By Dr. Don Bierle, FaithSearch President
The apostle Paul told the Colossian Christians that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (1:15). Later in the same letter he expanded the meaning of that: “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (2:9).
The apostle John identified a significant problem about God: no one has ever seen Him! But John also provided the solution to the problem: Jesus – the “One and Only” (NIV), the “begotten God” (NASB), the “divine and only Son” (Phillips) – “has made Him known” (John 1:18).
As a result, whatever attributes you attribute to the Father, you must also find in the Son – different in person but the same in essence. He is “the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). What evidence supports that?
Grace and Truth Came Through Jesus Christ
Two significant attributes are often used to describe God in the Old Testament: lovingkindness and faithfulness (Psalm 100:5). The Bible says these endure forever and continue through all generations. Lovingkindness consists of “love” plus “goodness” which is equivalent to the concept of “grace” in the New Testament. Faithfulness is often translated interchangeably with “truthfulness.”
If Jesus is the image (essence) of God, then He, too, should be characterized by those two attributes. Indeed, when the Holy Spirit revealed the Word [Jesus] to the apostle John in his Gospel, He spoke of Jesus as “full of grace and truth” (1:14). He stated even further, while “the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came [were realized – NASB] through Jesus Christ” (v. 17, NIV).
Grace (lovingkindness) and truth (faithfulness), the attributes of the Father, were present in Jesus, the image of God. This agrees with the truth of His claim, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). “One” cannot mean “the same person” (that would violate the grammar) and cannot mean “agrees with” because there would be no offense to justify the attempt to stone Him to death for saying this. The Greek grammar and the Jews’ reaction made clear that He meant “essence,” the image of God.
Knowing the Future
Another distinctive divine attribute is revealed in God’s challenge to the false idols (Isaiah 41:21-23, NIV): ‘Present your case,’ says the Lord… ‘Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen… declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods.’
The claim of omniscience, knowing all things, including the future, is repeated in 42:9 NIV, “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”
Jesus demonstrated that same prophetic attribute throughout His ministry. He told Peter to get their combined temple tax from a coin in the mouth of the first fish he would catch in the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 17:24-27). He predicted Peter’s three denials (John 13:38) and His own crucifixion and resurrection (Mark 10:32-34). He prophesied the eventual destruction of the Temple (Luke 21:5-6).
Jesus intentionally prophesied the future as evidence of who He is. In the Upper Room, the night of His arrest, he predicted several things and said to the eleven apostles, “And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe” (John 14:29). He even went a step further: “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He” (13:19). The “I am He” is the memorial name of God – the I AM of Exodus 3:15. By demonstrating His knowledge of the future, Jesus assured His disciples that He is God.
A Personal Challenge
There is more apologetic evidence for Jesus’ deity, but these are adequate to put forth a personal challenge to every person reading these words. Another of Jesus’ prophecies is recorded in John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).
He promised to prepare a place in heaven for some, for eternity. Are you in that number? Read John 6:40, 1 John 5:11-13, and Romans 10:8-10 to know. I pray that all our FaithSearch Friends, and many to whom we have shown the way, will be together in those prepared places!
