I continue from where I previously left off: HOW MANY DIVINE SAVIORS ARE THERE?.

WHAT KIND OF BEING MUST JESUS BE?

Now the only way that the Man Christ Jesus could ever be portrayed as saving individuals from their transgressions is if he is himself is YHWH God who became a human Being. And this is precisely what the inspired writings affirm as I now seek to demonstrate.

SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

Matthew’s Gospel contains the following remarkable proclamation:

“‘And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus (Yeshua), FOR He will save His people from their sins.’ Now all this took place in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God (ho theos) with us.’” Matthew 1:21-23

Here, the angel explains why Jesus was given his name, e.g., the name Yeshua, which means “YHWH is salvation,” signifies that Christ is that very YHWH God who comes to do what the following Psalm attributes to the God of Israel:

“O Israel, wait for Yahweh; For with Yahweh there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption. And it is He who will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.” Psalm 130:7-8

In other words, Jesus is YHWH God that chose to become human by being born of the Virgin for the express purpose of dwelling among his people, and to save mankind from their sins.

Now wonder Matthew writes that Jesus is the literal fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that the Virgin will give birth to Immanuel. I.e., Christ is the actual physical embodiment of the true God who came to live among humanity!

PETRINE EPISTLES

Peter, who was an eyewitness to Christ, had no qualms in affirming that Jesus is both God’s Son and the Lord God that reigns forever:

“Simeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received the same kind of faith as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ (tou theou hemon kai soteros ‘Iesou Christou)… for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you… For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (tou kyriou hemon kai soteros ‘Iesou Christou), following cleverly devised myths, but being eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased’—and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” 2 Peter 1:1, 11, 16-18

In fact, the foregoing verses employ a Greek construction that conclusively proves that Jesus is indeed being described as both Lord and God:

tn The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. In fact, the construction occurs elsewhere in 2 Peter, strongly suggesting that the author’s idiom was the same as the rest of the NT authors’ (cf., e.g., 1:11 [“the Lord and Savior”], 2:20 [“the Lord and Savior”]). The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, theos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, sōtēr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on the application of Sharp’s rule to 2 Pet 1:1, see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290. See also Titus 2:13 and Jude 4. (NET Bible https://netbible.org/bible/2+Peter+1; emphasis mine)

This explains why this beloved and holy servant of Jesus could conclude his inspired epistle with an ascription of praise, a doxology, to the risen Son:

“but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (tou kyriou hemon kai soteros ‘Iesou Christou). To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18

Since doxologies can only be offered to the true God, this simply reinforces the point that Peter did view the risen Christ as God in an absolute sense.

And seeing that this blessed Apostle believed that Jesus is God in the flesh it, therefore, only makes sense that he would go around preaching that it is Christ and his name alone that saves anyone from their sins, even though he would have known that this is a function and ability that the Hebrew Bible ascribes only to YHWH:

“Now it happened that on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. And when they had placed them in their midst, they began to inquire, ‘By what power, or in what name, have you done this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers and elders of the people, if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man, as to how this man has been saved from his sickness, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.’ Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and comprehended that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.” Acts 4:5-14

JOHANNINE LITERATURE

The Apostle John is quite clear that Jesus in his prehuman existence is the uncreated Word of God that created and preserves all creation, who then chose to become flesh in order to reveal the Father to the world, and to grant salvation to everyone that believes in his name:

“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 came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men… He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth… No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” John 1:1-4, 10-14, 18  

The Evangelist then concludes the Gospel with Thomas’ Christological confession that Jesus is his very Lord and God

“Thomas answered and said TO HIM, ‘My Lord and my God (ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou)!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see, and yet believed.’ Why Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:28-31

Since the only Lord and God that a monotheistic Jew could ever confess is YHWH,

“You have seen it, O Yahweh, do not keep silent; O Lord, do not be far from me. Stir up Yourself, and awake to my justice And to my cause, my God and my Lord.” Psalm 35:22- 23

“Awake, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, [even] to my cause, my God and my Lord (ho theos mou kai ho kyrios mou).” Psalm 34:23 LXX

This means that Jesus must be YHWH God; otherwise, both Thomas and the risen Lord would be guilty of blasphemy for allowing a creature to view another creature as his very own Lord and God!

