Jesus IS God

Jesus is God
A recent theological survey (2020) from Ligonier ministries asked Americans whether they agreed with the statement, “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.” 52% of respondents agreed with this statement and even 30% of evangelicals agreed with it.

I pray that we would know better.  Our Lord Jesus is true God and true man.  When we reflect upon the birth of Jesus that first Christmas we confess that God Himself was wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, and worshipped by shepherds.  Jesus is our Emmanuel, God with us.  When we reflect on the death of Jesus on the cross, we confess that God Himself died for our sins.  How can God be born? How can God die?  This is a great mystery.  It is something that we cannot fully comprehend, but we must simply confess.

Does it matter whether or not Jesus was God? Absolutely!  God took on our flesh.  Jesus is God and man, "not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God" (Athanasian Creed).  God became one of us.  God experienced in a body those things we experience in the body, yet He was without sin.  Only a perfect sacrifice could atone for the sin of the whole world.  Only God Himself could offer such a perfect sacrifice, which He did on the cross in the person of Jesus.

The incarnation is a miracle.  Thanks be to God for such a miracle.