was Christ fully God?

I've been asked this question a few times recently, so I figured I'd post a blog about it...and, because I'm short on time I'm just going to copy and paste a question/answer between myself and a student who asked it:

From: [undisclosed Korean student who looks like Russell from "Up"][ok, so, those of you who know him, it was Tae! :) ]
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matthew 24:36
No one knows about that day or the hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father

Christ is God, God is all knowing......im confused @_@

---my response---
good question, bro. i'll admit, i don't fully understand it either. i don't fully understand Jesus. He was 100% man -- He was born like any other person, He was a baby dependent on His mother's milk, He grew up and "kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men," (Luke 2:52) He got hungry and thirsty, He got tired (John 4:6), he slept (Mark 4:38), etc. etc. He was 100% human.

But at the same time he was 100% God. He was worshiped (Matt. 14:33), He could forgive sins (Mark 2:5), He could control nature with His words (Mark 4:39), etc. etc.

So does Matthew 24:36 prove that Jesus was not omniscient (knowing everything)? There's actually other times where Jesus seems to not know something. When the woman was pushing through the crowd to touch the hem of His garment he asked "who touched me?" and then continued looking through the crowd. (Mark 5:32) It seems that Jesus was TRULY asking "who touched me?" because He didn't know. hmmmm....

Well, let's talk about something else for a bit to try to make some sense of this...

Isn't God majestic? Yes. Completely. When we see the throne room we see Him bright and majestic, shining and glorified. In Isaiah 6 when Isaiah sees God on the throne he realizes how awesome God is and how unholy he is. (Interesting note: from John 12 we can actually see that this "LORD" who is sitting on the throne in Isaiah 6 is Christ Himself! ...we can know this because John 12 quotes Isaiah 6 and refers to the one seated on the throne as Christ. notice how John 12:41 says "Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and spoke of Him"...well who is the "Him" in context in John 12? it's Christ! So, Christ is gloriously majestic.) We also see similar things in Revelation chapters 1 and 4 -- Jesus is majestic in these chapters as well.

But when people saw Jesus on earth they weren't overwhelmed with His majesty. Sure, they were shocked by His miracles and His words, but these are words and actions...things He did, not simply who He appeared to be. A lot of the reactions of the Pharisees etc. proved that when they looked at Him all they thought they were looking at was a regular human being (Luke 4:22 they just thought He was Joseph's son...Joseph was someone these people knew. Someone some of them had grown up with. A regular man. ...notice Jesus was speaking to people in Nazareth, His hometown where He had grown up; also, Matthew 12:23 the people say "This man cannot be the Son of David, can He?" ...they didn't think He could be the Messiah (Son of David was a common term for the Messiah)...His appearance wasn't anything to marvel at (see Isaiah 53:2))

So...but Jesus was fully God, right? And God is majestic, right? Why then was Jesus of Nazareth not fully majestic??

Well...to quote Shai Linne, "He put independent use of His attributes on the shelf". ....Christ did not lose or get rid of or take off any of His "Godness" when He became a man--what He did was humble Himself. (check out Philippians 2:1-11). He was still fully, 100% God very God. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. But, He put His independent use of His attributes on the shelf. He relied entirely upon the Holy Spirit's use of the attributes of God through His life.

Isaiah 6 shows Christ's majesty before His time on earth. Then, we don't really see His majesty while He was here on earth (except for a time in the Transfiguration Matt. 17; Mark 9; Luke 9). But, later on, we do see Christ's majesty after He ascended back to Heaven (see Revelation 1 and 4).

We can expect His omniscience to follow the same pattern. Just as we didn't see Jesus' majesty while He was here on earth except when God ordains it to be seen (like at the Transfiguration), so we only see Him being omniscient when God ordains it.

Here's a decent article on it.

keep the questions coming. keep growing. keep focused on Christ.

me and walker prayed for you and your family the other day, bro. ...press on.

elias
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OK - after reading my attempt to explain this...if you want to hear an EXCELLENT exposition on the incarnation of Christ (God the Son becoming a man) then listen to this.
(Right-click and choose "save target as" to download it.)
This is a sermon preached by Bruce Ware at Community Bible Church's "Exalting Christ Conference".
You can listen to all the sermons here.

illumination

so, i'm studying for a mid-term, but i read this in my notes and had to share it.

when you think of the word "illumination" (think outside of any spiritual context for a minute) what do you think of? the light bulb going on (literally or figuratively!), plugging in the lights to a CHRISTmas tree, turning on a flashlight on a dark night to "illuminate" your path. really, that's what Spiritual illumination is too...it's having the eyes of your heart enlightened so that you might see the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ (Eph. 1:18-20; 2 Cor 4:6).

here's the quote I wanted to share:

...We are there abundantly taught, that the saints differ from the ungodly in this: that they have the knowledge of God, and the sight of God, and of Jesus Christ...this plainly shows, that there is a discovery of the divine superlative glory and excellency of...Christ, peculiar to the saints; and also, that it is as immediately from God, as the light from the sun...For it is compared to God's creating the light by His powerful word in the beginning of creation [cf. 2 Cor 4:6]...The change made by this spiritual opening of the eyes in conversion would be much greater, and more remarkable every way than if a man born blind should have the sense of seeing imparted to him at once, in the midst of the clear light of the sun discovering a world of visible objects. For though sight be more noble than any of the other external senses, yet this spiritual sense is infinitely more noble and the object infinitely more important.

~Jonathan Edwards

wow. pretty cool, huh?

bond-servants?