John went even further in his first epistle by identifying the Son as the true God and eternal life:

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness about His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has this witness in himself. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has borne witness about His Son. And the witness is this, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have that life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him… And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:9-15, 20-21

John already told us in the beginning of his epistle who this eternal life is:

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we are writing, so that our joy may be made complete. And this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not do the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:1-7

Jesus is that very eternal life that was with the Father whom John and the others physically touched, saw and heard!

As such, there’s simply no way of escaping the fact that Christ is the One being described as the true God since only One who is the true God can also be eternal life. Note the logic behind this argument:

1. The true God is eternal life, being the Source of all life.
2. Jesus is the eternal Life and the Source of all life.
3. Jesus, therefore, is the true God that was with the Father and who then became a human being.

And not only does John expressly tell us that it is Jesus who is that very eternal life that appeared to them, and who cleanses sinners from all their sins, the inspired Evangelist also describes Christ as being the true Light who enlightens all men unto salvation:

“There was a man having been sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to bear witness about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone.” John 1:6-9

“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’” John 8:12

“We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:4-5  

“So Jesus said to them, ‘For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.’ These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them… And Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.’” John 12:35-36, 44-46

This explains why John saw every created thing in the whole entire creation giving the risen Jesus the exact same worship that the Father receives, and for the exact same duration:

“And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And You made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.’ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.’ And EVERY CREATED THING which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, AND ALL THINGS IN THEM, I heard saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.’ And the four living creatures kept saying, ‘Amen.’ And the elders fell down and worshiped.” Revelation 5:8-14

The aforementioned passages taken from the inspired writings of the fourth Evangelist conclusively prove that Christ is not a created being. Rather, Jesus is separate from all creation since he is the uncreated Son of God that became human, being equal to the Father in power, glory and majesty.

PAULINE CORPUS

Like the Apostles before him, Paul had no hesitation in testifying that the Christ is God Almighty who became flesh, specifically an Israelite from the seed of David:

“concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated as the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” Romans 1:3-4 – C.f. 2 Timothy 2:8

“Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, came the Christ, who is God over all, eternally blessed. Amen.” Romans 9:5 Evangelical Heritage Version (ESV)

Paul even describes Jesus as our Great God and Savior that came to redeem and purify a people to be his very own inheritance,

“looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (tou megalou theou kai soteros hemon ‘Iesou Christou), who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.” Titus 2:13-14⁽¹⁾

And who possesses the entire fullness of the divine essence in bodily form:

“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily, and in Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority;” Colossians 2:9-10

I.e., Jesus is God Almighty that became a Man and who now has an immortal, glorified physical body of flesh (Cf. Luke 24:36-43; John 20:24-29; Acts 2:29-36; 17:30-31; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 45-56; Philippians 3:9-11, 20-21; Revelation 5:5; 22:16).  

The blessed Apostle further proclaims that Christ is God’s beloved and uncreated Son, the One by and for whom every created thing came into existence and who personally sustains the entire creation:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For IN him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and FOR him. 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 and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Colossians 1:15-18 New International Version (NIV)

This is confirmed in the letter to the Hebrews, where Jesus is described as the Son who is the Heir of all things, being the very Lord YHWH that created and preserves all creation by his word, and who reigns as God forever and ever!

“God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God (ho theos), is forever and ever, And the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness above Your companions.’ And, ‘You, Lord (the Son), in the beginning founded the earth, And the heavens are the works of Your hands; They will perish, but You remain; And they all will wear out like a garment, And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.’” Hebrews 1:1-3, 8-12

Remarkably, the inspired writer has the Father glorifying his beloved Son with the words of the following Psalm,

“A Prayer of the afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before Yahweh. O Yahweh, hear my prayer! And let my cry for help come to You… But You, O Yahweh, abide forever, And the remembrance of Your name from generation to generation… Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You will remain; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.” Psalm 102:1, 12, 25-27

A Psalm where YHWH is being magnified as the unchanging Creator and Sustainer of all creation!

