God The Son

because it has a great deal to teach us about the nature of our Lord Jesus. So I would recommend that perhaps this evening, later on, before you go to bed, you might like to read the whole chapters through so that you've got it completely in context. But for our part at the moment, we're going to commence at verse 42.

Verse 42, and it's John 8. The Lord Jesus is engaged in a discussion with the religious leaders of his day. Jesus said unto them, "'If God were your father, ye would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word, ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father will ye do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.' Then answered the Jews and said unto him, "'Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil?' Jesus answered, "'I have not a devil, but I honor my father, and ye do dishonor me.

And I seek not mine own glory. There is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.' Then saith the Jews unto him, "'Now we know that thou hast a devil.

Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself?' Jesus answered, "'If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.

It is my father that honoreth me, of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet ye have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you.

But I know him and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.' Then said the Jews unto him, "'Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?' Jesus said unto them, "'Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.' Then took they up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.'" Amen.

Well, then we come to our eighth study on this series on the doctrine of God. And in one sense, the subject that is ours to study this evening is a difficult subject. But on the other hand, I reckon that provided we are able to concentrate and think through the biblical teaching, then there is nothing beyond our grasp.

Indeed, I would say that the subject that is before us particularly tonight is an exceedingly important one because we shall be dealing with the doctrine of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I'll come on to that in a moment. For 2,000 years, that is since the inception of the Christian church, men and women who have claimed to be disciples, followers of Jesus Christ have taught that God is a trinity, that the Godhead comprises three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Each of these persons has his own identity, and yet each one is of the same essence. And this leads us on to put the concept in a popular form, in popular phraseology, and we refer to the three in one and the one in three, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, different and yet the same. And if you were to say to me that is beyond logical understanding, then I would fully subscribe to your comment.

That is true. Logically, you cannot work it out. You cannot rationalize upon it.

But there again, the Christian gospel and the advocate, the biblical advocate of Christianity has never claimed that he can understand all that there is to know about God. To make such a claim would in effect say that you are divine yourself, that you are on a level with God and were able to understand what the Christian gospel says and what Christian advocates claim is that that knowledge which is necessary for man to understand about God, to secure his eternal salvation, that knowledge is accessible, it is available, and it is contained within the Bible. And where we cannot fully, logically work things out, then the Christian recognizes that the final court of appeal is not his reason.

It is revelation. It is the word of God. And this is how we deduce the doctrines of Christianity.

And this is essentially the difference between theology and philosophy. True theology, biblical theology, takes the word of God as being the textbook. And the definitions that we deduce are definitions that are found within the word of God.

Philosophers, of course, are not so bound. They recognize no authority as this particular book and they would enthrone reason. Well, I say that this is a fundamental difference between the theologian and the philosopher.

The biblical theologian recognizes the inspiration of the book and where he cannot fully understand all the teaching of the book, nonetheless he believes it because he recognizes that there is an authoritative message contained herein, a message which is divinely inspired. Now, it is for us to concentrate this evening on the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. And we are looking particularly at the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Later on in our studies, in the final one, we shall particularly think about the relationship between the Lord Jesus and the Father. Obviously, we will be touching upon this a little bit this evening, but the major part of our thinking along that line we shall reserve to the final study. You may recall that we have touched upon the doctrine of the deity of our Lord Jesus before on a Thursday evening.

In fact, on many occasions, but particularly on one. A year or so ago, we were taking a little series on Jesus Christ. Do you remember the title? Jesus of Nazareth, who was he? And in the second study that I gave you on that series, I quoted from a French theologian whose name was Renan and wrote a book, La Vie de Jésus Christ, The Life of Jesus Christ.

And astonishingly enough, in one edition of his book, Renan had this to say of Jesus. Rest now in thy glory, noble founder. Thy work is completed.

Thy deity has been proven. Between thee and God, men will no longer distinguish. Between thee and God, men will no longer distinguish.

And that I put to you is a very eloquent phrase of what the Bible has to say about the person of Jesus Christ. He is God, he is divine, he is the son of God, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in the Godhead. Well, I have this evening in your notes taken the liberty of trying to show you through a series of headings all that is implied and is not implied by the concept of God the Son, the Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I want immediately now to deal with the thought of Sonship and pre-existence. Now, why have we to deal with this? Well, you see, when dealing generally with the doctrine of God, we came to the conclusion, and it's obvious really, we didn't have to think much about it, that one of the vital characteristics of God, of the divine person, is his eternal nature. In other words, he always existed.

Do you remember when Moses had that remarkable encounter with God, when Moses himself was looking after some sheep, the sheep of his father-in-law, you remember how the bush began to burn and yet it was not consumed and then from within the bush came the voice of God to Moses. And when Moses asked God what his name was, the reply was, I am. And that indicates the eternal nature of God.

