Enjoying The Deity of Christ

John 1:1-4 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 was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 20:27-28 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

For believers to grasp in their heart that they serve a Christ that is supreme in power – and is altogether holy, divine, and sacred – will call believers to boast, as they hold Jesus Christ high above all other things enjoyed in the gospel.

Jesus Christ’s deity is like nothing that any man can ever imagine. It is too great for the man’s mind because it is in Christ’s nature alone that it exists. For only He can claim supremely, with all good and powerful might, that He is greater than all things. There is none like Him, and there are none that compare to, or even can claim to be in the same category as Him. Daniel Hyde gives a great insight to this deity when explaining the above text, John 1:1-4:

John then speaks again, with clarity, of the deity of the Word, our Lord, in John 1:4 when he says, “In him was life.” What an amazing statement! The One whom we know as Jesus was and is, in John’s words, the author and source of all life. Since the giving of life to all creation is the prerogative of God alone, there could be no clearer way of John to say that our Lord is God than saying He is also the source of spiritual life.

It is simple to see in passages like this that Jesus Christ, being divine, provided the means by which the believer can have spiritual life. What more can the believer do than boast in the fact that Christ, in His deity, provided a way that He would become flesh – not losing any deity – and provide such measures of eternity! If one does not see or believe in the deity of Christ, they lose Christ; He is just another man, another figure who lived, and is nothing to be boasted in or even worshipped. James Boice said, “Christ’s own claims occur throughout the Gospels, both directly and indirectly. Practically everything Jesus said was an indirect claim to divinity.” For the believer, they must believe in Jesus Christ’s deity or Jesus Christ becomes mere Jesus – just a man, and not The Man.

The believer can boast that their Savior was both fully man and fully Lord. How great it is that Christ said in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Jesus Christ, the believer’s Lord, claimed constantly that He was Lord. We see this in Thomas’ declaration after seeing and feeling the scars of Christ in John 20:28: “My Lord and my God!” This is what the believer as well should see in their Lord: that He is your Lord, your God. John Piper states:

Christ does not exist in order to make much of us. We exist in order to enjoy making much of him… Christ is not glorious so that we get wealthy, or healthy. Christ is glorious so that rich or poor, sick or sound, we might be satisfied in him.

There is none more supreme – none greater and more holy – than Jesus Christ. The believer can boast in a Christ that existed with God; for in this truth, how great it is for the soul of man to rest in knowing that their Lord was always with God, and now sits at the right hand of God. The believer can boast in their Lord that He was with God. Christ’s claim in John 14:9 (“He who has seen me has seen the Father”) shows that Christ is Lord and is above all things. The believer must see the importance of placing Christ in their lives in the great magnitude that He truly is – above all things. Boasting that Christ was fully divine – and is still today fully divine – lifts Him to the place that He is, and makes Christ more beautiful to the soul of man. John’s great assertion in his gospel – “And the Word was God” – should be a declaration made by the many that boast in the gospel, asserting that Christ was 100% fully divine. James Boice says it well when he states:

Everything that can be said about the Father can be said of the Son as well. Is the Father sovereign? So is Jesus. Is the Father omniscient? So is Jesus. Is he omnipresent? So is Jesus. In fact, in Jesus may be found all wisdom, glory, power, love, holiness, justice, goodness and truth of God.

The believer, knowing this deity, can boast in Christ, not only finding their satisfaction in knowing they serve a divine Savior, but by exalting the gospel greater than ever before. How great to boast in lifting Christ to what He deserves; leaving the believer in awe and wonder until the day they see fully their divine Christ.