Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 5/18/2006

Question
I'm also a Baptist and attend Houston's First Baptist Church, more importantly, I'm a believer.  Greetings to you.  I'm confused about Jesus, a little.  He's my savior.  I know he's the living Word, I think I grasp that he's the word made flesh, God's intentions/will/Word revealed in a flawless, sinless but flesh person here on earth.  I know Jesus was created before the world began.  I know He's God's only begotten Son, born of the virgin Mary.  When a person says Jesus is Lord, is that like saying Jesus is Master?  "Lord," as in a title, like "Lord Byron" or something like that?  Or is Jesus equal to God?  Is he God, too, or will He be a separate entity when we get to heaven, a separate body from God?  Are we worshipping both Jesus and God or are we thanking God as the Most High for sending his Son, who is our Saviour, but not equal to God?

Answer
Blessings and thank you for your question.

This week the Da Vinci Code comes out at the movie theaters.  The question you are asking is also fundamental to the movie.  Is Jesus God?  

Let's take your questions one at a time.  First, the word Lord. A lord is a male who has power and authority. It can have different meanings depending on the context of use.
In a religious concept, The LORD is a name referring to God, mainly by the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity).
The etymology of the English word lord goes back to Old English hlaf-weard (loaf-guardian) – reflecting the Germanic tribal custom of a superior providing food for his followers. The female equivalent, Lady, may come from words meaning "loaf-kneader".
With a definite article and capitalisation, "The Lord" (Hebrew Adonai, Greek Kyrios, Latin Dominus) serves as an epithet of Yahweh, the God of the Jews and Christians. Christians also use the phrase "Our Lord" (or "The Lord") with reference to Jesus.
Note the general capitalisation of the word "Lord" in the religious context. In many English language speech communities, the religious usage of "Lord" predominates today, as Christianity (for example) has established itself and thrived in many social environments where formal feudal-like class structures have become deprecated.
In feudalism, a lord (French: seigneur) has aristocratic rank and claims dominion over a portion of land and the produce and labour of the serfs living thereon. The serf would swear the oath of fealty to the Lord, or "keeper of the loaves". Such lords normally inherit their position and theoretically expect allegiance similar to that owed to a monarch.
As part of the heritage of feudalism, the word lord can generally refer to superiors of many kinds, e.g. "landlord". In many cultures in Europe the equivalent term serves as a general title of address equivalent to the English "Mister" (Spanish Señor, Italian Signore, German Herr) or to the English formal "you" (Polish Pan). Compare "gentleman".
In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords – commonly known as "the Lords" – forms the upper house of Parliament. Until recently many hereditary lords (particularly English lords, as opposed to Scottish and Irish lords) had automatic membership of the House of Lords – but see House of Lords Act 1999.
Five ranks of peer exist in the UK, namely Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron; and all male peers except dukes use the style "Lord X". The title "Lord" also applies by courtesy to certain of their children, e.g. the younger sons of dukes and marquesses can use the style "Lord (firstname) (lastname)". Many Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts and Barons use the style "Lord (title)"; for example, Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, commonly known as "Lord Tennyson". Barons, in particular, are almost never referred to as anything but "Lord X". In the Peerage of Scotland, the members of the lowest level of the peerage have the title "Lord of Parliament" rather than "Baron".
Senior judges use the title "Lord":
•   the Law Lords or "Lords of Appeal in Ordinary" who have the rank of life barons
•   judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, known as "Lords Justices of Appeal"
•   judges of the Scottish Court of Session, known as "Lords of Council and Session"
Various high offices of state may carry the cachet of honorary lords: thus we find titles such as Lord High Chancellor.
Another English title, that of "lord of the manor", does not connote peerage and does not carry parliamentary rights. The title merely marks the holder as the owner of a manor who has certain local rights. It carries no social marker. It is also customary for Roman Catholic Bishops who are neither Archbishops nor Cardinals to be formally addressed as "My Lord (Bishop)", especially if they are the diocesan Bishop or Auxiliary.
The Scots "Laird" title is generally easier to achieve, and is not as valued or respected as that of an English "Lord".
Now, the Christian Idea of the Lord Jesus Christ carries with it the term Master.  Jesus is our Master.   In fact, the apostle Paul takes it farther saying that we are slaves or servants of Christ.  He is the Master/Lord.  He is the author and finisher of our lives.  He leads, directs, and commands us much like a Master/Servant relationship.  The difference is that we volunteer for this position.  We gladly lay our lives down as a sacrifice to him.  (parts taken from Wiki Encyclopedia)

