The word apostle in the Greek is apostollos or
‘one sent forth’ as an ambassador of the Gospel. In the Bible, apostle is a title conferred on
those sent with a message. Essentially,
they were men directly chosen by Jesus (Luke
1.
The apostle John
John’s
gospel chapter 1
The
apostle John refers to Jesus as “God” at the start of his gospel (Injil, John
chapter 1), and has Thomas confessing Him as “my Lord and my God” in John
This
is how John starts his gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him
and without Him nothing was made that was made’ (Injil, John 1:1, 3).
These
striking statements are made by John about the Word (Greek Logos). The
first is that the Word was “in the beginning.” John goes on to declare that the
Word was active in creation. Jesus created every single thing in the world. “In
the beginning” refers to the time of creation and indicates that the Word
pre-existed the creation of the world. That is, the Logos existed before the
universe did. Jesus not only pre-existed the world but pre-existed it
eternally. Notice that John the apostle does not stop at saying merely that the
Word was with God. He goes on to declare: “And the Word was God.” Here we find
the clearest, most unambiguous assertion in the New Testament of the Deity of
Christ.
This
opening verse of John’s gospel is very profound. However, we are even more
amazed when we go on to read that the Word, who is God, ‘became 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’ (Injil, John
So,
two things are clear from this passage: 1) Jesus is identical to God (‘the Word
was God’). 2) Jesus is distinguished from God (‘the Word became flesh’).
Jesus
is the Logos through whom all things were made. There is no doubt that the
apostle John is identifying Jesus with the Creator God. Jesus is indeed divine.
1John
In
addition to his gospel, the apostle John wrote four more books in the Bible. He
wrote three letters called, 1John, 2John and 3John. He also wrote the last book
of the Bible called Revelation which is a vision given to him by Jesus.
In
his first letter, the apostle gives assurance of salvation to Christians. He
concludes the letter saying, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world
lies under the sway of the wicked one (Satan). And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true;
and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life” (Injil, 1john
What
clearer words could be used to teach that Jesus is God!
2.
The apostle Peter
As
one of the original twelve disciples, the apostle Peter had numerous
experiences. Therefore, he gained firsthand insight into the character and work
of his Lord Jesus. He was among the disciples in the upper room who confessed
to Jesus, “You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You
came forth from God” (Injil, John
In
addition to seeing the miracles which Jesus performed publicly, Peter was also
among that inner circle of disciples who witnessed His transfiguration and
heard the Father’s attestation to His unique Sonship
(Injil, Matthew 17:2-6). He was also the private beneficiary of one of Jesus’
post-resurrection appearances, and he saw Him on several other occasions,
hearing Thomas’s confession of Jesus as “Lord and God” during one of them
(Injil, John
2Peter
1:1
In
his second letter to Christians, the apostle Peter opens with these words,
“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have
obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and
Savior Jesus Christ” (Injil, 2Peter 1: 1).
Greek
scholars affirm that the Greek construction has only one article before this
phrase, making the entire phrase refer to the same person. Thus, Peter is
identifying Jesus Christ as both Saviour and God!
3.
The apostle Paul
Romans 9:5
Being grieved at the Israelites’ rejection
of Christ, Paul wrote, “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow
and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed
from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are
Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving
of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and
from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the
eternally blessed God. Amen” (Injil, Romans 9:1-5).
Although the punctuation of the Greek text
has occasioned much discussion, the overwhelming balance of evidence indicates
that we have in this verse not an independent doxology addressed to God (“God
blessed for ever”), but an ascription of praise and deity to Christ, (“Christ,
who is over all, the eternally blessed God”).
1Timothy
Writing to Timothy, Paul wrote, “…great is
the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up in glory,” (Injil, 1Timothy 3:16).
When God was to be manifested to man, He
was pleased to manifest Himself in the incarnation of His own Son (Remember,
The Word became flesh, John
Titus 2:13
In another letter to a man called Titus,
Paul was not ashamed, but clearly said that Jesus is God. In this letter he
exhorted Christians to live a godly life, “looking for the blessed hope and
glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Injil,
Titus
Colossians 1:15-20
Writing to a church in Colosse (Modern Turkey), the apostle Paul wrote, “He
(Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For
by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or
powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all
things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it
pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to
reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in
heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Injil, Colossians
A few paragraphs later
he said, ‘In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form’
(Injil, Colossians 2:9).
What these verses say
is that Jesus has a unique status. He is the perfect, complete and full
likeness of God. He has the highest position, the superior place, the first
place, the priority, the primacy, the pre-eminence. That is what the word
‘firstborn’ means. Wherever you go, Jesus enjoys the first place. There is none
higher or senior to Jesus. Why? ‘For by Him all things were created that are in
heaven and that are on earth.” He is the Creator and sustainer of the universe.
So everything you can say about God you can say about Jesus because in Christ
‘all the fullness of the Deity lives.’