In other words, it is God the Father himself who identifies Jesus as YHWH God Almighty that became Man for our salvation!

Another verse worth mentioning comes from Acts where Paul gives final instructions to the Ephesian elders regarding their responsibility in protecting the church from heretics and false teachers:

“Keep a careful watch over yourselves and over the church. The Holy Spirit has made you its leaders. Feed and care for the church of God (tou theou). He bought it with His own blood.” Acts 20:28 New Life Version (NLV)

Here’s a different rendering of this text:

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.” New Living Translation (NLT)

Interestingly, the majority of the Greek witnesses actually read Lord and God,

“Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God (tou kyriou kai tou theou) which he purchased with his own blood.” World English Bible (WEB)

I.e., Jesus is the Lord God who purchased the church with the blood he shed on the cross.

The foregoing shows why the inspired writers and witnesses to the risen Christ could describe Jesus as doing what God alone does, namely, saving people from their sins. They all believed and testified that the Son isn’t a creature whom the Father brought into being. Rather, they became convinced as a result of Christ’s physical, bodily resurrection that Jesus is indeed who he claimed to be, e.g., the eternal Son of God who is equal to the Father in essence and glory.

THE FATHER IS YHWH TOO

This brings me to my final point.

The same God-breathed Scriptures also testify to the Father of Christ being the one and only true God:

“I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God?” John 5:43-44  

“Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.’” John 17:1-3

“For they themselves report about us what kind of an entrance we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10

And since YHWH alone is the true God,

“and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, ‘Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Yahweh is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will be found; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. Now for many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.’” 2 Chronicles 15:2-3

“You alone are Yahweh. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down to You.” Nehemiah 9:6

“There is none like You, O Yahweh; You are great, and great is Your name in might… But Yahweh is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot endure His indignation. Thus you shall say to them, ‘The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’ It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens… The portion of Jacob is not like these; For the Maker of all is He, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; Yahweh of hosts is His name.” Jeremiah 10:6, 10-12, 16

This means that the Father must also be YHWH God Almighty, even though he is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit.

THE CONCLUSION: YHWH IS A TRI-PERSONAL BEING

The evidence provided in these two posts establish beyond any reasonable doubt that the inspired Scriptures do not proclaim an uni-Personal God. Rather, these sacred books plainly testify that the one true God is an eternal, infinite multi-Personal Being. These God-breathed writings bear witness to a tri-Personal God who eternally subsists as the Father, his beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Here’s a helpful breakdown of the consistent witness of God’s inspired revelation:

1. YHWH is the only God who is able to save from sins, and has chosen to do so.
2. Human creatures are incapable of saving themselves from their transgressions.
3. Jesus is identified as God who chose to save mankind by becoming human in order to die for their sins.
4. Jesus must, therefore, be YHWH God who became human.
5. The Father is expressly called the only true God.
6. Since only YHWH is the true God the Father must, therefore, be YHWH God as well.
7. Jesus is not the Father (or the Holy Spirit).
8. YHWH, therefore, cannot be a singular Person. Rather, YHWH is an eternal, uncreated multi-Personal Being who has been eternally existing as the Father and the Son (along with the Holy Spirit).

To the honest Bible believer there’s simply no way of getting around this explicit testimony to God’s Triunity.

FURTHER READING

A HERETIC PROVES THE FATHER IS NOT GOD

Jesus Christ and JWs: Who is the Jehovah That Saves?

WHO IS THE JEHOVAH THAT ONE CALLS UPON TO BE SAVED?

Shaming the Shameless: Responding to a Jehovah’s Witness

JESUS AS THEOS IN HEBREWS

JESUS CHRIST: TRUE GOD FROM TRUE GOD

REVISITED: JESUS THE TRUE GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE

ENDNOTES

(1) Like 2 Peter 1:1, Titus 2:13 is another example of a Sharp construction where Jesus is undoubtedly being described as the Great God and Savior of all believers. The following somewhat lengthy quote helps explain why this is so:

Two of the shortest books of the New Testament contain similar—and very strong—affirmations of Jesus Christ as God. In his epistle to Titus, the apostle Paul⁴⁴ states that Christians “wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). The equally short epistle of 2 Peter opens by describing its readers as “those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (1:1). Both of these texts describe Jesus using the two titles God and Savior.

