Reflections on the Deity of Christ – Worthy of Worship

Feb 6, 2009
Christ on the throne

Christ on the throne

By Michael Bell

This is Part 8, of a multi-part series looking at the deity of Christ. Here are the links to the Introduction and Table of Contents.

Previously, we had looked at how Christ is confessed as God, and that every knee will bow to Christ, just as every knee will bow to God.

Bowing the knee is an act of worship, and we should note that in scripture it is something that God reserves for himself.

Exodus 34:14 (NIV) – Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

In the book of Daniel we see Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refusing to worship a false god even upon threat of death.

Daniel 3:18 (NIV) – … we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

In Acts 10, Peter refuses Cornelius’ worship. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”

Jesus himself says that worship should only be given to God.

Matthew 4:8-10 (NIV) – Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Yes Jesus is consistently given worship and he freely accepts that worship throughout the Gospels:

Matthew 2:11 (NIV) – On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him…

Matthew 14:33 (NIV) – Then those who wer in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you ar the Son of God.”

Matthew 28:9 (NIV) – Suddenly, Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

Matthew 28:17 (NIV) – When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

Luke 24:52 (NIV) – Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

John 9:38 (NIV) – Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

When Christ accepts the worship which is given to him, he is accepting worship which is due to God alone. As God the Son, he is worthy of that worship, as is expressed by God himself.

Hebrews 1:6 (NIV) – And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angel’s worship him.”

God is willing to share his worship with no one else, and yet willingly shares it with his Son. This is yet another reason why we consider Jesus to be God, because as God the Son, he is worthy of worship.

That is why we can sing alongside of Tim Hughes:

Light of the world,
You step down into darkness.
Opened my eyes let me see.
Beauty that made this heart adore you
Hope of a life spent with you.

And here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down,
Here I am to say that you’re my God,
You’re altogether lovely,
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me.

Let us not forget that Christ is worthy of our worship.

As usual, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

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Posted by Eclectic Christian

Nathan

Feb 5, 2009

by Joshua Hearne

There is a certain length that I like to keep my hair. The problem is that, even after all these years, I don’t know what that length is. Sure, I believe that there is a good chance that there is some unknown magical hair-length but I also believe that I will die without knowing what that special length is. I do know, however, that when my hair starts to curl up at the bottom that it’s time for a haircut.

So, a few days ago, my hair was getting curly at the bottom. I deduced, then, that it was time for a haircut. I had felt the curl coming on but I kept putting the haircut off because I had been very busy. I woke up one Wednesday morning and could stand it no longer. I had things to do but I penciled in a little time for a haircut. That day I had been working on a project for the church that I worked at so I was running around town picking up supplies for it. I knew that I needed to go to Kroger and I knew that there was a “Great Clips” by the Kroger. Suddenly, my haircut fit into the schedule.

I like Great Clips. It’s quick. They almost always know what they’re doing. Plus, they don’t make me feel bad when I don’t know what clipper-guard I usually use or how to describe how I like my hair to be cut. Doesn’t that seem unfair, though? A professional asking an amateur to tell them how to do their job? Isn’t this like a cardiologist asking you how you would use a balloon to clean out your arteries? I come to the haircut-place because I have no idea how to cut my hair or, as is often the case, what looks good. But this isn’t the point of my story.

So, I stumble through a poor explanation of how I want my hair cut — “Like this, only shorter…” — and settle in for a quick, fairly-priced, and much-needed haircut. We begin the classic dance of haircutter and haircuttee wherein we make small talk about random things. I like to play with this old routine by asking them questions. So often, the person in the chair answers all the questions but I find that sitting in a chair that can be raised, lowered, and spun around makes me reflective and inquisitive. I could use one for my office.

This time I find out that she has a son named Nathan. Having studied Religion and Philosophy in Undergrad and at Divinity school, I immediately run it through my religion/philosophy filter and determine that I cannot think of any famous philosophers with that name but it is a biblical name and a Hebrew name. I consider that it comes from “Nathaniel” which comes from the hebrew word נתנ (natan) and the hebrew word אל (el). That makes it mean, roughly, “given of God” or “gift of God.” As soon as I’ve deduced this, I ask her why she chose that name.

She replies, “I like the sound of it. It’s pretty…” I’m about to conclude that she hadn’t thought about the meaning of the name and reflect on how nobody considers the meaning of names anymore. But before I could descend into my own little world of spinny-chair-reflection, she continued, “… and it’s biblical. We like the meaning, too. It means ‘Gift of God.’ I think it’s appropriate because all children are gifts from God.” I didn’t know what to say.

“It’s a great name” I responded, wondering why I naturally assumed that because her first comment wasn’t an academic one that she didn’t know what it meant. I guess I assumed that because she worked at Great Clips and because she had told me about her life that I concluded that she didn’t know anything about the meaning of names. It was astonishingly easy to immediately jump the divide of education and secure myself in an ivory tower.

I was more ashamed of my second thought, though. “Of course she knows it, she probably just got it out of a book of names” I thought. This one stung when I realized that I had tried to rationalize away my own insensitivity. Even if she did get the knowledge from a book, that doesn’t make a difference. She picked a beautiful name with a beautiful meaning. Even if she didn’t arrive at it through “proper linguistic analysis” or “thorough Hebrew exegesis,” she did well.

I further realized that I didn’t even know her name. I checked the mirror to read her nametag. It said “Anastasia.” I don’t know if it comes from the greek word αναστασις but that’s the word it makes me think of. What does that word mean? Resurrection. Raised to life. Recovery.

It turns out that there is yet room to change and be raised out of the death of this world and into the life of the Kingdom of God. There is even more room for me to leave the death of insincere words and thoughts in this world for the life of intentional and personal life with others. Even though I might fail to care at times, there is resurrection. I am being raised to life out of a pit of death and corruption.

I told you that the spinny chair makes me reflective.

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Posted by jhearne0

Reflections on the Deity of Christ – Confessed as God.

Feb 2, 2009
Christ on the throne

Christ on the throne

By Michael Bell

This is Part 7, of a multi-part series looking at the deity of Christ. Here are the links to the Introduction and Table of Contents.

In my previous post, I looked at John 1:1 and how Jesus, as the Word of God, was equated with God, and had all the attributes and qualities of God. This is a difficult verse to discuss with a Jehovah’s Witness as I found out in conversations a number of years ago. “The word God is not accompanied by a definite article”, he protested, “so you must understand that Jesus is being called a God, and not The Lord God Almighty”.

This view is invalid for two reasons:

  • It does not conform to the Greek grammar that we discussed in Part 6
  • It puts a secondary lessor god next to the Almighty God, something which is quite unacceptable to God as we discussed in Part 1.

I continued my conversation with the Jehovah’s Witness. “So you believe”, I said, “that when the Greek word for God is accompanied by a definite article it refers to the Lord God Almighty, but when it is not accompanied by a definite article it refers to a lessor God?”

“That is correct”, he affirmed.

So I asked him to turn to another passage where God is referred to using the definite article.

John 20:28-29 (NIV) – Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.”

What was Thomas asked to believe? If we look at the entire chapter, we find that Thomas doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead. When he faced the risen Jesus, he finally realized who he was facing. He believed, not only that Jesus had risen from the dead, but he believed that Jesus was God. Jesus did not condemn Thomas for this statement, but instead pronounced a blessing on those who had no seen him, but believed as well.

My Jehovah’s Witness friend did not have a response. What we have shown here wasn’t answerable by one of the list of “pat answers” that he had been programmed to respond with.

While he never got to the point where he was willing to beleive as Thomas did, the Apostle Paul teaches us, that ultimately everyone will confess that Jesus is Lord.

Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV) – Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Notice how the verse says that at the name of Jesus “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess”. Paul is equating Jesus and God here in a way that none of contemporaries would miss. Note the words of God himself in Isaiah 45 says:

“Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.

By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.

Paul knew from this Old Testament scripture that all would bow in worship and confess God. My drawing the parallel with this scripture, Paul is doing nothing less but proclaiming Jesus to be God. Paul also knew that if all bow in worship and confess that Jesus is Lord, this brings glory to the Father, as the Old Testament scripture would be fufilled when Jesus is worshiped as God.

In our next post we will be looking at how Jesus is worthy of worship, and in a future post we will discuss the significance of the phrase “name above every name.”

6 Comments | Deity of Christ | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

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