Boyce Mouton
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Letters From Grandpa #525

Boyce Mouton · 2 pages · 1,109 words

  • LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
  • 525

Dearest grandchild,

Todays’s letter will again with the Deity of Jesus. Even the enemies of Jesus understood that He claimed to be equal with God (John 5:18). Sadly, however, the Apostle Philip had trouble wrapping his mind around the miracle of the incarnation. On the night before Calvary: “Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.” (John 14:8-11) Obviously, many of us have the same problem Philip had!

Dr. Glenn Sly told me a joke many years ago about the psychiatrist interviewing patients in a mental hospital. The doctor noticed a man with his hand inserted in the front of his shirt and asked for his name. The man replied: “I am Napoleon Bonaparte.” The doctor asked: “How do you know you are Napoleon?” The patient replied: “God told me!” Immediately the patient in the next bed shouted: “I DID NOT!” Sadly, some assume that NO ONE could be God in a human body and that anyone claiming to be God is mentally deranged. Ironically, they deny the Deity of Jesus but still claim He was a “good man.”

C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

The Jews knew claimed to be God, that’s why they wanted to kill Him (John 5:18). Jesus defended His deity with facts recorded in John 5:19-47. While there are many statements Jesus made about His Deity, here is how Jesus answered the Jews on this one occasion. Jesus pointed out that:

  • Whatever the Father does, the Son does too (John 5:19).
  • The Father raises the dead and Jesus raises the dead too (John 5:19).
  • The Son gives life to anyone He pleases just like the Father does (John 5:21).
  • The Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgement unto the Son (John 5:22).
  • He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father (John 5:23).
  • Whoever believes the words of Jesus will not be condemned (John 5:24).
  • The time has come when all who hear the Son of God will live (John 5:25).
  • God has given authority to Jesus to be the Judge of all (John 5:27).
  • Some day all the dead will hear the voice of Jesus and come out of their graves (John 5:28-29).
  • John the Baptist testified about the true identity of Jesus (John 5:31-35).
  • The works that Jesus did also prove His Deity (John 5:36).
  • The Scriptures also testify to the Deity of Jesus (John 5:39).
  • Jesus said: “How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44)
  • Jesus said: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” (John 5:46- 47)

Again, C.S. Lewis stated this penetrating insight into the identity of Jesus: “ Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” Please ponder this trutht! Jesus said to the rich young ruler: “Why do you call me good ?. . . No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18) In other words Jesus was saying: “Do you realize that I am God?” With His ability to know our thoughts “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack, He said. Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (Mark 10:21) Touche! “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24)

There is nothing wrong with having money, it is spiritually fatal, however, when money has you! There are many rich Christians today who use their wealth to glorify God. There were also rich people in the early church too! That’s why Paul told Timothy: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

The Apostle Thomas was a twin. Since he had been mistaken many times for his brother, he assumed that those who said that Jesus was raised from the dead had merely made a mistake. Thomas said: “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.” (John 20:25) After Jesus appeared to him in person, Thomas correctly said to Jesus what all of us should say - “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce