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Christ from the Godhead, must also equally exclude the Father from the title Lord, which would rule out every
reference to Jehovah in the Old Testament. The apostle uses the very words, with reference to Christ, to which the
Jews so tenaciously clung, as establishing the doctrine of the unity of the Godhead.
Consider again the words of Christ Himself in John 8:58, `Amen, Amen, I say unto you, before Abraham came
into being (genesthai) I AM'. If the Lord Jesus was not here claiming the title of Jehovah as revealed in Exodus
3:14, His words are not even grammatical or common sense. If the words `I am' merely mean the same as when
used by us as ordinary parts of speech, they are used ungrammatically. If the Lord Jesus had merely intended that
He existed before Abraham did, He would have said `Before Abraham was, I was'; instead he used the words `I
AM'. The highest seraphim, or the archangel Michael, could not have thus replied; they could only have said,
`Before Abraham was, I was'. The Lord Jesus does not speak like this; He says `I AM'. The words thus used
constitute a claim to essential Deity, `I AM' being an exclusive name of God.
In Exodus 3:14,15 we read, `Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I
hath sent me unto you ... The
AM
LORD (Jehovah) God of your fathers'. Bishop Wordsworth says:
`The name Jehovah is a word of higher import (than Elohim); it is derived from the old verb havah, to be, and
signifies self-existence. Its proper meaning seems to be He is (see Gesenius, p. 337). It was rarely uttered by the
Jews, on account of their reverence and awe for the divine Being ... but in its stead, they uttered the word
Adonai. Christ unreservedly claimed this awful name; His claim was understood though not acknowledged, for
immediately upon saying the words in John 8:58 we read, "Then took they up stones to cast at Him"`.
The words of Revelation 1:4, `Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to
come', are a paraphrase of the Hebrew word Jehovah. This title, with certain modification, occurs four times in the
Revelation.
Revelation 1:4 is undoubtedly referring to God the Father, for verse 5 says, `and from Jesus Christ'. In
Revelation 1:8 the title is linked on the one side with the words, `I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending', and on the other with the word `Almighty' El Shaddai of the Old Testament. In Revelation 4:8 we have the
title again set in the highest place. `Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come'.
Again in Revelation 11:17: `We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come;
because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned'. This reigning is the subject of the great voices
in heaven, `The sovereignty of this world is become the sovereignty of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall
reign unto the ages of the ages' (verse 15).
There can be no doubt in the minds of our readers as to Who it is that is destined to be King over this world. He
Who was born King of the Jews is yet to hold the universal sceptre and reign. Prophecy is full of glowing prediction
of the coming days when the Lord Jesus Christ shall reign and sit upon the throne; but every added prophecy to the
kingship of Christ, every added testimony that Christ is the One to reign as predicted in Revelation 11:15, is so
much added testimony that He is `the One Who is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty', the Jehovah Elohim of
the Old Testament. This title is echoed in the words of Hebrews 13:8, `Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today,
and unto the age', and is established by Colossians 1:16, for He Who created all things (past), Who upholds all
things (present), and for Whom all things were created (future), is the Lord Jesus Christ. If the present and future
glories here are personally true of Christ, what is it but a foregone conclusion which seeks to make the passages
which speak of the creative work of Christ impersonal, being, as they say, the work of the Father in view of the fact
that Christ was to be born. Is it to say the least, honest?
Every title and attribute which is the exclusive claim of God is given by the Scriptures to Christ with one
important exception - invisibility.
The Lord Jesus Christ is everywhere acclaimed as `God over all, blessed for ever'. The Scriptures compel the
reader to choose between two alternatives:
(1) A Saviour Who is truly man and truly God, or
(2) A man who was blasphemously impious in His claims.