In 303 AD Caesar Galerius encouraged Augustus Diocletian to rouse the patriotism of the Roman people. Over the years, Rome seemed to be waining in power and influence, Diocletian looked to the failing of worship to the Roman gods as the cause of this downturn. His attention focused on the Christian sect, who prayed to no other god than Christ. Diocletian sent word that prohibited Christians meeting for worship, and that all their books be destroyed. Then the word came out that any clergy would be arrested unless they sacrificed to one of the Roman gods. Soon after, all Christians were told to do the same.
Christians were jailed, beaten, and killed, manuscripts of the Scriptures were burned. The persecution was most intense in northern Africa, and lasted for eight years, until AD 311. One year later Constantine won control of the western Roman Empire, and in the east, Christianity gained legal toleration.
Constantine, a now professing Christian, saw that there was a growing division within the Church over the issue of Jesus. On one side was the Bishop Arius, he taught that Jesus was a created and not as eternal as the Father. On the other end was Athanasius who taught that Jesus was as much God as the Father. Constantine therefore called the first worldwide council of Bishops together to discuss and come to an agreement over the issue.
This council was held at Nicaea in 325 AD, and was attended by 323 Bishops, mostly from the eastern Roman Empire. There the two sides presented cases, argued Scripture, and tried to dismantle the other side’s arguments. The recorder of the event, Eusebius, wrote that Constantine urged the bishops to be of one mind, and at the end of council a creed was written. 318 members of the council agreed to the creed that read…
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, of the substance of the Father; God of God and Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten, not made, of the same substance as the Father, by whom all things were made, in heaven and on earth: who for the sake of us men and our salvation, descended, became incarnate, and was made man, suffered, arose again on the third day, and ascended into the heavens, from where he will come again to judge the living and the dead;
And in the Holy Spirit.
But the creed was not just an endorsement of Jesus being equal in godhood with the Father, but also a rejection of Arius’ beliefs. The creed continues…
But the Holy Catholic and Apostolic church anathematizes those [i.e. the Arians] who say “There was a time when he was not,” and “Before he was begotten, he did not exist” and “He was made from that which did not exist.” The same goes for those who assert that he is of a different substance or essence from the Father, or that he was created, or can be changed.
This was not the end of the debate, a debate which still comes to the surface every time someone asks the question, where did Jesus come from?
Last week we started our fall apologetics series by looking at an article written in Christianity today that states, “Overall, adults in the US are moving away from orthodox understandings of God and his Word year after year (Stefani McDade, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/september-web-only/state-of-theology-evangelical-heresy-report-ligonier-survey.html).”
We looked at a the first of these areas in which the US population is moving away from orthodox beliefs. In the first week, we looked at how the US population now believes that the Bible does contain helpful information but is not wholly true. But what was more alarming is that 1/4 of evangelical Christians agree.
So, we took some time and saw that the Bible was both internally and externally consistent. Internally consistent because it isn’t contradictory, and is logical on the subjects it contains. And externally consistent, because it is well persevered through the centuries and is confirmed by archeology. We walked away with the understanding that, Christians can be assured that the Bible is wholly true, because of these consistencies. But that’s not the really issue. The real issue is, do we personally trust it. Because if we trust it, that means we have to submit to it, and submission is really what’s at the heart of the issue.
Now that we’ve discussed how the Bible is wholly true, we can turn our attention to the issue of Jesus. In the article they asked two statements about Jesus. The first statement was, agree or disagree, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” The second statement was, “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.” These two statements are linked together and so, we’re going to deal with both today.
But before we do, let’s look at the statistics from the Ligonier survey. For the first statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God,” 73% of Evangelical Christians agreed. That means almost 3/4 of Evangelicals agree that Jesus was created by God.
In the second statement, “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God,” 43% of Evangelical Christians agreed. Now there’s something off here. Both questions deal with the divinity or godhood of Jesus, yet we have a 30% difference.
My assumption is that when hearing the first statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God,” we’re talking about the relationship between God the Father and Jesus. When I’ve encountered this idea with people, there’s a tendency to think of Jesus as lesser, therefore I can see how people agree more with this statement.
Whereas the second statement, “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God,” we’re talking about Jesus’ relationship with other religious figures, such as Muhammed, or Buddha. In this case, people tend to think of Jesus as greater than these, so there is a decline in agreement with the statement.
But let’s take an average from these two and say that the average Evangelical Christian, taking both statements into account, would be about 58%. Taking this approach would mean that over half of Evangelical Christians consider Jesus, less than God the Father. This is exactly the issue that was up for debate at the Council of Nicaea. Is Jesus’ equal with the Father, or is he less than? Is Jesus eternal like the Father, or is he a created being less eternal?
This is where the Scriptures come in. We must look to and see how God shows himself through the Scriptures.
To do this, we’re going to look back at something we mentioned last week. Last week I brought up the mystery language about God that we see in Genesis 1 and Exodus 3. How, in Genesis 1, God speaks to in plurality. Then in Exodus 3, we see three names used in the passage, The Angel of the Lord, the Lord, and God. I want us to follow this a little more.
