)
For as long as I host this blog, it will not welcome or give space to those who masquerade as "Pastor" and declare on behalf of satan that Jesus is anything less than God made flesh in order to deny Him homage.
If I use two of the precious hours Jesus my Creator lends me in quest of truth, I will praise Him for the beauty of His creation. I will search out Jesus the divine Word of God in the Bible. I will bow the knee in prayer to Him Who is Savior of my soul, Lord of my life, King of my future.
Father Almighty, for as long as I draw breath, I will exalt Your Son Jesus Christ as my Lord and my God.
Your feedback is appreciated. Post to BuildingHisBody.com Comments or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2010, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
#knowingGod
Art image by Riek Jonker
Thank you, Anne.
ReplyDeleteMuch of the intention of ministries, blogs, churches, etc., can be discerned by how they approach Jesus. Thank you for reminding us of the authority of scripture and sharing your love of scripture, and Jesus, with us.
Oh Anne, indeed, amen and amen. Jesus is fully God, exactly Who the Bible claims Him to be. As our agent said on her blog recently, God is not in the business of fooling people, and on the most critical points He is most clear. Jesus is God's Son--and therefore, completely, fully God. May His Name be praised forever!
ReplyDeleteI'm reading "Mere Christianity" again by C.S. Lewis. What a fabulous read--the account of a man who came from atheism to Christianity. Page 52 begins, "I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say." The rest of that passage is famous for its clarity on who Jesus is.
May God bless you richly on this day of praise.
Can you hear the applause of heaven, sweet Anne?
ReplyDeleteBig claps of appreciation to you sis, love you dearly.
ReplyDeleteWell done. Jesus is God. I cannot wait to worship at His precious feet.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I must confess that I do not always have the same experience as yours, "The bible has never let me down." ALthough I rely on scriptures as the inspired truth of God, I find myself sometimes cringing around certain verses, situations, and attitudes I read. I especially struggle with all the war and violence in the Old Testament, much of it under God's direction. And to think many of the Psalms are written with an attitude of vengeance and "crushing the enemy." It doesn't sit well with me. I just can't seem to read some of this any more without actually thinking about it. Oh well. Thank God for Jesus' message of peace in the New Testament!
ReplyDeleteGwen ~ I somehow missed out on Rachelle saying "God is not in the business of fooling people, and on the most critical points He is most clear." I'm grateful for you to pass along such a worthy statement, and to affirm it with your own faith. How happy I am to have you here. :D
ReplyDeleteShark Bait ~ Thank you for the power in your brevity.
Sweet Jennifer ~ I hope "applause of Heaven" was the noise I heard. The response I initially wrote for the comment spoken of wouldn't post, giving me more time to think of a reply. The longer I thought on it, the more noise of protest I heard in my soul to allow even the link to remain on my blog. My words here still don't sound loud enough, nor could they be too loud in praise of Him Whom you and I love so dearly.
Denise ~ I hear your applause, dear. Love you too.
T ~ What a melodious cacophony of praise we'll all share there! Can hardly wait to see you.
Brad ~
ReplyDeleteI understand your response to the difficult passages of the Old Testament. It is a view so common that some churches simply skip the OT and preach more or less exclusively from the NT.
If it helps to look at it this way, remember that God does not change. We live in the era of grace as He establishes His spiritual kingdom in our hearts. But we are warriors who need to battle as intensely as Joshua, and the judges, and David. The OT was the physical example of our spiritual reality. The first Passover and Red Sea crossing depict Calvary and our salvation. God commanded the Israelites to ruthlessly annihilate the pagan strongholds of seven nations (Deuteronomy 7:1-2). We are to be just as ruthless in driving out the spiritual strongholds represented in the meanings of those seven nations' names:
Hittites ("terror")—Fear
Girgashites ("clay dweller")—Fleshly lusts
Amorites ("boast")—Pride
Canaanites ("merchant")—Materialism
Perizzites ("without walls")—Anger released unrighteously
Hivites ("dwelling place")—Bitterness (offenses kept alive)
Jebusites ("tread down")—Judgmentalism, Gossip, Criticism
Consider giving the Psalms a fresh reading, with an eye toward "my enemies" being these things you and I battle daily.
Consider also that the era of grace now draws to a close. The NT Revelation aptly describes the vengeance soon to descend on the earth.
OH, wow ... thanks for the strong stand and the scripture defining it.
