Putting Jesus in his place - The case for the deity of Christ

Hands up for Jesus

PUTTING JESUS IN HIS PLACE
The case for the deity of Christ
By Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed. Komoszewski
Kregel. 392 pages
ISBN 978-0-8254-2983-5

Finding a catchy title for a book can be tricky. This is a superb study, as I shall show presently. But the title grates, does it not? It suggests ‘putting down’, whereas the authors’ intent, which they carry out to a fault, is to give Jesus his ‘rightful honour’, to do justice to the full range of biblical data regarding his undiminished deity. It has the following notable virtues.

It is written in a clear and lively way, well organised, and comprehensive. It is organised by means of the acrostic HANDS — Jesus shared the Honour, Attributes, Names, Deeds and Seat, of Almighty God. This may suggest a simplistic approach, but by using it Bowman and Komoszewski intend to indicate the book’s comprehensive scope.

The reader is presented with a fine blend of theological and exegetical material. There has long been controversy regarding whether our approach to Christology should be ‘top down’ — beginning with God — or ‘bottom up’ — beginning with Jesus’s consciousness of who he was, of the nature of his ministry and the like. A book such as this strongly suggests that it does not matter from which direction we begin, provided that we gain an understanding of Jesus that does not perversely isolate him from the biblical doctrine of God or of man.

The book is argumentative when it needs to be. So there is an apologetic strand in it. For example, in the way it effectively rebuts Professor James Dunn’s idea that the New Testament does not teach the pre-existence of Christ. Yet the main text is not technical, it is succinct and clear. The lengthy set of endnotes enables the interested reader to take things further. There is a Scripture index, but no general index.

If there is a weakness, it is that in the authors’ confidence in the biblical case for Christ’s deity, and their understandable concern to present this clearly and compellingly, they downplay the mystery of the Incarnation. Take that central phrase of theirs, ‘Jesus shares the attributes of God’.

I am Paul Helm. Do I share in the attributes of Paul Helm? Who do I share these attributes with? Doesn’t sound right, does it? ‘Sharing’ suggests that the attributes of God can be divided up, which they can’t be. Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God, the Father is God; none of the persons ‘share’ in God; nor are there three gods. The authors later on make it clear Jesus has the properties of God in an undiminished way, and since these are essential to God alone, and Jesus has them, he is God. But none of this difficulty with language, due to the uniqueness of the Incarnation, filters through. Paul’s confession, ‘Great is the mystery of godliness’ (1 Tim. 3.16) (not referred to in the book), is muted.

Still, praise for this book ought not to be muted. It’s an ideal study guide to the theological heart of the faith.