Samuel A. Dawson - Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary

164 Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal(Mark 2:5–12; John 10:28). He builds the church of which he is thehead (Matt 16:18; 1 Tim 3:15; Eph 4:7–16). He answers prayer (John14:14; 2 Cor 12:7–9), a prerogative of deity. He is the resurrectionand the life, the one who raises the dead (John 5:21, 28–29; 11:24–25). It is he who will judge the world (John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31;Matt 25:31–46; 2 Cor 5:10). And in the end, he will make all thingsnew (Rev 21:5).Fifth, Christ demands equal honor with his Father (John 5:23). Assuch, he encourages and accepts worship of himself (Matt 14:31–33;15:25–28; 28:9–10; 16–18; John 9:35–39). The Father even commandsthe angels to worship him (Heb 1:6), which they do (Rev 5:8).Eventually every knee will bow in submission to Jesus Christ (Phil2:10–11). Since God alone is to be worshipped (Matt 4:8–10), notangels (Rev 22:8–9) or apostles (Acts 10:25–26; 14:11–15); Jesus isGod.Sixth, Christ has authority over God’s laws and institutions. He isgreater than the temple (Matt 12:6). The Son of Man is “Lord of theSabbath” (Matt 12:8). He is the supreme interpreter of the MosaicLaw (Matt 5:31–34, 38–39). He is the one who gives the keys of theKingdom of Heaven to the church (Matt 16:19), over which he is thehead (Eph 1:21–22). Thus, he is divine.Finally, he is the object of saving faith on an equal plane with theFather. Jesus said, “Believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1). Hereinforced this truth in his great high-priestly prayer: “And this is eternallife, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christwhom You have sent” (John 17:3). Yet Jesus is also the exclusive focusof salvation. For example, John 3:36 reads, “He who believes in theSon has eternal life” (cf. Matt 10:37; 11:28). Thus, Scripture inescapablyconcludes that Jesus Christ is God. He has a divine nature.The Divine NatureBefore we go further we need to define the term nature. A naturemay be viewed as a complex of attributes. 8 For example, the nature of aball is its roundness, either spherical (e.g., baseball), or oblique (e.g.,football). A ball, then, has the attribute of roundness, among otherthings.The divine nature is also a complex of attributes. We have notedseveral of these: omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. Each ofthese attributes refers to different qualities found in the divine nature.The attribute of omniscience means that Jesus knows all things past,present, and future, both simultaneously and thoroughly. The8 William W. Combs, “Does the Believer Have One Nature or Two?” DetroitBaptist Seminary Journal 2 (Fall 1997): 83–87.