Question 2: Is Jesus Equal with God? "Is Jesus God?" Many have questioned the claims of Jesus' divinity; seeing it as a legend grow from the blind faith of Christianity's naive followers. However, The Da Vinci Code claims something more disturbing: that at the Council of Nicaea the Emperor Constantine rejected the earthly Jesus and made him divine for the first time. Brown writes on Nicaea: 'until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet'a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.' Or again on the same page: 'Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable' (p. 315).
Is Jesus God - the Apostles thought so
Some of this is true. Certainly the Council of Nicaea did assert that Jesus was fully God. But Brown is wrong in two ways here. First of all, belief in the full divinity of Jesus was present from the outset of the Christian faith, not just from the time of Constantine and Nicaea. The letters of Paul, for example, written in the first century, show that the early Christians believed that Jesus was God. Paul speaks of Jesus in a way that a Jew would only speak of God. He calls him 'Lord (kurios)', the word used of God in the Old Testament, and he applies Old Testament texts to Jesus that speak about God himself. A good example occurs in his description of Jesus in Philippians 2:9-11:
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here Paul applies to Jesus Christ words that in the prophecy of Isaiah in the Old Testament refer to God alone:
Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself have I sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. (Isaiah 45:22-23)
Lest we think that this was just something that Paul invented, we may note the many ways in which the Gospels themselves indicate the divinity of Jesus. In Mark 1:1-3, for example, we find a similar application to Jesus of an Old Testament text about God. John the Baptist comes to prepare the way for Jesus, but we read that in the desert he proclaimed 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him'. This is a quotation from Isaiah 40:3, where the 'Lord' is God himself. John prepared for Jesus, which in itself was preparing for God.
Is Jesus God -Early Church literature taught so
Christian literature from just after New Testament times also speaks of Jesus plainly as God. Ignatius of Antioch (who had died by about 107), wrote this of Jesus to the church at Ephesus:
'Very Flesh, yet Spirit too; Uncreated, and yet born; God-and-Man in One agreed' (§ 7; Early Christian Writings, p. 63)
Secondly, Brown is wrong when he claims that the four Gospels downplay the humanity and mortality of Jesus. This is an incredible claim, since it makes absolutely no sense of what we find in the Gospels. John declares emphatically that 'the Word became flesh' (1:14). Jesus in the Gospels is born, grows, eats, sleeps, is in agony, weeps, and dies. The Gospels actually seek to show that Jesus was a man.
There is a great irony here. Brown accuses the Gospels of denying the true humanity of Jesus, but it was the Gnostics, the authors of those other gospels that Brown favours, who denied the humanity of Jesus. This is Gnosticism 101: anyone who knows anything about Gnosticism knows this. Far from the Gnostics being wonderfully in favour of earthly existence, they were the ones who hated the flesh. They propagated a heresy which denied the true humanity of Jesus and held that he only appeared to be human (hence it was known as 'docetism', from the Greek verb dokew, 'to seem'). It was not Constantine who came up with this heresy, it was the Gnostics.
What to look for when answering "Is Jesus God?"
"Is Jesus God?" - When answering this question, we need to look at the facts about Jesus, the history of Jesus and the miracles of Jesus. But we can surely know that Jesus divinity was believed by Christians centuries before Constantine ever lived.
Jesus made a bold claim during his days on earth. He said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me."(John 14:6) Did you get that? Jesus says that you can only know God the father through belief in him. That's a pretty radical statement! But he backed it up by going to the cross, dying in our place, and rising again to live on the third day. The Bible says that we should have been punished for breaking God's law, but he took the punishment in our place. Jesus Christ, God's Son, came to earth to reveal a marvelous message that our offenses can be forgiven and we may become reconciled to God, and have eternal life.
One can look at the writing of Paul (1 Cor 8:5-6; Phil 2:9-11), the unknown author of Hebrews (Heb 1:3), the author of Revelation (Rev 1:1-7 and chapters 4-5), the gospel of John (John 1:1-18), or even Jesus' own testimony at his Jewish examination (Mark 14:62-65 and parallels) to see that the claim was that Jesus was at the side of God in a position of status equal to His, receiving worship as He does. These works all date anywhere from the sixties to the nineties of the first century. One can add to this the testimony of Pliny the Younger, writing as a Roman Governor of Bythnia, far away from Jerusalem. He writes to the Roman Emperor Trajan in around AD 117 speaking of Christians singing hymns to Jesus as a god. So even non-Christian texts corroborate the views we see in the earliest Christian texts that Jesus was worshipped long before Nicea. The belief in Jesus as divine was a core belief of the earliest church. Paul's testimony and conversion tells us that this was believed in the thirties of the first century as letter to the Galatians indicates. Jesus' divinity was not the result of a close decision in the fourth century. Its roots go back to Jesus himself, which is what explains why the church, originally made up of Jews, held to this new view on the doctrine of God.

