Jesus is Jehovah-God
By C. O. Griggs
The Bible contains many proofs of the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus who grew up to manhood at Nazareth was conceived by incarnation in the virgin Mary and was born, in an altogether natural manner, at Bethlehem, the city of His father, King David. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." Jesus' humanity came from His mother, Mary, who was a direct descendant of David through his son Nathan.
As strange as it may appear to us, no one ever later called Jesus Immanuel in the Bible. The Hebrew word is not a proper title but a characterization. A study of the word Immanuel in the Hebrew dictionary yields the following: Im-manu-el, where "1m" means complete identity; "manu" means almighty; and "el" means God (I Almighty God).
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1 :23). The word "EI" is in the very first verse of our Bible:
"In the beginning God .... " This is Elohim, the Creator, of Whom John tells us "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). Only infinite God could create anything. Jesus of Nazareth created time, space and matter and He did this from His own energy, without materials. God is the only source of the material universe-all of its governing laws and all spirit beings.
This does not refer to the birth of Jesus. The word begotten is used in several ways in the English Bible. The Hebrew word translated begotten in this Scripture means "to bring forth." He, our Lord and Saviour, was brought forth out from among the dead. Christ's resurrection is God's proof to mankind and to all beings throughout the universe that the all sufficient death of Christ has accomplished redemption. The debt is paid and it was paid by God, to God. Christ's resurrection is the receipt and it was given by God to God. The facts have been published by God in the Word of God. PSALMS 8:4
What is man? Man is a lost and helpless creature living in a condemned world system which cannot lend help. The world has nothing to offer of value beyond the grave-not even its religion can help. Man's reli. gions are actually harmful, for their function is as a sedative and thus blind him to his need of a Saviour. Man's help must come from a source outside of himself and his environment.
Who is the Son of Man? He is the incarnation of the eternally existent God. Man is not God, God is not man, but a supernatural reality brought man and God into union in the Person of Christ Jesus. And this union of God and man did not, in the least, violate either person or his personality.
What is the Son of Man? He is the ultimate goal to whom the God ordained law and religion led. He is the Seed of the Woman (Genesis 3:15). He is the covenant maker. He is the eternal Word (John 1:1). He is David's Lord. He is the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the Morning Star, the Rock of Ages, the Mighty Fortress, the High Tower, the Hom (Source) of David's Salvation. He was, and is, the way shower, the way maker and "the Way."
"Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6).
These words of Jesus, the Son of Man, are preceded by this: "1 and My Father are one" (John 10:30); and because in His humanity He was Son of Adam. And this He was by way of the "Seed of the woman." Beyond this, man's finite mind cannot go.
Because of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth as both infinite God (The Creator of the First Adam) and perfect man, He is the Last Adam. And as such He is the only Being in the universe who could head up the redeemed from the lost and condemned race of the first Adam. The identity of Jesus the Christ is very important. And His identity with mankind is supremely important to God and to us mortals.
God, by incarnation, identified Himself by becoming one of us. And by every facet of His life on earth He became increasingly more identified with mankind. The final humiliation was His submission to death on the cross, at the instigation of His own people whom He had come to rescue from certain and eternal doom. In the infinite wisdom of God and motivated by His infinite love, He devised His plan of redemption. The price to be paid was, like God Himself, infinite. He gave Himself for our sins (Galatians 1:4); for me (Galatians 2:20); for the Church (Ephesians 5:25); gave Himself for us (Titus 2:14).
"For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (I Timothy 2:5,6).
This Christ Jesus, this one Mediator is mediator because He is the perfect union (oneness) of God and man. Because Christ perfectly identified Himself with man in his lost and sinful condition, He the sinless One could and did accept man's guilt upon Himself. This Christ gave Himself into our condition and position before the just and holy God. The inevitable result was: "Christ died for (on account of) our sins." When any person accepts, by simple faith, this provision which God in Christ made for him so freely, God saves him and identifies Himself with the believer. So complete is the identity of all believers with Christ, that they are repeatedly said to be in Him. There can be no closer union, nor any other secure position.
We are now in a position to understand a previously inexplicable thing in Paul's quotation of Psalms 8:4 in Hebrews 2:6. In the Old Testament, two different Hebrew words were translated as "man" in Psalms 8:4:
The first, "what is man" is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek anthropos, or the common word for man; the second "the Son of Man" is from the Hebrew word "Adam." Paul was inspired to use "anthropos" both instances in his quote of Psalms 8:4. The second usage of the word man in Psalms 8:4 is literally "son of Adam." Some words are best untranslated. Romans 5:14 tells us that Adam was the figure of Him (Christ) who was to come. Figure is the Greek word tupos. In this sense Christ was the antitype, but He is much more. He is the prototype--the pattern Man of eternity.
Paul used no fewer than seven Greek words which are properly translated man, but he was divinely inspired to use one common word in his quotation of Psalms 8:4. Why? God and man had become one; redemption had been completed by Christ in His substitutionary death; the price had been paid in full; the way to God had been made as free and clear as infinite power, wisdom and love could provide. The results: (1) the resurrection of Christ, whom death could not hold because He, in His death, conquered all death, and (2) eternal life for all who will accept Him and His provision for them. God provided the (all-sufficient) Christ.
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3).
The reason there is perfect accord and harmony in all Scriptures and every facet of the sacrificial religion of Israel with the death of Christ is because of the sinfulness of mankind. This accord within the Scriptures holds true because man's lost condition and his need never changes, and because God has only one plan of redemption which was revealed progressively. God required man's acceptance of, and obedience to, His revealed will at whatever time he may have lived.
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