As I chaperoned my grandchildren who are 9 and 5, on what they thought was a climbing expedition (small hill behind my house), we paused to observe a beautiful sunset. The sky was unblemished, absent of clouds, a perfect blank canvas. I reminded the children that the sun had gone down at a different time than last week and in a different place. I also shared with them that the sun is approximately 864,000 miles in diameter and 93,000,000 miles away! 

“What! Who could do that,” they exclaimed. “The Master Painter,” I replied. 

My granddaughter quickly responded: “I thought that was Picasso.” “He was good” I said, “but he needed paint.”

I pulled up an old beach chair and sat down to watch the Master paint on this glorious blank canvas. “Pappy, what are you doing?”, the kids asked. 

“Watching Jesus paint”, I responded. 

For the next half hour, we watched as colors appeared across the sky from an invisible hand. Blue, orange, red, violet, yellow, purple and gray. They changed position, color, shape and shade, right before our eyes! Wisps of colors, ever changing from 93,000,000 miles away. The water below reflected the glory, as did our eyes. We  stood in awe of the Master Painter as the canvas evermore revealed His glory on and into the night sky. 

“ How could Jesus do that,” they wondered. “He is God,” I replied. 

“How could Jesus be God?” They asked. (Out of the mouth of babes)

“How could He not be?” I responded. 

[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

[14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

This has to be among the greatest revelations in all of scripture. 

I think it is the single biggest obstacle that keeps mankind at a distance from relationship with Almighty God. 

How could Jesus be God? 

How could the person of Jesus Christ, that walked on the earth, who ate, drank, slept, and was fully human, be God that paints a masterpiece at sunset. God that spoke 100 billion galaxies into existence and the intelligence behind the creation of everything that was made. The creator of an acorn that becomes a massive tree. The potter that designed the human DNA that becomes His greatest masterpiece. The force that causes mountains, oceans and the flower of the Dogwood. The Author and finisher of our faith. How can that be?

How can it not be?

If He is not God, He is merely one of those creations, a random collection of molecules that just so happened to develop into an owl, sparrow or infant?  Do you believe that? If you do, please stop and take another look at the magnificent painting offered to us everyday.  Just give it a chance. Look at the magnificent design and workings of the human being, nature and the universe, the little things. Stop and smell the roses, literally. If He is not divine, He is man’s attempt at pleasing or soothing his own conscience and is a liar. He’s just another man, just another religion. 

Furthermore, if Jesus is not God, then the Holy Scriptures are a fable and fit for the garbage can. All of the prophecies that have miraculously been fulfilled over thousands of years have a worldly explanation and… all of those who saw, touched, and handled the risen Christ were crazy, and….. all those that burned at the stake, made human torches or eaten by lions rather than denounce their faith were delusional and… all of us today who know the God of the universe, have witnessed fulfilled prophecy and have been reconciled, redeemed, and have peace with God by faith in the washing of the royal blood, through the finished work of the Son on the Cross are mistaken. 

C.S Lewis, the great writer, speaker and former atheist (until he studied the word of God) said: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to”.

One cannot say he believes the Bible, and say Jesus was not God. 

[8] Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. [9] For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:8-9)

Look at the contrast in these verses. 

Verse 8 is after men and the world. 

Verse 9, In CONTRAST, is the fullness of divinity! “in Christ is all the fullness of Divinity!!!!!!!!!!!!” This, coming from the Apostle Paul who was tutored by the risen Christ and chosen to reveal the mysteries that were kept secret since the beginning; the Apostle to the Gentiles. 

The word “Godhead”in Greek means divinity. The essence of what God is. 

So then, we could say this: in Christ is all the fullness of Divinity. It’s what He is, it’s what the Spirit is, it’s what the Father is. God. 

The “what” is divinity. The “Who” is Father, Word, and Spirit. But one, but three. 

We can only leave the “how” to that which knows all things. The human mind can not understand all that is God. How could God be God if our feeble minds could understand. We cannot apply human reasoning to the Almighty God. The clay cannot say to the potter…

Jesus Christ is the Word (God) that became flesh, became human, the communicator. All things were made by Him (Word) and through Him. That is His function from eternity. The Who. 

[13] Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: [14] In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: [15] Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: [16] For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: [17] And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:13-16)

You’ve just been told the will of God and how He does it! That God has translated us ( by faith) into the Kingdom of His dear Son. In whom we are redeemed by.. his… blood – even forgiveness of sins, WHO, Is the image of the invisible God!!!!  He is the personality of the Word. The first born of all creation- The Son was always present as the Word, before all things, nothing was made that wasn’t made by Him. Nothing! Whether visible, invisible, and by Him all things consist. All of creation is held together by Him. That includes you!

The “Word”has always been what communicates, creates and makes manifest. All of creation was through the “Word”. In the beginning God… said, (The Word).  All things came into being by The Word”) The “Word” became flesh to show us God and…. as always to communicate the desire and will of God – that none would parish. He is the image of the invisible God!! Divinity. 

Without Christ, we could not have access nor fellowship with God!!

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. [7] If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. (John 14:6)

We would not know God if not for Jesus. 