20 years ago a controversial book was written by John MacArthur called "The Gospel According to Jesus". In this book MacArthur argued his case for "lordship salvation". This year (next month, actually) Zondervan is coming out with a 20 year anniversary edition, MacArthur approved but wanted to update the book with a new first chapter.

Earlier this month I attended the Shepherd's Conference which is put on by Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, which is where MacArthur is the senior pastor (not the pastor of the retired folks, but the head/lead pastor). MacArthur spoke three times over the course of the conference (plus a Q&A session!). His third sermon, he told us, will be the material that will go in to that new first chapter of the book that will come out next month. His message hit me (figuratively) and has caused me to think about the implications of what he said (ever had a sermon that made you think differently for the rest of your life? that's how i hope this sermon will impact me). I'd like to attempt to condense the main point and power of his sermon in a blog...here goes nothing:

What has been the defining cry for Christians down through the ages? "Jesus is Lord!" We say it often. We sing numerous variations of it in songs. We make it into bumper stickers! And it is very true, Jesus, in fact, is Lord...of believers. He is even Lord ultimately of Heaven and Earth. But He is only Lord of the lives of true believers. Those who are not true believers have a different Lord: sin. Scripture tells us this plainly many times...John 8:34 "Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.'", Romans 6:16, "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?" Romans 6:17 and 20 both say "...you were slaves of sin...". We all, to begin with, are SLAVES to sin. (cf. Rom. 6:22; Gal. 4:9; Titus 3:3; 2 Peter 2:19)

The word used in these passages to talk of slavery to sin is "doulos" which means, simply, SLAVE. A slave is owned 100% by his master. A slave has no rights, no personal freedom, no 'say-so' in decision making. A slave must obey its master. When he disobeys, he is punished by his master. And rightfully so--again, he has no rights of his own. This makes complete sense when we think about sin and being slaves to it, does it not? Sin is master over those who do not have the freedom Christ brings. Sin is a harsh master, for it pays death (Rom. 6:23). It is a cruel master, for it leads only to destruction (Phil 3:18-19).

But, Christian, may I ask you...if Jesus is your Lord...what does that make YOU?? The word "Lord" in the original Greek language of Scripture is "kurios", which means "lord" or "master". Thayer's Lexicon makes it quite clear what this means. Check it out on Blue Letter Bible (here). It says, "he to whom a person or thing *belongs*, about which he has power of deciding".

Whoa. You know what that makes us, Christians? It makes us SLAVES of Jesus. Slaves. Sadly, when translators bring the Greek text over into English, quite consistently when Scripture uses the word "doulos" (slave) in connection to our relationship with Jesus (our Lord, "kurios") they, seemingly out of fear, do not translate it well. It seems they are not afraid to translate "doulos" as "slave" when it talks of being "doulos" to sin. Yet when Scripture talks about being "doulos" of Christ they make up a word: "bond-servants". They lighten the word. Look it up in the Greek, it's easy to do at blueletterbible.com. Just look up a verse and then click the little "c" icon next to the verse. The original language doesn't call us servants of Christ. Servants have a choice. Servants are given orders that are more like suggestions. Servants can quit and choose to serve someone else. Servants can have two jobs and serve two bosses.

MacArthur explained a slave as a person with no rights, no standing in society, a person who couldn't own property, had no autonomy, no freedom. Slaves are subject totally and completely to an alien will (a will not their own). And this, Christians, is what we are: slaves. We have no rights of our own, have have no standing in this world, we own nothing, we have no autonomy, we have no freedom of our own. True believers are subject totally and completely to an alien will: God's will.

Look at Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth." The word "serve" (twice in this verse) is based off of the word "doulos". Basically, this verse is NOT saying that you cannot serve two masters. We all know that statement to be false. How many of us have two jobs? Do we not serve both of our bosses? What about a waiter? Do they not serve many people a day? What about a job situation where you are under two different managers? We serve more than one master all the time! What this verse is saying is that you cannot be a slave to more than one person. A slave is someone who is owned 100% by his Lord, his master.

The point MacArthur is making (and I believe it is quite a valid point, because, really, he isn't making the point, he is simply pointing out what Scripture says) is clearly stated in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" Jesus is saying that it's incongruous (a word MacArthur used) if you call Him "Lord" but don't obey Him. In other words, He's not really your Lord if you don't obey Him. If He was your master, if you were His slave, then you would be subject completely to His will. And you would obey Him. We prove that we are His when we bear fruit. If we don't bear fruit, we aren't His. This is Lordship salvation.

If Jesus is your Lord, that makes you His slave.

useful study tool

I've been wanting to blog about this for a while...and now I have a bit of time:

A month or so ago I wrote this down so I'd remember it: No study tool is as useful as a ready and focused heart.

I'm pretty diligent about taking time before I fall asleep each night to pray and read God's Word. But diligence doesn't equal excitement or deep desire. My desire fluctuates.

Recently I've been trying to use more study tools to help me understand what I read. I have MacArthur's study Bible notes that I use to deepen my understanding of a passage. And I also have a book that gives a summary overview of each chapter of the Bible. It helps me get the gist of a passage.

But I've realized that even when I have those tools, and maybe even others, if my heart is not in the right place...the words I read enter my heart and mind without value. There is little to no influence in my life, heart and mind if I don't have a ready and focused heart.

That's the most useful study tool: when my heart is excited to feast on the spiritual food that God's Word supplies.

No study tool is as useful as a ready and focused heart.