Chapter 3
Seeing Jesus with Double Vision
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Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to Him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
(John 14: 8,9)
The Problem of Double Vision for Disciples of Jesus
The New Testament is a collection of ancient documents containing eyewitness accounts and correspondence between some of Jesus’ first disciples and the early churches. These documents were written by the people who knew Jesus personally or were very close to the events in His life. Despite these excellent historical about Jesus, arguments and disagreements have developed between scholars over some of the details. A close reading of what is now called the New Testament finds two different pictures of Jesus. Some passages seem to suggest that Jesus was a human, like us. Other passages only make sense if Jesus was somehow the God of Israel, as well. It’s like seeing Jesus with double vision when looking closely at Him in the Bible.
The Evidence for Double Vision
The challenge presented by two pictures of Jesus is relevant to our discussion about being Intentional Disciples. On the one hand, this division into two competing, and as some claim, incompatible views of Jesus are a hindrance for some. In fact, these kinds of theological arguments are one of the subtle methods used to blind people today from the truth about Jesus. Therefore, we need to deal with the biblical data and come to some conclusions. On the other hand, in the process of inspiring the writing of the New Testament, God saw fit to give us this double view of Jesus. I would suggest that He had good reasons for wanting us to see both perspectives of Jesus as we follow Him.
Seeing Jesus as a human
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. (1 Timothy 2:5)
Or listen closely to how Peter refers to Jesus in his first public sermon.
Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. (Acts 2:22,23)
In the New Testament, we see Jesus living an everyday human life in 1st Century Palestine. His mother, Mary, carried Him to full-term like any other child and raised Jesus to adulthood in an average family with brothers and sisters. He was Jewish and participated in the religious and social life of Jews in His local community, which was under Roman occupation. The ancient biographies we know as the gospels casually report where Jesus' family lived and make reference to His vocation before the start of His public ministry.
These details about Jesus suggest nothing about His divinity or that He is part of the Godhead, as later creeds will affirm. When Jesus began His extraordinary ministry among the people of Israel, He did so as a man. This point is essential, and we will come back to it.
The four gospels tell little about Jesus’ life before His baptism by John in the Jordan River. His baptism, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Him, and His trial in the wilderness marked a transition point in His life. After these experiences, Jesus began to travel, gather disciples, preach, and teach about the Kingdom of God, and do powerful works of healing, deliverance, and other signs among the people.
His activity was out in the open and not in secret. Our knowledge about Jesus is not limited to the religious writings of His followers. His life and impact are documented in respected sources outside the New Testament or the writings of the early church.
While His ministry in God’s power was amazing, in itself it didn’t suggest that Jesus was divine. In the gospel accounts, Jesus soon commissioned His disciples to take up the same ministry responsibilities He was carrying, which they did. There was never any confusion about His disciples’ status as non-divine humans. Their close association with Jesus and faith in Him made them different from others but no one suggested that they were gods.
Jesus’ contemporaries looked at Him as a mighty prophet. More than that, some claimed that He was The Prophet Israel had been waiting for, a great prophet who would be like Moses. [1] Similarly, Jesus was seen by many in Israel as the long-awaited Messiah or King of Israel. In former times, true prophets had predicted that a king, in the line of David, would come and defeat Israel’s enemies and usher in a new age of peace. While being a prophet or a king is undoubtedly extraordinary, neither necessarily includes the idea of being God.
So far, what we see in the texts of the New Testament is a view of Jesus as a unique, powerful, wonderful, and extraordinary human being. He is fully human, however, he is more than that.[2]
Seeing Jesus as God
To see the other perspective on Jesus in the New Testament it might be helpful if we first discard what we won’t find in the bible. Consider the following caricature by New Testament scholar Michael Bird.
Hi, I’m God. I’m going to die on the cross for your sins soon. But first of all, I will teach you how to be a good Christian and get to heaven. And after that, I thought it would be fitting if you all worship me as the second member of the Trinity.
However, even though Jesus didn’t make statements remotely like this obvious caricature it still seems clear from the eyewitnesses reports and the writings of the Jesus’ followers they were convinced that this man Jesus was also in some way the God of Israel.
The picture of Jesus in the New Testament is built from different types of biblical evidence that show that the first disciples saw Jesus as God. For example, the first glimpse of this picture of Jesus comes at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist (not to be confused with John, one of the twelve disciples), received a revelatory message from God like the prophets in the Old Testament and proclaimed it to all the Jews who would listen.
…the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ (Luke 3:2-4)
The gospel writers understood John to be the person Isaiah had prophesied about; John was the one whose voice would be heard in the wilderness. And what was John the Baptist’s message to the people of Israel? John announced that the time of God’s promised visitation had come; it was time for God’s people to get ready to face their God. God’s promise to return to His people was being fulfilled. Getting ready meant repentance.
But there is a twist to this story.
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16)
When John the Baptist fulfilled his part of the Isaiah 40 prophecy, who did He introduce to the crowds who came to hear Him? It was Jesus! In other words, according to John the Baptist, when Isaiah’s promise was fulfilled and Yahweh arrived, He came as Jesus.