ReplyDeleteJohn Chapter 10: 30-36 (KJV)
ReplyDelete“I and [my] Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, Ye are gods.’? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Note: The King James Version of the Bible has “the” in italics before “Son of God” in verse 36. This is not for emphasis as some may think, but shows words interpolated by the translators. In this case, they were mistaken. The original Greek does NOT have an article before “Son of God,” which in Greek is equivalent to having an indefinite article. In the original Greek of this scripture, Jesus did NOT say he is the Son of God; he said I am a Son of God. He also quoted Psalm 82 that says “Ye are gods.”
Psalm 82:6 “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”
And...
ReplyDeleteJohn Chapter 14:12 (KJV)
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Susan, this was post #770 for this blog. If I were to write on nothing more than the divine nature of Jesus as revealed in Scripture, I believe I could write another 770.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous guest,
ReplyDeleteIn John 14:12, our ability to do such greater works is because we are not only empowered by the divine Holy Spirit (third Person of the Trinity), but also because we now have Jesus with the Father, fully human and fully divine, interceding on our behalf.
As for John 10:36, you are correct in bringing out that the definite article is not present in the original Greek. But the indefinite article may not be assumed, and in some constructions it is actually incorrect to use any article at all. Anarthrous constructions (those where no article is present) in the Greek are most often intended to point out the quality of something, which in this case would emphasize Jesus simply as Son, not as a son. In that context, addition of the word 'the' does accurately aid the flow of the English. In John 1:1, there is likewise no article at all in the phrase "the Word was God." Jehovah's Witness Bibles incorrectly add an article, so that it reads, "the word was a god." Here, adding the article changes the meaning completely, and is entirely wrong.
In John 10:34-25, I would think that Jesus is pointing out to the religious Jews the silliness of getting hung up on words in a manner which ignores the big picture. The Hebrew Elohim most often indicates the supreme authority God, but is in rare instances used to refer to lesser, human judges of the earth. So if they want to get hung up on the word for God, then He can justify it being used of humans. But to do so ignores what Jesus clarifies in verse 38: He is fully what the Father is, and the Father is revealed in what Jesus is—divine God.
There are far too many Scriptures indicating Jesus is divine to believe otherwise.
I believe that we are all Divine. Because God created us in His 'Image' and 'Likeness' (Genesis 1:26), we all proceed from God and share in His Divine Nature. We are first and foremost spiritual beings, living a human experience.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, many people (including some writers of the bible) think themselves to be just miserable, unworthy human creatures instead of the beautiful Divine masterpieces whom God has created. It reminds me of that poster I saw once of a little black boy, disheveled and dirty, stating proudly, "God don't make no junk!"
Dear Anonymous Guest ~
ReplyDeleteThank you for returning. I appreciate the opportunity for dialogue.
God says we are not divine. We are not all-knowing, all-powerful, or all-present as God is. We created neither ourselves nor our world nor anything in it, but can only reshape a minuscule fraction of what was already created by God. We cannot control what happens in our next breath, throughout our day, and certainly not for the rest of our lives as God does. We not only hold no power to create life, we can't even explain how life originates apart from what God Himself reveals to us.
By making us in His image, the Creator revealed to us only a portion of what He is. We are as much God as my image reflected in a mud puddle is me. Even evolutionists believe we are made of dirt—one of the few points on which they agree with the Bible's creation account. The men who recorded the Word of God in the Bible are not the only ones who acknowledge how low man is. One of most beloved hymns of all time resonates deeply with the human soul as it declares, "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."
The assertion that God didn't create junk implies acknowledgment of God as Creator. I heartily agree with you that God created only good. In bestowing upon us the ability to reason and communicate like Him rather than with the Pavlovian response of animals, God also gave us the freedom to choose between obedience and rebellion, between good and evil. Because we are not holy God, we consistently choose evil, make junk of ourselves, and need Him to restore us. By creating us, God establishes His unconditional authority over us and His right to define moral right and wrong. By creating us in His image, He demonstrates the love which assures us that His definitions of right and wrong are for our own good.
If we glimpse God's absolute holiness—the absolute goodness of perfect love—and see ourselves and our poor imitation of love next to it, we cannot help but know with certainty that we are anything but God, and have gratitude that He not only loves us in our miserable, unworthy condition, but has also proven it by sacrificing His Son so that we might become closer to His image.
"To whom then will you liken Me?
Or to whom shall I be equal?"
Says the Holy One.
Isaiah 40:25