19- Christ Is God

(D) Conclusion: Christ Is God

(i) As we mentioned before, the salvation of the world from sins needed an infinite propitiation and none is Infinite except God alone. Since the Lord Jesus Christ offered the propitiation and completed it to the uttermost and redeemed all the people from every iniquity, saving them eternally from the curse of the Law, therefore, He is Infinite and thence He is God.

The act of redemption is an excellent proof confirming that Christ is God because if He were not so, the redemption would not have been considered valid and would not have been sufficient for the salvation of the whole world from all their sins.

(ii) God says: "'You shall know no God but Me; for there is no Savior besides Me" (Hos. 13:4), and: "there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior, there is none besides Me" (Is. 45:21). And it has been proved that there is a Savior who is Christ Jesus who is the only Savior and that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). How can we make all these verses conform with each other? Is, God not true or is the Holy Bible not true? Far from it. Let God be true. God cannot be true unless God is Christ so that if we say that God is the Savior, we mean at the same time that Christ is the Savior.

(iii) If Christ were not God, and having sacrificed Himself for the sake of all people because of His love for them, does He love people more than God does? Is there any being who surpasses God in His love to mankind? Not even Jehovah's Witnesses can say such a thing.

(iv) If Christ were other than God, and He was compelled to complete the work of redemption for the mere obedience of a command, then redemption would have lost its most important principle, and in addition, it would contradict the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13). And this also would disagree with the Holy Bible which says that Christ "gave Himself up for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed' (Titus 2:14).

(v) If Christ were other than God, and God commissioned Him to undertake this deed because of God's love to the world according to the verse: "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son" (Jn. 3:16), does this mean that God loved the world at the expense of Another? No, never! This verse cannot be properly understood unless God and Christ are One, as the Lord Jesus said: "I and My Father are One" (Jn. 10:30), and we have discussed this issue before here on st-takla.org in other pages. Thus we understand that God redeemed the people Himself, accomplishing the words of the Holy Book: "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him... But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave" (Ps. 49:7,15). Then the words of St. Paul the Apostle: "because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior Of all men" (1 Tim. 4:10), will be true.

(vi) If Christ were other than God, then people would not be wrong when they worship Him and not God, because He created them from nothing, according to the Bible's words: "All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made" (Jn. 1:3,10). Jehovah's Witnesses profess that Christ is the Creator and that He bought them with His precious Blood, and purified them for Himself as His own special people (1 Pet. 1: 8); (Titus 2:14). Who can blame a nation who worship their own Creator and Savior?

(vii) We adhere to the belief that Christ is God, not only because it is the fundamental proof of completing the work of redemption, but also because it is an affirmation of God's words: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death" (Hos. 13:14). God attributed to Himself this deed which He carried out. So let God be true. And let Christ's words. "I and My Father are One" (Jn. 10: 30), be true.

Christ is The Savior and the Redeemer

Divinity of Christ Books by H. H. Pope Shenouda III

Christ's Relation with the Father