So all too often I hear Muslims and various people make the claim that Jesus never claimed to be God or that Jesus never said "I am God, worship me." while they're right about those words never appearing in The Bible they are horribly wrong. This confusion largely stems from the use of the words "Son" of God, as The Jehova's Witnesses believe Jesus is a son in a literal sense, a god with a little "G" as in a separate being from God Himself (they also believe He's Michael the arch angel but that's a whole other can of worms that I won't get into here.) and so when people see or hear the word "son" they instantly think of "offspring". I'm writing this article because I spoke at my church a while back on this topic and decided I'd write a proper article demonstrating that Jesus Christ is in fact God Himself. Let's dive in;
For starters let's look at The Bible itself in context and that means reading it and understanding it the way The Jews would have, after all, that's to whom The Bible is written and the many writers themselves are Jews, so if we're going to read The Bible in its context we must understand it like a Jew. I'm not a Jew (despite what a Black Hebrew Israelite might say) but luckily The Bible tells us just exactly what The Jews thought about the events in The Bible, and it is this from which we'll draw our context. My first piece of evidence about Jesus's claim to be God Himself is the biggest piece of evidence and that is found in found in John 8:31-59;
"31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you are seeking to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 I speak of the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” 39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. 40 But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. 41 You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born as a result of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came forth from God and am here; for I have not even come on My own, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I say the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 The one who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” 48 The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not rightly say that You are a Samaritan, and You have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; on the contrary, I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 But I am not seeking My glory; there is One who seeks it, and judges. 51 Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone follows My word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets as well; and yet You say, ‘If anyone follows My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died, are You? The prophets died too. Whom do You make Yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him. And if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you; but I do know Him, and I follow His word. 56 Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced.” 57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the temple grounds."
This is a huge chunk of a chapter but I wanted to post the whole thing in context because I'm going to make some references to this chapter, as you can see Jesus says that Abraham was overjoyed to see his day, The Jewish Leader rightfully point out that Jesus isn't even 50 years old (at this point Abraham is a good 700ish years before them) so Jesus couldn't have possibly met him but Jesus says something VERY critical and then something VERY critical happens afterward; Jesus says;
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
That may not seem like a lot but to The Jews it was everything. And the reason being is because Jesus in one sentence managed to not only establish Himself as being superior to Abraham but He established Himself as being superior to Moses and said He was God Himself. How? Let's back up a second; Jesus's first claim is that Abraham saw "his day", Jesus is a man around 30 at the time and is claiming to have met Abraham, this is impossible as once again Abraham is 700ish years removed from them, so Jesus is making a claim of being outside of time or older than they think He is. The Jews understood this as they immediately commented about His age, so they followed each claim to their logical conclusion. The next claim Jesus makes is CRITICAL; He says "BEFORE Abraham was born". Abraham was the mechanism by which The Jewish nation entered the world. Abraham is the start of The Jewish Nation so Jesus is saying "Before The Nation Of Israel was even in existence" then He follows up with "I AM."
That may not seem like much but that "I am" statement is a powerful statement because Jesus envokes Moses. How? Jesus is echoing God's words to Moses in Exodus 3:13-14;
13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God said "I am" to Moses as the name of the one who sent him, and Jesus is claiming that name for Himself to The Jews. So let's recap, Jesus first makes a claim about His age, and The Jewish Leaders rightfully question Him on His age, then Jesus attributes a name God claimed for Himself to Himself, and then what do The Jews do?
59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the temple grounds."
The Jews attempted to murder Him? Why? For blasphemy. They understood that He was claiming to be God Himself. If you read The Bible you'll notice The Jewish Leaders will often talk about "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" or "The God Of Moses". The Jews lived in a very patriarchal society and therefore if you as a Jewish man respected your forefathers then you as a Jewish man respected their God. So Jesus as a Jewish man is well aware of the implications of claiming to be greater than both Abraham and Moses and making this claim to men who have studied the scriptures for most of their lives. To The Jewish leaders, the chain of command didn't go any higher than Abraham and the only person above Abraham was God Himself and Jesus said "I am".
