This week’s devotions are based on the Week 5 “Explore God” – Is Jesus Really God? (WATCH HERE)
So why does it matter if Jesus is God?
Before answering this question, one has to acknowledge the possibility of situational bias influencing my conclusion about who Jesus is.
The reason we spent the first four devotions of this week simply looking at the evidence of who Jesus is, is to let the evidence speak for itself. I don’t want to make a claim and then look for evidence to support it. For example, if a crime scene investigator has a bias that a certain individual is guilty, they may look at the evidence through that lens and seek to make the evidence fit the one they already think is guilty. Rather every good investigator will let the evidence speak for itself and then determine who the guilty party is. Once that determination has been made, then one can wrestle with the consequences of the conclusions.
Some have accused Christians of “needing Jesus to be God” and so, they would say, even though the evidence doesn’t support the claim of his divinity they make him to be God. I pray the evidence objectively speaks for itself to allow one to conclude as the centurion on duty at the crucifixion concluded, “Surely this was the Son of God!”
So with the evidence concluding that Jesus is God, we ask, “Why does it matter?”
All other religions have made Jesus to be just a man perhaps, at best, a man with divine qualities. However, if he is just a man, he struggles to provide any meaningful solution to the key question in life, “How am I right with God?” God has set the standard in Leviticus 19:2, “Be perfect, as I the Lord your God am perfect.” With this truth in mind, Jesus, for many, becomes an “example to follow” as I “try my best” to walk the pathway toward perfection. But the evidence convicts me that I am not perfect and neither are you nor anyone else. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
But, if Jesus is God, he provides a solution that no other person can. As God, Jesus was able to live a perfect life….tempted, but never sinned.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Why was this important? So we would have a perfect substitute for our imperfect life.
Galatians 4:4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
See, if Jesus were just a man, we are left to fend for ourselves. Since he is God, we have one who advocates on our behalf and has a perfect record he is willing to apply to our account.
1 John 2:2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
The result? We stand perfect before God because Jesus was perfect for us.
This is why Jesus being God is such a big deal. Your eternity is secured by it!
Apply: Because Jesus was God, his death also counted for us. He paid the penalty our sins deserved. What comfort does the truth that Jesus is God give you knowing, he was perfect for you and his death counts for you?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for orchestrating the perfect plan through Jesus, your only Son, to secure our salvation. We know that if Jesus were not God, we would not spend eternity with you. But because he is God, we know we will! AMEN.