The Deity of Christ

Arians deny the deity of Christ, but the deity of the Messiah is an important part of Jewish and Christian faith.

Q. What were some of the signs that the coming Messiah was really the Messiah? The Bible tells us the “I.D.” of the Messiah. His ethnic background, place of birth, time frame of his arrival and other identifying characteristics are given. These “credentials” enable us to identify the Messiah, and to recognize imposters. What, then, are some of the credentials of the Messiah? There are over three hundred and forty prophecies about the first coming of the Messiah. For instance, here are a few:

• Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem: Micah 5:1-2
• Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah: Genesis 49:10
• Messiah would present himself by riding on an ass: Zechariah 9:9
• Messiah would be tortured to death: Psalm 22
• Messiah would arrive before the destruction of the Second Temple: Daniel 9:24-27
• Messiah’s life would match a particular description, including suffering, silence at his arrest and trial, death and burial in a rich man’s tomb, and resurrection: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

All of these passages were recognized by the early Jewish scholars as referring to the Messiah. In detail as to lineage, birthplace, time, and lifestyle, it was Jesus who matched the Messianic expectations of the Hebrew Scriptures. The record of this fulfillment is to be found in the pages of the New Testament.

Following the account of creation, sin entered into the human experience causing man to fall under the righteous judgment of God, never the less at the time of the fall, God provided for future redemption.

While speaking with Adam and Eve and Satan, God tells Satan in Genesis 3:15:

Jewish Scholars agree that Genesis 3:15 is a Messianic prophecy. A Messianic prophecy is an Old Testament prophecy of or relating to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. Genesis 3:15 was the first Messianic prophecy.

In the context of biblical teaching, the statement, the seed of the woman, is very unusual. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, lineage was never reckoned after the woman, only after the man. In all the genealogies that we have in biblical record, women are virtually ignored because they are irrelevant in determining genealogy. Yet, the future person who would crush the head of Satan while suffering only a slight heel wound Himself, would not be reckoned after a man, but after a woman.

Centuries later, it was the prophet Isaiah who explained why the Messiah would be reckoned after the woman. In Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah writes:

The fact that the birth spoken of in Isaiah 7:14 was a sign, showed that God wanted to make a statement by using a miracle or a distinguishing mark in order to show a perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent. If this was a normal birth, it would not fulfill the requirement of being a sign.

The very existence of the Jewish people derived from a sign of a miraculous birth. Both Abraham and Sarah were both far beyond the point of bearing children. Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Sarah was eighty-nine years old and far past menopause, when God promised that Sarah would conceive and bear a son within one year.

This miraculous birth would be the sign that God will keep his covenant with Abraham and will make a great nation from him. A year later this sign took place with the birth of Isaac, through whom the Jewish people came. This miraculous sign authenticated the Abrahamic covenant.

Genesis 17:7; Genesis 22:18

• Isaac

The miraculous son of Abraham
Genesis 17:15-19; 18:1-15; 21:1-8; Joshua 24:3; I Chronicles 1:28; Galatians 4:28; Hebrews 11:11

The birth of the son born of a virgin prophesied about in Isaiah 7:14 was also to be a miraculous sign; a birth taking place in an unusual way. This time the miraculous sign was not the age of the mother, it was the fact that the child was going to be born of a virgin.