But Ugo, you might ask yourself, why then does it say "Son of God" still? Why not just call Jesus God? Good question, and once again this is where understanding The Bible as a Jew comes into play. As I've said before The Jews were a very patriarchal society and so fathers meant something (a lot more than they do these days) and being the son of someone meant something. In those days and especially if you were of nobility if you were the "son" of whoever that meant you were acting on their authority. Back then they didn't have Surnames as we do now so people would often be introduced as "Thomas Son of John" as a way to establish lineage, if Jesus were just a prophet The Bible would say Jesus Son Of Joseph. So replace the word "Son of God" with "Authority" and you have your answer as to why they call Jesus "Son of God". Jesus is essentially claiming the lineage of God. Likewise, when The Bible refers to Jesus as "Son of Man" it is also saying the Authority of man, as in He has authority over man.
But you don't have to believe me, Jesus uses this logic Himself;
39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. 40 But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. 41 You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born as a result of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came forth from God and am here; for I have not even come on My own, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus says to The Jewish Leaders "You are of your father The Devil.". Was Jesus literally saying they were The Devil's children? Of course not! He was merely saying they're acting on The Devil's authority. Likewise, The Jewish Leaders claimed to be children of Abraham, and yes while they're in his lineage, they're not directly his children and it doesn't carry the same chronological weight that Jesus's claim does. Jesus claims to act on God's (ie, The Father's) authority and The Jews understood that Jesus wasn't claiming to be a "child of God" in terms of behavior but rather was claiming a direct and intimate connection with God and taking it a step further and claiming to be God Himself.
Now after all of this, you have a few possibilities about Jesus's claims here;
- Jesus Is God and claimed to be God (This is the correct answer but let's continue)
- Jesus BELIEVED He was God and claimed to be God (This makes Jesus delusional and a false prophet)
- Jesus never claimed to be God and did not believe He was God (and this means that Jesus is literally the worst communicator in the history of Mankind because He said something to a specific audience in a specific way that'd get Him killed, and He knew it'd get Him killed. Jesus is a Jewish man speaking to a Jewish audience and not just a Jewish audience but an exceptionally educated Jewish audience and He says something that He would know they would understand as blasphemy and says it anyway. This would be akin to going up to The CIA and saying "Man, I really wish I could kill The President" and as they throw me to the ground I scream "I MEANT THE PRESIDENT OF WALMART!")
Those are the only 3 conclusions you can logically draw from that passage. But it goes on, in John 20:26-29;
"26 Eight days later His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be to you.” 27 Then He *said to Thomas, “Place your finger here, and see My hands; and take your hand and put it into My side; and do not continue in disbelief, but be a believer.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you now believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
Thomas acknowledges Jesus as "My Lord and My God!". Thomas is saying these words directly to Jesus as The Bible notes "Thomas answered and said TO Him" not just simply "said" and that's very important because Thomas isn't making an exclamation of joy but rather an acknowledgment he says "My Lord and My God!", Thomas just called Jesus "God." now if Jesus is NOT God then His immediate response needs to be rebuking Thomas because calling someone God is called "worship" so Thomas is worshipping Jesus. But Jesus does not rebuke Thomas Jesus accepts the worship given to Him. You have a few conclusions you can draw from this;
- Jesus Is God and accepted worship as God Himself (which is correct)
- Jesus BELIEVED He was God and accepted worship (which would make Him a false prophet)
- Jesus didn't realize Thomas was talking to Him and He thought Thomas was just thanking God (but The Bible notes that Thomas said this directly to Jesus and Jesus immediately responded afterward)
"18 A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone."
Jesus says "No one is good except God alone." see, Jesus isn't claiming to be God. No, Jesus is asking this man a question and explaining His question. This is The Bible's version of "Who do you think you're talking to?", this is a rhetorical question, the asker isn't genuinely asking if the person is aware of who they're talking to, rather the question is asking if the person understands that the answer to their question is before them. More often than not the question of "Who do you think you're talking to?" is proceeded by a doubting statement, for example;
"Do you really think you can fix this?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?"
