The Divine HANDS of Jesus

Even though school has been in session for nearly two weeks, and pumpkin spice everything is already back on the menu, I’ll still say, “Welcome to Fall,” now that the calendar finally says September. And for the first half of this new season, we are going to do a new email/blog series called The Divine HANDS of Jesus.

Have you ever endured a case of “mistaken identity”? Two weeks ago, while out-of-town for a wedding, I was sitting in the hotel hot tub with LeAnn when a kid came up to me and asked, “Are you Tony Romo?” (That was the first time anyone had ever asked me that question, and I’m quite confident it will be the last.) Somehow, this 10-year-old thought that an unmuscular, five-foot-eight-inch guy like me was possibly a former NFL quarterback. It was (clearly!) a case of mistaken identity.

The Mistaken Identity of Jesus

Throughout history, many people have looked at Jesus and thought He was someone else. For instance, in His day, some people thought He was the reincarnation of the beheaded John the Baptist, others thought He was the return of Elijah, and others thought He was just a prophet (Mark 8:28).

In our day, similar arguments are made about Him. Some people argue He was a great teacher, others claim He was a great man – but just a man, while some consider Him a fable. But each of these viewpoints is a case of “mistaken identity.” They are missing who Jesus truly was and is.

That is why, to help us not make the same mistake, we are going to take the next five weeks to look at the divinity of Christ. In their book, The Incarnate Christ and His Critics, Robert Bowman and Ed Komoszewski argue that Scripture gives us five things that affirm the deity of Jesus. When we study the Word, we see that Jesus wasn’t merely a man, nor even a created being that was over mankind, but rather, we see His divine “HANDS” as He…

• is given divine Honors
• holds divine Attributes
• bears divine Names
• does divine Deeds
• and sits in the divine Seat

In other words, to truly understand who Jesus is, we have to realize that while He was fully human during His time on earth, He was and is also fully God in every way! So join us next week as we see some of the divine honors bestowed upon Jesus, so that we might know Him for who He truly is.