Can It Be Believed That Jesus Is God? Not A Separate God! How?

For the law having a shadow

of good things to come, and

not the very image of the things,

can never with those sacrifices 

which they offered year by year

continually make the comers

thereunto perfect. For then would

not they have ceased to be offered? 

Because the worshippers once

purged should have had no more

conscience of sins. But in those

sacrifices there is a remembrance

again made of sins every year.

Hebrews 10:1

     Let me paint this picture: an Israelite is bringing a sacrifice, maybe a lamb, or a turtledove, or some harvest. As he goes to the tabernacle he smells the aroma of the smoke of the burning of an animal. He knows that once a year the high priest goes into the most sacred place to offer a blood offering for sin. Furthermore, he attends all the festivals as commanded. Why? The best reason is: he knows that he is a sinner. How does he know? Because he knows he fails the law in some manner all the time, further he knows that he himself cannot remove the stench of sin from himself, and he goes with sacrifice in hand, attends all the festivals in order that God will remove that stench of sin that he cannot remove. Salvation for this Israelite is a continually sacrificing and the need for the high priest to go into the most sacred place once a year, every year, year after year. All this gave hope that one day this renewal of sacrifices and the need for the high priest every year to make an offering for the sins of the people would come to an end for their hope was in the promised Messiah who would fulfill what was missing this worship for it was only a shadow of the good to come. 

     The writer of Hebrews is making it very clear that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah, the one prefigured in the Old covenant with all the sacrifices and festivals and the need for the high priest to enter every year into the Most Sacred place. Jesus was the ultimate blood sacrifice for it was God in flesh that died and had the blood of His flesh poured out and it was this Jesus Christ who rose again, alive, bodily, and it was Jesus Christ who entered into the Most Holy Place and that place was at the right hand of God, once for all time never to be repeated and by this sins could be removed for and eternity. 

     There are those in religious organization that would object to my saying the Jesus Christ is God. The old Arian theology by Arius taught that Jesus was a created being and at best then He was "a god." Jehovah Witnesses are Arian in theology and believe and teach the same theology and say that Jesus could not have sinned, or that Jesus could have sinned, depends which organization believes. Well! If Jesus could not sin, then He must be God for only God cannot sin. If Jesus was created to not sin then He is on an equal plane with God but wait, to have this Spirit He and not be able to sin as God, then He must be begotten of God and to have His Spirit and by of the same substance or essence. If Jesus could sin then we would not have an assurance that our sins would be paid, nor would God for He would have had the ability to choose. God would have to wait to see how all this worked out and if it did not work out as planned then He would have to institute another plan. You mean that God could not by His Will establish a plan that would be successful? God would in some way make a mistake? How then could God be an Omniscient God if this was true? The only way that success could be assured is that God Himself would take on flesh by sending the Logos, His Word, the Creator, to be His Only Begotten Son to die and satisfy the debt of sin. 

     Another problem that is having its way in the world is the Mormons who teach and believe that the souls, albeit created by God are eternal and that includes Jesus for He is a soul although the most intelligent soul and used by God to fulfill His purpose to save man from sin. Satan too is a spirit as Jesus and to say that both are created spirits by God is to say that Satan and Jesus are brothers. That is Gnosticism at its foundation. One turned bad the other good. Really? That means that both had choices and once again there would be no way to know which choice either Satan or Jesus would make, God would be sitting in the wings waiting for all this to work out. Of course another problem is that God is anthropomorphize for they teach that He has a body. One false teaching leads to another. 

     All these heresies faced the early Christians and the Holy Spirit inspired men to write the truth so that those Christians would have the facts concerning Jesus and their salvation. We today are facing those same heresies although they are wrapped in some new color, some new cloth attempting to conceal the truth that they are teaching heresy. We have that writing today thousands of manuscripts all teaching the Orthodox theology, accept for those corrupted texts that contain Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, Sabellianism, Docetism, as found in such translations as the NIV, ESV, ASV, etc. that are used in many Churches ignoring the majority of manuscripts. Ears are tickled, and Dr. Oz, and Dr. Phil type of philosophy and ideology has taken the place from the truth of Scripture, the Gospel has been rewritten to fit what people want to hear and the real Gospel is almost forgotten. We need to turn back to the truth of the Gospel as taught in the Bible, no excuses for what it says, no rewriting it to fit the what the people want to hear, they, we, all of us, not to hear the truth. Jesus is God! Jesus is the Savior! Jesus makes eternal intercession once for all time! Now we have the responsibility to live according to what He taught us as how to live. The question is: Will we do it?

Come now, and let us reason 

     together, saith the LORD, 

though your sins be as scarlet,

     they shall be white as snow;

though they be red like crimson,

     they shall be as wool. If ye 

be willing and obedient, ye shall

     eat the good of the land.

                 Isaiah 1:18-19

The sacrifice acceptable to God: our obedience

Richard L. Crumb

     

Is Jesus Really God?

