Point 3: The Person of the Son
We now move into the point of debate that I have anticipated more than any. Immediately I’d like to point out that my opponent has once again violated the rules of the debate with his link usage. His argument was continued in the links. But I will not fault him for this nor ask that it be changed in any way. As I see it the arguments are less than compelling on all counts. For the sake of space I will not be presenting a point by point refutation to the comments of Searchingone1033 because there wasn’t much substance to the points raised. Instead I will present an affirmative position on the Person of the Son and His Deity.
One quick note is that the Biblical writers did explicitly teach that Jesus was the Savior, to this there is no doubt (Matthew 1:21; Luke 2:11; John 4:42; Acts 4:12, 5:31; Ephesians 5:23; Philippians 3:20; 2Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:4; 2Peter 1:11; 1John 4:14; etc.). To say He is an “agent of salvation” seems nothing more than an admission that He is the Savior while trying to avoid actually saying it. Once again we must remember that Yahweh said in Isaiah 43:11; “I myself am Yahweh and besides me there is no savior” (WEB).
I must at this point mention the Granville Sharp rule of Greek grammar. This rule states that when there are 2 nouns that are both singular which describe a person, and these nouns are connected by the word “and,” the first noun having the article, the second noun not having the article then they refer to the SAME PERSON. (*Note that the nouns cannot be personal names*) There is absolutely no exception to this rule in all of the Greek New Testament. Having stated this rule I find it necessary to present two verses of scripture that unequivocally qualify Jesus as both God and Savior.
Titus 2:13 - while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, (NIV)
2Peter 1:1 - Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: (NIV)
Notice in both verses the noun “God” (theou) has the article (tou) and is connected to the second noun “Savior” (sōtēros) which does not have an article, by the word “and” (kai). Thus “God and Savior” both refer to the Person of Jesus. Grammatically this is irrefutable. So not only is Jesus Savior, He is God! Funnily enough these two verses were called “ambiguous” in one of my opponent’s links, but such is not the case.
Searchingone1033 seems to think that I must show that the apostle’s explicitly taught the Trinity as defined by the Nicene-Constantinopolitan & Athanasian creeds for it to be an essential Christian doctrine but truthfully I don’t. My only task is proving that the Trinity is indeed Biblical which I have already done (see my first post of point 1). It then follows that if Jesus is the second Person of the Trinity, and Jesus is essential for salvation, then the doctrine of the Trinity is essential as well. In other words, it would have been impossible to preach about the only Jesus that can save, without a belief in the Trinity.
Already discussed in previous posts were the eternality, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of the Son. Attempts at refutation have been made via arguments against these divine attributes by focusing on the Human Nature of the Son in his incarnation, and consequently, irrelevant conclusions have been drawn. This was seen from Searchingone1033’s summary of the book of Acts which wasn’t all that substantial. Concerning the belief that Jesus is a man, I affirm this. Jesus is a man. He is not a mere man, but He is a man nonetheless.
We must make the distinction between the Son who has been the Son from all eternity, and Jesus who is the Son incarnated. They are not two distinct persons or beings, but Jesus is the Son clothed in humanity. Jesus is the One Person with Two Natures. There was a time when the Son had but one nature of deity. When the nature of humanity was added, then the Son was incarnated as Jesus, the Word was made flesh (John 1:14).
Now to supplement the above information with additional proofs of Christ’s Deity:
· Jesus claimed he was God!
In John 5:18 the Jews understood precisely Jesus’ words when He said that God was His Father. They said that in claiming this he made himself “equal with God.”
In John 10:30 Jesus made the statement saying, “I and my Father are one” which the Jews understood as a claim of deity since they picked up stones to stone Him because He being a man “made himself God” (vs. 33).
Concerning the forgiving of sins, it was the scribes who saw Jesus as blaspheming by forgiving sins because only God could forgive sins (Mark 2:5-7). His giving this authority to the apostles doesn’t negate his being God—in fact it stands to reason that only God could give such authority.
When Jesus stood trial and was adjured under oath to answer whether or not he was the Son of God his reply was, “I am” then He proceeded to tell high priest that he would see Him (the Son of Man) coming in the clouds of heaven sitting at the right hand of power. This was perceived as blasphemy by the high priest and he rent his priestly garment and condemned Jesus to death (Mark 14:60-64). No doubt the high priest saw this as a claim of deity.
Then of course there is Jesus’ famous claim in John 8:58 when he said “Before Abraham was I am.” Once again we see the Jews picking up stones to kill him. Immediately our attention shifts to Exodus 3:14 where Yahweh told Moses to tell the people “I am that I am” had sent him. The Hebrew phrase is “eheyeh asher eheyeh” and was translated in the Septuagint as “egō eimi ho ōn”— Jesus’ statement in John 8:58 was, “prin Abraam genethai egō eimi.”
· I AM Passages
John 8:58 is one of many I AM statements that Jesus made which can be compared to I AM statements which Yahweh made in the Old Testament, specifically the book of Isaiah. Aside from the above mentioned verse, the Septuagint renders another Hebrew phrase “ani hu” as “egō eimi.”
In John 4:26 Jesus says to the woman at the well, “I that speak unto thee am he” (egō eimi, ho lalōn soi) while a parallel can be found from Yahweh’s statement in Isaiah 52:6 when He said, “I am he that does speak, behold it is I” (egō eimi autos ho lalōn pareimi).