In Deuteronomy 6:4, we get the Shema. This has become a ritual prayer for Jewish people, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This prayer speaks to the monotheism of God. A quick breakdown is this: God is saying, nation of Israel, listen and hear, your God is the Lord God, the Lord is one. But in the Hebrew it’s more ambiguous, “Shema Israel Yahweh Elohenu Yahweh.” (e-hād Yah-weh ’ĕ·lō·hê·nū Yah-weh yiś·rā·’êl šə·ma’) Or “Hear Israel, Lord, our God, Lord.” It’s another area where the repetition of three when connected with God happens.
But one of the strangest passages of the Old Testament comes from Isaiah 9:6-7. You might have heard these verses around Christmas time. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Remember that part of the kingdom for a little bit later.
Instead, let’s focus now on the titles which in and of themselves are strange. Setting aside the first title because it carries even more than what we can cover today, the last three are strange in that they are attributed to a child who is being born. Why would a child being born be called Mighty God? How can he be a Mighty God? How can the title Everlasting Father be attributed to a son of a human? How can he be both the Everlasting Father and a Prince of Peace, when a prince is the son of the father?
This passage is strange because these titles don’t make sense in a strict monotheism. Especially when just 34 chapters later in the same prophetic writing Isaiah pens these words from God, “‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me (43:10).’”
So how can there be a child born with the titles like Mighty God, and yet, God declaring himself to have no other gods either before or after him. Either this child is somehow connected to God’s deity or God is lying.
This mystery is compounded with Daniel’s vision in the seventh chapter of his writing, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14).”
In this passage Daniel sees someone like a son of man, so someone who looks like a human, coming in clouds. There’s more to that cloud imagery that we can cover, but he approaches the Ancient of Days, another title for God, and is brought into his presence. Then he is given authority, glory and sovereign power. These are things wielded by God himself. But what happens next is telling, the nations worship this son of man. Now the word here is the Hebrew word pelach (pel-akh’) which means to serve. In the book of Daniel it used used to connect God’s people to his service, or worship. It is used to say that Daniel and his friends won’t serve other gods, but their own God (Daniel 3). So this service that the nations are giving to this son of man person, is the same that is given to God himself, hence why worship is used in this context.
But also notice that, like the child in the Isaiah 9 passage, this son of man is receiving a kingdom that is everlasting. These two figures, the child of Isaiah and son of man of Daniel, seem to be the same person. At the very least, the ambiguity of this person is overwhelming.
Yet, when we come to the New Testament we see how this ambiguity gets worked out. At Jesus’ first trial before the Jewish leaders, the high priest asked him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God (Matthew 26:63b).”
To which Jesus replies, “You have said so…But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64).” Jesus connects himself to the son of man person in Daniel’s vision. The same person that is deserving of the same worship as God. This then connects Jesus to Isaiah’s child, who is called the Mighty God. Jesus isn’t just saying that he is a figure to be followed, but he is connecting himself to the deity of God.
But this isn’t the only place where we see Jesus connects to deity. In John chapter 8, we see this interaction between Jesus and some Jewish leaders.
“‘I am not possessed by a demon,’ said Jesus, ‘but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.’
“52 At this they exclaimed, ‘Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?’
“54 Jesus replied, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’
“57 ‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ they said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’
“58 ‘Very truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.”
As we saw in John 10 last week, these Jewish leaders are not picking up stones because of the work of Jesus, but because he was connecting himself to the deity of God. Jesus is stating that he was before Abraham, but not only that, he is using language that connects himself back to the Exodus 3 passage. That same ambiguous passage where there were three titles, and from which the name Yahweh, or I am that I am, comes from.
This is why John, at the beginning of his Gospel writes these words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (1:1-3,14).”
And it’s why Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (1:15-20).”
This Son who is the visible image of the invisible God, who is the Word that was in the beginning both with God and who is God, comes to earth and gives us the eternal nature of God in the name of God, “The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).”
The Bible carries this mystery of God from the very first pages of Scripture and then flushes it out at the coming of Jesus. From eternity past, there is one God uncreated, with no beginning. Yet this God is more than a strict idea of singular. He is one, yet within this deity there is the person of the Father, the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit.
The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated. They are one God, none greater than the others, though subservient in love towards each other. They are one glory, one in creative power, one in their all-powerfulness, and one in Lordship. Yet they are not three Gods, nor three Lords, nor three created powers. They are one. Not three Fathers, or three Sons, or three Holy Spirits. And yet unique in accomplishing their task of salvation, so that there is the Father who sends the Son, the Son who gives himself up for sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit who indwells all of God’s people.
And we are to worship God in the Unity of this Trinity, because he reveals himself so.
The Bible reveals that Jesus is not created, but truly God in every way. Therefore we must worship Jesus as we worship the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Doing anything less, is to misunderstand and lessen the God who we say we believe in. The Church as it did in the past will see this issue brought up again and again, because it’s not an easy thing to understand. But makes perfect sense when we begin to think that God is more profound and greater than anything we can think of and therefore we need to worship him as he has revealed, even if we don’t fully grasp it.
My challenge for you this week, is to speak to each of the persons of the Trinity. Father, from whom all blessings flow; Son who came to earth to sacrifice for our salvation; Holy Spirit, who indwells the believer to accomplish the will of the Triune God in our lives and this world.
Let us worship and praise the Holy Triune God who from eternity past to eternity future holds the universe together by his mighty word. Amen.
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