He is the great I am, the one who ever exists. You cannot talk about the beginning or the end of God. Such terms are ridiculous.

God is always there. God never had a beginning. Everything is dependent upon this God, that he himself is dependent on nothing outside of himself.

This is what we mean by the eternal nature of God. Now, if Jesus Christ is God, then it would not be true to say that the life of Jesus Christ began at Bethlehem. One cannot turn to the gospel stories that talk about the babe in the manger and say that is the beginning of the life of Jesus Christ.

That is when he was formed, that is when he was fashioned, that is when he was created. No, if Jesus Christ is God, then he must have had a pre-existence before he was born, before he took human flesh. He must still have existed if he was God.

Now, what have the scriptures to teach about the pre-existence of the Lord Jesus? Well, to quote the apostle Paul, much every way, a great deal, they have to say. And in the Old Testament, as well as in the New, reference is made to the pre-existence of the Lord Jesus. Isaiah was anticipating the coming of the Messiah.

And you remember how in the eighth chapter of the prophecy that bears his name, he ascribes certain titles to the coming Messiah. And one of them is everlasting, the everlasting father. So when the Messiah comes, says the prophet, I recognize that he has existed before that he has eternally existed.

He is the everlasting one. Now, that's important, isn't it? Because it's an Old Testament scripture. And similarly, but perhaps even more clearly, the minor prophet Micah makes reference to the coming of the Messiah to the land of Palestine.

And he locates the very birthplace of the Savior. And he says these words, which I'm sure are familiar to you. But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be a ruler in Israel.

Listen, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Again, that's fantastic. When you recognize that this is in the Old Testament, here is Micah anticipating the birth of the Messiah.

And he recognizes fully the pre-incarnate existence of God the Son. And this doctrine is taken up and expounded upon in the New Testament, as you would anticipate. And in the first chapter of John's Gospel, there is some information given about the pre-incarnate nature of God the Son.

You remember how in the first verse of what we call John's Prologue, that's the opening verses of his Gospel, he refers to God the Son in terms of the technical word, the word. And he says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. John's Gospel is different from the first three Gospels, which we call the Synoptic Gospels, in as much as it doesn't commence its narrative of the life of the Lord Jesus with the events in Bethlehem, with the nativity stories.

John goes beyond that. He goes back in time to a point before the very creation of the world. And John says, before then, before the universe came into existence, was the word, was the second person of the Trinity and the word was with God and the word was God.

Indeed, referring to the whole phenomenon of creation, he attributes this to God's own Son, to the second person of the Trinity. For in the third verse, he says, all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. And there are parallel references in Scripture to support that.

Paul, writing to the Colossians, uses similar language to describe the creative work of the second person of the Trinity. And if you were to look back to the eighth chapter of Proverbs, and this is rather remarkable again, because obviously it's an Old Testament book. You find the second person of the Trinity referred to as wisdom.

And an indication is given of the creative activity of the second person of the Trinity. And again, the remarkable thing is how all the Old Testament references and the New Testament references, when brought together, say the same thing and affirm the pre-incarnate existence of Jesus Christ. The eternal Son of God.

So this is what John has to tell us. In the beginning was the Word. And then you remember later on in his prologue, he makes that fantastic assertion.

Verse 14, the Word was made flesh. John doesn't deal with the narrative, with the stories of Bethlehem and all that happened there. He simply places it in a theological assertion, which is absolutely astounding.

Says John commenting on the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem, he says, let me tell you, this is what it all implies. The Word, the second person of the Trinity was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. And in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, in the teaching of the Lord Jesus, he makes reference to his pre-incarnate existence.

And that's the reason why we read together from the eighth chapter of John's gospel. For there you remember, the Savior is engaged in an argument with the religious leaders of his day. He accuses them of having betrayed the revelation that God gave to their fathers.

And in very strong language, the Lord Jesus Christ says that theologically speaking, verse 44, ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you will do. And so he went on to talk about God and his relationship to the father. And they didn't understand this.

And they questioned him. They interrogated him about it in a cynical fashion. And the Lord Jesus, in replying to their cynicism, makes another astonishing comment.

He says in verse 56 of the eighth chapter of John's gospel, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it, he was glad. And the religious leaders, again, they can't comprehend what he's saying.

They reckon him to be a madman. How can he who is not 50 years old have seen Abraham? And then comes one of the most phenomenal statements that left the lips of Jesus Christ, the 58th verse. Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.

The significance of those last two words should not be lost to you. Before Abraham was, I am. You remember Moses' question to the voice that spoke from within the bush? What is your name? What shall I say to the people of Israel when I go back to Egypt and they ask who has sent me? And the Lord God comes back with the answer, I am that I am.

