The deity of Christ
The deity of Jesus Christ is a very important fundamental truth for bible believing Christians. If Christ was just a man then He could not have been an adequate sacrifice for all mankind. He had to be the perfect, sinless, Son of God in order to defeat death and gain everlasting life for all mankind. In this lesson we will examine the truth that Jesus Christ is in fact the Son of God by looking to the Old Testament prophesies, the virgin birth, His sinless life, and lastly His own personal claims about being the Son of God.
Old Testament Prophesies foretell Him
Isaiah 53
The Old Testament proves Jesus Christ to be the messiah, the Son of God. All throughout human history recorded in Gods word there are prophesies concerning the messiah that would not only save Israel but all mankind from their sins. Christ fulfilled over 350 Old Testament prophesies, there are none that He did not fulfill.
Fun Fact: Years ago Peter W. Stoner and Robert C. Newman wrote the book Science Speaks. The book was based on the science of probability and vouched for by the American Scientific Affiliation. It set out the odds of any one man in all of history fulfilling even only eight of the 60 “major prophecies” not including the other 270+ “minor prophecies” fulfilled by the life of Christ.
The probability that Jesus of Nazareth could have fulfilled even eight such prophecies would be only 1 in 1017th. That's 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.
Translate that number to silver dollars, cover the entire state of Texas with them, then stack them till it's all two feet deep and pick just one, that's the odds of any man in history fulfilling JUST eight of the sixty “major prophesies” included in the study. Christ fulfilled them all.
Note: Christ is the only person in history to heal blindness, none before Him none after Him, Isaiah 35:4-6 and in the prophesies we find that the messiah will be God Himself! Genesis 22:8, Isaiah 7:14 Emanuel means God with us.
The Virgin Birth Separates Him
Isaiah 7:14
Luke 1:26-35, Never in history has a child been born with no physical father, it is a scientific impossibility for humans to be conceived without both a father and mother. All throughout our Bible we have evidences that God can do things that are impossible for man, creation, worldwide flood, ten plagues of Egypt, water from a rock, bread falling from the sky, the sun standing still in the sky, and many evidences that God has none of the limits we are accustomed to. For anyone who understands science and anatomy it is clear that either Mary was not a virgin and the bible is wrong, or Jesus Christ is Gods Son.
His sinless life sanctifies Him
2nd Corinthians 5:21
One of the names of Christ is, Lamb of God, this is because He is the sacrifice for our sins. In the Old Testament God required a perfect spotless lamb to be sacrificed for the atonement of the sins of Israel.
Christ came as the perfect Lamb of God to gain forgiveness for all who will trust in His righteousness! 1st Peter 1:18-19
Why it matters
Man is born in sin Hebrews 4:15, Romans 5:12-19, Mankind is born into corrupted flesh, Psalm 51:5, our nature is to lust, envy, dispute, in short, our nature or natural man is born with a desire to sin. This is why Christ Himself teaches that a man must be born again John 3:3-7, in order to reach Heaven, because man is not righteous we must put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ Romans 3:23-26.
As a result man cannot redeem man Psalm 49:7-8 Just as a debtor cannot pay the debt of another debtor because he is not able to pay even his own debts, a sinner cannot gain forgiveness for the sins of others since he has not forgiveness for himself.
The alternative if Jesus Christ is not God than the only other things He could logically be are either a liar, or an insane person because He Himself claimed to be God.
His own words testify of His Deity
John 1:1,14
Multiple times throughout the gospels the Jews attempted to kill Christ because He claimed to be God. If Christ's own words and the Jewish leaders response to them do not convince you that Jesus Christ did in fact on multiple occasions claim to be God the Son then nothing will. Examples: John 10:27-39, John 8:58, The Jews reaction was in line with Leviticus 24:16 (If He had not been God) more examples John 20:28 here Christ does not “correct” Thomas because Thomas was correct in calling Jesus God! Other evidences in scripture would be Acts 20:28 which tells us that God purchased the church with His own blood! Also Revelation 19:10 and Exodus 34:14 we are warned to worship only God, yet Christ was often worshipped and never rebuked those who worshipped Him.
There is no logical way to read Gods word and claim that Jesus is not God or never claimed to be God, the deity of Christ is very clear and it is very important. He isn't a liar, He isn't insane, He is the Son of God!
The assignment for this lesson is to write a one page essay using at least three scripture references on why the Deity of Christ matters, what it means to you, and why a man cannot atone for the sins of another man.
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