Divinity and Deity

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 25, 1906

Divinity and Deity

AT the recent Church Federation Conference in New York City an action was passed amending the form of confession of faith required of those who wished to join the movement. This amendment added the word “divine” to the formula previously adopted, thus demanding belief in Jesus Christ as our divine Lord and Saviour as the condition of admission to the federation.

The evident purpose of this action was to shut out Unitarians and Universalists, but now come the Unitarians and declare their belief that Jesus was divine, and they speak of “the glorious hope which has come to man through the gospel of Jesus, the divine son [small s] of God.” Their meaning will, however, be more clearly understood by quoting a little further. Thus they say:—

If Jesus is the son [small s] of God, he is divine. If any others are children of God, they also are divine. . . . All hail the power of Jesus’ name when his true place and rank are understood, when he is regarded as chief among the sons of men, but not the mighty Lord from heaven. . . . The growing perception that, in a deeper sense than was intended by the ancient chronicler, man is made in the image of God, justifies our use of the word “divine” to describe, not only the godlike traits of human character, but the godlike powers which they represent in human nature. When once the doctrine of the divinity of human nature is received and applied in all its bearings, it will be a source of joy and gladness and an inspiration of extraordinary power.

This shows that some who profess to believe in the divinity of Christ really believe in their own divinity, and allow that Jesus is also divine. They assert with much emphasis the fatherhood of God, declare that all men are his children because made in his image, and therefore assume the divinity of human nature. They regard Jesus as “chief among the sons of men,” but still only a man whose divinity is of the same order as their own.

This sort of teaching is not far removed from, and is closely related to, the doctrine that every man, without reference to the question of faith in Christ, is a temple of the Holy Ghost. While those who advocate these perversions of the truth appear to be exalting human nature, they are really belittling God and his Son, and are making man his own savior. They ignore the fall of man, and the consequent need of the atoning work of Christ, and substitute a philosophy of their own for the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ and his righteousness.

In view of this modern interpretation of the divinity of Christ, it may be well to emphasize the fact that the Sabbath-school lesson on this subject for February 3 is not based upon the Unitarian idea, and to call attention to the Scriptural foundation for the belief in the deity of Christ.

The first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews sets forth in unmistakable language both the divinity and the deity of the Son of God. The Son is “heir of all things;” through him the worlds were made; he is the brightness of the Father’s glory and “the express image of his person;” he upholds all things; he is better than the angels, having inherited “a more excellent name than they;” the Father addresses him as God when he says to him, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever;” he is also called “Lord,” and declared to be the one who laid the foundation of the earth, and of him it is said, “Thy years shall not fail.”

The meaning of these wonderful statements, and especially of the fact that the Son was the direct agent of the Father in creation, is well presented in the following paragraphs, which are quoted from a well-known writer:—

Come and harken once more to what the divine message has to tell us of the glory of the Son, in whom the Father

speaks to us. Come and see how truly he is one with God, and shares with him all his glory. The deeper our insight into the true Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, his perfect oneness with God, the more confident shall we be that he will, in a divine power, make us partakers of his work, his life, his indwelling.

We find Christ here set before us as the Creator, to whom all owes its existence, as the everlasting and unchangeable One, to whom alone, when all waxeth old and perisheth, can be said, “Thou continuest;” “Thou art the same;” “Thy years shall not fail.” In Isaiah God speaks of himself: “Hast thou not heard, The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?” In our text we see the Son as the Almighty Creator, the everlastingly unchangeable One, that we may know who it is through whom God speaks to us, and to whom he has entrusted the work of our salvation. . . .

Listen, believer! Christ, thy Redeemer, is the Almighty One. God saw that none but his Son could meet thy need: hast thou so seen it, too, that this, his almighty power, has been claimed and appropriated for thy daily life? Hast thou learnt never to think of him otherwise than as the One who calleth the things that are not as though they were, and creates what otherwise could not be?

Christ, thy Redeemer, is the everlasting and unchangeable One: hast thou heard him speak? “I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye . . . are not consumed,” and learnt to trust him as the One who is each moment to thee all that he can be, and who will, without variation or shadow of turning, maintain in never-ceasing power his life within thee? O learn that God saw it needful to speak to thee through none other than such a One as could reach the heart and fill it with the power of his eternal Word! The Almighty Son, through whom God hath created all things, who upholdeth and filleth all things by the word of his power; this is he who will even so, in the power of his Godhead, uphold and fill thy whole life and being. Thy Creator is thy Redeemer. . . .

And now let me once again urge my reader to mark well the lesson this chapter is teaching us, and the object it has in view. Let no one think, as I myself long thought, that, because we firmly believe in the divinity of our Saviour, this chapter, with its proof-texts, has no special message for our spiritual life, and that we may therefore hasten on to what the epistle has to teach farther on. No, let us remember that this is the foundation chapter. The divinity of Christ is the rock on which we rest. It is in virtue of his divinity that he effected a real cleansing and putting away of sin, that he can actually communicate and maintain the divine life in us, that he can enter into our inmost being, and dwell there. If we open our hearts and give them time to receive the full impression of the truth, we shall see that all we are to learn of the person and work of Christ has its value and its power from this—that he is God. Our Creator, from whom we have our life—it is he who alone can enter into us to give the new life; it is he, blessed be his name, who will do it now. As God, he is the hidden ground of all existence, and has the power to enter all and fill it with himself. Every part of his work has the character and the power of a divine work. If we would but believe that Christ the Son is God, is Jehovah, the Eternal, the Creator, how he would make our inner life the proof of his almighty power!

We also quote one paragraph from a writer who makes a very practical application of the truth revealed in this first chapter of Hebrews:—

Have we this chapter? Is it ours? Do we possess it? Can we say, “I will go with this into eternity; I believe it from my heart; it is a treasure to my own soul; I stand upon this rock; I hear his voice in the Son, and therefore I can go to him with childlike confidence”? . . . Do we worship Jesus? In this chapter he is called by divine names, the Son, Lord, God. Divine works are assigned to him; the creation of the world, the upholding of all things, the atonement upon the cross, and the government now from the right hand of the Majesty. Divine attributes are given to him; he is omniscient, he is omnipotent, he is unchangeable, he is eternal. Divine worship is accorded to him. God the Father himself commands the angels to worship him. Do you worship Jesus, Jesus the Son of David, who was crucified upon the cross? Have you learnt, like Thomas, to say unto him, “My Lord and my God”?

We have a divine Saviour to whom all power in heaven and earth has been committed, and who “is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.” To yield up this truth is to abandon our hope of salvation.