The preincarnate Christ was the Word in the beginning that made all things. God became human in the person of Christ,  bottom line. God became what we are so we could become what He is. 

Friends, this is the greatest Love man will ever know, that while we were yet sinners, Christ, died to reconcile each and every one of us, if we but believe. (Romans 5:8)

Paul, who was met by the risen Christ, who revealed the mysteries kept since the ages, now reveals the amazing truths of who Christ is. 

Christ, the Messiah, before the beginning, eternal, Son of God, Son of man, son of Mary, Savior, Redeemer, Almighty God! 

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

We can not separate the earthly Jesus from the eternal Word, The divinity of God, the Word, the one and only Son of God, begotten, unique, one and only. Born of a virgin, born from above as first  born of this amazing new creation of human temples where God has chosen to make His abode – The church, the body of Christ. The first born a God/man. He the the son of Mary, the Son of man. 

( Son of man in Danial 7: 5 means human being)

Jesus Christ, God, made visible for humans to see, walked among us to reveal His nature, to become on of us! Not only that, but to become flesh, to die in the flesh, to take upon Himself, the one obstacle that keeps He and us from relationship with Him: Sin and death. 

Is this the way you see Christ?

Is this the way you describe Christ? 

Is this the way you understand Christ?

If not, you are missing the greatest gift ever given to humanity. 

It’s truth, undeniable. It’s been proclaimed since God said: let “US” make man in “Our” image. Father, Word and Spirit. One essence. 

It’s been shadowed and revealed through the prophets.  It has been proclaimed in the beginning. The Son is the enmity between satan’s seed and the seed of the women. (Genesis 3:15) God proclaimed it through the Psalms 1000 years before the incarnate Son. (Psalm 2:7, 22 ) Through the prophet Isaiah, 700 years before the incarnate Son. His name is Immanuel”. Hebrew meaning : with us is God. How? 

Born of a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14) 

Born of God. Not man. (A picture of salvation) Read John chapter 3. 

[35] And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

The miracles of Christ proclaim it. 

A man can not heal the blind, walk on water, raise the dead unless He is the one that created the eye, the water and is the life. 

Jesus Himself proclaimed it, “if you have seen me, you have seen the father, I and the father are one; Before Abraham was, I Am.”

When asked “ are you the Messiah, the Son of God answered: “I Am, and you will see me sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven”

He is proclaimed in the revelation of John as the Alpha and Omega. 

If we do not proclaim it, the stones would cry out to Him. 

One could fill a book with these treasures in scripture that are revealed through the Apostles. The book is written, but is it read? The gift is given, but is it opened?

One is as happy to find these treasures as someone who has found a pearl in a field and sells all he has to purchase the field. 

Beloved, when I think of the magnificence of what and who God is, His love for us shown forth in the person of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, I can hardly stand.  

[1] O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. [2] Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. [3] When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; [4] What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalm 8:1-4

Friends, I could write and talk forever, giving scripture after scripture that reveal the truths of “Who” Christ is, but I would merely be reprinting the Holy Scriptures. It’s all there from the very beginning, Genesis to Revelation; The beautiful progressive revelation of Gods plan for His beloved creation. 

Please take the time to seek out and find these great promises. Read it and allow the Holy Spirit (God) to guide you and reveal His wisdom and truth.  The greatest proof though, comes when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth. When His Spirit meets with our spirit. 

[16] The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16)

We are all in Gods amazing art gallery. His work is displayed throughout the universe. We not only see it from a beach chair, on a hill behind the house, but in the faces of those we meet. In the voices of those we hear. In the span of mountains, sky and desert. We see His painting in the eyes of children, the hands of beggars, the harmony of music and the meaning of song. We watch Him paint in the magnificent unexplained engineering of the hummingbird, the magnificent human brain of scientists, physicists, in the talent of Picasso, Rembrandt, and Mozart.  We see Him paint in the nurturing of a mother and the sacrifice of a friend. We see Him paint as a father teaches a son, as a pastor watches his flock, as a soldier, sailor, airman, marine give their lives for yours. As nurses, doctors, teachers and cops run toward danger to keep you from it. 

We see it in His written word. 

We see it in the abundant Love of one for another. 

[28] And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.  (1 Corinthians 15:28)

At the end of the ages, The Son will present the Kingdom to the Father. 

Friends, that’s you and I. If we are in Christ by faith, we are there now. 

[6] And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:6)

[23] But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. [24] Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. [25] For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. [26] The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:23-26)

The first Adam, a created being was not obedient. Who could be obedient to a Holy God? Only God. Jesus, the incarnate Word and second Adam was obedient, perfectly unto death, then to life. 

[18] I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. ( Revelation 1:18)

This masterpiece was painted before the foundations of the earth and is being revealed, if you take the time to see it. 

All of creation is painted every second of every day and is greater than those that use paint. It is free and all are signed in the right corner: JCWMF

JESUS CHRIST WORD MADE FLESH. 

AMEN. 

How can Jesus be God?

How can He not be? 

He’s as close as your asking. 

All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved!!

THE SINNER’S PULPIt.
Come in a sinner and leave a saint.