This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, His Undiminished Deity.
Who was Jesus?
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Some say Jesus was a great man. Beyond doubt, He was, but if you only tip your hat to Jesus, you have missed it all. He is more than Jesus the Great; He is Jesus the One and Only.
Others speak of Jesus as a moral teacher.
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse….let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Islam says Jesus was only “a messenger of Allah.” New Agers say He was some sort of mystic medium—a channel to knowing God.
But Jesus is God, manifested in human flesh. He is the Son of God, and God the Son.
This brings us to the Trinity. In the passage above, you see: “…That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS...So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord” (see Matthew 1:20-23; emphasis added). Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The doctrine of the Trinity is the great Christian distinctive. Misunderstanding this leads to heresy (e.g., Jehovah’s Witness, Islam, Unitarianism). God is three in one, and one in three.
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Later, the Pharisees had Jesus on the grill. Jesus said to them,
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Did you catch that? There was never a time when Jesus was not the Son of God.
In the Christmas story, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and caused her pregnancy. (See Luke 1:35.)
The Holy Spirit is God. Never speak of the Holy Spirit as “it.” He is not an “influence emanating from God.” The Bible says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). You can’t grieve an “influence;” you can only grieve somebody who loves you.
The Holy Spirit is God. The Father is God. The Son is God. One in three, three in one.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. (Emphasis added.)
The Trinity cannot be understood; it must be believed.
Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God. —John Wesley
How can the finite know the infinite? It goes beyond logic, philosophy, science, mathematics. You cannot compare God with anything, because there is no other God. (See Isaiah 40:18.)
Do not try to prove the Trinity—you never will. Bow down in the dust and say, “I believe it, because God settles it in His Word.” This is a mystery, but it is nonetheless true.
“So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet…” (Matthew 1:22) God unfolds these things in the Old Testament prophecies.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The Hebrew word used for “God” there is Elohim. El- is the singular name for God, The -im pluralizes it (like seraph, seraphim; cherub, cherubim). Elohim is plural. This is the triune God acting as a unity.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
“The Word” is the Bible’s description of Jesus. Baby Jesus is the mighty God of Genesis 1.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
Jews use this as the prime proof text for the unity of God. However: the word “LORD” is translated here from Yahweh, or Jehovah. “God” is from Elohim.
“Jehovah our Gods is one Jehovah.”
When it says, “The LORD is one,” the Hebrew word used for “one” is echad. It means a plural one. Here are some other places echad is used:
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one [echad] flesh” (Genesis 2:24; word in brackets added).
At the Tower of Babel, “The LORD said, ‘Indeed, the people are one [echad]’ ” (Genesis 11:6a; word in brackets added,)
“Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one [echad] cluster of grapes…” (Numbers 13:23a; word in brackets added)
“But we don’t learn about God’s Son until we get to the New Testament.”
Wrong.
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Who walked with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego through the fiery furnace? Jesus.
Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if you know?
His name is Jehovah, and His Son’s name is Jesus.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
“Mighty God”—El Gibor, which literally means “God-man”!
Your destiny rides on the Holy Trinity.
She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
You are selected by God the Father, saved by God the Son, and sealed by God the Holy Spirit. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
Matthew 1:20-23; Exodus 3:14; John 8:56-58; Luke 1:35; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 40:18; Genesis 1:1, 2:24, 11:6; John 1:1-3; Deuteronomy 6:4; Numbers 13:23; Daniel 3:25; Proverbs 30:4; Isaiah 9:6; 2 Corinthians 13:14
“Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to Me, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
