This brings to mind the Undertones song, My Perfect Cousin from April 1980. I heard the song before it was released. They played it in their concert in the Arcadia in Cork on February 2nd, 1980. They were great. I still see it as my favourite live concert ever. They came from Derry if you’re a Catholic and Londonderry if you’re a prod 😀. They were the kind of guys that I would have hung around with.
I think of the line “I’ve got a cousin called Kevin, Sure to go to Heaven.” Well, they were Roman Catholics, just like I was. I remember hearing about them going to Mass, which sounded strange for a punk group.
In Catholicism nowadays, people tend to believe that everyone goes to heaven, at least at the popular level.
But back then, the expectation was that most of us would end up in purgatory. It was rare for someone to go straight to heaven. But by August 1980, I was going straight to heaven, not on my own merits, but by believing in Jesus. Jesus didn’t teach that everyone goes to heaven. He called on people to repent and believe in him.
Anyway, the nosey people among you might want to know about my family members 😀. I wouldn’t really like my family to discuss me online, so I don’t feel right about discussing them.
I do have family members and cousins that I am impressed with. But it might be easier to speak in terms of my spiritual family, particularly my brother – Jesus. Hang on! Am I calling Jesus my brother? Well, let me try to justify it 😀.
One of my favourite hymns is “As the Deer Pants for the Water“. One of the lines says, “You’re my friend and you are my brother, even though you are a king“. And that line is based on Scripture.
Matthew 12:50
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Hebrews 2:11
“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”
Romans 8:29
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
John 20:17
“Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
The last verse is particularly interesting. Jesus spoke those words after the resurrection. If that was the only verse of the Bible that you read, you’d likely conclude that Jesus wasn’t God. He calls the Father his God. Yet, when you read further down, you see doubting Thomas meeting the risen Jesus, and this is what happens:
John 20:27-21
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Elsewhere in the New Testament, if anyone gives undue veneration to any man or angel, they are swiftly rebuked. See Acts 10:25–26, Revelation 19:10.
But we don’t see this happening with Jesus:
Matthew 2:11, Matthew 14:33, Luke 24:52, John 9:38, Revelation 5:12–14
He didn’t walk around telling everyone that he was God, but he allowed people to draw that conclusion. And the way his spoke of himself would be entirely inappropriate if he wasn’t God. For example:
John 14:9
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
And in the New Testament, the general pattern is to pray to God our Father in the name of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. And all three are mentioned together in several verses in the New Testament. Sometimes, God and Father are used interchangeably. Here’s an example:
2 Corinthians 13:14
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Here “love of God”, obviously refers to the Father, but it’s plain that all three are put on the same footing. “Trinity” is a theological term. The word isn’t mentioned in the New Testament, but the New Testament teaches that there is one God. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. In the New Testament, people seemed to just accept it. In the early Christian centuries theologians devised many conflicting models that tried to explain it all in plain terms. In the end, the common understanding that most churches accept today was agreed at the Council of Nicea.
But if Jesus is God, why did he call his Father his God? Well, Jesus is “God become man”, and as man, he is our model, our Lord and leader, and our example. So, we see him praying to his father throughout the New Testament. Some verses emphasize his deity; others emphasize his humanity. And he is the mediator between God and Man.
1 Tim 2:5
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.
But isn’t that a bit complicated? Perhaps, but why should it surprise us if God is complicated?
I always find Wayne Grudem helpful on this – Chapter 14: The Trinity and Chapter 26: The Person of Christ. But nowadays, you could probably get a more concise explanation from Microsoft Copilot. I asked it “Is Jesus both God and man?” I was impressed with the answer it provided, and the references that it pointed to.
I began with The Undertones, a secular group from Northern Ireland. Let me close with two evangelical Northern Ireland artists who sing about Jesus:
Hibernia Gospel 
Great song great band!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Hibernia
I am extremely thankful to you for your liking of my post, None5 🙏🌹
LikeLiked by 1 person