Interesting Questions-28
"Divinity upon ascension"
Letter to the Editor:
GOD'S MESSAGE, June 2004, p.4
WE, AS TRUE CHRISTIANS,
accept and believe in the verses of the Bible that
you quote stating that Christ is man. However, it is very
significant that the context and background of those verses be
considered. In John 8:40, when Christ introduced Himself as man. He
was still on earth. There is no question about that. What we are
saying is that Christ became God or attained His divinity when He
reached heaven.
Charles Garrett
NewYork, USA
Editor's reply:
Nowhere in the Bibie is it taught that Christ
became God or attained
divinity upon His ascension to heaven. On the contrary, the apostles
testify that Jesus remained to be man in nature even when He reached
heaven. In verses such as I Timothy 2:5 and Acts 2:22, among others
for instance, the apostles directly declared that Christ is man.
For there is one God and one Mediator
between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
(1 Tim. 2:5, NKJV)
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of
Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and
signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves
also know— (Acts 2:22, NKJV)
Considering the background and context of these
verses, we've learned that these were taught by the
apostles when our Lord Jesus was already in heaven. If it were true
that Christ attained divinity when He ascended to heaven, then the
Apostles should have taught Him as God when they preached about Him.
But the apostles were consistent in their teaching. that Christ is
indeed man, before and even after His ascension to heaven.
Apostle Paul, in fact, teaches that in
heaven, Christ sits at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). And the
Bible ascertains that the one who sits at the right hand of God, who
is Christ, is a man, and therefore not another God:
"But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God" (Heb.
10:12, New King James Version, emphasis ours)
The teaching that Christ became God when He
reached heaven contradicts what the Holy Scriptures teaches
concerning the true Cod. Christ Himself makes it
clear that there is only one true God who is the Father (Jn. 17:1,
3). Before His ascension to heaven, Christ even said:
..... I am ascending to My Father and your Father
and to My God and your God." (John 20:17, NKJV)
If Christ became God upon
His ascension to heaven, then there would be two Gods—the
Father to whom Christ ascended (and whom Christ recognizes as His
God) and Christ who ascended to His Father. This is definitely
against what Christ Himself teaches regarding the true God.
While it is true that the Savior's body,
which was once perishable and mortal on earth, became imperishable
or immortal in heaven (1 Cor. 15:50-54), this does
not mean that He became God. Because if He did, then those to be
saved would also become gods, for the Holy Scriptures confirm that
their bodies will be like the glorious body of Christ:
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly
await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by
the power that enables him to bring everything under his
control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like
his glorious body. (Phil. 3:20-21, New International Version)
The belief or teaching that Christ became God upon
ascension to heaven is therefore unbiblical
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