The Deity of Christ Seen through the Lens of His Worshippers, Part 3

November, 2004

by: Brodie McClain

In the past few articles we have taken the deity of Christ from the black & white pages of doctrine and cast it into three–dimensional color. While factually the case can be made for the Godhood of Jesus Christ straight from the text, it is enlightening and encouraging to see His deity played out in the everyday lives of people around him. From the lowest in rank to the highest, people from all walks of life acknowledged Jesus as God both in their words and in their actions. In this next section we will peer into the minds of the early church and Paul to see how they reacted to this man from Nazareth.

In the ensuing growth of the first church we find that Jesus is not considered a mere carpenter from Nazareth who is blessed by God, but rather a Savior, the very Author of life and the one who deals out repentance, forgiveness and judgment (Acts 4:12, 5:31, 10:42). Keep in mind that these titles and attributes are being affirmed by those who just a short time earlier walked and talked and touched the man, Jesus. Even the first converts, like Stephen and Ananias, are found praying to Jesus (Acts 7:59-60, 9:10-17). Ananias gives insight into the practice of those early converts in his prayer to the Lord in which he calls the new Christians those, “who call on Your name.” This title reveals the regular practice they maintained in praying to Jesus Christ (Acts 9:14), the “mere” carpenter from Nazareth.

It is in front of the historical backdrop of the first church that the evidence of worshiping Jesus should have its full impact. Paul revealed the regular practice of the church in prayer, not only to the Father, but to Jesus as well. He affirms this in his opening statement to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:2) and then further affirms the equality between God and Christ in the next verse (1 Cor. 1:3). It is so natural for Paul to attribute Godhood to Jesus that in his letter to the Romans he first calls the Gospel, “the Gospel of God,” and shortly after calls it, “the Gospel of His Son” (Rom 1:1, 9). Paul never spent any time defending this acknowledgement of Christ's deity but seems rather to use the terms interchangeably. This may seem natural for Christians 2000 years after the fact, who are steeped in traditional worship of Jesus, but for a Jew like Paul, brought up in the strictest sect of fanatic monotheism, to place God and Jesus on the same plane, with seemingly thoughtless fluidity is unbelievable.

Paul's belief in Christ as God is also evident in his teaching on the union of each believer with Christ. This union with Christ, as Paul develops it, points to the fact that Jesus is the focus of Christian faith, the one to whom Christians owe their entire spiritual lives as well as their utmost loyalty. If the Romans were still left with any questions, Paul states plainly in Romans 9:5 that Jesus is, “God blessed forever.”

This belief in the deity of Christ permeated most of Paul's letters. To the Thessalonians he again equated God and Christ in his prayer (1 Thess. 3:11), to the Philippians he recorded the great humility of Christ as God in which every knee would bow to Christ and every tongue voice it's worship to Jesus (Phil. 2:6-11). In his Christ–centered epistle to the Colossians Paul records perhaps his clearest attestations of Christ's deity, attributing to Him both power at creation and entire fullness of deity (Col 1:16; 2:9).