p. 7 | Divinity of Jesus

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 16, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 23.

Divinity of Jesus

If Jesus be divine, a supernatural person, then all the theology of the New Testament follows as a thing of course. Again, if Jesus be not divine, then there is no authority in religion whatever. And, third, the deity of Jesus is necessary to the integrity of Jesus, since to deny it is to lose Him. Jesus did not drop accidentally out of heaven. He intended to come. He did come. He came in the nick of time—“when the fulness of the time was come.” He did not come without a reason. He came for a very special purpose. He came for an ethical purpose; namely this, “to save His people from their sins.” Paul becomes useful and necessary just here, for he explains the need for Jesus and the purposes of His coming. Paul expounds the doctrine of sin, finding in sin the philosophical basis of Jesus.

But if Jesus is not a supernatural person then there is no authority for His ethics. As a matter of fact it is generally confessed that Jesus is a great revealer, founder, and teacher. But how could He be any one of these if He were not divine? In that case He could not know, He could not command, He could not enforce. He would have no authority.

Jesus holds Himself as divine. He claims divinity for His words. This is the only theology that accounts for the kingdom—for its existence, character and extension in the world. The fact of a supernatural person is central, is dominating. The great fact is what Jesus was. The most commanding thing about Him is His self-assertiveness. He did not write history, He made it. The authority of Jesus is a protest against all wrong, and it is a prophecy of the coming of the new heaven and the new earth.—The Observer.