Let
me explain the word ‘fullness’. One day you decide to travel by coach. A coach
might take 56 passengers. So you arrive at the coach station and the driver
stands at the door of the bus checking and counting the passengers’ tickets as
they climb on. When 56 have been counted he says, ‘there is the full
compliment, there is the totality, there is the fullness.’ There is no more
room left for people left to come. That is the meaning of this Greek word. No
more to come! Christ is so full of Godhood that there is no more Godhood to
come. The Lord Jesus Christ is God in exactly the same sense, exactly the same way,
as the Father is God. That is why Jesus Christ can never be second to anyone.
That is why He must have the pre-eminence; from top to toe He is God. There is
not one speck or detail of deity missing in Him. That’s why He is able to do
what no mere man could ever do: make atonement; saving people from their sins.
It
is the Father’s pleasure that all the fullness should dwell in Him and it is
the Father’s pleasure that He who has all the fullness should make peace by the
blood of His cross. That is what Christ did. God is angry with me. I need to be
at peace. Left to myself I will never have peace with God, because by nature I
am separated from Him. By my deeds I am alienated from God. But, Jesus Christ became a curse for
me. He bore the curse so that I would not remain under the curse of the broken
law. That is the basis of my peace with God. However, if Jesus was only a man,
He could not reconcile God and
Christians
rejoice to sing a Christmas song based on the old Nicene Creed. ‘I believe in
one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God. Begotten not created. God
of God, light of light, very God of very God. Begotten not made, being of one
substance with the Father by whom all things were made.’ That is a very fine
and careful summary of what the apostle Paul is teaching.
Philippians 2:5-11
Again, writing to
another church, Paul said, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be
equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of
men’ (Philippians 2:5-7).
What does Paul say
here?
Well let me give you an
illustration. One day, you are watching television. It’s Thursday evening and
you are just watching something together with your family. Suddenly, the front
door, which you haven’t locked, opens and two men walk in. They walk in the
front room where you are, and they say ‘Good evening’; you say ‘Good evening.’
They walk over to the TV and pull out the aerial, and disconnect the DVD or the
video or whatever is attached to your TV. They pick up the TV and walk out. You
say ‘Good night’, and they reply, ‘Good night’. What happened? Why don’t you
think it is a robbery?
Well I will tell you what happened.
Your original TV broke down and you got rid of it, so you have been borrowing
another one for two weeks. The people you borrowed it from said that they would
come on Thursday to collect it. So they just arrived at your house and were
taking the TV back. You did not think it was a robbery because the TV was
theirs already.
Jesus does not think being equal
with God is robbery because it is His! Deity was His, says Paul. He was God in
His own right. It was Paul’s way of saying that deity is something that belongs
to Jesus by right. As long as God has been God, Jesus has been God in His own
right. That is what the apostle says.
Later Paul continues
that when Jesus comes back, ‘every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord’
(Philippians
Say
Kurios to a Greek-speaking reader of the Old
Testament and he or she immediately would think of the holy Name of the
covenant God, YHWH. So, Jesus carries the same name, which only God is allowed
to carry, because He is God in His own right.
Loyalty
of early Christians
One
of the great crises that faced the early Christian community involved its
relationship to the civil authorities, particularly to the Roman government. We
read in church history of the martyrdom of Christians under the persecutions of
Nero who established the emperor-worship cult.
Nero’s
cruelty went to the point that he wanted his citizens to worship him as god!
So, as an oath of loyalty, every citizen in the
The
Christians’ response was, ‘We will honour the civil magistrates; we will pay
our tithes and our tributes to Caesar. We will do all we can to be model
citizens of
Consequently,
the Christians, by order of Nero, were coated in pitch and then set on fire, to
become human torches to illuminate the gardens of Nero at night. Other
Christians had to face lions in the arena in the Circus Maximus.
A
Christian man called Polycarp, at the age of eighty
six, was charged with treason because he refused to recite the oath to Caesar.
Because he was respected, venerable, the prosecutors did not want to harm him.
They brought him into the arena before thousands of spectators, but even up to
the last moments the state officials wanted to spare him from execution. They
gave him one last opportunity. All Polycarp had to
say was, ‘Caesar is lord’, and, ‘Away with the atheists!’ (It is one of the
ironies of history that the Christians were charged with atheism because they
wouldn’t worship the emperor).
Polycarp in a calm way, smiled
and said, ‘If that’s all you want me to say, I can say that.’ He looked at the
stands, where the representatives of the Roman state and the pagan religions
were seated, and said, ‘Away with the Atheists!’ Not what the state had in
mind! And then Polycarp said, ‘Eighty-six years have
I been faithful to my Lord (Jesus), and for eighty-six years He has been
merciful and gracious to me. How can I now deny Him? Iesus
ho kurios (Jesus is Lord).’ He was immediately
executed.
Polycarp is one example of many
others who gave their lives for what they believed to be true; that Jesus is
Lord, is God.