The Divinity of Christ; by Anthony Nayagan

Freedom, knowledge, and love are inclusive and inseparable. When we have the freedom to love, love is able to blossom. Similarly, where love exists, it thrives and grows when our knowledge and understanding of our beloved increases.

This understanding can be applied to the church, particularly the relationship between a Christian and Jesus. To love Jesus, an individual must have the freedom and the desire to learn more and understand Christ. Based on the Bible and other historical scriptures, an individual can create a detailed picture of the humanity of Jesus; understanding his divinity, however, can be more complex.

This can be difficult for some Christians to understand, as historically, Christians have been conformists, not seekers of knowledge. Understanding and the pursuit of knowledge requires a change in perspective.

In order to further our knowledge and understanding of Jesus, learning about his divinity is just as relevant and important as studying his humanity. In Gospel, we read, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Based on this, understanding what is unwritten about Jesus is just as important as what is written about Him. There would not be, perhaps, enough books in the world to create an accurate and complete picture of the divinity of Jesus.

In other words, knowledge, and information about the divinity of Christ, exists in unwritten words. Of course, the divinity of Christ does not exist in unwritten words alone, there are plenty of examples about Christ and his divinity in the Gospels. For example, let us reflect on what Jesus says to Mary of Magdalene, after his resurrection.

“Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).

In his words, “Do not hold on to me,” Jesus was referring to his humanity. Clearly, according to the gospels, Mary of Magdalene was enamored in love with the humanity of Christ. This is evident from her washing his feet with her tears and wiping the tears with her hair, all the way through the passion and the death and resurrection of Christ. Her amazing love towards the person-Christ remains unmistakable. Yet Jesus says to her, do not hold on to my humanity.

Later in this passage, Jesus talks about ascending to the Father. Father in Heaven is formless, but the purest consciousness as witnessed often in the Bible. Not humanistic consciousness but only the divine consciousness can lift itself to converge with the purest consciousness of our Father in Heaven.

However, our human consciousness can become the divine consciousness of Christ through convergence with Jesus, and further evolve as divine. This is the mystery of the salvific life and redemptive death of Christ. Seeking the full knowledge, therefore, of the divinity of Christ is imperative to every Christian, and we must seek that knowledge and understanding consistently and vigorously.

You may be wondering, however, how do we pursue the knowledge of the divinity of Christ, considering there is an infinite number of unwritten books that are a mystery to the Bible? In John 14:26, Jesus says, “the Holy Spirit will teach you everything.” Essentially, this quote means that our relationship, prayer, and guidance of the Holy Spirit is the cornerstone of Christian life and spirituality. Life in the Holy Spirit will help us to understand and lead us towards a full knowledge of the divinity of Christ, but we must seek this knowledge in absolute freedom.

In Matthew 7:8, the word says, “everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Every Christian will experience the call from Christ to understand Christianity and the divinity of Christ. This is because loving God with freedom and knowledge is a commandment of Jesus.

In the aforementioned passage with Mary of Magdalene, Jesus ends the exchange with a beautiful promise, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Christ declares that God our father is just as much a father and God to us, as God is to himself. With the salvific life and redemptive death of Christ, therefore, we can also ascend to the consciousness of our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ. This is how meaningful the knowledge of the Divinity of Christ is in our Christian spirituality, and why spirituality and practice being a seeker of knowledge is more important than being a conformist.