p. 7 | The Deity and Divinity of Christ by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 2, 1912

The Deity and Divinity of Christ

By F. M. W.

At the present time a subtle skepticism is invading the teaching of the Christian church. There is a marked disposition to deny much of that which at one time passed for cardinal Christian faith. There is a juggling with words, with ideas, which, while representing the form of Christian faith, denies in fact the essential foundation of Christianity. A growing number of professed Christians exists at the present time, and some counted leaders of advanced Christian thought, who, while they admit the divinity of Christ, deny his Deity. They give to words definitions of their own making, quite contrary to ordinary usage, and draw subtle distinctions and differences where none in fact exist. Christ was divine, they contend, in the same sense that other men are divine. He possessed godlike attributes, which likewise may be acquired by others, but in nature and essence he was not God.

This contention, if admitted, would destroy the very foundation of the Christian religion. It is an effort to debase God and bring him down to the level of sinful man. If there is one doctrine of the Scriptures which is fundamental, and which is plainly advocated, it is that Christ is God. He was one with the Father before the foundation of the world. He lost none of his godlike attributes by taking upon himself human nature. He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Linked to man through his sacrifice of humiliation, he is none the less God, possessing the nature and attributes which man never can attain. He became a man, the son of man, but in a specific sense belonging to him alone he is the Son of God as well, the God-man. Man through God’s grace may become a partaker of the divine nature, and in life and character possess many godlike qualities. But Christ himself possesses the divine nature in his own inherent right. This thought is most beautifully expressed in an article from the pen of Mrs. E. G. White, published in the REVIEW of July 5, 1887:—

He voluntarily assumed human nature. It was his own act, and by his own consent. He clothed his divinity with humanity. He was all the while as God, but he did not appear as God. He veiled the demonstrations of Deity which had commanded the homage and called for the admiration of the universe of God. He was God while upon earth, but he divested himself of the form of God, and in its stead took the form and fashion of a man. He walked the earth as a man. For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. He laid aside his glory and his majesty. He was God, but the glories of the form of God he for a while relinquished. . . . As a member of the human family he was mortal, but as God he was the fountain of life to the world. He could, in his divine person, ever have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but he voluntarily laid down his life, that in so doing he might give life and bring immortality to light. . . . He might have helped his human nature to withstand the inroads of disease by pouring from his divine nature vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. But he humbled himself to man’s nature. He did this that the Scripture might be fulfilled; and the plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps in his humiliation that he must descend to make an expiation for the sins of a condemned, groaning world. Christ is the only source of salvation. Of him the Word declares, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” This salvation can be accomplished not through merely taking his life as a standard, or ideal, and endeavoring to copy his virtues. By his own efforts man can never attain righteousness. Here is the weakness of every human system of salvation. It presupposes man to be his own savior. It sets before him a standard, and calls upon him to reach it. In making himself better, poor fallen humanity is entirely helpless. Christ offers the only avenue of escape. He calls man to purity of heart and life, to attainment of the high standard of righteousness, to sonship with God, and he not only calls him to this exalted state, but he supplies the power whereby man may enter into this relationship.

Of the divine Master the Word says: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” There must come into the life a power outside of itself to work this transformation. This is the power of the divine Spirit, the exercise of the same power which in the beginning called into existence the heaven and the earth—the act of the great Creator.

We must not be deceived by the subtle use made of the words deity and divinity. It is Satan’s snare to lead men to deceive themselves by the name Christian, while they deny to Christ the very power by which their salvation may be accomplished. It is necessary that we should recognize not only the divine attributes of Christ, but that he is God himself. A denial of this fundamental principle is a denial of God and of the Scriptures of truth, and a rejection of the Christian religion and the whole scheme of salvation.

F. M. W.