It is surprising how many times people make the statement that “Jesus never claimed to be God.’
Many of the religions of the world such as Islam, The Jehovah’s Witnesses, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and others, state that Jesus Christ is not God. Even some of the mainline denominations of these last days have begun to state that the Bible nowhere claims that Jesus is God.
Anyone who makes such a remark has not read the Bible for themselves. Even upon a very simple study of the four Gospels it is clear that one of the major reasons that the Jews wanted so voraciously to kill Jesus, was that He had claimed that He was God.
In this short post I will bring out just a few of the many places in the Bible where Jesus Himself made statements confirming the fact that He believed Himself to be God.
Jesus claimed that He was equal with the Father:
John 10:30-33 “I and My Father are one.” Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
“I and My Father are one.” In the original Greek Language it is clear that in Jesus statement that He intended the hearer understand that He and God are one and the same. The Greek word used here for “one” is “Hen”, which is “one in nature and essence”. Literally in today’s modern English Jesus would have said, “Even as the Father is God, so also am I God, we are one and the same.”
The Jews clearly understood what Jesus had just told them because they were taking up stones to kill Him in response to His statement, “I and My Father are One.” It was because the Jews believed that Jesus had broken the Old Testament law of blasphemy found in Leviticus 24:16 that they felt they had the right to kill Him.
Leviticus 24:16 “And whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the LORD, he shall be put to death.”
The problem with taking up stones to kill Jesus was that according to their own law, they were supposed to listen to Jesus testimony and prepare and indictment against Him that would be brought to the correct legal authorities who would judge the evidence and then give approval for the sentence.
Jesus even asked the Jewish leaders if they were taking up stones to kill Him for one of the works that He had done.
John 10:32 “Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
It is clear that the reason these Jewish leaders were seeking to kill Jesus was because they believed that He has claimed equality with God.
Notice also that Jesus calls God “My Father”, not “Our Father”. “Many good works I have shown you from My Father.”
Jesus was claiming that He has a very unique relationship with the Father by referring to Him as “My Father”.
The Jews would never refer to God as “My Father”, unless they added the two words; “in Heaven”. When Jesus called God “My Father” He was making a claim that was unmistakable to the Jews. They understood that Jesus was claiming that He was God’s Son, thereby making Himself equal with God.
In John chapter 8, Jesus said this about Himself:
John 8:58-59 “Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”
You will notice that the translators of the original Greek manuscripts capitalized “I AM“, because they understood that the language that Jesus was using indicated that He was claiming to be the great “I AM” or “Jehovah” of the Old Testament.
Jesus told the Jews “Before Abraham existed, I existed. Literally, that He has eternally existed forever. In the Greek Language, the word “Eimi” indicates an eternal state. Eimi is the word that Jesus used when He said “I AM”.
The clarity of what Jesus meant by using this word is indicated by their immediate response to Jesus statement:
John 8:59 “Then they took up stones to throw at Him…”
In fact, you will discover that anytime you see the Jews taking up stones to kill Jesus, it was because they believed that He had claimed to be God.
In Exodus 3:14, Deuteronomy 32:39 and Isaiah 43:10 the idea that Jehovah is the eternally existent One is clearly established. In using the Greek word “Eimi” Jesus was saying that He is Jehovah God referred to in all of these Old Testament Verses.
This is incontrovertible evidence that the claim by Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus is not Jehovah, is incorrect. Clearly the body of scripture unmistakably confirms that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ.
When the Jews took up stones to kill Jesus, He did not seek to clarify that He did not intend that they thought He was Jehovah God, the Eternal One. Jesus used the same phrase over and over with no clarification whatsoever. When Jesus said that He is the Great I AM, this is exactly what He meant.
The questions then are: Is Jesus God, and do the works that He performs in the new testament prove that He has the attributes of God and is therefore God?
