In spite of all that liberal “Christian atheists” have to say in denial of the deity of Christ, there are five great facts that affirm His Godhead.  The first is the fact of His birth.  The “protevangelium” in Genesis 3:15 says that the seed of the woman shall bruise (crush) Satan’s head.  But a woman does not have “seed.”  Only the man has “seed.”  The old Rabbis, through the centuries, pondered that Messianic promise and wondered what it could mean.  But the prophets made it clear.  Isaiah wrote in 7:14: “…Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God is with us].”  The same prophet added in a further revelation: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”  (Isaiah 9:6).

            Seven hundred fifty years after Isaiah delivered this prophecy, the angel Gabriel was sent to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin Jewess named Mary to announce to her that she should be the mother of this foretold, foreordained child.  “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

            An unbeliever could come to me and say: “Sir, if an unwed mother were to avow to you that her child was born of the Spirit without an earthly father, would you believe it?”  My reply would be: “Yes---if the birth of that child was foretold thousands of years before.  Yes---if when the child was born the angels sang, and the star of promise stood over the place where the infant lay.  Yes---if when the child were grown he had power over the wind and the waves, over disease and death.  Yes---if when he was slain, the third day he was raised from the dead.  Yes---if when he ascended to heaven his disciples, through the centuries, were numbered by the millions and the increasing millions.”  Yes, a child like that could surely, truly be virgin-born according to the Word of God.

            The second great fact affirming the deity of Christ is His life.  He presented the credentials of deity.  By fiat God spoke the worlds into existence:  the sun, the moon, the starry skies.  By the same fiat, Jesus the Christ controlled the worlds above Him, around Him, and before Him.  He merely spoke the word and the dead were raised to life, the blind could see, the lost were saved, and the human flesh saw the glory of God.

            The third great fact affirming the deity of Christ is His death.  He “…died for our sins according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3).  If Christ Jesus were a man like us, He would have had to die for His own sins.  Because He was perfect, blameless, sinless, without spot or blemish, as the Lamb of God chosen before the foundation of the world, He could die for us, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree (I Peter 1:20; 2:24).  Only God could bear our sins away.  To forgive sin is not the prerogative of man.  It pertains to deity alone, and the sin-forgiving Jesus has the prerogatives of deity.

            The fourth great fact affirming the deity of Christ is His resurrection.  According to Romans 1:4, He was “declared to be the Son of God…by the resurrection from the dead.”  According to Hebrews 1:3, “…when he had by himself purged our sins, [he] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”  Thus the author of Hebrews could triumphantly add in 7:25:  “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”  Thus Paul could write in Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

            Affirm it for yourself whether Christ be living or not.  Try praying to Jupiter, Jove, Juno, Janus, or to any other of the Gods of old.  Attempting such a thing would make us feel foolish.  Try calling on the name of Alexander the Great, Augustus Caesar, Washington, or Lincoln.  Such an act of appeal would be ludicrous in the extreme, a travesty in the name of religion.  But try calling upon the name of Jesus; try praying in the name of Jesus.  There is answer; there is power; there is the presence of God.  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

            The fifth great fact affirming the deity of Christ is His return.  Jude 14 announces: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.”  The text of Revelation is stated in 1:7: “Behold, he cometh with clouds: and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.  Even so, Amen.”  Revelation 11:15 triumphantly adds:  “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and shall reign for ever and ever.”  We feel like saying with the poet Richard Gilder:

                        If Jesus Christ is a man,

                           And only a man, I say,

                        That of all mankind I will cleave to him,

                           And to him will I cleave away.

                        But if Jesus Christ is a God,

                           And the only God, I swear

                        I will follow Him through heaven and hell,

                           The earth, the sea, and the air.

Or the Psalmist so beautifully writes it (24:9, 10):

                        Lift up your heads, O ye gates;

                        Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;

                        And the King of glory shall come in.

                        Who is this King of glory?

                        The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.

And that Lord is our Lord forever and ever, even the God-man Christ Jesus.