of ontological deity according to biblical monotheism.
Creation
The first quality that sets ontological deity apart from all else is creation, the opus proprium Dei.24 Only the true God is the Creator of all things. The false gods are those who “did not make the heavens and the earth” (Jer 10:11; cp. Ps 96:5). YHWH is not like the worthless idols, precisely because he is the one who formed all things (Jer 10:16; 51:19). By definition, no creature can be the Creator of all things. With that presupposition in place, we must reckon with the astonishing implications of the New Testament’s identification of the preincarnate Son as the one through whom God created all things:
“All things (panta) were made through him (dia + gen.), and without him was not any thing made that was made . . . . He was in the world, and the world (ho kosmos) was made through him (dia + gen.), yet the world did not know him” (John 1:3, 10).
“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things (ta panta) and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom (dia + gen.) are all things (ta panta) and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6).
“For by him (en + dat.) all things (ta panta) were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things (ta panta) were created through him (dia + gen.) and for him” (Col 1:16).
“. . . in these last days [God] has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom (dia + gen.) also he created the world (hoi aiōnes)” (Heb 1:2).25
The phrase “all things” (panta or ta panta) is a comprehensive term that embraces all of created reality in distinction from God the Creator. Paul defines “all things” as “things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Col 1:16). The invisible things include angelic beings, as is made clear by the next phrase, “whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.” Other terms that comprehend all of creation are the singular ho kosmos (John 1:10) and the plural hoi aiōnes (lit. “the ages,” Heb 1:2), both rendered “the world.” John 1:3 is even more emphatic: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing (oude hen) made that was made.” Both Paul and John go out of their way to eliminate any exceptions. All created things, without exception, received their existence and came into being through Christ. These passages do not state that “the Son created the rest of creation, but that he created all that was created. This excludes the Son from the created order.”26 By assigning the Son a mediatorial role in creation, the New Testament places him on the divine side of the Creator-creature distinction and makes him an eternally preexistent divine being along with God the Father and therefore part of the divine being.27
Aseity
Aseity is the second test of ontological deity. If the first test is a work of God, the second is an attribute of God. In fact, aseity may be the primary attribute of God’s being.28 To possess aseity means that one is a se, a Latin phrase which means that one has one’s being “from oneself” and not from another. Only God has aseity. His name is “I am who I am” (Exod 3:14). All created reality is from God and dependent on God, but God is not dependent on anything outside of himself. The New Testament predicates aseity, and therefore ontological deity, of Jesus. The Father has granted the Son to have “life in himself” (John 5:26) and therefore he possesses the uniquely divine attribute of aseity. Jesus is unchanging, “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8), in contrast with the entire realm of created reality which is contingent, corruptible, and perishable: “They will perish, but you remain . . . . You are the same, and your years will have no end” (Heb 1:11–12, quoting LXX Ps 102:25–27).29 Further demonstrating his aseity or independence from any created thing, we read that he “upholds all things by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3), and “in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). If the entire created realm (“all things,” ta panta) depends on him, then he cannot depend on anything in the created realm, and is therefore distinct from and independent of the created realm, which necessarily determines his ontological status as divine.
The New Testament accepts the monotheistic assumptions inherited from the Old Testament and Judaism. It accepts the basic divide in reality between all that is created and God himself, who is utterly distinct from creation. And yet in the areas of creation and aseity, the New Testament places Jesus on the divine side of the Creator-creature distinction. Christ as God’s Son shares ontological deity with his Father in a way that is perfectly consistent with monotheism.30
The Exaltation of Christ
At this point, the ontological deity of the eternal Son has been proven. Yet the New Testament has still more to say to “seal the deal.” The ontological deity of the eternal Son receives explosive confirmation from the Father’s exaltation of his obedient, incarnate Son. As pointed out earlier, the New Testament envisions the Son as having a three-stage career: (1) the preincarnate state of the Son, with God the Father before and at creation, (2) the first phase of his incarnate state, that is, his earthly ministry, and (3) the second phase of his incarnate state, that is, his exaltation at God’s right hand. The first and the third states are closely related. In fact, Aquila H. I. Lee has convincingly argued that the exaltation of Christ was one of the key factors that led the primitive church to the belief in his eternal preexistence.31 Some have attempted to argue for a two-stage Christology that eliminates the preexistence phase. But this would mean that a human being has been exalted to a position of divine honor that does not properly belong to him according to his ontological nature. In other words, they argue for the deification of a mere man, a belief that would be more at home in a polytheistic context (recall the ancient Romans’ belief about the apotheosis of Romulus after his death). But the exaltation of Christ, with its implication of divine status, cannot be interpreted as an apotheosis. Such a construction would be conceptually and theologically impossible within the context of an early Christian movement composed of Jewish believers raised in and committed to the strict monotheism inherited from Judaism. Therefore, the exaltation of Christ must be interpreted along different lines. Rather than viewing his exaltation as an apotheosis, we must view his exaltation is the manifestation and confirmation of his identity as the divine Son of God. Paul speaks of this as his having been “marked out (horisthentos) Son of God in power . . . by his resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4).32 There are several features of the exaltation of Christ which demonstrate that his divine honors in the state of exaltation are appropriate based on his ontological deity as the preexistent Son.
Sovereignty
There is only one ultimate power in the universe—only one sovereign, one king. God is “the blessed and only sovereign” (1 Tim 6:15). Thus it is remarkable that the exalted Lord Jesus shares the divine sovereignty with the Father. In fact, it was his own Father who granted him to sit at his right hand until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet in fulfillment of Ps 110:1. This crucial Old Testament verse is quoted or alluded to some twenty-two times in the New Testament with reference to Jesus. Jesus’ exalted position at God’s right hand and his consequent authority and sovereignty over all things are astonishing. No mere creature could be given that divine authority as Lord of all creation. The exalted Lord Jesus received the divine sovereignty from the Father (Matt 28:18), not as a temporary gift granted to a mere creature, but because he is the firstborn, that is, the rightful heir, of all creation through whom all things were created (Heb 1:2–3;