Not everyone agrees that these verses call Jesus “God.” Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, translate Titus 2:13 “of the great God and of [the] Savior of us, Christ Jesus” and 2 Peter 1:1 “of our God and [the] Savior Jesus Christ” (NWT, brackets in the original). The bracketed insertions of the word the make a significant difference. Read these verses without the bracketed insertions—especially 2 Peter 1:1—and they sound like they are referring to Jesus as both God and Savior.⁴⁵

Several factors, taken together, prove beyond reasonable doubt that both of these verses call Jesus “God.” One of these factors is the way the sentences use the article the in the construction or word arrangement that both sentences share.

The most natural way of understanding this particular construction is that both nouns refer to the same person. (In this construction, it does not matter whether the phrase includes a pronoun or where the pronoun appears.) When this construction occurs in ancient Greek using singular personal nouns that are not proper names (that is, nouns like father, Lord, king, not Jesus, Peter, or Paul), the two nouns normally refer to the same person. The first writer to analyze this construction in a formal way did so in the late eighteenth century. He was an English Christian abolitionist named Granville Sharp; for that reason, the analysis of this construction is commonly known as Sharp’s rule.⁴⁶

The New Testament contains plenty of examples supporting Sharp’s rule. The epistles of Paul, for example, refer to “our God and Father” (e.g., Gal. 1:4; Phil. 4:20; 1 Thess. 1:3; 3:11, 13) and “the God and Father” (Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 15:24), which certainly refer to one person by both titles God and Father. There are numerous additional examples, many of little or no theological concern…

The evidence that Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1 call Jesus God goes beyond Sharp’s rule.⁴⁸ In Titus, the expression “our Savior” (soteros hemon) occurs six times. In five of those six occurrences, the article “the” (tou) immediately precedes “our Savior” (1:3, 4; 2:10; 3:4, 6); the one exception is Titus 2:13. The obvious and only good explanation for this variation is that “our Savior” is governed by the same article that governs “great God.”

Another piece of evidence in the context of Titus 2:13 is Paul’s use of the word epiphaneia (“manifestation” [NRSV], “appearing” [NASB]), from which we derive the word epiphany. In the Bible this word occurs only in Paul’s writings, mostly in the Pastoral Epistles (2 Thess. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 1:10; 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13), and always referring to the manifestation or appearing of Jesus Christ, unless Titus 2:13 is the sole exception. The close parallel between Titus 2:13 and 2 Timothy 1:10 (“the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus”) effectively rules out the possibility that Titus 2:13 is an exception. So when Paul says that Christians are awaiting “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13 NASB), we can be sure that the one who will be “appearing” will indeed be Jesus Christ.

An alternative understanding of Titus 2:13, recently defended by evangelical Pauline scholar Gordon Fee, merits some attention. Fee agrees that Sharp’s rule applies to Titus 2:13, so that “our great God and Savior” refers to one divine person. He argues, however, that the person called “our great God and Savior” is the Father, not Christ. His view is that Jesus Christ is called “the glory of our great God and Savior.” In other words, he understands Paul to be saying that Christians are “awaiting the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, [which glory is] Jesus Christ.”⁴⁹

If Fee is correct, what Paul says about Jesus Christ still implies his deity, since he would be affirming that the climactic, ultimate revelation of God’s glory will be the appearing of Jesus Christ at his second coming. There are, however, some strong reasons to dispute Fee’s interpretation. All of his arguments in support of that view boil down to the claim that it would be out of keeping with Paul’s way of speaking for him to call Jesus “God.” Yet it is clear that Paul departs from his usual terminology for Jesus in the epistle to Titus, since in this epistle alone he never refers to Jesus as “Lord” (kurios) and refers to Jesus at least twice as “Savior” (soter, Titus 1:4; 3:6), a term he rarely uses for Jesus.⁵⁰ Murray Harris rightly warns against “an ever-present danger in literary research in making a writer’s ‘habitual usage’ so normative that he is disallowed the privilege of creating the exception that proves the rule.”⁵¹

At least eight factors cumulatively offer strong support for understanding “Jesus Christ” to be identifying “our great God and Savior,” not “the glory,” in Titus 2:13.

