If Day 1 One God?

Marietta Taylor
July 12, 2021

Isaiah 9:2-7
Hebrews 1
Colossians 1:13-22
Daniel 7:9-14
Years ago, a certain talk-show host sometimes used his show to attack the faith he’d abandoned. During one show he asked, “If God the Father is so ‘all-loving,’ why didn’t He come down and go to Calvary?” This man traded the truth he knew for a what-if question. I myself have heard it in several forms.
What if Jesus was just a prophet or a great teacher? What if Jesus wasn’t really God? Honestly, I’ve asked myself these questions. It wasn’t from unbelief, but a desire to be able to explain my faith to others.
Those questions have one answer: Jesus was fully God and fully man. Therefore God did come down, teach as only God could, and then endure the cross so we could obtain salvation and eternity in heaven with Him.
Want to know what’s good about my answer? I can back it up.
If Jesus isn’t God, then He and John the Baptist would be liars. John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) and “the Son of God” (John 1:34). Jesus said of Himself, “before Abraham was, I am,” (John 8:58), echoing God the Father’s statement in Exodus 3:14, “I AM WHO I AM.” But let’s go one step further.
If Jesus isn’t God, then God Himself would be a liar.
And let’s be clear.
God is holy.
He cannot lie. (Numbers 23:19)
When John the Baptist was baptizing Jesus, the voice of God from heaven proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17) We know from Genesis 1 that the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) was present at creation. They work in tandem with each other. We see an example of this in John 14:16, where Jesus asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to the believers. Three persons, yet one God, working for our good and our salvation.
Salvation means God working on behalf of man to deliver us from sin and death and give us eternal life in heaven. How does Scripture support this? What a great question! I started in Isaiah 9:6, “For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us.” Then it lists His names, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Who is this Son who is also Mighty God?
Matthew 1:20 says this, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Look, we found Mighty God. It’s Jesus!
You might be wondering why this is important. Well, it speaks directly to several assertions people make about Jesus. Let’s review, shall we?
- Jesus was just a prophet or a great teacher
- Jesus was a great man, but not God
Colossians 1:13-22 addresses these assertions. Verse 13 reveals God has rescued us from darkness and “transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.”
Who’s the Son God loves? Jesus.
Who possesses kingdoms and has authority over everything within them? Kings.
So Jesus was clearly not just a prophet or great teacher.
He was, and is, an eternal king.
I confirmed this in Daniel 7:14, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.”
Well, what about the “great man but not God” statement? Colossians 1 says this:
- “He is the image of the invisible God” (verse 15)
- He created everything (verse 16)
- He is the head of the church (verse 18)
- God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him (verse 19)
Friends, Jesus was a great man. But He was also fully God.
But not just any “god.” Jesus is the One True God. He’s the God who reconciled His people to Himself by defeating sin and death. Defeating sin requires a perfect, sinless life. In other words, a person would need to be perfectly and absolutely holy. No human fits that bill. But God, presenting Himself in human flesh could and did, in the form of Jesus. Then, He went one better. He took on all the sin of the world so we could be considered clean before God the Father. We should sit with that for a moment.
To defeat death, we’d have to die and resurrect ourselves. Humans can die, but we can’t resurrect ourselves. But Jesus’ human body died and then was alive again. He, Himself, resurrected. No smoke and mirrors. Just the power and authority of God. Thus, Jesus earned the title of Savior.
God said this about Jesus, “And let all God’s angels worship Him.”
I say, let all of us worship Jesus, our one True God. He is more than worthy!
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