It is curious that a
Protestant denies the full, simulatanous deity and humanity of Christ in his earthly ministry. Being a Protestant myself, you may not find my answer helpful, but I will offer it in case you do.
I don’t have a Bible handy, but I think I can point you in some fruitful directions. First, the word generally used for “worship” of Jesus–say, I think it is in Matt. 14:33 where the apostles worship him–is
proskyneo. I am just learning Greek and am not an expert, but this word is almost always used for worshipping God. (I know of one possible exception, and that is a parable of Jesus’ in which a man “falls down” before another man; yet in the parable the second man represents God, if I remember correctly.) You need to get your Protestant friend thinking along the right track by saying something like: “Well, look. In Matt. 4, Jesus says worship (
proskyneo) God alone, and then in 14:33 is says the apostles worshipped Jesus and he didn’t rebuke them for it! This isn’t the kind of teenage fanaticism of modern times. In fact, you’re anachronistically importing to the ancient Jewish culture a modern practice that has no analogue in first-century Judaism. They didn’t have rock-stars and a teenage subculture like we do today.” Then I would point out that
proskyneo is also used in the Septuagint in the ten commandments, the first commandment. Say, “Any Jews who accepted
proskyneo believed he was God.” This is why when people bow before angels in the New Testament (e.g., in Revelation), the human is ordered to stand up because the angel is not God.
Second, the I-AM passages in John are, frankly, not as convincing as other verse we have available. I would go to Matthew again, (maybe it is chap. 21, but I am not sure). In the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the children shout “Hosanna!” and the scribes rebuke Jesus for accepting these accolades. Jesus then says something like: “Have you never read, ‘out of the mouths of babes I have ordained praise for myself?’” Now the really cool thing here is that Jesus is alluding to Psalm 8, I believe it is, where
God says this. It is as if our Lord were saying, “Why are you upset these children are praising me? Haven’t you read in Psalm 8 that children are supposed to praise God?” The obvious implication is that Jesus is God-incarnate, and was during his earthly ministry.
Third, certainly after the resurrection Jesus was God. In Jn 20:28 Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” and Jesus accepts the praise. But perhaps your friend thinks Jesus became God at the resurrection, so this verse would not be helpful.
Fourth, Paul says in Col. 2, maybe verse 9, that in Jesus “the fullness of deity dwells bodily.” This verse teaches (1) that Jesus is God (“deity”) and (2) that he is at the same time human (“bodily”). While this does not prove that Jesus was God and man while on earth, it does show that there is no contradiction with him being both God and man. So if he is
now both God and man at the same moment, why not on earth, too? I doubt a good answer is forthcoming.
Finally, as for Jesus still being a man in heaven, off-hand I can think of 1 Tim 2, where Paul says there
is (present tense) one mediator between God and men, the
man Jesus Christ. Clearly Paul thinks Jesus is presently a man in heaven as he performs his work of priestly mediation for sinners.
I would double check these references by verse number since I am not certain of all of them. If you have a pressing question, please email me it (
ashton.wilkins@gmail.com) as I am a new-comer to this forum and might not be able to find my way back here quickly or easily.
Thanks,
Ashton
