Is Jesus Really God?

Isaiah 42:1-9.   Psalm 29.   Acts 10:34-43.   Matthew 3:13-17

It comes as no surprise to learn that there are many people today who do not believe that Jesus is God, if they know about Him at all, that is. Even some who would identify themselves with the Church and mainstream Christianity have denied His deity, claiming that He was a prophet, a good man, a moral teacher, and the like. Muslims do not believe that Jesus is God…they honor Him, but only as a prophet inferior to Mohammed. They argue that there are many verses in the Bible that seem to teach that Jesus is not God and that Jesus never clearly claimed to be God…

Take John 17:3 as an example. Jesus was praying to God the Father and He said: “And this is the way to have eternal life – to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one You sent to earth.” This is very similar to the teaching of Islam…that there is only one God and that Jesus was merely one sent to proclaim that truth. Or what about John 14:28 where Jesus stated: “The Father is greater than I”? This seems to indicate that not only is Jesus separate from God, but He is inferior to Him. And then there’s Mark 10:18 where the rich young man asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” To which Jesus responded, “Why do you call Me good? Only God is truly good.” 

In the Gospels, Jesus prayed to God, He told people to worship God alone…He told people that He could do nothing apart from God, that only God knew the day and the hour of the end of the age, and so on. Jesus is also portrayed as limited and finite in the Gospels, he called Himself a prophet, and referred to Himself as the Son of Man. But the cherry on the cake for many who deny the deity of Christ is that, to them, Jesus never actually clearly claimed to be God. In the Old Testament, God claimed divinity repeatedly, as in our Isaiah reading: “I AM the Lord; that is My name! I will not give My glory to anyone else, nor share My praise with carved idols.” So here’s the question: If Jesus was God, why did He not say so? Why did He not come out and simply say: “I AM God. Worship Me.”? 

Now, of course, taken in isolation, as I have just done, these verses I mentioned as well as quite a few others seem to threaten our faith in Jesus as God…but therein lies the problem. Every one of these verses has a context and needs to be interpreted in terms of that context…not only the immediate context of the chapter or even the book, but of the whole Bible. 

For example: A number of the verses I quoted from or alluded to came from the Gospel of John…but John started and ended his Gospel by clearly proclaiming Jesus to be God. “In the beginning,” John wrote,” the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone.” And John clearly identified this “Word” with Jesus in verse 14, “So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” 

You see, you simply cannot extract verses from their context and build a case against what the whole context clearly claims. I am sure everyone of us can think of a time when something we said was taken out of context and used to say something we did not say! Likewise, one has to understand biblical verses in the light of other biblical verses and interpret them together as a whole in a balanced manner. 

For instance, should someone ask: “How can Jesus be God and the Father be God and yet the one be inferior or lesser than the other?”, we can point them to the words of the great ancient hymn quoted by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:5-8: “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had,” Paul wrote. “Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” 

In other words, as I have said many times before, although Jesus never ceased to be God, He voluntarily limited Himself to the constraints of humanity so that He might not only demonstrate how we ought to live as believers, but also so that He might fulfil the requirements of the penalty for the curse our forebears brought upon our race in the Garden of Eden…the penalty for sin was death and as every human being has sinned and falls short of the glory of God, no human can ever give or sacrifice himself or herself for another…we each pay the penalty for our own sin…that is, until Jesus took upon Himself human form and died as a sinless human being for all sinful humanity. 

So why didn’t Jesus openly proclaim Himself to be God from the outset of His ministry? The reason is simple…He chose to wait for the right moment. 

Now remember, even before Jesus started His ministry, John the Baptist had indirectly called Jesus God when he answered the questions of the priests and temple assistants. When asked, “Who are you?” John replied: “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the Lord’s coming.” This composite quotation came from two prophetic books, Isaiah and Malachi, both referring to the coming of God Himself. In other words, John said the One coming after him would be God. 

But while people like John the Baptist and the Gospel authors also identified Jesus as God, and while the demonic forces declared Him to be the Holy One of God, Jesus Himself waited…He waited until the mockery of a trial where He quoted from three well-known Old Testament Scriptures to bring to a climax His life and His ministry, namely Exodus 3:14, Daniel 7:13, and Psalm 110:1. When asked under oath if He was the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One, Jesus bluntly replied, “I AM. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The High Priest knew exactly what Jesus was saying and therefore tore his robe in horror as he exclaimed, “Why do we need other witnesses? You have heard His blasphemy.” 

You see, unlike so many Christians today, the Jews knew the Scriptures well and they knew that by saying “I AM” Jesus was equating Himself with the God who revealed Himself to Moses as I AM in Exodus 3: “I AM WHO I AM,” God told Moses. In saying He would be seated at the right hand of God He was alluding to Psalm 110: 1, “The Lord said to My Lord, sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” And in Daniel 7:13 we read, “I saw someone like a son of man (a title Jesus often used when referring to Himself) coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into His presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey Him. His rule is eternal – it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.” Only God rode on the clouds as chariots in the Old Testament. Only God could rule over the world eternally. Here was a clear if not a blunt claim from the lips of Jesus Himself…I AM God in human form, and soon I will lead all who believe in me to freedom from slavery to sin, death, and the devil and I will reign as Messianic King over the universe…AND…while you are now seated in judgement over ME, at the time, I will be seated in judgement over you.

Now, there are many other Scriptures I could mention, such as the calming of the sea or Jesus walking on the waves…God does both in the Old Testament as we saw in our Psalm for today…but I am sure I am preaching to the choir. We believe that Jesus is God…we say as much every Sunday when we recite the Nicene Creed.

But think on this for a moment. What kind of love is this? What kind of God is this who denies His divine privileges to take on human form so that as a human He could pay a penalty He Himself had pronounced? It is through the shedding of His blood that the God-Man, Jesus brought about peace between humanity and their Creator, and it is through His Body broken that those who believe in Him will have their sins forgiven in His name. 

This is why I love the Eucharist as every time I come to His table I am reminded of how much my God loves me…in spite of me…He loves me enough to die for me, even though I most certainly don’t deserve it! But more, dear brothers and sisters…the Eucharist tells me that Jesus is Who He claimed to be…He is God come in human flesh to conquer sin and death and to release me from bondage to Satan as only God could accomplish this task. 

So, as you come to partake of these great symbols of love unbounded, be assured of His acceptance in the beloved and know that you are safely hidden in Him for eternity.

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2020