Jesus is God?

The apostle Paul during his defense before the Roman and Jewish leaders said:

"And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews. Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?" (Acts 26:6-8)

It was a great question: Why is it considered incredible that the Almighty God could raise the dead?

I thought of Paul’s comment the other day when someone asked how Jesus can be God, when God is in heaven.

Aside from the impossibility for our finite minds to understand the infinite mind of God, and apart from the plentiful clues throughout Scripture regarding the deity of Jesus, I focused my response on one point. It was this:

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

I am unable to wrap my human mind around the concept that before the beginning, nothing existed. Nothing. Existed.

Not an atom, or an electron spinning around a nucleus. Nothing existed until the Almighty created it.

Space – if we can even call it ‘space’ was a complete and absolute void before God created it all.

So, why is it considered incredible that this Almighty God, who did all that He did in the beginning – why is it incredible that He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and [was] made in the likeness of men”? Why also would it be implausible that Almighty God, “being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”? (see Philippians 2:5-11).

Genesis 1 reaches far beyond our human capacity to understand the work of Almighty God. And that should not surprise us, because if we were able to understand God, He would not be God.

The concept of Jesus' deity also stretches beyond our human reasoning. But neither should that surprise us. If we could understand God, He would not be God.