One of the foundation blocks for the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. We believe that he was not merely a prophet or great teacher like many religions have claimed, but that He is God. That is it. To be a Christian is to believe this truth. That God put on flesh, became a man, and walked amongst us.
Yet, many people say that Jesus never claimed to be God, arguing that if you read the scripture, you will see that he never said anything of the sort.
They say that Jesus did not believe he was God and that no one at the time thought he was claiming that. That's a big deal, and if that is true, the whole fabric of the Christian faith will unravel.
So, what is the truth? Did Jesus say and believe he was God? Or is that something we made up? Did his disciples think he was God?
Let's dive into the teaching of Christ and see if we can find anywhere where Jesus stated he was more than human and find out if anyone actually thought that he was claiming to be God.
1. Jesus Confessed That He Was God
In John 8:23, Jesus says publicly to a crowd of people that he is not from earth but heaven. "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world."
The Pharisees don't like that he just said this, and they begin to argue with him. Jesus brings up that the Father of Israel, Abraham, looked for the day when he would see Jesus. Shocked, the Pharisees say in John 8:57, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?"
Jesus' response is mind-blowing. In John 8:58, Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
This statement has so many ramifications that one article could not possibly cover it all. By saying "I AM," Jesus was referring to the name of God given to Moses in Exodus 3:14.
In Exodus 3:14, God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
So, when Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I AM." He is essentially saying, "I have the same name as the one who spoke to Moses. That was me. I am eternally past and was here before Abraham was thousands of years ago. I am the same God who spoke to them."
That statement was incredibly clear for the Jews at the time that he was claiming to be God.
In John 17, Jesus does it again! He begins to pray openly to Father God in front of his disciples. He says, in John 17:5, "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."
This statement of Jesus is significant for a few reasons. For one, Jesus asked to share the very glory of God. How could a human ever be worthy of the same glory that God is worthy of?
God was so glorious that a priest could only approach his presence in the temple once a year, and yet Jesus blatantly says, "Share your glory with me," showing that he believed he was worthy of the same glory as of the eternal God!
Jesus then takes it even farther and asks for the glory he had with the Father before the world began! Before the world began? What?
He just claimed that he was with God before time began and that he saw the very creation of the world! God creates the human spirit, and though it is eternal in the future, it has a finite beginning.
The Jews understood this. Absolutely no one but God alone is eternal in the past, and no one but God was alive before the world began.
For Jesus to say that he remembers sharing the glory with God before the very creation of the world was to state he has no beginning, an attribute only given to God.
One of Jesus' disciples asks Jesus to show them God, and Jesus replies, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don't know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? (John 14:9).
Jesus wants his disciples to know, "If you want to see God, look at me, I am right here in front of you."
2. His Enemies Killed Him for Claiming He Was God
The Pharisees hated Jesus for many reasons. Jealousy over his crowd following, fear over him destroying their ministry, confusion on how he performed miracles.
But none of that was a good enough reason to kill him. Until He claimed he was God. According to the Law, that was blasphemy, and the consequence for such a claim was the death penalty.
John 5:18 says they wanted him dead because he thought he was equal with God. "So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, but he also called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God."
This happened again when Jesus said in John 8 earlier, "before Abraham was, I AM," the Pharisees did not respond well.
John 8:59 says, "So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple."
They would not have tried to stone him at this moment if he was not proclaiming that he was God.
Again, the enemies of Jesus even clarify for us in John 10 that they want to kill him because he is telling people that he is God.
Jesus said in John 10:28, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."
This is a big deal. Jesus claimed that he could give people eternal life. The Jews knew that only God and God alone could grant people eternal life, so proclaiming that he, a mere human, had the same power as the immortal God to give eternal life was astounding.
But he doesn't stop there. He goes on to say in verse 30, "I and the Father are one."
In this verse, the Greek word for "one" means the literal number one. It is not poetic, metaphorical, and does not have a different meaning. It means a singular item.
Jesus is stating here that he is literally one with God. How do we know that this is what he meant and that the crowds understood that? Because once again, his enemies try to kill him for that statement.
"Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God’" (John 10:31-32).
It does not get more clear than that. His enemies publicly wanted to kill him solely because he made himself God. If Jesus had never claimed to be God, they would have had no legal grounds for his crucifixion.
3. His Disciples Believed He Was God
Twelve men followed Jesus around all day, every day, for three years. So, we get better insight into what Jesus taught and believed about himself when we look at what they taught and thought about him. It was pretty clear that they felt that he was God.
When Jesus reappears to the disciples after his death, Thomas looks at him and says in John 20:28, "My Lord and my God!" (ESV).
Thomas does not just acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord but proclaims, "Jesus, you are my God!"
If this were a wrong statement Jesus didn't believe about himself, he could have corrected him, but instead, he goes as far as to say, in verse 29, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
What "belief" is Jesus referring to? That he is Lord and he is GOD! Jesus says, “you only believe that I am Lord and God because you see me but blessed are those who believe that I am Lord and God even without seeing me!”
John, in his gospel, says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). He then says that this Word is Jesus!
Paul, a man who once hated Christians for blasphemy, later comes to the same conclusion as Jesus' disciples! He says that in Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God…" (ESV), and in Colossians 2:9, "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body" (ESV).
He believes that all the fullness of God dwells inside of a human body named Jesus!
These are only a few of many verses that point to Jesus being God. Anyone who states that Jesus never referred to himself as God or that his disciples and enemies never believed that he did has misread the scripture because it is everywhere in the Bible.
For further reading:
What Are All of the ‘I AM’ Statements of Jesus?
Why Is Jesus’ Divinity Important?
Why Do Some Christians Believe Jesus Was Just a Good Teacher and Not God?
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