To hear from Michael Bird again,
Jesus spoke and acted in such a way as to be claiming that He spoke and acted with, for, and as Israel’s God. His self-understanding was not delusional, but was vindicated by his resurrection from the dead, which is why those who encountered the risen Christ worshiped Him (Matt 28:17), and even skeptics had to confess Him as “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:21)[3]
When examining evidence that the first disciples considered Jesus God, I want to clarify what they didn’t believe about Jesus. They did not see Jesus as one of three gods (tritheism[4]). Furthermore, they did not see Jesus as a man who at some point was made into a god as the Romans claimed for their emperors. Finally, they did not see Jesus as an angel or a spirit who appeared for a time like a man but wasn’t really a human like us.
Additional Scriptural Evidence for Jesus as God
The following are just some of the scriptures that refer to Jesus in ways that leave no serious doubt that the writers and first-century readers looked at Jesus as being also in some way the God of Israel.[5]
The gospel of John begins by referring to a figure He calls the Word, whom He later identifies as Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1–3)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about Him, and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known. (John 1:14-18)
In the letter Paul wrote to the church in the Roman colony of Philippi, Jesus is held up as the standard for behavior precisely because in Jesus we see God Himself demonstrating true humility.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5–7)
Finally, in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, we find an early creed used by the earliest believers, probably within a few years of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. This passage claims that Jesus existed before creation, and is evidence that the belief that Jesus was God existed in the church even before the New Testament was written.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15–20)
Does Double Vision of Jesus Matter to Intentional Disciples?
In my experience as a follower of Jesus I am convinced that seeing Jesus like the first disciples saw Him does matter. I’m not talking about something required for your salvation as though you need to be able to pass an exam for God to promote you into the next life with Him. I’m talking about how to have a relationship with your creator which you were created to enjoy.
The more you know someone, the more deeply you can love them. And in many ways, the more deeply you know someone, the more you can see how much they love you. The double vision of Jesus in the New Testament shows us who God is, what He is like, and how much He loves you.
When you see that Jesus is who the prophet Isaiah said He would be, “Immanuel (which means God with us),” you are catching a glimpse of how much God loves you. God didn’t love you so much that He sent someone else to save you and bring you back home; He came Himself to rescue you.
What’s more, when you see that in Jesus, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” you see a human life being lived as God intended for us to live, and but for sin, we would be living.
Jesus came to ensure you can live this life. In Jesus, God has done everything required to restore you to Himself so that you can be know all the glory, goodness, and blessing He originally intended for His human family.
In the chapters of Section 2, we will focus on how as Intentional Disciples of Jesus, we can learn to live a life with God from which a lifetime of relationship and kingdom ministry will naturally flow.
Here are some questions for consideration and discussion.
Is it easier for you to think of Jesus as God or human?
Do you think seeing Jesus as both God and man is essential?
Is it easier to use the word god or Jesus in public conversations, and do you think it matters?
Chapter 3 Daily Scripture Readings
How to spend some quality time listening to what Jesus would like to say through the scriptures:
In preparation, acknowledge the Lord’s presence and love for you and settle yourself before Him (in your mind and heart).
Read the day’s text carefully; take your time.
Reflect on what you have been reading with a listening ear – what word, phrase, or sentence speaks to you from the text?
Now, talk to the LORD about what you hear from this text. What has Jesus stirred in your heart?
If you were with Him walking from one Galilean village to another, what would you say to Him about this?
Chapter 3 - Day One: John 1:1-18
Chapter 3 - Day Two: Philippians 2:1-11
Chapter 3 - Day Three: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
Chapter 3 - Day Four: Colossians 2:6-15
Chapter 3 - Day Five: Hebrews 1
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[1] See Acts 3:22
[2] Jason E. Vickers and Thomas H. McCall, Outpouring: A Theological Witness, p.53
[3] Michael F Bird, How God became Jesus, p. 209
[4] (In Christian theology) the doctrine of or belief in the three persons of the Trinity as three distinct gods
[5] While it doesn’t seem that the authors of John, Philippians, or Colossians doubted that when one is talking about Jesus they are somehow also talking about God, there have been and are now skeptics who deny this. To do so, they must deal with these three passages. Here are four typical ways skeptics do this:
They blame it on the theology of later groups of believers that evolved and whose beliefs are being read back into the texts. The problem with this view is that modern scholarship can now date these manuscripts too early for this to be possible.
They blame it on the corruption of the original texts by later scribes who copied them. The problem with this view is that modern scholarship has so many copies of the manuscripts from many different times and locations that this is now seen as impossible.
They make their own translations and claim that their new version is the accurate one. This is the strategy of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of the Jehovah’s Witnesses group.
Finally, they ignore the biblical texts and add new texts which they claim have an even higher authority and may provide interpretations of biblical passages that correct mistaken ideas. The Koran and the Book of Mormon with the Doctrine and Covenants are examples of this strategy.
There are two ways you can go deeper with this material, if you are finding this helpful.
First, read How to get the most from this book. I offer some suggestions about how to do more than skim the pages and move on with minimal impact.
Second, read How to use this book with a small group. This material was formed and proven in a small group setting that has been very effective at helping participants engage with Jesus at a much deeper and transformative level than is typical in our churches today.