Is Jesus Christ Really God? - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, December 20. Do you believe that Jesus is God? Stay with us as we focus on what the Bible reveals about the fundamental identity of Jesus Christ.

And this is what he said. And this is John's way of saying he is God incarnate. Verse 14 says, And the word that is Christ, the full revelation of God, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. Listen to this, the only begotten God. We just saw that he was the only begotten from the Father. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. He has revealed him.

He's unveiled him. If you want to know what God the Father is like, look at Jesus. Now, listen to these verses and follow me, if you will. Let's begin in the 14th chapter of John.

And I'm not going to put these in the order of the chapters because I want you to see them in a particular order. Chapter 14 of John. What I want us to see in these verses is that Jesus throughout his ministry is affirming. He is affirming and confirming and proclaiming his own deity.

Listen to what Jesus said about himself. Beginning in John chapter 14. Let's start with verse 11. He says, believe in me that I am in the Father and the Father in me.

That is his relationship with God the Father was an absolute perfect relationship. He says, well, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Go back up to verse 9. Philip is saying, Lord, show us the Father.

And Jesus says in verse 9, have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say show us the Father?

Listen to that. He says, first of all, I'm in the Father and the Father is in me. You want to see God the Father? Jesus said, then look at me.

He says, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Back to chapter 5 and verse 22. He says in verse 22, for not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son. In all of that, now be careful how you look at these verses and listen to me carefully. You may be one of those persons who says, I don't believe in this Jesus bit. I believe in God. I believe in the God of the Bible, but I don't believe in Jesus.

Then you must listen very, very carefully. Verse 22, for not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son. In all of that, all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Jesus said, you and I are to honor him as deity as we would honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. My friend, to say that you believe in the God of the Bible, but that you deny the deity of Jesus Christ, God the Son, Jesus Christ says you cannot honor the Father as God without honoring him as his only begotten Son and deity equal with God the Father. Now, I know what some of our friends think and I know what some of you may be thinking.

You say that's narrow-minded. Well, my friend, regardless of what you think about it, it is the truth. And regardless of what you think about it, it is the truth by which you and I are going to be judged. There is no other human explanation for the life of Christ than that he's God. Now, one of the most ridiculous of all arguments is the resurrection. Well, they stole his body.

They did this, they did that. Do you think that for 2,000 years, man could keep a secret like that? Jesus Christ is the resurrected, eternal Son of God because he's God. The same cross he was crucified upon, he created. When he planted the first tree and when he said, let the earth bring forth seed, the very animals around his birth, he made them from the very beginning.

He's God. And Jesus never denies his deity and warns those who doubt his deity, deny his deity, refuse to accept his deity, that they will stand in their judgment one of these days and give an account. John chapter seventeen.

It's a wonderful, beautiful prayer. But let's look at two verses and listen carefully. Well, let's give ourselves a little background and start with verse one. These things Jesus spoke and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee, even as thou gavest him authority over all mankind, that to all whom thou hast given him, he may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, thee and Jesus Christ. I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do. And now glorify thou me together with thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

But let's read on down to verse twenty four. Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, in order that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou didst love me before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ never denied his deity. Jesus Christ, again and again and again, affirmed and proclaimed and declared that he and the Father were one. Two distinct personalities, yes, but that they were one. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit making up the Trinity.

Somebody says, Well, now, wait a minute now. When I'm able to understand the Trinity, I believe in Jesus, then my friend, you'll die and go to hell. Because your insistence and your rejection of Jesus Christ until you understand the infinite things of God is pure pride. If I can't understand it, I don't believe it.

My friend, listen to me carefully. Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit are beyond the finite mind of humanity. We are talking about the infinite God who in all of his perfections and all of his attributes and all of his grace and all of his glory and all of his love is totally beyond the comprehension of man.

Were it not for the revelation of God the Father in Christ Jesus who gives us understanding of him. And so John says in this chapter, I want to affirm him by the fact that he is deity by the fact of his pre-existence and then by the fact of his position with the Father. But then he says, I want to affirm it in one other way and that is by his power. Listen, verse three, all things came into being by him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.

And him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Now he says, I want to affirm that by his power. First of all, he says by his power in creation. And you and I have read the verses in Genesis chapter one, verse one, in the beginning God. And in Colossians chapter one, nothing was made that was not made by him and everything is sustained by him.

John chapter one, all of these chapter one of Genesis chapter one of Colossians chapter one of John, all of them affirm the same thing that Jesus Christ is in the beginning creating everything that has ever been created and every single thing that is in existence is only there by the creative hand of God and is sustained by the creative hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I affirm his deity by the fact that he is the creator of all things. And John says, I affirm his deity by his power to create.

But then he says, I want to affirm his deity by his power to reveal. Look at this back in verse four. He says in him that is in Christ was life and the life was the light of men. That is, when Jesus Christ came, if you'll notice back over in verse seven, John's talking about him. He says, he came for a witness that he might bear witness of the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light.