And as it is appointed unto

men once to die, but after

this the judgment: so Christ

was once offered to bear the

sins of many; and unto them

that look for Him shall He

appear the second time

without sin unto salvation.

Hebrews 9:27-28

     It is true that Jesus paid our debt that we cannot pay to God for our nature so corrupted that we do not even have the desire to think that we are so corrupted that we have a debt. Yet, the truth is we have a debt owed to God and even in our corruption of soul and our nature far from believing in Him or in our debt, Jesus came anyway to not just pay that debt, but to bring salvation for all those who believe upon Him. By the death of Jesus a twofold thing happened, the justice of God met, and by being in the form of man, a real man, Man and God in one person, He became our propitiation so we can be saved and live the promise of eternal life. God did this, even before all time, God ordained that man would be saved through the appearing of Jesus on earth to die sinless and meet all the requirements to be the Messiah. Jesus had to die to have our sins remitted but that is not all that Jesus did or will do for He is coming back again for His bride, the children of God to bring judgment upon the world, to remove all sinners from the earth and to give to all who believe upon Him a life that is no longer corrupted, even immortality. 

     There are and have been that will not accept that simple fact that is revealed to us in Scripture and add all sorts of theological ideologies and philosophical reasons that Jesus was and is not what has been taught by faithful followers of Jesus Christ, the Orthodox belief that Jesus did not sin, was sinless and is God in the flesh and at the same time a "real" man in the flesh. The Trinity has been tosses around theologically by many denominations, religions that call themselves Christian that you too may be confused. The last blog the question was asked: "Could Jesus sin?" The Mormons say that Jesus was just another soul albeit the most intelligent soul and was used by God to create. The Jehovah Witnesses say that Jesus is a god created by God to be the creator, both say He was the Savior. Both religious groups say that the Bible is their source, although both groups have either another so-called Bible, or have translated the Bible to fit their theology. I must ask this question for the Bible reads this way: "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). Ok! "ALL" things, not some things for "all" would include even Him, so how then could He have been created? Next: "not anything made that was made." "not anything" well does that not include everything that was made so how then did Jesus create Himself for if He created "all" things and that "not anything made that was made" that would have to include Him. The Greek word: "ούδέ" conjoins two negatives "ou" and "de" literal translation, but or and, not, the strongest was to say nothing or not even one, so the Bible is clear, that Jesus was not a created being for He created all things and nothing that came into being did not come into being without Him creating. The earliest of Church fathers had to combat heresies that were attempting to make Jesus something other than what Scriptures taught as to Who He is and one of the foremost Church apologists, Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 240 AD), wrote on the Incarnation of the Logos, the Trinity in his apologetics XX1 and in Adversus Praxean to teach against such heresies that we even are confronted with today so we need to know what was understood by those early Christians. Tertullian wrote: "...God made this universe by His word and reason and power. Your (speaking to those heretics and false teaching) philosophers also are agreed that he artificer of the universe seems to be Logos--that is, word and reason...(as taught by Zeno and Cleanthes). ...We also lay down that the word and reason and virtue, by which we have said that God made all things, have spirit as their substance. ...This Word, we have learnt, was produced form God, and was generated by being produced, and therefore is called the Son of God, and God, from unity of substance with God. For God too is spirit. When a ray is projected from the sun it is a portion of the whole sun: but the sun will be in the ray because it is a ray of the sun: the substance is not separated but extended. So from spirit comes of God...glided down into a virgin, in her womb was fashioned as flesh, is born as man mixed with God. The flesh was built up by the spirit, was nourished, grew up, spoke, taught, worked, and was Christ." Tertullian in Adverse Praxean repudiates the notion that the 'mixture' made a 'tertium quid', and safegaurds the distinction of 'substances'. We see the double status, the two not confused but conjoined in one person...The spirit in Him went about its own business, that is, the deeds of virtue, the works and signs, while the flesh underwent it s own sufferings, hungering... thirsting, weeping,... and in the end it died.

      Jesus could not sin, He did not have a corrupted soul as a man, but did have within that Man God and the Spirit of God and He came to die for you and me to save us from the guilt of sin. This can only be done by God Himself not some created being that could sin and choose to sin and then we are left without assurance that Jesus is the Savior and did the work as Savior. If we allow the question that Jesus could sin then we must believe that God is not sovereign over all things and that the Word is not united to God: this is absurd and unScriptural: "I and the Father are one, and I in the Father and the Father in Me" (John 10:30,38).

     Jesus is the Son of God, the Only Begotten Son of God and is God. This the Church taught by the apostles and by the early Church fathers who had to contend with heresy. We too must contend with heresy, but we also need to have information that will aid us to confront false teaching and heretical acts and theology. We who believe upon Jesus Christ have the Holy Spirit to guide us, and for Him to do so we must be moving forward so we can be guided. Will you take time to think upon what the Scriptures teach us about Jesus Christ? If so you will find Him to be exactly what was taught from the beginning of Christianity. God, Emmanuel, came to save you.

Oh that men would praise the LORD

     for His goodness, and for His 

wonderful works to the children of men!

