INDIRECT TESTIMONY TO THE DEITY OF CHRIST

INDIRECT TESTIMONY TO THE DEITY OF CHRIST

 

What is the value of indirect evidence and testimony?

These are Only a Few Examples of Many That Could be Listed

1. Luke 7:37-38, 44-48. Luke assumes our understanding that only God forgives sins. Therefore Jesus must be God! "And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment."
2. John 12:37-41. The words of verse 40 were written by Isaiah just after he saw Jehovah (Isa. 6:1, 10). But John says Isaiah saw Christ's glory (vs. 41), because he assumes. that the reader identifies the Jehovah of Isaiah 6 with Christ. "But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him."
3. John 14:28. ("my Father is greater than I") "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I."

If Jesus were not Himself God, how could He compare Himself with the Father? It would be both blasphemous and ridiculous for a mere finite creature to go about trying to convince others that the Father was greater than He was. The Creator/creature distinction is infinite and cannot be compared at all. Jesus is speaking of functional distinctions between the Persons of the triune Godhead, and this text (which Arians have appealed to for centuries) is exactly a proof text for the deity of Christ.

4. John 19:37  John’s quotation is from Zechariah 12:10. But the context of that passage (see 12:1) show that it was Jehovah that was pierced. Thus, Christ must be God. "And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced."

5. 1 Tim. 1:13 (Christ……… put me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer). Paul is certainly not saying that before his conversion he went about speaking against Jehovah; but he did speak against Christ. Therefore, since he assumes the reader identifies Christ with Jehovah, he also assumes that words spoken against Christ are actually blasphemous. "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."

6. Gal. 1:1 Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. Paul contrasts Jesus Christ with mere men, which would only be valid if Christ were God. "Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)"