The six lines of proof of the Deity of Jesus Christ which I have given
you leave no possibility of doubting that Jesus Christ is God, that
Jesus of Nazareth is God manifest in a human person, that He is a being
to be worshipped, even as God the Father is worshipped; but there are
also incidental proofs of His absolute Deity which, if possible, are in
some ways even more convincing than the direct assertions of His Deity.
1. Our Lord Jesus says in Matt. 11:28, +"Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."+ Now any one
that makes a promise like that must either be God, or a lunatic, or an
impostor. No one can give rest to all who labour and are heavy laden
who come to him unless he is God, and yet Jesus Christ offers to do it.
If He offers to do it and fails to do it when men come to Him, then He
is either a lunatic or an impostor. If He actually does it, then beyond
a question He is God. And thousands can testify that He really does it.
Thousands and tens of thousands who have laboured and were heavy laden
and crushed, and for whom there was no help in man, have come to Jesus
Christ and _He actually has given them rest_. Surely then He is not
merely a great man, He is God.
2. Again in John 14:1 _Jesus Christ demands that we put the same faith
in Him that we put in God the Father_, and promises that in such faith
we will find a cure for all trouble and anxiety of heart. His words
are, +"Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also
in me."+ It is clear that He demands that the same absolute faith
be put in Himself that is to be put in God Almighty. Now in Jer. 17:5,
scripture with which our Lord Jesus was perfectly familiar, we read
+"Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man,"+
and yet with this clear curse pronounced upon all who trust in man,
Jesus Christ demands that we put trust in Him just as we put trust in
God. It is the strongest possible assertion of Deity on His part. No
one but God has a right to make such a demand, and Jesus Christ, when
He makes this demand, must either be God or an impostor, but thousands
and tens of thousands have found that when they did believe in Him just
as they believe in God, their hearts were delivered from trouble no
matter what their bereavement or circumstances might be.
3. Again, _the Lord Jesus demanded supreme and absolute love for
Himself_. It is clear as day that no one but God has a right to demand
such a love, but there can be no question that Jesus did demand it.
In Matt. 10:37 He said to His disciples, +"He that loveth father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me."+ And in Luke 14:26, 33,
He says, +"If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. . . . So therefore
whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot
be my disciple."+ There can be no question that this is a demand on
Jesus' part of supreme and absolute love to Himself, a love that puts
even the dearest relations of life in an entirely secondary place. No
one but God has a right to make any such demand, but our Lord Jesus
made it, and, therefore, He must be God.
4. In John 10:30 the Lord Jesus claimed absolute equality with the
Father. He said, +"I and the Father are one."+
5. In John 14:9 our Lord Jesus went so far as to say, +"He that hath
seen me, hath seen the Father."+ He claims here to be so absolutely
God that to see Him is to see the Father Who dwelleth in Him.
6. In John 17:3 He says, +"And this is eternal life, to know
thee, the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus
Christ."+ In other words, _he claims that the knowledge of Himself
is as essential a part of eternal life as knowledge of God the Father_.
Conclusion: There is no room left to doubt the absolute Deity of Jesus
Christ. It is a glorious truth. The Saviour in whom we believe is God,
a Saviour for whom nothing is too hard, a Saviour who can save from the
uttermost and save to the uttermost. Oh, how we should rejoice that we
have no merely human Saviour, but a Saviour that is absolutely God. On
the other hand, how black is the guilt of rejecting such a Saviour as
this! Whoever refuses to accept Jesus as his Divine Saviour and Lord is
guilty of the enormous sin of rejecting a Saviour Who is God. Many a
man thinks he is good because he never stole, or committed murder, or
cheated. "Of what great sin am I guilty?" he complacently asks. Have
you ever accepted Jesus Christ? "No." Well, then _you are guilty of
the awful and damning sin of rejecting a Saviour Who is God_. "But,"
you answer, "I do not believe that He is God." That does not change
the fact nor lessen your guilt. Questioning a fact or denying a fact
never changes it, regardless of what Mary Baker Eddy may say to the
contrary. Suppose a man had a wife who was one of the noblest, purest,
truest women that ever lived, would her husband's questioning her
purity and nobility change the fact? It would not. It would simply make
that husband guilty of awful slander, it would simply prove that man to
be an outrageous scoundrel. So denying the Deity of Jesus Christ, does
not make his Deity any less a fact, but it does make the denier of His
Deity guilty of awful, incredible, blasphemous slander. It does prove
you who deny His Deity to be——. I leave your own conscience to finish
the sentence.
V