According to the Bible, the following are the attributes that only God posesses:
1. God created all things.
2. God alone can forgive sins.
3. God has the power of Resurrection.
4. When God speaks, whatever He says always comes to pass.
5. God alone has perfect knowledge of all future events.
6. God alone is the judge of all men.
7. God alone has the right to pour out His wrath on sinners.
If we carefully examine the new testament, we will find that Jesus has met the qualifications for all of the above attributes of God, therefore He is God.
Jesus Created All Things:
Colossians 1:16 “For by Jesus all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
Jesus Has the Power to Forgive Sins:
Matthew 9:2 “Then behold, they brought to Jesus a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
Jesus Has the Power of Resurrection:
John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
John 11:43-44 “Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes…”
John 10:18 “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again…”
When Jesus Speaks, Whatever He Says Comes to Pass:
Matthew 24:2 “And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
When Titus came with the Roman army in 70 a.d., they set fire to the temple and burned it. In the heat of the fire all the gold in the temple melted and ran into the cracks of the block of the temple. The Roman soldiers pried up each block of the temple one by one and removed each stone upon another to get the gold, just as Jesus as spoken
Jesus Has Knowledge of All Future Events:
The above verse in Matthew 24:2 as well as the addition of the following:
In Luke 19:41-44, Jesus predicted:
1. The enemies of Jerusalem would build an embankment around it (19:43).
2. Jerusalem would be closed in on every side (19:43).
3. Jerusalem would be leveled to the ground with no stone upon stone (19:44).
In Luke 21:5-24, Jesus predicted:
1. The buildings of the temple would be thrown down (21:5-6).
2. Rumors of wars along with nation actually rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (21:9-10).
3. There would be famines, earthquakes, and pestilences. (21:11)
4. The Apostles and disciples would be present at the beginning of these things, and that they would be a part of the persecution to come before these signs came (21:12).
5. Some of the disciples would die before these signs came to pass (21:16).
6. Some of the disciples would be present to witness Jerusalem surrounded by these armies, signaling that the desolation was near (21:20).
7. Many would die by the sword or be taken captive into all of the nations (21:24).
8. Jerusalem would be trampled under foot by Gentiles (21:24).
These events are confirmed by records written by the Jewish historian, Josephus.
Josephus was an eye witness who was present at the capture of Jerusalem. The predictions of Jesus were fulfilled that the enemies of Jerusalem would build an embankment around it (19:43), and Jerusalem would be closed in on every side (19:43). The Jewish historian, Josephus, confirmed this all of these things actually happened in history (War of the Jews, VI, 8.1). The Temple was thrown down and made desolate, confirmed by Josephus (War of the Jews, VI, 4:7, 5:1-2, 6:1; VII, 1:1). Jerusalem would be leveled with not one stone upon another (19:44). The buildings of the temple would be thrown down (21:5-6). This was the greatest desolation that the world had known until this time (War of the Jews, VI 10:1, VII). Josephus carefully records that the only remaining sections of the city that were left were three towers while the rest of the city and the Temple were completely leveled.
Jesus Claimed That He is The Judge of All Men:
John 5:22 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son”
2Timothy 4:1 “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom”:
Jesus Will Pour Out His Wrath on the World During the last 31/2 Years of the Great Tribulation:
Revelation 6:16 “and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!”
Matthew 3:10-12 (John the Baptist, the Last Old Testament Prophet:) “And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but Jesus who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Of course this is only a partial study, listing a small sampling of the verses found in the Bible which substantiate the fact that Jesus claimed to be God. The Bible confirms the fact that Jesus is the eternal Jehovah God by a multitude of evidence.
Jesus 1/2 brother Jude wrote of the need to “Contend Earnestly for the Faith”. The word “Contend” comes from the idea of a boxing match where someone comes to fight or “contend” for the title held by his opponent. In essence to contend for the Faith is to “Defend the Faith”:
Jude 3 “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.“
Whenever you hear or read of someone making the statement that “Jesus is not God, nor did he claim to be God”, it is your obligation to “Earnestly Contend” against those false and inaccurate statements. Armed with just theses few verses and examples, anyone can stand up against the false doctrine that Jesus is not God and put forth a valid defense for who He is.
Rob Robinson
