The Old Testament tells us that God would come in the form of a man. This manifestation of God in flesh would not be another person as if God is made up of individual people; it would be the one God Himself manifest in flesh. Jesus was both man and God- human and divine. As a man, he was completely human with a human body, soul, and spirit. As God, he was completely God- not a part of God; not a person within God; he was all the fullness of God. Jesus is the one God incarnate.

Jesus is the Word made flesh.

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word in Greek is Logos, which means thought, plan, mind, reasoning, word, center of consciousness, speech. Strong’s’ entry for Logos from the New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words is:

3056. Logos, log’-os; from 3004; something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ):- account, cause, communication, x concerning, doctrine, fame, x have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, x speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

The Word is all of these: the thought of God, plan of God, mind of God, reasoning of God, word of God, and center of consciousness of God. The Word is all the fullness of the Godhead.

God has a specific presence. God is omnipresent, but His omnipresence did not sit on the throne in heaven. God did not place his omnipresence in a theophany (an appearing of God such as the pillar of fire or the burning bush). God’s specific presence was the point in space that He appeared to Moses and spoke from. His specific presence went with Moses in the desert.

Exodus 33:14  And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

This presence that we see in theophanies was not another person. This specific presence was the Logos, the Word, all the fullness of the Godhead. This specific presence was with the omnipresence of God, but wasn’t another God or person- it was God. Not two Spirits, not two persons. It was God thinking and acting from a specific place and still filling the universe at the same time, like an ice-cube in a glass of water. The Word was the specific point that God was speaking to Moses from the burning bush while the Spirit of God filled the universe. It was how God told Noah to come into the ark. The omnipresence of God was not confined to the ark. The specific presence of God was in the ark.

The Word is the aspect of God by which He created all things.

John 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The Word was made flesh.

John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Jesus is the Word made flesh. Anything we can say about the Word, we are saying about the deity of Jesus. Jesus is the thought of God, plan of God, mind of God, reasoning of God, Word of God, center of consciousness of God, and the specific presence of God. The deity of Jesus is all the fullness of the Godhead.

Colossians 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Jesus was a two-fold being: he was deity and he was humanity. He was 100% God, and he was 100% man. Jesus was not a second person in the Godhead. As God, he was the only God there is, manifest in flesh to become the sacrifice for our sins.

1 Timothy 3:16  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

2 Corinthians 5:19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

As a man, Jesus was the Son of God. God could not die, so He was manifest in flesh to offer Himself as our sacrifice for sins. The term ‘Son’ refers to the humanity or the humanity and deity of Jesus, but it never refers to deity alone (Bernard, p. 82).

The deity of Jesus is the Father.

John 10:30  I and my Father are one.

John 10:38  But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

John 14:8-9  ⁸ Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.  ⁹ Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

The deity of Jesus is the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16-18  ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;  ¹⁷ Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.  ¹⁸ I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

2 Corinthians 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Galatians 4:6  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Philippians 1:19  For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

The humanity of Jesus is the Son of God.

Luke 1:35  And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Galatians 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Hebrews 1:5  For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

Jesus could act from his humanity or his deity. He could speak as man or as God. All verses that seem to show a conversation between two individuals are showing a conversation between humanity and Deity. When looking at this type of verse, ask this question: is Jesus speaking as a man or as God?

If Jesus is speaking as God, and he is speaking to God, then there must be more than one God- and we know from scripture that this is not true. If Jesus, as Deity, prayed to the Father, then we have one God praying to another- and we knew from scripture that this is not true. Jesus prayed as a man- just like we do.

Having a correct belief in the deity of Jesus is essential to salvation.

John 8:24  I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

The fact that Jesus is God is as firmly established in scripture as the fact that there is one God (Bernard, p. 55).  We must have a correct understanding of the identity of our God. It is crucial that we believe on Jesus as the scriptures say, and not as the creeds say. If we let the scriptures show us the identity of Jesus, we see that He is the one God of the Old Testament manifest in flesh to provide our salvation- just like He said He would do. We must not bring preconceived ideas to the scriptures. We must let scripture show us what to believe. Scripture does not show us that Jesus is a second person in the Godhead. Scripture shows us that Jesus is both God and man. As God, He is the almighty God. As man, He is the Son of God- our sacrifice.

 

 

References

Bernard, David K. (1994). Oneness view of Jesus Christ, The

            Hazelwood: Word Aflame Press

Strong, James (1996). New Strong’s complete dictionary of Biblical words, The

            Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers

 

David K. Bernard The Oneness View of Jesus Christ