The New Testament writers themselves fully recognized that Jesus was absolute deity. One point of evidence is the apostle Paul's assertion in Colossians 1: 16: "For by him [Jesus Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him." Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, an Old Testament scholar par excellence. And Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote Colossians 1:16 against the Old Testament backdrop that only Yahweh is the Creator. Indeed, in Isaiah 44: 24 Yahweh Himself asserts: "I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself." There can be no doubt that Paul in Colossians 1:16 was affirming Jesus as absolute deity. The same is true of the apostle John, who wrote: "Through him [Jesus Christ] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3).

Along these same lines, in Psalm 102:25-27 we read of Yahweh: "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end." Significantly, these words are quoted in Hebrews 1:10-12 as being fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews fully recognized the absolute deity of Jesus.

The same is true in regard to Jesus' role as Savior. In the Old Testament we read Yahweh's own words: "I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no Savior" (Isaiah 43:11). So, there is no Savior but Yahweh. In the New Testament, however, Jesus is repeatedly seen to be the Savior of God's people. Indeed, in Titus 2:13 we read of "the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." There can be no doubt that Jesus is recognized here as absolute deity, centuries before Constantine and the Council of Nicea.

Still further, we see this to be true in terms of Jesus being the God of glory. In Isaiah 6:1-5, the prophet recounts his vision of Yahweh "seated on a throne high and exalted" (verse 1). He said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord [Yahweh] Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory" (verse 3). Isaiah also quotes Yahweh as saying: "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another" (42:8). Later, the apostle John - under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit - wrote that Isaiah "saw Jesus' glory" (John 12:41). Yahweh's glory and Jesus' glory are equated. Jesus is the God of glory.

Christ's deity is further confirmed for us in that many of the actions of Yahweh in the Old Testament are performed by Christ in the New Testament. For example, in Psalm 119 we are told about a dozen times that it is Yahweh alone who gives and preserves life. But in the New Testament, Jesus claims this power for Himself: "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it" (John 5:21). Later in John's Gospel, when speaking to Lazarus's sister Martha, Jesus said: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11: 25).

In the Old Testament the voice of Yahweh was said to be "like the roar of rushing waters" (Ezek. 43:2). Likewise, we read of the glorified Jesus in heaven: "His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters" (Rev. 1:15). What is true of Yahweh is just as true of Jesus.

It is also significant that in the Old Testament, Yahweh is described as "an everlasting light," one that would make the sun, moon, and stars obsolete: "The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end" (Isa. 60:19-20). Jesus will do the same for the future eternal city in which the saints will dwell forever: "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp" (Rev. 21:23).

David F. Wells, in his book The Person of Christ, points us to even further parallels between Christ and Yahweh:

If Yahweh is our sanctifier (Exod. 31:13), is omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-10), is our peace (Judg. 6:24), is our righteousness (Jer. 23:6), is our victory (Exod. 17:8-16), and is our healer (Exod. 15:26), then so is Christ all of these things (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 1:27; Eph. 2:14). If the gospel is God's (1 Thess. 2:2, 6-9; Gal. 3:8), then that same gospel is also Christ's (1 Thess. 3:2; Gal. 1:7). If the church is God's (Gal. 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:9), then that same church is also Christ's (Rom. 16:16). God's Kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12) is Christ's (Eph. 5:5); God's love (Eph. 1:3-5) is Christ's (Rom. 8:35); God's Word (Col. 1:25; 1 Thess. 2:13) is Christ's (1 Thess. 1:8; 4:15); God's Spirit (1 Thess. 4:8) is Christ's (Phil. 1:19); God's peace (Gal. 5:22; Phil. 4:9) is Christ's (Col. 3:15; cf. Col. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; 4:7); God's "Day" of judgment (Isa. 13:6) is Christ's "Day" of judgment (Phil. 1:6, 10; 2:16; 1 Cor. 1:8); God's grace (Eph. 2:8, 9; Col. 1:6; Gal. 1:15) is Christ's grace (1 Thess. 5:28; Gal. 1:6; 6:18); God's salvation (Col. 1:13) is Christ's salvation (1 Thess. 1:10); and God's will (Eph. 1:11; 1 Thess. 4:3; Gal. 1:4) is Christ's will (Eph. 5:17; cf. 1 Thess. 5:18). So it is no surprise to hear Paul say that he is both God's slave (Rom. 1:9) and Christ's (Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10), that he lives for that glory which is both God's (Rom. 5:2; Gal. 1: 24) and Christ's (2 Cor. 8:19, 23; cf. 2 Cor. 4:6), that his faith is in God (1 Thess. 1:8, 9; Rom. 4:1-5) and in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3: 22), and that to know God, which is salvation (Gal. 4:8; 1 Thess. 4:5), is to know Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).31

