THE DEITY OF JESUS
To believe in the Jesus of the Bible is to accept what the Bible says about Him, whether we understand it fully or not. True Christianity teaches that Jesus is God. He is not God the Father, He is God the Son. But the deity of Jesus is a fundamental, basic Christian doctrine that the Bible teaches many times. God became man. That is the good news of Christianity.
In two of the most amazing and yet mysterious texts, the inspired apostle Paul writes of Jesus that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in human form” (Colossians 2:9), and that He was “in the form of God” yet took on humanity (Philippians 2:6-7). These are references to the incarnation—the fact that God became flesh and lived among us. He lived a human life as a man. Because humanity had messed up our lives so badly, He came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves.
The man who is presented in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John was more than just a mere human. He is presented as “God in the flesh” repeatedly. Only God has power over the natural order, and yet Jesus demonstrated authority over nature (Matthew 8:26-27). His power and authority caused even His disciples to ask, “What kind of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey Him?” God created the universe and all things in it and only God controls such things.
Jesus also demonstrated His authority to forgive sins. The religious leaders asked, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21). And that is a good question. No mere human can forgive people’s sins. If you sin AGAINST ME, and ask for forgiveness, I can forgive you for what you did to me. But only God can forgive someone’s entire sinful life. And that is what Jesus claimed the ability to do and worked miracles to prove that He had the authority to do (Matthew 9:6).
Jesus has always existed. He did not “begin” when He was born or conceived as a human. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Micah 5:2). John’s Gospel begins by telling us about the eternal existence of Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Everything was made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:1-3). Notice that not only does John say Jesus was there from the beginning, but that He created all things. Only God is our creator. So Jesus is God.
When we say that Jesus is God, we do not mean that He is God the Father. He is God the Son. Their unique unity and relationship is beyond our current ability to understand and grasp fully. But Jesus Himself claimed unity, divine unity, with the Father. He said, “I am one with my Father” (John 10:30). Those who heard Him knew exactly what He was claiming (John 10:33). He was claiming to be God.
When Jesus said that before Abraham existed, “I AM” in John 8:58, that was the equivalent of claiming to be Jehovah God. Because when Moses was being sent by God to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, Moses asked, “Whom shall I say has sent me to go?” And God answered from the burning bush, tell them “I AM” has sent you. So God identified Himself as “I AM” in Exodus 3:14. And Jesus identified Himself as I AM. Again, those who heard Him wanted to kill Him for saying this. They understood exactly what He was claiming.
Another thing that must be considered is that Jesus allowed people to worship Him. Angels did not (Revelation 22:8-9; 19:10). The apostles did not (Acts 10:25-26; Acts 14:14-15). But Jesus did. Only God is worthy of worship (Matthew 14:33, 28:9; John 9:38). Yet, when Thomas declared “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28), Jesus did not rebuke Him, but accepted the praise and the worship. Because He IS our Lord and our God. Jesus also accepts praise and worship in John’s Book of Revelation (Revelation 5:12).
If you want the highest authority possible that Jesus is God, then all you need to do is believe the word of God the Father. God the Father says that Jesus, His Son, is God, too. To Jesus, the Father said, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8). If God the Father calls Him God, then you and I should certainly call Him God.
Again, Jesus is God the Son, not God the Father, but He and the Father are one in ways we do not fully understand. Jesus is the “exact representation of His glory and the exact representation of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).
You simply cannot appreciate who it was who saved you without recognizing that Jesus is God. The Gospel teaches that God became man to save us. Jesus was not a created being. He was not a glorified angel. He is the eternal I AM. He is Jehovah God. And we should know that He is “our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13). God is our Savior. Our Savior is God.
Only God created the world, and only God can sustain the world. Jesus did both of those things and does the sustaining even now. The reason the world exists and continues to exist is because God upholds it with His power (Hebrews 1:3). And it is Jesus who created it and sustains it. (Colossians 1:16-17).
An ordinary man cannot die for other’s sins because all ordinary men are sinners themselves. The fact that Jesus became human and died on the Cross, meaning that God became a man and died for our salvation, is crucial to appreciating what salvation is all about. He can reconcile us to God the Father because He is God the Son. God Himself gave Himself to reconcile us to Himself (Colossians 1:20).
The hope of the Gospel is tied to recognizing and celebrating Jesus as the God-man. That Jesus is God and God came to save us. Love Christ, serve Christ and worship Christ. He is our Lord and our God.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
