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Was Jesus Christ God Manifest in the Flesh? A question asked and answered in the Scriptures
Was Jesus Christ who he claimed to be,
or was he a liar? When one stops to think about it,
this may be one of the most important questions ever asked mankind. If
Jesus Christ was NOT who he claimed to be, then he was not only a liar,
but he would have pulled the most colossal frauds over on mankind that
has ever been pulled. Believe me there have been some colossal frauds
pulled on mankind, including the hoax NASA pulled about man going to the
moon. But you would have to see the pictures of In the Old Testament, 800 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold of his birth, and said, “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:13-14). This same prophet said of this Son, “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6-7). Now if Jesus was called these Names and He wasn’t “The Mighty God and The Everlasting Father”, that would have been blasphemy on the part of Isaiah. When Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, and they called his name “JESUS” (i.e. JEHOVAH is SAVIOUR), Matthew said, “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt 1:18-25). If the Virgin Birth was a hoax and not the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, then Matthew was a liar, and we would have no reason to believe anything he wrote. So if these things are not true we can tear from our Bibles the books of Isaiah and Matthew. The apostle John tells us “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John then tells us “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3, 14). John claimed that Jesus Christ was the Word of God, the Creator of all things, and was made flesh and dwelt among mankind. If this was not true, John was a liar, and we can tear from our Bibles all the writings of John, which includes the Gospel, his epistles and The Revelation. Paul came along about six years after the Resurrection of Christ, and wrote, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (I Tim. 3:16). Of course his reference to God being manifest in the flesh could refer to none other than Jesus Christ. He confirms this in Philippians 2:5-8, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Paul said that Christ was once in the form of God, and equal with God, but was made in the likeness of men. If this is not true Paul was a liar and we can tear from our Bibles all the eleven epistles that this apostle wrote. I will not use the space to deal with excerpts from the writings of Mark, Luke, Peter, James and Jude who are the only writers of New Testament books and epistles not discussed. Obviously if what they have to say about Jesus Christ is not true then we have no Christian Bible left to refer to. But let’s consider what Jesus said about Himself. It is one thing to discount what others say about Christ, and another thing to call Jesus himself a liar. For if he is a liar, then we have NO Saviour and NO hope of eternal life.
Jesus was talking with some Jews and said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day: and he saw, and was glad”. The Jews replied, “Thou art
not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” Jesus said to
them, “Verily, verily (truly, truly) I say unto you, Before Abraham was,
I AM”. An English teacher would probably say Jesus
used bad grammar. But the truth of the matter is, I AM is the name of
JEHOVAH, and this was another way in which Jesus was telling the Jews
WHO he was. In Exodus |