 |  |
God. Christ must be one or the other. Scripture affirms that He is God (John 1:;
Heb. 1:; Rom. 9:). In Chapters 1: and 6: of the first epistle to Timothy, God is said to
be "invisible", and that the mystery of godliness is that "God manifest in the flesh"
(I Tim. 3: 16).
It is taught in Matt. 11: 27 that the Father is knowable, for it is the office of the Son to
reveal Him, but the Son is inscrutable, "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father", and
the words "and He to whomsoever the Father will reveal Him" do not follow. Even
Matt. 16: 16, 17 does not reveal the nature of the Son.
The Old Testament is intensely monotheistic, not only in affirming that God is One,
but by such repeated statements as characterize such a passage as Isa. 45:
"I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me" (verse 5).
"For thus saith the Lord that created heavens. God Himself . . . . . I am the Lord; and
there is none else" (verse 18).
"There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour: there is none beside Me"
(verse 21).
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is
none else" (verse 22).
To any one that believes the Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God the above
statements must be taken implicitly, without alteration or reserve--and they must be
taken together with all that the context teaches. The near context says:
"I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and
shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear"
(Isa. 45: 23).
If there is anything that is plain in this passage it is this, that to the One God, the
Creator, the Saviour, to Him Who is God alone, with none beside Him, "every knee shall
bow". Paul as a Jew and as a Pharisee knew this, and held it tenaciously. As an Apostle
he knew it and taught it, writing in Romans:
"For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every
tongue shall confess to God" (Rom. 14: 11).
Does he throw this blessed revelation to the winds then when he wrote to the
Philippians, or does he recognize in "Jesus", God manifest in the flesh?
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2: 10, 11).
The Father is God, but so also must the Son be to justify this application of such a
passage as that of Isa. 45: The confusion of the titles "Father" and "Son" with the
Being of the Absolute and Unconditioned God is the fruitful source of all the objections
made to the Deity of Christ. Humanly devised creeds have taken the place of Scripture