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1/24 Reading Portions: Genesis 25; Matthew 24; Esther 1; Acts 24
Matthew 24:43
“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.”
GOD
Even as early as a few decades after the Lord Jesus spoke these words, Paul had to address this issue with the Corinthians:
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 2 Corinthians 11:4
In other words, when a person entered the assembly with doctrines opposing the nature and character of Christ, delivered apart from fruit produced by the Holy Spirit, they did not confront it; they let it be. Moreover, some members were even accepting a contrary gospel as truth, and the congregation was still not willing to earnestly contend for the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints.
Today, there is no shortage of people who embrace unbiblical opinions concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Most of them deny the deity of Christ. One group of people will go as far as to say, “Jesus is a god, but he is not the God.” Contrary to this, the Bible declares Christ as the second person of the triune God. Jesus claimed to be the very God (John 10:30). Jesus claimed eternal existence as God (John 17:5, 17). Jesus also received worship as very God (John 20:27-29).
The doctrine of Christ’s deity is essential, not optional. Why? It promotes humility in the believer, and in humility, produces obedience through love and godly fear. If we see Jesus Christ as the perfect man apart from His nature as eternal God, the corruptions of our mortal flesh will arise and attempt to claim equality with Christ, or worse, superiority to Christ. When we are not humbled before the Lord, grace will be cast aside in our hearts and minds— then we will boast in our own works, effectively bearing witness that Christ’s sacrificial death was simply an example, rather than what it is: the only atoning work whereby men may be saved.
Lord Jesus Christ is very God,
Who condescendingly
Became a Man— receiv’d the rod
Of wrath to set men free.