GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 4:39
39 He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them.
He had commanded a demon, and it fled. Now he commanded a fever, and it fled, too. Peter’s mother-in-law started right in serving the meal without any pause. Parachrema (παραχρῆμα) means “at once; immediately.” She didn’t need a few hours to recover or to sleep off her fatigue. She was healed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, just as we will be healed in the resurrection.
Jesus’ divinity was being displayed without any hesitation, for anyone who had the wisdom to see it. This was no ordinary physician or healer. This was no ordinary man. This was the Son of God; God in person.
Religions like Unitarianism reject Jesus’ divinity, claiming that he is only “called” God and is not really God in his essence according to the philosophy of existence (metaphysics). However, Scripture calls Jesus Christ “God” (θεός) in John 1:1 and “the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16) because that is who he is. Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), not only because he and the Father are of the same mind, but because the Son and the Father are of a numerical unity. In their essence, the Father and the Son are one and the same God. In John 10:28, Jesus declares that he is the one who gives eternal life, and that “no one can snatch them (my sheep) out of my hand.” He is omnipotent; he is God. This unity and identity is also expressed in John 5:19: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” There are not two omnipotent Gods, nor are there two omnipotent actions which might oppose one another, like a husband and wife who disagree on a point of disciplining their children, or on where they might have dinner on their anniversary. No, the Father and the Son are united, unified, and One God.
We can say the same thing about the Holy Spirit, of course, but the Old Testament Jews never questioned whether the Holy Spirit is God. They simply accepted what the prophets wrote about the Spirit (Genesis 1:2; 41:38; Exodus 35:31; 1 Sam. 19:23; Job 33:4; Psalm 106:33; Isaiah 63:10-11; Ezekiel 11:24). The New Testament authors did not to defend or explain the divinity of the Spirit, but only the divinity of the Son. Jesus’ divine attributes include these which are testified to in Scripture:
1. He was before Abraham (John 8:58)
2. He was before the world was (John 17:5; John 1:1)
3. He is the creator of all things, and not part of the creation (Hebrews 1:10; John 1:3)
4. He sustains the world by his omnipotent presence (Col. 1:16-17)
5. He is omniscient (all-knowing) as is the Father (John 21:17)
6. He is omnipotent (all-powerful) as is the Father (John 10:28-30)
7. He raises the dead as does the Father (John 5:21,28-29)
8. With the Father, Jesus does miracles by his own power (John 2:11; 1:14)
9. Jesus is to be adored by all creatures as their God and Lord (John 5:23; 20:18; Philippians 2:9 ff.).
10. With the Father, Jesus alone is truly holy (Rev. 15:3-4)
This doctrine is not easy to put into simple terms without making an error that will confuse people or even lead them into doubt. The deeper into the thought of the Trinity we go, the more specific we must become with our language, until we run the risk of saying things that will be meaningless to the ordinary Christian. Chemnitz says, for example: “The divine nature, insofar as it is common to the three persons of the Deity, did not assume the human nature in an absolute sense, but only insofar as it pertains to the person of the Son” (Martin Chemnitz, The Two Natures of Christ, J.A.O. Preus, translator, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, p. 30-31).
What does that mean?
The Son of God took on our human nature for our sakes. The Father and the Spirit, who are one with the Son, did not. We are loved by all three Persons of the Godhead; we are forgiven by all three Persons, but only God the Son took up our flesh to atone for our sins. This is why we praise and worship him, the God-Man, through whom we have eternal life. This does no disservice or dishonor to either the Father or the Spirit. Indeed, both the Father and the Spirit, jealous of our worship in all other cases (Exodus 20:5), command and encourage us to worship the Son. The Father said, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him” (Luke 9:35). What the Son says, the Holy Spirit records through inspiration (Revelation 2:7, etc.). And what the Holy Spirit has inspired always points to Christ as Lord and Redeemer of mankind: “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).
Jesus Christ is the Divine Savior of the world. Let us all get up immediately and serve him.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota