2004-09-13 - Defy Superstition Day

John 20:28, "Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God.'"

In case you did not know, today, Monday, September 13, 2004, is national Defy Superstition Day in the United States. I imagine that not many are getting the day off for the holiday, but it is what it is. One of the things that Christians are often questioned for believing is the Deity of Christ. Many will admit that there was a good man named Jesus who walked on earth and had a following that was suppressed by the Romans when they nailed Him to a cross. However, some will only go that far. They acknowledge the historical figure of Jesus, but they will not agree that He was God.

The first thing to consider is that one simply cannot be a Christian and not recognize that Jesus is God. There are so many reasons why this is true, but simply put, if Jesus is not God then the Bible is not true and if the Bible is not true then the Christian faith is false. Jesus is either God incarnate or the faith of Christians is worthless. If Jesus is not God and not raised from the dead then our faith is of no account. If these things are not true then our hope in Christ ends at the grave and we are most of all to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19).

However, there are still those who will take the historical record only to the point of admitting the historical man Jesus. In doing this, whether realizing it or not, they attack the foundations of our belief system. Thomas understood Christ was God when he proclaimed to Him, "My Lord and my God," after seeing the resurrection body of Christ (John 20:28). The response from Christ was not to tell Thomas to be quite because he was mistaken, but rather Christ implicitly acknowledged that Thomas was telling the truth when He replied, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed," (John 20:29).

We do not need to study the intricacies of the hypostatic union (fully God, fully man) of Christ to understand that Christ is God. We don't need to read deep theological volumes on the nature of Christ, but rather we accept His deity by faith as the Holy Spirit testifies to the truth of Christ's Divine Nature. We need to study just as hard to prove we have thumbs as we do to know that Christ is God. We need as much introspective scrutiny of the nature of grass growing, as we do to know that Christ is God. For the Christian to state, believe, or defend that Christ is God is not superstitious, but rather the ground and foundation of our faith. It is one of those principles of our faith in which there is no wiggle room. If we don't believe that Christ was God, then the entire structure of the Christian faith collapses and Christianity is just another decent self-improvement program to help us all cope with our insecurities.

What a blessing it is that Christ is God and yet also fully man. We have a savior who both knows our struggles, having been tempted in all things as we are (Hebrews 4:15), and we have a savior who has been given to sinful man for their reconciliation. "Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee," (Psalm 2:7). When dealing with the unbeliever we can never yield this point. Christ is God, and the Christian faith stands firmly on the Deity of Jesus Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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