High Cost

The High Cost of the Apostolic Church’s Proclamation of Jesus’ Divinity

The attribution of divinity to Jesus cost the apostolic Church dearly, because it seemed to run contrary to the strict monotheism of second-Temple Judaism and was viewed as blasphemous and repugnant to most Jewish audiences. This eventually led to Jewish Christians being banned from the Synagogue (which they did not want), a loss of social and financial status, and even persecution and death.^[22]

At the very least, the proclamation of Jesus’ divinity was apologetically unappealing. Jewish audiences would not have been attracted to an apparent blasphemy, and both Jewish and Gentile audiences would not have been attracted to the proclamation of a crucified man as divine. Why would the apostolic Church have selected a doctrine which would have been viewed so unfavorably by the very audience which it wanted to attract?

As Joachim Jeremias remarks, this was wholly unnecessary, for the apostolic Church did not have to proclaim or even imply that Jesus was divine in order to bestow great favor upon Him within the culture of the day. They could have proclaimed Him to be a “martyr prophet.” This would have allowed converts to worship at His tomb and to pray through His intercession. He would also have been listed high among the “holy ones” and would have therefore been much more palatable to (if not popular among) both Jewish and Gentile prospective converts.

Why, then, did the apostolic Church go so unapologetically and dangerously far to proclaim (ardently) that “Jesus is Lord?” Why didn’t they make their preaching more apologetically appealing? Why did they suffer social and financial loss, and even persecution and death, when it all could have been avoided by simply giving up the implication of His divinity? I think the only reasonable and responsible answer is that they thought He really was divine.

So why did the apostolic Church believe Him to be divine (and even to share a unity and co-equality with the Father in all eternity)? How could they be so sure of this radical proclamation which had so many negative consequences, when they could have taken the “easier road” in proclaiming Him to be a martyr prophet?^[23] Was it simply because Jesus indicated His divine Sonship with the Father? I would submit that the early Church believed in Jesus’ lordship (divinity) for four reasons:

1) Jesus’ bodily-glorified resurrection (Unit II-C&D),

2) Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit – experienced as “the power of God” (Unit II-E),

3) Jesus’ miracles – experienced as divine power through his own authority (Unit II-F),

4) Jesus’ proclamation of Himself as the exclusive Son of the Father, the Bringer of God’s kingdom, and the Fulfiller of the mission reserved to Yahweh alone (Unit II-G).

If the combination and interrelationship among these four sources reasonably and responsibly grounds the assertions in the Philippians and Johannine hymns, then it would seem that Emmanuel has truly come among us and continues to be with us.