1. “Our great God and Savior” is immediately adjacent to “Jesus Christ.”⁵²

2. It would be odd to speak of the manifestation of God’s glory and not mean that the one who is manifest is God.

3. Paul never refers to Jesus as God’s “glory” (although 2 Cor. 4:4, 6 comes close).

4. All other things being equal, a personal designation like “our great God and Savior” is more likely to be identified as a person (“Jesus Christ”) than is an abstraction (“the glory”).

5. Elsewhere in the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus), whenever Paul uses the word epiphaneia (“manifestation” or “appearing”), it refers to the manifestation of Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 1:10; 4:1, 8), not of an abstract quality related to God or Christ.⁵³

6. In as many as twelve out of eighteen times in his epistles that Paul uses the term “the glory” in the genitive case (tes doxes), it likely functions as a descriptive modifier of the preceding noun (Rom. 8:21; 9:23; 1 Cor. 2:8; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 1:17, 18; 3:16; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:11, 27; 1 Tim. 1:11; Titus 2:13). English translations often express this usage by the rendering “glorious” (see especially the NET and NIV).⁵⁴ Thus, Titus 2:13 may be better translated “the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (see, e.g., NKJV, NIV, NET).

7. Paul immediately follows his reference to Jesus Christ by speaking of his accomplishments for our salvation (Titus 2:14), confirming that in this context Jesus Christ is “our Savior.”

8. The pattern of Paul’s references to “our Savior” in Titus—three references to “God our Savior” each followed closely by a reference to Jesus Christ as “our Savior” (1:3, 4; 2:10, 13; 3:4, 6)—is disrupted if 2:13 does not refer to Jesus Christ as Savior.

A similar text—and one for which the exegetical issues are far simpler—is 2 Peter 1:1, which speaks of “our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Some people argue that this text cannot call Jesus “God” because “God” is clearly distinguished from “Jesus our Lord” in the very next verse (v. 2). This objection, though, assumes that the New Testament cannot affirm both that Jesus is God and that he is distinct from God. To the contrary, in at least four other New Testament texts we find such allegedly “contradictory” statements side by side (John 1:1, 18; 20:17, 28, 31; Heb. 1:8–9). Rather than mistranslate the texts to make them seem unproblematic to our minds, we should consider the possibility that these texts are revealing a paradoxical truth about the very nature of God.

As we read along in 2 Peter, we find several more references to Jesus Christ that closely parallel the wording of the first verse [cf. 1:11; 2:20; 3:2, 18]…

Virtually everyone acknowledges that the “Lord” in these texts is the same person as the “Savior,” namely, Jesus Christ; we need offer no argument or defense of that understanding. Yet in at least two, and possibly three, of these texts the only difference between these descriptions of Christ and that in 2 Peter 1:1 is the use of kuriou (“Lord”) instead of theou (“God”). Since both Lord and God were common titles of deity in both biblical usage and in the broader culture, it is difficult to see any cogent reason to deny that Jesus is called God in 2 Peter 1:1. As Richard Bauckham points out in his commentary on 2 Peter, “There is no reason why variations on the stereotyped formula should not be used.”⁵⁵

The epistle of 2 Peter, then, opens by affirming that Jesus Christ is “our God and Savior.” It closes, appropriately, with a doxology of praise to Jesus Christ: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). The verbal parallels in those opening and closing verses between “our God and Savior Jesus Christ” and “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” as well as the concluding doxology directing eternal glory to Jesus Christ, are stunningly clear affirmations that Jesus Christ is indeed our Lord and our God. Recognizing this is not merely an academic exercise; it is a summons to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ and to begin living in such a way as to glorify him forever. (Bowman & J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case For The Deity of Christ [Kregel Publications, 2007], Part 3: Name Above All Names: Jesus Shares the Names of God, Chapter 12. Immanuel: God With Us, pp. 150-156; emphasis mine)

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