WHY WE BELIEVE THAT THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST IS MAN IN NATURE AND HE IS NOT GOD
QUESTION:
“Good evening, I am a born again christian. Why the Iglesia Ni Cristo believe that the Lord Jesus is a man and not God. Is this teaching written in the Bible?”
ANSWER:
It is not only our statement or
opinion. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed that He is a man:
John 8:40 NKJV
“But now you seek to
kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did
not do this.”
According to this verse, the Lord
Jesus did not only made an explicit statement that He is a Man, but also showed
that He is different from God. He said, “a Man who has told you the truth which I
heard from God.” Actually,
there are many statements of the Lord Jesus that clearly show that He is indeed
different from God. These are some of those statements:
John 17:1 and 3 NKJV
“Jesus spoke these
words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: ‘Father, the hour has come.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You…And this is eternal life,
that they may know You, the only true God...”
Mark 15:34 NKJV
“And at the ninth
hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’
which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’”
John 8:42 NKJV
“Jesus said to them,
"If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and
came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.”
The statement of the Lord Jesus
Christ saying that He is “a Man” is also a proof that He is not God. When He
said that He is “a man” it is also like saying that He is not God because God
explicitly said that He is not man:
Hosea 11:9 NKJV
“I will not execute
the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and
not man, The Holy One in your midst; And I will not come with terror.”
God clearly said, “I am God, and
not man.” Actually, God also said that “man is not God”:
Ezekiel 28:2 YLT
“`Son of man, say to
the leader of Tyre: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because thy heart hath been
high, And thou dost say: A god I `am', The habitation of God I have inhabited,
In the heart of the seas, And thou `art' man, and not God, And thou givest out
thy heart as the heart of God.”
It is clearly written in the
Bible that God is not man and man is not God. And because the Lord Jesus Christ
explicitly said that “He is a Man,” thus, He is not God.
God is not man because God is
spirit in state of being (John 4:24), and a spirit does not have flesh and
bones:
Luke 24:38-39 NKJV
“And He said to
them, ‘Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My
hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does
not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
And this is what the Bible says
about Man:
Genesis 6:3 NKJV
“And the LORD said,
"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet
his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
Therefore, God is not Man because
God is spirit, having no flesh and bones. And Man is not God because Man is not
spirit, having flesh and bones.
In Luke 24:39, the Lord Jesus
clearly said that “for a spirit does not
have flesh and bones as you see I have.” Thus, if we are going to accept
the teaching that Christ is true Man and true God, then the Lord Jesus Christ does
have flesh and bones (for He is true Man), and does not have flesh and bones (for
He is true God). This is absurd and confusing.
But others might contend that everything
is possible with God. It is true that everything is possible with the Lord God,
but it doesn’t mean that God will do an absurdity like being having flesh and
bones and at the same time having no flesh and bones. Why God will not do such
absurdity and confusion?
I Corinthians 14:33 KJV
“For God is not the
author of confusion…”
Let us also take note of the fact
that God can’t break His words, and His word cannot change:
Heb 6:18 The Message
“God can't break his
word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable.”
God said, “I am God, not man.”
God also said that man is not God. The Bible says that God is spirit, having no
flesh and bones. Remember that God can’t break His words, and His word cannot change.
THEREFORE, IT IS CLEARLY WRITTEN
IN THE BIBLE THAT:
(1) Christ Himself said that He
is a Man (John 8:40).
(2) That Christ made many statements
that show that He is indeed different from God (e.g. John 17:1 and 3; Mark
15:34; and John 8:42).
(3) When Christ explicitly said
that He is a man, it is like saying that He is not God because God is not man (Hos.
11:9) and man is not God (Ezek. 28:2).
(4) The Lord Jesus Christ is NOT
true Man and true God, because if so, then Jesus does have flesh and bones (true
man) and does not have flesh and bones (true God).
(5) Although everything is
possible with God, however, He will not do such absurdity and confusion that He
is at the same time have flesh and bones and have no flesh and bones, because “God
is not the author of confusion” (I Cor. 14:33 KJV).
(6) God said, “I am God, not man.”
God also said that man is not God. Remember that God is true to His words, He
can’t break His words, and His word cannot change.
THE GOD OF THE IGLESIA NI CRISTO
Although for us the Lord Jesus Christ
is not God, however, we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lord, the
Savior and God’s greatest messenger. For us, the true God is the Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ because this is what He himself taught to us:
John 17:1,3 NKJV
“Jesus spoke these
words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
“And this is eternal
life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have
sent.
This is eternal life that we accept
the truth written in the Bible and taught by Christ Himself that the Father is
the only true God and Jesus Christ is whom He have sent.
I HAVE BEEN A BIBLE STUDENT FOR 50 YEARS AND WISH TO FELLOWSHIP WITH YOUR CHURCH. I LIVE IN COFFS HARBOUR NSW
ReplyDeleteCan you explain John 1: 1-14 . And the Word became Flesh.
ReplyDelete