Who Is Jesus?

November 25 (John 14:9)
Just recently I learned Mormons don’t even believe Jesus is God. One of my very articulate friends just informed me they believe both Jesus and Satan were created beings and that they were created by “the father” as brothers. Several years ago I had the occasion to actually read the book of Mormon for the express purpose of pointing out to my own father and mother it was heresy. I only needed to read the first twenty or thirty pages because I found dozens of contradictions to scripture. Of course I then discovered, to my dismay, that didn’t make any difference to my father and mother. That was my next discovery that completely blew me away, to use an old worn out cliché. Mormons apparently don’t accept the doctrine of inerrancy of scripture. Not knowing the difference between a paradox and a contradiction, they suggest the word of God is filled with contradictions. To say that darkness is the absence of light, and then to say darkness is not the absence of light is a contradiction. To say Jesus is all man and all God at the same time is a paradox. A paradox is a fact that is difficult to understand but it’s not a contradiction.


The bible is full of paradoxes. One being manifested in three persons is a paradox that I believe is impossible to fully understand with our finite minds, but which we can believe, because the Holy Spirit gives us the faith to believe, and because God’s word demands it. One evangelist put it this way, “If one tries to understand the trinity he’ll lose his mind; if he denies the trinity, he’ll lose his soul.” I’m not quite sure the first part is true, but certainly faith in Jesus as our Savior is meaningless if He is not divine in nature. If we actually consider him little more than a man who lived a perfect life and was therefore an acceptable sacrifice to the God of creation for the sins of the world, our salvation hangs on a fairy tale. We might as well spend the rest of our lives watching Snow White, How to Train Your Dragon, and stories like Robin Hood.

It is heresy in the highest degree to suggest Jesus was just a good man. It is heresy in the highest degree to suggest he was likely the best man to ever live. If He is not God, He is incapable of being our Savior. It’s interesting to note Jesus claimed to be God, His enemies had Him crucified because they believed He claimed to be God, His disciples claimed He was God. And the incredible miracles He performed proved He was God. Only people devoid of enlightenment by the Holy Spirit would suggest He is not God the Son, the second person of the trinity, the Savior of the world, God the Father’s only Son. A systematic theological study of the triune God provides a great deal of insight on the topic. There are literally hundreds of verses that clearly demand one accept the divine nature of the Messiah of Israel and the world if he is to be covered by the blood of that Messiah as shed at Calvary. If you would like a copy of a systematic theological study on the topic, you can contact me by making that known in the comments section below on this blog site.

In closing, it is critical we understand the one thing that separates true disciples of Christ from all others is our insistence on acknowledging the divine nature of God the Son. There is nothing more basic and essential than that truth. If you have swallowed anything to the contrary, repent of your sin on bended knee and come back into the fold. I recently informed a young man if he was going to call God “the man upstairs” again to let me know in advance so I could get as far away from him as possible. My statement was meant to make a significant point not to suggest God was going to strike him dead instantly (though that is certainly a possibility). Though it is undeniably blasphemous to suggest God is a man and that He is upstairs, Jesus made it clear such blasphemy is forgivable. The point is one cannot be part of His kingdom who believes He is the man upstairs. Such flippant comments only indicate the level of depravity to which one has sunk. I suggest it’s tough to get much lower in the muck and mire of this world than to suggest God is the man upstairs. Such frivolous foolishness is a poignant indicator one is still bound to the god of this world. And that’s God’s word for us today.