                   Psalm 107:15

Praise God for His Mercy and Love

Richard L. Crumb

 

Could Jesus Sin?

For where a testament is, 

there must also of necessity

be the death of the testator.

For a testament is of force

after men are dead: otherwise

it is of no strength at all while

the testator liveth. Whereupon

nether the first testament was

dedicated without blood. For

when Moses had spoken every

precept to all the people according

to the law, he took the blood of 

calves and of goats, with water,

and scarlet wool, and hyssop,

and sprinkled both the book, 

and all the people saying,

this is the blood of the testament

which God hath enjoined unto you.

Hebrews 9: 16:20

     The Old Testament held for us pictures of God's revelation about the coming of the One who meets all the requirements of the law that: "Moreover he sprinkled with blood the both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And  almost all things are purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is not remission. It was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these: but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these" (Hebrews 9:21-23). The ancient Hebrew people are not without blame for they knew of the sacrifices, the reason for the tabernacle and then the temple, why this must be done and that this pictured the One who would be the fulfillment of God's original promise made to Adam and Eve. The tabernacle, and the temple pictured the Most High Place in heaven, and the sacrifices pictured that only by a sacrifice could sins be remitted. 

     Who could the one who would remit their sins permanently? Who would be the one to meet the requirements to be the propitiation for sin? Would not that one have to die and have his blood spilled? Yes! Would that one have to be sinless? Just sinless in heaven? No! He would have to be a man who would face all the trials and temptations that come upon any man and not become sinful. How? Did Jesus only live sinless because He could sin and would not? Could Jesus have sinned: peccabilty (He had as man original sin so He could sin) or impeccability (He was faultless,incapable of sin)? This is the teaching of some: i.e., The United Church of God that teaches that Jesus could sin but live even though tempted sinlessly. The United Church of God uses Hebrews 4:15 to prove their point and point to the word translated "tempted."πεπειραμένον" means to be put to the proof, to be put on trial, to be afflicted, Satan attempted to discredit Jesus by offering Him life pleasures as at the temptation Jesus underwent in the desert right after His baptism and then by living in this world, a world that is sinful attempted to cause Jesus to sin. (See: 2Corinthians 5:2; 1 Peter 2:22; 1John 3:5). Does this verse prove their point? No! The Greek word translated "who was tempted" "(For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin" Hebrews 4:15) as can be seen is not to have the ability to sin, rather that Jesus faced the same trials and could relate to us and how we too are facing a sinful world. 

     Jesus cannot be "touched" by sin, that is to be sinful, but He can sympathize with our sinful nature to know what it means to face this dilemma of trying to live godly and still having the original sin afflicting a person. The Greek word often translated "touch" means to have sympathy, as Jesus was able to sympathize with sin in man, yet He could not sin. Why? If Jesus was able to sin, how then could He be truly God? Yet, the Bible teaches us that Jesus is God: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1Timothy 3:16). Let us look at the facts: 1. Jesus was begotten by God. God placed into the womb of Eve to join Himself with the ovum of Eve to beget a man that was not of the nature of man that had been corrupted by Satan. 2. Being begotten in the womb of Eve Jesus was then fully man, he ate, slept, got hungry, tired. 3. Jesus was led into the desert, not by Satan, but by the Holy Spirit. There in the desert Satan attempted to thwart the purpose of God to insert into the world Himself by means of the Second Person of the Godhead His wisdom, and His Only Begotten Son who would be the Savior upon His death. Satan was defeated for Jesus could not be enticed to listen to and heed the attempts of Satan for He is God, not just some angel that could sin for if He could then the purpose of God to save those who believe upon Jesus would only have God not knowing that Jesus would be sinless. This God would not do, for God does not trifle with man. God sets forth to have His will done and this is His will, that any person who will believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ will be save, not maybe, but will be saved and this can only be accomplished if God saves man Himself. If God sent an angel and that angel failed then God would have to do this all over again, but He did not allow this to happen, it was a once for eternity salvation and Scriptures tells us that this is fact: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others, for then must He be often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in he end of he world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:24-26). 

     Are you getting this yet? God knowing that man would sin and could not ever save himself from the penalty of sin, prepared a way for salvation before all time. Man was given all the right to be man, to live on this earth, to choose, and to live the consequences of his choices. But, and most importantly, God in His Mercy and Love sent His Wisdom, the creator of all that is created, that is, to die, to pour out His blood, pictured for all to see by the law of Israel. You can have salvation because God loves His Only Begotten Son, not because He died on the cross but because of God's Love He provided a way for man Himself, by Himself and by no other. We can be assured that what God has done is final, complete, finished and you can participate in this eternal salvation. You have a choice, to accept or not, for God has given freely faith, by His word, and by His Spirit. You can choose knowing that God chose you first. 

 Blessed is the man that maketh

     The LORD his trust, and respecteth

not the proud, or such as turn aside to lies.

                      Psalm 40:4

God is calling: Choose rightfully

Richard L. Crumb