November 5, 2021 | Divinity
A.W. Tozer wrote, “While few would dare thus to voice their secret feelings, there are millions who have imbibed the notion that they hold in their hands the keys of heaven and hell. The whole content of modern … contributes to this attitude. Man is made large and God small;
How deeply do men err who conceive of God as subject to our human will or as standing respectfully to wait upon our human pleasure. Though He in condescending love may seem to place Himself at our disposal, yet never for the least division of a moment does He abdicate His throne or void His right as Lord of man and nature. He is that Majesty on high. To Him all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein: … heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory.” … before Him prophet and Patriarch and saint have knelt in breathless awe and adoration.
Our God has now become our servant to wait on our will. “The Lord is my SHEPHERD,” we say, instead of “The LORD is my shepherd,” and the difference is as wide as the world.
In a world that has lost sight of the divine it is of no surprise that man has so often put himself above the divine. From the very beginning of time when Adam and Eve longed to have the knowledge of God, we have made the choice time and again to see ourselves or the things we have made as gods, forsaking the one true God who is in all and through all.
When Jesus came to earth, most of the people saw Him as nothing more than a common man. Even His disciples didn’t fully recognize His divinity until He rose from the grave. Yet, throughout His life, He gave witness to His divinity through the things He said and did.
Many years after Jesus died and rose again, the Apostle John wrote down the testimony of what He had witnessed. He started His Gospel with these words in John 1:1, 14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…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.”
In His final years, John wanted to make known that He had lived, loved, and laughed with the divine. Jesus was a man who was with God before all things, in trinity both with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He was not just 100% man but also 100% God, full of divine goodness and mercy.
Jesus said as much in John 10:30 saying, “I and the Father are one” and in John 8:58 when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (I Am being God’s name for Himself). Paul further testified of this in Colossians 1:15 saying, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” This same Paul who saw Jesus after His resurrection on the road to Damascus.
Time and again Jesus proved His divinity to His disciples, yet they had trouble grasping His true identity. We do the same today. Though we are witness to His divinity, we turn our backs to it, choosing instead to worship ourselves. We designate Almighty God to a footnote in life who’s influence and guidance is no longer wanted or needed. We only call out to Him in times of desperation, content to store Him on a shelf all other times.
We see the evidence of self-godliness all around us because, as our own gods we are destined to cause chaos and destruction. Because we see God only as our servant and not as our Lord, we are forced to live in a society where anger and hatred become commonplace and where right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right.
But all is not lost because there remains a remnant who still see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as divine. They know that His love for all people remains the same, despite their turned backs and wicked ways. They still see the light and have set their eyes like flint on what is to come. It is these people who must make a stand for the divine.
Are you among the few who will proclaim the Lord’s divinity even in dark corners where the message might be rejected? Do you still have faith in the divine to make straight your paths? If so, let your voice be heard. Please pray with me:
Heavenly Father instill in us the true knowledge of Your divinity and help us to depend on Your divine nature in all things. Amen.
