The comment by Rev Graham Hellier in the September issue regarding Graham Kendrick’s hymn, The Servant King seems like splitting hairs or semantics.

He suggests that the statement “This is our God” is not scriptural although he seems to accept that Jesus was the son of God.

Unlike the Rev Hellier I have no theological training but it would be interesting to know what he thinks of the prologue to John’s Gospel, probably the most theological of the Gospels. It begins:

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”.

It continues in the same vein. Similarly, in his kenosis described in Philippians 2 it says: “Who being in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage…..” Quotes are from the NIV.

John Spence (Prof), Airdrie, Lanarkshire

In response to the letter of the Rev Graham Hellier, the Gospels make the full humanity and divinity of Jesus clear. He walked, worked and wept. But his divinity is clear, too, in his miraculous conception (Mt 1:18, Lk 1:35) and in the account of the preincarnate existence of the Word, whom John reveals Jesus to be (Jn 1:14). Jesus knew himself to be God. When asked if he had seen Abraham, Jesus responded: “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:57,58). He forgave sins (Mk 9:22) and said: “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:3). Jesus is repeatedly addressed as Lord in the Gospels. He is worshipped by the Magi (Mt 2:11), by the women following his resurrection (Mt 28:9), and by Thomas, who declares Jesus to be Lord and God (Jn 20:8).

The apostolic message is no different. Jesus is proclaimed as fully human and fully God. Paul the apostle wrote: ‘For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form’ (Col 2:9). The Bible declares Jesus to be God in the flesh. This is the faith of the Church throughout history - the scriptural, credal and ecumenical faith of the worldwide Church today. Only through his full humanity could he live a perfect life of obedience on our behalf. Only through his full divinity could he bear the full consequences of sin.

Graham Kendrick’s hymn, The Servant King, is perfectly right to declare Jesus as Servant and God. The Bible is an extended exposition of this essential truth. The Church of Scotland gladly affirms the deity of Jesus in the First Declaratory Article, acknowledging ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, made very man for our salvation,’ and in the Westminster Confession of Faith, saying ‘The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon Him man’s nature’ (WCF 8:2)

Jesus is indeed our God, the Servant King. Louis Kinsey (Rev), Chair on behalf of the Trustees of Covenant Fellowship Scotland, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen