Jesus Our Deity

Having begun this week with the Deity of Jesus, we shall conclude with guarded and guided focus on our Lord’s Deity, His Lordship.

Here is our central text. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. John 1: 11. We came to it as a bread sandwich, where it was the middle, the meat between two slices of bread. The top and bottom Scripture passages, the two slices of bread, if you will, were already looked at, thus we conclude with the middle or meat, which is our central text.

This is indeed sad, to say the least, for here is John, saying that Jesus’ own people did not receive Him. This is all particularly personal, and definitely seriously needed, to come to the reality that even in our time, even with many of us among the Body of Believers, the Church, Jesus is not received. Like never before, we need the Holy Spirit to bring us to truth here. There is no desire to speculate, guess, or be guided by any other force, power, intelligence, wisdom or way, but the Holy Spirit, for He is the One Spirit of Truth. He is the Only Person to show us truth as seen in the eyes of our Lord and Master.

And so we pray. 

Holy Spirit, we confess that without You we are easily deceived by the crafty, shrewd, wicked one. He wants us to live in self-denial and deceit, blinding us from seeing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, as You desire us to see it. Spirit Divine, Helper, Counsellor and Exposer of all sin, convict us please, show us the error of our ways, for it is easy for us to not see ourselves in the likeness of those who know Jesus and do not receive Him. Give us hearing ears, seeing eyes, convicted hearts and a sincere desire to really repent before You, bearing pleasing fruit of repentance. Amen!

Do you and I, people who know Jesus and who stake claim to be a member of His Body, the Church, not receive Jesus? The answers we seek are right before us. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1: 11 – 13.

To receive Jesus is to accept His works, words and ways, with unquestionable obedience and delight. It is to have faith and trust in who He is, His Deity. It is still easier to believe in the Man Jesus, than the God Jesus, God the Son. Think of it. Jesus’ congregation at Nazareth, as He brought the Word of God to them, was made up of people who knew Him as Jesus. These were not strangers, yet when He directed some super tough, true words at them, in all His Deity, they turned on Him. Their response of anger was most evident, and so was the fruit of anger. Thinking that they could use their human power to get rid of superhuman power, they flung Jesus out of the synagogue and the city and even tried to throw Him down over the cliff. Luke 4: 29b.

Aren’t we guilty of the same? When, God the Son, wields the Sword of the Spirit directly at us and we are being cut to the very core, do we too seek to cast that Living Word out to its destruction?  Don’t we also, often hold our inferior power and straw-like might before our Lord’s Omnipotence? We deny and despise His deity and bear the fruit of our foolish ignorance. Lord save us!

To receive Jesus is to obey Him with undefiled faith and unshakable trust in His Deity. It is to totally deny oneself and bow in grateful obedience to do the will of Jesus. It is easier to believe when what we’re being told does not stir us up and test faith in any meaningful way. Jesus is with His own, the Jews, and they are complaining bitterly about Him, because of the unusual things He is saying and the bizarre things He is calling them to do. He tells them, I am the bread which came down from heaven. John 6: 41b. To claim this is bad enough, but then Jesus goes on to say to them all, His synagogue congregation in Capernaum, these crazy words, as far as their faith in Him takes them. This is the bread which came down from heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever. John 6: 58. Those words required sustained, working faith and trust, but many a disciple of Jesus, described what their Master required of them as too hard. Therefore many of His disciples when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can understand it? John 6: 60b. Sadly we are told that many, not a few, but many of Jesus’ disciples refused to have His Presence with them anymore, for they no longer walked with Him. From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. John 6: 66.

Are we guilty of the same? Don’t we also, too often, place our feeble, limited, understanding, before our Lord’s Omnipresence? We refute and refuse His deity and bear the fruit of our dumb ignorance. Lord redeem us! 

To receive Jesus is to stand firm, contented and ready to accept His wisdom and act upon it. It is to know beyond all lurking doubts that the wisdom of Jesus far surpasses and supersedes the highest human minds. In Jesus’ day, among the most wise were the Sadducees and the Pharisees, men who always tried to pit themselves against the wisdom of Jesus. They made several consistently failed attempts at testing Jesus, to show up His words as false, weightless and empty. Matthew tells us that on one occasion, when the Pharisees heard of how the wisdom of Jesus silenced the wisdom of the Sadducees, they came to Jesus to test Him too. Commonsense will allow us to see some kind of rivalry between these two Jewish sects. I mean, if they are all wise and learned scholars, and one sect has heard how Jesus, with His unmatched wisdom, shut up and silenced the other sect, wouldn’t you think that they would learn from that and hold Jesus’ wisdom as Supreme? No! That does not happen, for a Pharisee, a lawyer at that, goes to challenge Jesus, as if he could do better than the Sadducees. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him. Matthew 22: 34 - 35a. Needless to say, Jesus made mincemeat of that valiant, but grossly feeble attempt. Who on earth or under the earth can stand up to the All-knowing and All-wise, God the Son, who is Jesus?

Aren’t we guilty of the same? Don’t we, on several occasions, often place our feeble, limited, understanding, before our Lord’s Omniscience? We challenge and try to compromise His Deity, bearing the pathetically withered fruit of our foolish pride and folly. Lord help us! 

He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. John 1: 11.