Kaliwanagan Kay Kristo: Jesus Is Not God, He Called God as God (Aug 1 2017) || John Pesebre

For the next five episodes we will talk about support sa claim na “Si Jesus ay tao lamang.” This was brought about because of my conversation sa isang mini-mentor ko na si Lester.

Para po sa ating kaalaman, ito po ang opisyal na posisyon ng Iglesia ni Kristo patungkol kay Jesu Cristo --

• Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Iglesia ni Cristo believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. God made Him Lord and Savior. He is the only Mediator of man to God. Jesus Christ is holy and a very special man but not God. (Matt. 3:17; Acts 2:36; 5:31; I Tim. 2:5; John 10:36; 8:40; Acts 2:22, Easy-to-Read Version).

Sa episode po na ito ang tatalakayin natin ay ang support na “dahil tinawag ni Kristo na Diyos and Diyos.” Ang weight ng argument na ito rests on passages on God’s claim na there is no other God but Him alone in passages such as Deuteronomy 4:35, 38, Deuteronomy 6:4, 2 Samuel 7:22 at marami pang iba. Sa madaling salita, bakit magki claim ang mga believers na tulad natin na si Kristo ay Diyos samantalang si Kristo mismo dini-diyos nya ang Diyos na nagsabi na iisa lamang ang Diyos?

Nung early church pa po may mga views na ganito, tulad ng pinaka-kilalang si Arius. Sa kanyang sinulat pinamagatang Thalia, ang 3rd century presbyter na si Arius said,

• He who is without beginning made the Son a beginning of created things He produced him as a son for himself by begetting him. He [the son] has none of the distinct characteristics of God’s own being (kat’ hypostasis) For he is not equal to, nor is he of the same being (homoousios) as him.

The person of Jesus was not only a man but also God incarnate at walang problema ang katotohanang pagtawag ni Kristo ng Diyos sa Diyos.

We must understand the the orthodox belief ng Christianity dito. When we talk of the person of Christ we are not using “person” there as a human person but as a person where the divine and the human have a union, sa history po ng simbahan ang tawag dito ay “hypostatic union.” Tayo ang ating nature natin ay uniquely human, kay Kristo nasa person niya ang divine at human. This is best expressed in sa Chalcedonian Creed nung na nakasalin na po sa Tagalog dito. Ang sabi ay,

• ipahayag ang isa at Siyang Anak, ang ating Panginoong Jesu-Cristo, na Siyang ganap sa Pagka-Diyos at ganap din sa pagiging tao; tunay na Diyos at tunay na tao, na may kaluluwang may pag-iisip at katawan; kaisang-kalikasan ng Ama ayon sa Pagka-Diyos, at kaisang-sangkap natin ayon sa pagiging tao; katulad natin sa lahat ng bagay, walang pagkakasala

 Gayung hindi pa rin gaano kalinaw subalit minarapat ng ating mga ninuno na gawin yan kesa naman gawin nila yung talikuran ang nakasulat sa Bibliya tungkol sa kalikasan ng ating Panginoong Hesus. Mas ginusto nilang bumuo ng linggwahe na imperfect kesa naman piliin ang talikuran ang katotohanan ng salita ng Diyos patungkol sa divinity ng ating Panginoon dahil

• The New Testament, in hundreds of explicit verses that call Jesus “God” and “Lord” and use a number of other titles of deity to refer to him, and in many passages that attribute actions or words to him that could only be true of God himself, affirms again and again the full, absolute deity of Jesus Christ. “In him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:19), and “in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9).*

Isa po sa mga dahilan kung bakit pinapahalagahan natin ang testimony ng Scripture tungkol kay Christ is because nung ma reveal yung incarnate Son nagbigay Siya dagdag na linaw sa mga pahayag ng Diyos. Ika nga sa Hebrews 1:1-2, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” Ang mga teachings concerning Christ ay mga key na paglilinaw sa mga naunang pinahayag ng Diyos, hindi dahil sa mali ang naunang pahayag, God forbid, subalit minarapat ng Diyos na itaguyod ang kabuuhan ng Kanyang pahayag sa ganitong paraan. So kaya naman hind natin dapat tinatalikuran kung anumang pahayag mayroon ang Bagong Tipan patungkol sa Anak ng Diyos.

Basahin ko muna po ang mga passages where God said those words. Una sa Matthew 27:46 at Mark 15:34. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. Tila baga ang Panginoong Hesus ay nagku-quote ng Psalm 22: 1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Kailangan nating maunawaan na ang person of Christ ay may humanity. Ika nga ng isang pastor

• The New Testament- -predominantly the Synoptics--reveals a Jesus who experienced limitations and finiteness. He, furthermore, did not perform supernatural works out of his inherent deity but by dependence on the Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit However, he did not divest his deity or his attributes of deity but curtailed their exercise.**

In a way pwede po niyong sabihin na isang Arnold Schwarzenegger with those bulging muscles carrying a sleeping child -- he curtailed yung kanyang strength to be able to lull a baby to sleep.

So kaya naman po hindi na mahirap isipin na tinawag nya ang Diyos na Diyos dito kasi in his humanity, may kakayahan siyang paikliin ang kanyang Divinity sa kanyang humanity, all of which acting as one person not as two separate persons inside him. Tandaan natin Jesus is one person.

A Jesus who is merely a man is the Jesus of the Unitarians, the Arians, the Iglesia ni Kristo, the Ebionites, the Socinians atbp. Ito ang Kristo na ang sinasambang diyos ng mga nabanggit kong mga grupo whose beliefs not only do not measure up to the teachings of Scripture but also openly denies the teachings of Scripture. Kumbaga, tahasan nilang tinalikuran ang patotoo ang sinasabi ng Salita ng Diyos.

Jesus called God as God because of His humility and submiission. A person in the Godhead, Jesus humbled himself by curtailing (not "removing" but "reducing in extent [or] imposing a restriction on")  ang kanyang divine nature not even to exercise His own will but the will of the Father. Pinapakita sa atin ng Panginoong Hesus ang tamang buhay na naayon sa kalooban at kalakasan ng Panginoon. Oo He exercised His divine power to calm the storm, to raise the dead, but that was not based on His own will but the will of the Father. I hope you see the trust and the confidence to give the control of his life to the Father. Sabi ni Jesus sa John 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.""

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* Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 529.

**  Roger Helland, “The Hypostatic Union: How Did Jesus Function?” Evangelicals Quarterly 65:4 (1993), 327