Reply To: Christology Group Discussion 1

[Paulpraze]

THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN IN VIEW
Indeed, the Gospel of John is filled with the truth of the Deity of Jesus Christ. This is so because John’s aim or goal of writing his gospel was to show this particularly truth about Jesus Christ. John 20:31. Hence, we find nothing about the physical birth or lineage of Jesus in John’s Gospel as we do in the gospels. He simply begins his writing by declaring or summarising his book and then goes on to tell us why and how he had arrived at such a conclusion.
FOUR SAMPLE SCRIPTURES
John 1:29-34
According to the Apostle John in the above passage, John’s (the Baptist) essential purpose for doing ministry was to identify and manifestly declare Jesus to Israel as the Son of God to the nation of Israel. His job was to bear witness of this truth based on certain signs that he had been given by God. And what he had been told by God had happened to Jesus under his ministry when he baptised Jesus at the Jordan. Matthew 3:13-17.
John 1:15
We know from Luke 1:24-37 that John the Baptist was 6 months older than Jesus. However, John says of Jesus that ‘he was before me’. That would seem to be a contradiction naturally speaking, except of course he knew by revelation that Jesus truly was before him which he did. He had knowledge of Jesus Christ that clearly was not according to the flesh because according to the flesh, John was before Jesus. This reminds me of one of Jesus’ claims in John 8:58.
John 8:19
Jesus’s response to the question of the Pharisees concerning his father echoes the same response that He gave to Phillip about His Father, the implication of which is that ‘I and my Father are one’. And the only reason Why He escaped harm in this instance in John 8:19 was because ‘his hour had not yet come’.
John 19:7
At the trial of Jesus Christ before Pilate, the one issue that supposedly stuck to Jesus of all their lies and claims was that ‘he made Himself the Son of God’. This accusation was reached because of certain claims that Jesus had made for example in John 10:30. The people actually picked up stones to throw at him for His supposed blasphemy. This was so because what Jesus meant by this claim of His was exactly what the Jews understood by His statement. There was no misunderstanding here whatsoever. The issue was that they judged Him a liar and therefore accused Him of blasphemy. What they failed to see was that He did not make Himself the Son of God, He actually is the Son of God.