But Jesus is not only asking "Who do you think you're talking to?" but He's making sure The Rich Man knows what He just said. Jesus is saying "You're calling me good, no one is good except for God, ergo you're called me God, correct?". The Rich Man doesn't pick up on this at all so He fails Jesus's "vibe check" (as the kids are calling it these days). Now understand something, why would Jesus make such a confusing statement at the start of such an innocent exchange? Because Jesus was using it as a teachable moment and that moment was to establish that despite the Rich Man carrying out all of the commandments his heart wasn't after God, and how do we know this? Because Jesus said to the man "Follow me." Why would Jesus say at the start of the conversation that "No one is good except for God." and then at the end of the conversation say "Follow me"?. Let's see if you can follow along. Jesus at the start of the conversation asks "Who do you think you're talking to?" this is a response to The Rich Man's question of how to obtain eternal life, Jesus answers him by saying "I'm standing right here.", but He goes on to lists the commandments to which the Rich Man has followed and Jesus says Luke 18:22-23;
"22 Now when Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely wealthy.
So why would Jesus first say "Only God is good" and then "follow me" to answer The Rich Man's question of gaining eternal life? How do eternal life and following Jesus relate to each other unless Jesus is claiming to be God? No prophet in The Bible has ever said follow me to eternal life and yet Jesus first establishes that the Rich Man is speaking to God Himself, not just a teacher, Jesus never once in his exchange with the man focused on the teacher portion of the man's question, simply the good part because He wanted to establish to the Rich Man what he was getting himself into and then told the Rich Man to follow Him. Otherwise, Jesus's question makes no sense. Here are some conclusions;
- Jesus is God and was claiming to be God (this is correct)
- Jesus was denying He was God and was accusing The Rich Man of calling Him God (But Jesus doesn't rebuke the man, simply asks a question which isn't elaborated on. That'd make this entire portion extremely awkward, because as a Jewish man Jesus just got accused of being God and denied it with a question rather than actively denying it. As an example, it'd be like going up to an employee at a grocery store asking to speak with the manager and the employee says "Why do you call me the manager?" rather than saying "I'm not the manager.")
We dive even further and we go to John 1:1-18;
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. 5 And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. 6 A man came, one sent from God, and his name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 9 This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John *testified about Him and called out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who is coming after me has proved to be my superior, because He existed before me.’” 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, who is in the arms of the Father, He has explained Him."
The Bible says "In The Beginning was The Word and The Word was with God and The Word WAS God" and in verse 14 "and The Word became flesh and dwelt among us". The Word became flesh and dwelt among us sounds a lot like Jesus's previous claims to The Jewish Leaders when He said "Before Abraham was born", if Jesus is The Word and "in the beginning was The Word" then Jesus is God. This establishes that Jesus is not only God but separate from God as He is His own person within the trinity, otherwise, you have Jesus being a separate god and that is polytheism, but John says "The Word was with God" a separate being and "The Word was God" the unity. This isn't Modalism where it's just a different version of God, The Bible says Jesus was with and is God.
The issue most people have comes from the incarnation and Jesus being both 100% Man and 100% God and terms like "Son of God" which I already explained. Jesus existed with God and as God as the 2nd person in The Trinity. In the Bible, God humbles Himself to take the form of a Man, for starters to redeem Man to God, to be our 2nd Adam. So if God were to come down to Earth do you think God would be an atheist? Of course not! Therefore, as a mortal man Jesus is showing us how we're supposed to live. Jesus as The Word was WITH God before creation and after having entered into creation Jesus continues to be with God as a man and as an example for us. Therefore when Jesus recites The Lord's Prayer He's not praying to Himself, rather as a mortal man He is praying to God (The Father) the 1st person of The Trinity to show how we as humans are to treat God.
This is a bad example but the only example I can make because it works, but I'm a game designer and in one of my games I created a character that is me, I, like God entered into my own creation but I didn't cease to exist in reality, therefore I was technically in 2 places at once, now the Me in the video game introduced himself as me and explained who I was and explained that while I was there in front of the characters I was really behind a keyboard in a separate place called Detroit. The Me within the game could bend all of the rules within the game because I existed outside of the game and therefore knew how to do whatever it was I wanted. If you can understand this you can understand what I'm saying about Jesus.
The only difference is that Jesus is eternal and I am not, Jesus chose to be born and limit Himself to a linear time, took on flesh, got hungry, got cold, laughed, wept, ate, drank, slept, and died as a man. But in a like manner, He walked on water as God, spoke to the wind as God, healed the blind, the sick, and the lame as God, and broke the rules of our reality as God. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God.
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