This is John the Baptist now. There was the true light Christ, which coming into the world enlightens every man. He was in the world, the world was made through him, and the world didn't know him. He came to his own and those who were not his own did not receive him.

Why? Go back, if you will, to verse five. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend that Jesus Christ came into a world that was full, filled full of philosophies and all types of religion. It was a world of darkness.

And for 400 years, there had been no real prophet on the scene until John the Baptist came on the scene. It was a time of great spiritual darkness. And what he's saying is into this world of darkness came the Son of God who was the light of the world. And his light was what? His light was the truth of God the Father. His light was the revelation of who the Father is, because he himself was deity clothed in sinless humanity. He came to reveal who God is.

And he says that light meant life to mankind. He came to reveal him. And if you notice again in the 14th verse of John 1, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory, the glory, the only begotten of the Father. And verse 18 says, no man has seen God at any time.

The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. You want to know what God the Father is like? Look at Jesus. You say, well, what is God like?

Look at Jesus. And sometimes I think about as I read of philosophers and their search and they're looking for the beginning of life and the essence of life and the meaning of life, the purpose of life and the end of life and on and on and ad tonight. And they go on searching and seeking and looking all they've got to do.

Two things. And number one is the most difficult, not open the book, but humble themselves and then open the book and say, God, show me the truth. My friend, if you want to know the truth, if you're willing to humble yourself before God and open this book, Almighty God will show you the truth. And I want to tell you, it's coming in the person of Jesus Christ. And if your pride is such. That you can't accept the Lord Jesus Christ and you deny him and you just sort of toss him aside, you will never come to the truth.

You will die in your darkness. He came to reveal the Father. So he says, I come to affirm him in his power, the power to create.

I come to affirm him in his power to reveal. No one has ever seen God except Jesus Christ. But when Jesus came, we saw deity clothed in humanity. That's why they said no man ever spoke like this. That's why Nicodemus said no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. We know you came from God. But then he says, I want to affirm his deity one of the way, not only his power of creation and his power of revelation, but in his power of redemption.

Listen to what he says, if you will. In verse 11, he came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. He came into a world that rejected him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. And he says, and this is the way it happens. He says, you want to know who Jesus is? He's God. And one of the reasons he has to be God is that he has the power to give authority and right and power to men and women and boys and girls to become the redeemed children of God.

And he says this is the way he did it. He says, we are born again who were born not of blood. That is, you don't get this by being born into a certain family, nor the will of the flesh, not by your self effort, nor by the will of man, but of God. And you see, when Jesus said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see.

Listen to that. You cannot see, you cannot understand, perceive the things of the kingdom of God. Then he said later on, unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And then listen to this, if you will, verse 15. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me has a rank higher than I. He existed before me.

Now, remember this. They were cousins and Elizabeth got pregnant before Mary did. And John the Baptist was born before Jesus was. But he says he existed before I. And you know what Jesus said on one occasion, John chapter eight, I believe 58 somewhere thereabouts. He said, Before Abraham was, I am.

He didn't say I was. He said, I am the great I am. That is, any time in time or eternity, it's never Jesus Christ was never I was, I will. With him, it is always I am, because all of time is in the grasp of Jesus Christ because he's deity.

Listen to what he said. Verse 16. For of his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. He says, I want to affirm his deity because it is through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary that the grace of God was manifest to man.

That is, when Jesus Christ went to Calvary, God the Father placed on Jesus Christ crucified there. Every sin of every human being who's ever lived is living, ever will live. He died as a lamb before the slaughterers. He died as the lamb of God, the unblemished, spotless lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.

He says in 1 Peter, how are we redeemed? Not by silver and gold, he says, but by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, spotless, unblemished lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Who is Jesus?

He's God. He's the God who will forgive you of your sins right now. If you will ask him to forgive you for your unbelief and tell him that you're placing your life in his hands, and that beginning from today on, you want to live for him and serve him.

If you want to believe that he went to the cross and all of your sin debt was placed on him, and that he will forgive you of your sin if you ask him, my friends, you can begin a whole new life. And this Jesus will become the most precious person in your life. You want to talk to him every day? You want to share with him? You want to listen to him? You want to discover what he's like? And your life will be centered around him.

You have one other alternative. Keep on rejecting him. Keep on ignoring him.

Keep on denying him. And one day stand before him. And this Christ, who is God, will give you this final word.

Depart from me, ye that worketh iniquity. I never knew you. Listen to me carefully.

It doesn't really make any difference much. Who knows you and me? Except one person. It makes an eternal difference that Jesus knows you and me as his children. Who is Jesus? He's God. My Savior, my Lord, my life, and ultimately, my Judge. My hope, my help, my whole purpose for living.