As the students entered the classroom on Systematic Theology, the
professor was casually leaning against the podium while the students were being
seated. After the sound of the bell, he calmly asked, “Prove to me that
Jesus Christ is God.” One spoke out,” John 1:1.” The professor shook his head
from left to right twice without saying anything. It was like a bombshell going
off in the room, and the wave of the blast hit our faces simultaneously,
“What?!” Undaunted, another brave soul blurted out, “Jn 10:30-33.” Again, the
professor shook his head in silence and frowned with disapproval. Another
theology student stood up to return volley with Bible in hand and read aloud
John 5:18,
“Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him because He not
only broke the Sabbath, but He also said that God was His Father, making Himself
equal with God.”
Surely, we scored a direct hit on that one? The professor shot him down by remaining nearly motionless except
for the slight and softer wiggling of his head. He quickly dismissed such a
proposition by examining his nails, as if bored! One student finally cried out,
“Well, what about Colossians 2:9 then?” The professor broke his silence, “What
about it?” Another seminarian student broke the strained silence by mustering up the courage after his fellow students got shot down in the air to say with confidence, pushing
his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, the Apostle Paul wrote, and I quote,
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily.”
Closing his Bible, he asserted, “This is clearly speaking of
Christ!” The class remained silent. The tension was prolonged by the
professor’s tour de force. We trusted in Mr. Evangelical’s credentials to the
extent that we fell into his little ploy of theological cat and mouse.
As if waiting for another brave soul to speak out, the professor
remained quiet for the longest minute I can recall, except for holding my
breath. Our collective brain power was locked in the cell of “Are we missing
something here?” This whole stunt by the professor was as if he was lampooning
our knowledge of the Word. Surely he believed that Jesus was God, or he wouldn’t
be teaching here! So why is he shooting us out of the air and throwing us into a theological tailspin or under
the dumb bus? The professor finally broke the silence once again.
“Did you notice how easily I put you off?” All I had to do was
disagree, and you were all searching for another verse to make your case!” He
continued, “The truth of the matter is that every one of the verses mentioned
was sufficient to substantiate that Jesus was God!” He commented no further,
but he had that unmistakable “I gotcha” smile before proceeding with his lectures
on the deity of Christ.
Let me ask you a question; is there some circumstance in life
that would lead you to believe that Jesus was not God? Even to the extent that
you now no longer believe this to be true in your heart though you may still go
through the religious motions or may have bailed out altogether? Was it an issue
of finances, divorce, the disillusionment of life, the disappointment of someone you
respected, failing health, the loss of a loved one, or the death of so many people
by natural disasters or unnatural war? Is your faith shaken to its core? Maybe you don’t know what to believe anymore?
You may even be hurting so badly or confused to the point of giving up? Well,
if that’s the case, don’t even go there!
Have you ever noticed how easily circumstances put us off
concerning the spiritual realities of the faith, for instance, Jesus is Yahweh or other
truths demanding choices from us? Or how quickly do we question the veracity of
the Bible? Circumstances may cry out, “Prove to me by these circumstances that
Jesus is God, or that He is even a God of love? Where is He then in my
circumstances?”
I would respond by saying, “Prove to me that He isn’t God, or
that He doesn’t care.” For as soon as you point out some “proof,” I will point
you to the cross! For it was there God’s love and God’s wrath converged and
salvation, our salvation, emerged from the fury! Circumstances are never proofs
that Jesus is not God nor a God of love for the Bible is the authority in all
matters of faith and practice and has stood the test of time over the ages. And tell me, “How old are you?”
God emphatically promised never to leave us or forsake us under
any circumstance (Heb 13:5). If Jesus was not God in the flesh on the cross, then you and I
are still in our sin destined for a very bad place. But when it comes to living
for Him, the same demand in salvation as to His identity is upon us in sanctification to believe that the Person on the cross is
the same Person in every circumstance of life in our daily walk. We serve a living Savior, yes? God didn’t cease being God when
He was removed from the cross and placed in a tomb. No circumstance can change
the reality that God is immutable or unchangeable, no matter how
severe the circumstances of life that cross our paths. The truth will never change (Jn 14:6; Mal 3:6), only our attitudes
as we journey through this dark and crazy world.
Cutting the mooring lines to the truth of Scripture only leaves
us drifting in the vast sea of relativity subject to every storm imaginable and unimagined! Even in the midst of such an unwise decision, God in His amazing grace will go with us for He promised never to leave us (Heb
13:5), though we have left Him, nor let us go (Jn 10:29), though we have failed
to abide in Him!
Check out this passage:
Rom 8:35 Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is
written: "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS
SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER."
Rom 8:37 Yet in all these
things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am
persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor
powers, nor things present nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 nor height nor
depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Those are some pretty rough circumstances! Not one of them or all of them arrayed against us can separate us from His love, even when we
challenge the truth of it under adverse conditions. What a promise! What a God! This would even
include a destructive and lethal monster twister that ripped through that town
in Oklahoma recently. I don’t know why
we experience the things we do even when we are faithful to Him. Suffering for
disobedience, I get that, but some experiences are quite severe when they come
out of nowhere without apparent reason like what happened to Saint Job. People have gone through far worse and
come through the fieriest of circumstances and kept the faith (cf. Heb 11). Job
never found out the reason why He went through his ordeal but read his response
(Job 13:15). Isn’t trust an easy thing to do when things are smooth sailing! He
is often praised for gentle seas and cursed for troubled waters!
How easily are we put off by the challenges to the authority of God’s Word and
trust seems to fly right out the window of our hearts because the circumstances of life
are screaming in our ears, “He is not God, or He would not have allowed …! Such is not a God of love, right?” Remember that truth speaks softly; lies speak loudly. Whenever we buy into that lie from the dark one, we are
adrift because the Scriptures state differently. The dark one will always
present doubt in the most distressing of circumstances, “Did God say?” The evil one has been challenging the truth of the Bible from the get-go. So that shouldn't be surprising coming from the flesh, the world system, or the devil mouthing the same sentiments.
The truth is Jesus is Yahweh, the only true God! Read Jn 8:24 (Note
that “He” is italicized indicating it is not found in the Greek and added by
the translators. Cf the “I Am” disclosure in Ex 3:14). Also read what Isaiah
said in 44:6 below,
“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the
LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there
is no God.”
Now let’s fast forward approximately eight centuries after this
was written to the Isle of Patmos where the Apostle John had been exiled (Rev
1:9), and notice what he had written under the inspiration of Scripture,
“And when I [John] saw
Him, I fell at His feet [Jesus Christ] as dead. But He laid His right hand on
me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am
He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen’” (Rev
1:17-18).
Not only is Jesus God, but God is also a God of love (1 Jn 4:8,
9, 10, 16). Run to the cross whenever love is in doubt! Whatever or whenever
circumstances enter our lives, good or bad, God has allowed it to be so. Can
you or I truly say,
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,”
or will we be
taking the next drift boat out of town?
According to the authority of God’s
Word, Jesus is God, and God is a God of love; this is clearly and eternally
substantiated regardless of the circumstances that come our way. The circumstances
of life may argue differently that He is neither God nor loving, but the Word of God says quit3 the opposite! The choice is to trust Him or take that drift boat of doubt out of town! How
easily are you put off and ready to set sail into uncharted waters? <><
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