Certainly Jesus was worshipped (Greek: proskuneo) as God many times according to the Gospel accounts, and He always accepted such worship as perfectly appropriate. (As God, such worship would be appropriate.) Jesus accepted worship from Thomas (John 20:28), the angels (Hebrews 1:6), some wise men (Matthew 2:11), a leper (Matthew 8:2), a ruler (Matthew 9:18), a blind man (John 9:38), an anonymous woman (Matthew 15:25), Mary Magdalene (Matthew 28:9), and the disciples (Matthew 28: 17). All these verses contain the word proskuneo, the same word used of worshipping the Father in the New Testament. Certainly the early church leaders believed Jesus was divine. Ignatius believed Jesus was God manifested "in human form." Clement, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origin, Novatian, and Cyprian all believed Jesus was God.
Ultimately, the Council of Nicaea answered this question.  The argument was "Is Jesus of Homo Ousion (same substance) or Homoi Ousion (of like substance) as God the Father.  The council concluded that Jesus, the Christ, was consubstantial (sharing the same substance) with the Father.

Question 3:  There is a co-equalness between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  However, God the Father is the Head amoung equals. The Trinity is one of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.  We believe in a triune God who reveals himself as three persons: each possessing full and equal Godness.  The Bible knows of but one God.  When all that Scripture has to say is put together, there is a stress on unity and diversity in unity within God.  He is seen as one in three and as three in one.

We believe in One God, not three.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit are each fully God.  Each exists as a separate person with individual responsibilities within the Godhead.

Throughout the Old Testament, there are hints of the Trinity, but God's unity is stressed.  The revelation is much clearer and more complete in the New Testament.  We need the teaching from both testaments for the full picture.

The plural name for God, ELOHIM, is used of him many times in the Old Testament (Deut 6:4).  Other plural titles are used of God as well (Eccles 12:1; Isa 54:5).  The plural personal pronouns are also used of God (Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isa. 6:8).  

In addition to the clear implications of plurality in the Godhead, there are also implications of trinity in the Old Testament.  Three separate persons are implied in Isaiah's vision of the angelic response, “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Isa. 6:3) When John 12:40-41 is studied along with Isaiah 6:10, it becomes apparent that the Son's glory was beheld by the prophet.  Also, Acts 28:25-26 and Isaiah 6:9, when taken together, provide further evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the passage.   Genesis 1:2 states that “darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”   Even clearer presentations of 3 persons in the Godhead are to be seen in Isaiah 48:16 and 63:7-10.  Three distinct persons are in the passages.  The preincarnate Christ speaks (48:16) and the Lord, the angel of his presence, and the Holy Spirit are specifically mentioned (63:7-10).

Although the word trinity does not appear in either the Old or New Testament, the revelation of the doctrine is certainly clear in the New Testament.  Three persons are spoken of as God.  The Father is called God (John 6:27; Romans 1:7), as is the Son (John 1:1, 14; Heb. 1:18) and the Spirit (Acts 5:3-9).  Each of these divine persons is seen to be associated with the work of the others.  In the great commission, Christ told the church to go teach and baptize  “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).  The divine equality of each, and yet the personal distinction between each, is also explicit in Paul's benediction to the Corinthian Christians (2 Cor. 13:14).  

The attributes peculiar to God are possessed by each member of the Godhead.  Each possesses omnipotence - the Father (1 Peter 1:15), the Son (Matt 28:18), and the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:19).  Each also possesses omniscience - the father (Rom 11:33), the son (Rev. 2:33), and the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:11).  Omnipresence is likewise true of each - the Father (Matt 19:26), the Son (Matt18:20), and the Holy Spirit (Ps 139:7).

We believe that there is a difference in the office, function, and work of each.  To acknowledge this in no way denies or diminishes the divine equality of the 3 persons.  In essence they are one and possess all the divine attributes.  In role or function there are distinctions.  Through the Son, by means of the Spirit, the child of God has access to the Father (Eph 2:18).  The Father is the one who sent the Son into the world to be the Savior (Gal. 4:4).  The Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world to continue his work (John 15:26).

Perhaps the clearest and strongest (evidence) for the doctrine of the Trinity from the New Testament is to be found in Christ's teaching.  The Savior's upper room discourse (John 14:1-16:33) is filled with evidence for the Trinity.  He was certainly distinct from the Father to whom He prayed and from the Holy Spirit whom he promised would come to continue His own work.  Though all three were separate Persons, they were all one in essence (John 17:1-26).  No doubt this clearest and most concise statement from Christ regarding the existence of 3 members in the Godhead is found in John 14:16 “And I (Christ) will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter (The Spirit), that he may abide with you forever.”