And here is our savior using the divine name to describe himself and see the reaction of the Jewish leaders as they listen to this. They recognize what he is claiming and they do not accept it. They charge him with blasphemy and there is only one answer in the Jewish law for blasphemy and that is that the man who has blasphemed must be killed.

He must be executed. So we read in verse 59, they then took up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out to the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by.

So I've said sufficient, I think, though I've not exhausted the biblical references, of course, to establish the claim that the Bible makes to the pre-existence of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is eternally God's own son, eternally existing in a loving relationship with the Father and other scriptures that support this I have indicated on your notes. But I want to go on and take you to what should be my second heading this evening and let's think together for a moment through the implications of sonship and authority. Now, why do I use the word authority? Well, a moment or two ago, 10 minutes to be precise, I said that one of the vital characteristics of God was his eternal or is his eternal nature.

Another vital characteristic is omnipotence and don't let that word frighten you at all. It's really a combination of two Latin words that mean all power. God is the all powerful one.

We've recognized this, have we not, in our studying of the doctrine of God in general. He is absolutely sovereign. All power is invested in him.

Now, again, if Jesus Christ is God's own son, if he is the second person of the trinity, one would anticipate seeing in his ministry and in his actions an indication of his all power, an indication of his omnipotence. And again, if that is what you're anticipating, you will not be disappointed as you study the life of Jesus Christ carefully. And of course, what I'm suggesting now is that you engage upon a course of study that if you were to do it clearly and thoroughly would take us two or three hours.

But let's try and attempt the impossible and summarize it within the scope of two or three minutes. What evidence is there for the all power, the omnipotence of Jesus Christ in his life and in his teaching? Well, consider the way that he demonstrates his power, for example, in the world of nature. Here he comes to a wedding at Cana of Galilee and you remember what happens.

When they're in a predicament, Jesus Christ helps them out and the wine, the water is turned into wine and they have sufficient. On another occasion, he takes a handful of loaves and fishes and by divine multiplication, he shows his power over nature and he feeds a multitude. On another occasion, he stills the wind, he stops the wind and therefore the sea of Galilee becomes tranquil, it becomes calm again.

On another occasion, he suspends the law of gravity and he can walk upon water. And again, this surely is what you would anticipate of one whom the Bible claims was at the beginning of all things, the principle behind creation. If the second person of the Trinity, as the Bible argues, was responsible for the bringing into existence this world, then surely he will have the right to suspend laws, to modify laws within the power that he possesses and that is precisely what the Bible tells us he does do.

And as far as man is concerned, he shows the power and the authority that he has. The same sort of authority as you would expect a creator to have over the thing that he has created. Let me put it in the form of an illustration.

The same sort of authority as you would expect a potter to have over the piece of clay that's spinning around on his wheel. So when those who are paralyzed cry for the help of Jesus Christ, he can set them free of their paralysis. Oh, when lepers come with their emaciated bodies towards the Savior, he can make them clean and he can supply new limbs to replace the ones that have withered away and so on and so forth.

As far as the healing ministry of the Lord is concerned, he shows his power over the human body. But even more than this, he has power of the human mind and uncanny ability to read the thoughts and the intents of a man's heart. He knows about Nathanael's existence before Nathanael is aware that he has any knowledge of him at all.

He knows that there is a woman sitting by Syca's well before she has ever encountered him. You read the story, do you not, in the early chapters of John's gospel. And John makes the comment that no one had any need to inform Jesus Christ about man or the nature of man because he knew what was in man.

On this substance, it's a point that I keep flogging from this pulpit that Jesus Christ was the greatest psychiatrist of all. He knows what is in man, he understands man. And this is what you'd expect of one who claimed to be the creator of man.

And then as far as demon powers are concerned, do they recognize the authority of Jesus Christ or what has that to do with us? Thou son of David, thou son of the most high God. And you remember how Jesus at a word can superimpose his will upon the devils. And here again I see an illustration of the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

See, at every level, the natural level, the level of the satanic world, Jesus has all power. And one could continue along this line almost ad infinitum showing the power of the Savior. Power over life and death, not only his own, but the life and death of other men.

Power to forgive sins, and the Pharisees rightly reckoned that only God has the authority to say to a man, thy sins be forgiven thee. In the very absolution that Jesus gave to several people was a claim that he was more than a carpenter from Nazareth, more than a mere artisan, Jesus Christ is the son of God. He is God himself.

The Pharisees did not recognize who he actually was, but they certainly recognized the alleged blasphemy behind his words. He was claiming to be divine. And when you add all these facets of his authority together and add to that the sublimity and the clarity of his teaching and the authority of his word, then one is driven and exalted to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is more than a man.

As Renan so eloquently said, between thee and God, men can now no longer distinguish. So that's all that is implied, or at least some of what's implied by sonship and authority. But let me take you, and rapidly to my third heading, sonship and subordination.

And here the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Christadelphians particularly go astray, and that's why I've included this. Now again, I apologize for the fact it's impossible to deal with this in any great depth. I can but give you pointers along the road to show you what is true biblical doctrine and to distinguish that from error.

The Bible gives us the right to think of the relationships of the first and second person of the trinity in terms of a father and a son. And this we can understand because all of us are aware of fatherhood and sonship here on this earth. But you see, one of the great dangers of using an illustration such as father and son, although it's a very real illustration as far as the God in heaven is concerned, one of the dangers of thinking of God the father and God the son along the line of the human family circle is that we might take up merely human ideas and project them to the level of deity and you can't do that.

For example, it's impossible to think in terms of father and son without mother, is it not, here on this earth. Human plane, it's father, son, and mother. There is a sexual distinction, of course, between man and woman, but you can't elevate that onto the divine plane.

This is why I say that you mustn't press the analogy too far, it's more than an analogy, it's real. But what I'm concerned about is that you don't press it too far because obviously there is no sexual distinction in the Godhead, this is an accident, if you like, of mankind, the relationship between man and... Now, this is exactly this case and that's why I've used this illustration. As far as inferiority or superiority is concerned, in the Trinity, you see, on the human level, you can't argue that a father is superior to his son.

But on the divine level, you have no warrant to argue that God the Father is superior to God the Son. Indeed, the Scriptures contradict this. The Scriptures tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ is equal with the Father.

Let me read to you Philippians 2, verse 6. A remarkable passage here, dealing with the doctrine of the dear to the Lord Jesus, and Paul says this. Jesus Christ, who being in the home of God, sought in your brotherhood to be equal with God. You see, there is no inferiority here at all.

And when Paul is writing to the Christians, he refers to the Lord Jesus in terms of being one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead probably exists. You see, there is no inferiority at all implied. And thus the Lord Jesus said, he is a superior to the disciples.

His words are recorded in John's Gospel, chapter 10. He can make this lesson. I and my Father are one.

And when you come across such language in the Scriptures, God's only begotten Son, or the word firstborn, referred to Jesus Christ, then you need to be guarded in your understanding of such terminology, that really the word firstborn means outside of all kinship. We understand like this, in terms of kinship, or of a man being dependent upon his mother and father, and being dependent upon their grandparents, and so on and so forth. But the Greek word that is here in the Scripture that is perhaps not perfectly translated firstborn, the idea of seeing Jesus Christ as an outside woman of creation, the Bible concedes of no primary God the Son, God the second person of the Trinity did not exist.

The early fathers used to talk about the eternal generation of the Son. He was always there, always being loved by God, always responding to their love. And this is what the Lord did in the high priestly prayer, talking to the father, thou lovest me before the very foundations of the world, in an atmosphere charged with love.

So then that is from the word of kinship and subordination. A place to subordination brings to the idea of Jesus being God's Son and God's Father ever more being the Son who is co-equal to him. And there are many texts in the world of God that underline the trinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Particularly you find in the New Testament, scanned through perhaps to underline their own minds and to suggest the teaching clearly by the apostles. Paul is writing to the Romans during the fourth month, says that Jesus Christ is seen in the resurrection by the Father of the Son from the dead. Says the apostle, Jesus Christ has been declared to be the Son of God with power of holiness, spirit of holiness in the resurrection from the dead.

In the ninth chapter, when he is saying something that is particularly relevant to his own people, Jews, Paul makes this regard to, he says, read the verse, who of whom as this Christ came is over all, blessed, the apostle Paul, Jesus Christ is over all, has all authority. And when Paul brings in a passage to reference ascribes to the Lord Jesus Christ, the name that God has given to him, remarkable, ninth and 10th verse of the second chapter, wherefore, also hath highly exalted him, that is Jesus, and given him a name of the Father of God, name that on every knee should bow, in things in earth and things on the earth, and that every tongue should call upon him, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the only of God the Father. Jesus has been given the name, what is that name, a theological name, divine name, in a way, the name of himself, attesting the true equality given to him, and gives him the very name of this Christ to be known as, Lord, the Lord, the preachers of God, as they were proclaiming on the streets of town, and you remember how he reads it and tells it, that God has made this name, Jesus, both you and Christ, there are other scriptures, but I have no more time to go into them at the moment, but I have a reference to them in the notes, and maybe a reference, but enough is said now to substantiate the reading, that Jesus Christ was recognized to be the Lord, that in this, let me come to my final heading, conclusion, and so now most of this week, and so it's revision, Christ is the son, he is the key, secret option, now in a very, he is not, but nonetheless, he is made son of God, that is a phrase, a phrase from the third chapter, it was recognized in a different sense, in a real way, son of God, that when, when I do, and when all,