Chapter 6: Evidences That Demand A Verdict - The divine attributes of Jesus Christ
6. The divine attributes of Jesus Christ.
We all agree that God has three personal attributes.
He is omnipresent - that means he is everywhere present.
He is omniscient - that means He is absolutely perfect in knowledge.
He is omnipotent - that means that He can bring to pass everything which He wills.
Jesus Christ claimed all these attributes.
He claimed that He was omnipresent when He said,
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven (John 3:13).
While he was on earth He was also in heaven.
He also said,
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20 - NKJ).
He claimed that He was omniscient when He said,
... No one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and to whom the Son wills to reveal (Matthew 11:27 - NKJ).
That is a knowledge above our comprehension, a knowledge no one can claim.
Jesus knew that He would be crucified. From the time of Peter’s confession to Jesus, saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God... from that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day" (Matthew 16:21 - NKJ).
The gospels are full of incidents that show that Jesus Christ is omniscient.
He claimed that he was omnipotent when He said:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one (John 10:27-30 - NKJ).
This oneness of the Father and the Son is not in purpose but in power and essence.
Jesus as the Son of Man was given all power in heaven and on earth. He said,
All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).
When Jesus said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you," (Mark 2:5) the scribes who were sitting there reasoned in their hearts:
Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" - He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go your way to your house." And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!" (Mark 2:6-12 - NKJ).
It is of great interest to acknowledge that after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, Jesus declared explicitly that He is God.
He said to John:
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last (Revelation 1:11).
The Quran declares in Surat Al-Hadid 57:3 that only God is the First and the Last. It says:
He is the First and the Last.
If Jesus says that He is the First and the Last, then He is God the Son.
In the same book of Revelation, that most profound prophetic book, Jesus declared that He is the judge of mankind:
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Revelation 22:12).
Again He declared in the gospel of John:
For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him (John 5:22,23 - NKJ).
The Quran declares in Surat Al-Fatihah 1:1,4, that God is the ruler of the day of judgment. It says:
In the name of Allah,... owner of the day of judgment.
The Quran also declares:
And [Jesus] shall be a sign [for the coming of] the hour of judgment" (Surat Al-Zukhruf 43:61).
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