Jesus’ words in John 13:19 where He says, “that you may believe that I am” (hina pisteusēte hotan genētai hoti egō eimi) are reminiscent of Yahweh’s words in Isaiah 43:10 where He said, “that you may know and believe and understand that I am” (hina gnōte kai pisteusēte kai sunēte hoti egō eimi).
Directly connected to the above Isaiah passage and perhaps the most telling I am statement is John 8:24 where Jesus said to the Jews, “If you believe not that I am you will die in your sins” (hoti egō eimi, apothaneisthe en tais hamartiais humōn). This fits perfectly with Yahweh’s statements concerning believing and understanding that he is the “I AM” and beside him there is no savior (Isaiah 43:10-11).
Due to the limited space I will not be able to give a full account of all the parallels and usages of “egō eimi” in the LXX and NT, but I will give a reference of all significant passages (*some simply draw parallels without the use of egō eimi*). Besides the abovementioned there is also: Isaiah 41:4; 43:1-3, 5, 25; 45:18; 46:4; 51:12 & John 6:20; 8:28; 18:5-6, 8.
· OT Passages about Yahweh Applied to Jesus
The apostle John quotes Isaiah 6:9-10 which was about Yahweh and applied the passage directly to Jesus in John 12:38-41. After quoting Isaiah John offers us his God-Breathed interpretation of the passage and says, “These things said Isaiah when he saw HIS glory and spoke of HIM.” The context of the chapter shows the HIM to be none other than Jesus! Thus John tells us in the simplest of terms that Jesus is Yahweh!
Likewise, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all apply Isaiah 40:3 where it is said to "prepare the way for Yahweh" and "make straight a highway for God", to the ministry of John the Baptist who came before Jesus to prepare the way for Jesus (Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:27).
And what I feel is probably the most compelling passage is Romans 10:13 which applies Joel’s words that “whosoever shall call upon the name of Yahweh shall be saved,” directly to Jesus.
· Titles of Yahweh Applied to Jesus
There are also the titles of Yahweh in the OT that are applied to Jesus in the New Testament that must be considered. Those titles are: “Lord of Lords” and “First and Last.” In Deuteronomy 10:17 & Psalm 136:3 Yahweh is called the “Lord of lords”—likewise in 1Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17:14, & 19:16 Jesus is called the “Lord of lords.” Also, in Isaiah 44:6 & 48:12 Yahweh is called “the First and the Last—Jesus as well is called “the First and the Last” in Revelation 1:11, 17; 2:8; 22:13.
· Jesus receives Worship
The Bible shows us Jesus being worshipped again and again without correction or apology. From childhood (Matthew 2:2, 11) to adulthood, Jesus is worshipped. He received worship from a leper in Matthew 8:2 and from Jairus in Matthew 9:18. He was worshipped by the disciples in Matthew 14:33; 28:17; Luke 24:52, the mother of Zebedee’s children in Matthew 20:20, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary in Matthew 28:9. Jesus was worshipped by the man possessed with the legion of demons in Mark 5:6 as well as the man who was born blind in John 9:38. We even see the angels worshipping Jesus in Hebrews 1:6.
Now contrast this with Peter being worshipped in Acts 10:25-26 where he immediately corrects the man by saying, “Stand up, I myself am also a man,” or Paul and Barnabas renting their garments and not allowing the Greek to sacrifice to them in Acts 14:11-15 claiming that they were “men of like passions.” The apostle John fell down to worship an angel/messenger in Revelation 19:10 and this angel said to him, “see thou do it not!” It is clear then that Jesus must be God in order to receive the same worship afforded to God alone. And to solidify this fact we see the Lamb and God receiving the exact same worship in Revelation 5:13-14. We know that Jesus is the Lamb (John 1:29) so if he were not God then God would have shared worship with a lowly creature.
· Jesus Shares Glory with the Father
Yahweh said in Isaiah 42:8 that he would not give His glory to another or his praise to graven images. Again in Isaiah 48:11 he explicitly states that He will not give His glory to another. We have already seen that Jesus is worshipped and to add to this Jesus Himself said in his famous prayer to the Father in John 17:5, “Father, glorify me with the GLORY I HAD WITH YOU before the world existed.”
This verse speaks volumes… For one it tells us that Jesus possessed the SAME GLORY as the Father. Secondly, it tells us that the Son existed before the world existed. Thirdly, it tells us via the imperfect tense of Jesus’ possession of this glory, that He had it as far back as can possibly be conceived. In other words, the action of Jesus’ “having” this glory was a continuous action in the past, thus there was never a time when he came into possession of this glory. It was ALWAYS HIS!!!
Space won’t allow any more than I have already presented, but I have barely scratched the surface in regard to what Scripture says concerning the Person of Jesus or his Hypostatic Union.
******************Jesus did not need to be saved!******************
Searchingone1033 claimed that Jesus needed to be saved like any other man. Well the scriptures testify unanimously that Jesus came to save people from their sin (Matthew 1:21). Jesus had no sin to be saved from as 2Corinthians 5:21 (who knew no sin); Hebrews 4:15 (without sin); and 1Peter 2:22 (who did no sin) so plainly tell us. Hebrews 9:14 tells us that Jesus offered himself without spot to God.
[*Note: I purposely exceeded the 1500 word limit so as to keep things somewhat fair. Searchingone1033 has violated the parameters of the debate format many times up to this point and I have allowed this without asking that he be disqualified. For this reason I feel that I am entitled to a few extra words in my presentation of the Son.*]
