Does the Bible Really Teach that Jesus is God?

Photo by Haley Black

When searching “Did Jesus claim to be God?” on the internet several weeks ago, the first result that came up was an interview on NPR with historian Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, who said, “During his lifetime, Jesus himself didn't call himself God and didn't consider himself God, and... none of his disciples had any inkling at all that he was God.”¹ Ehrman explains that the belief that Jesus is God in the flesh is a result of historical events that followed the life of Jesus combined with desperate claims of believers. The fact that Jesus was not recorded in the Bible literally saying, “I am God,” is considered evidence to many nonbelievers that Jesus, though perhaps a person who once existed, is not God at all.

Is scripture really so unclear? The truth is that scripture could not be more clear. In fact, it basically is as direct as Jesus saying, “I am God.” Yet the claim is not only made by Jesus Himself, but it is also observed by His followers as well as fulfilling the prophecies of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament. We might ask ourselves - does it really matter whether or not Jesus was God? To which I would say that Jesus being God is essential to our salvation. It is an essential truth to the gospel. If Jesus was not God, He would not be Holy our perfect enough to be the spotless sacrifice required for our sins, He would not have had the power to rise from death, He would not be able to give power to others as He did to His disciples. The fact that Jesus is God in the flesh is a foundation of Christianity that cannot be moved.

Jesus Claimed to Be God

First, Jesus Himself truly did claim to be God, even though He came to us in human flesh. Theologians often refer to this as the “two natures” of Christ: fully God and fully man. It is already clear that Christ is fully man and that He truly existed. Even many secular academic historians admit that Jesus was a really human being who lived on earth 2,000 years ago. Being fully God, however, is the concept that is often rejected by the world because it would bring a staggering implication: that God, the one True God, is real.

Jesus claimed to be the One True God in the flesh when the Jews were accusing Him of being a demon, saying that He was calling Himself greater than the ancient prophet Abraham from the Old Testament. Jesus’ response is:

“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:56-59)

The “I am” title that Jesus gives Himself is the same name that God gives Himself in the Old Testament when Moses asks Him what he should tell the Jews: “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’” (Exodus 3:14). In my article about the name of God, I explain how “I am” is a name without any human limitations. God is complete in Himself, without beginning or end, and all powerful. “I am” is where we get the personal name for the One True God, “Yahweh,” which is often referenced in English translations as all-caps LORD, which is especially prevalent in the Old Testament. Jesus is saying that He is “Yahweh,” the great I AM, our LORD, God Himself. We know that He is referring to the personal name of God because of the Jews’ response of stoning Him. The Jewish law in Leviticus commanded that “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16). The Jews saw that Jesus was claiming to be God by giving Himself the same personal name, Yahweh. Yet, the Jews, not believing Jesus, saw it as blasphemy and tried to punish Him.

Indeed, Jesus knew that He was the One True God and declared Himself so. Whether or not the Jews believed Him does not take away from its truth. (For more verses on Jesus claiming to be God, see John 10:28-30).

The people around Jesus recognized Him as God

First, consider when Jesus was walking on water towards His disciples on a boat:

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:28-33)

The disciples' response to Jesus’ miracle is worship, calling Him the “Son of God.” Some believe that this reference to Jesus as the Son of God is comparable to Romans 8:14: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Yet this is addressing believers who are adopted into the family of God, not to a title of deity that only Jesus can claim. The title as Son of God is more comparable to what His disciple John wrote in 1 John 5:20: “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” It is not a sonship of adoption but a Sonship of the trinity - of being one with God, yet distinct in person from the Father and Holy Spirit. This is why the disciples worshiped Him on the boat.

Another example is when Christ is resurrected after His death and returns to His followers. The disciples told Thomas that they had seen the risen body of Christ, but Thomas said he would not believe it unless he could put his hands within the wounds of Jesus. Eight days later, Jesus came to them as they sat inside (despite the doors of the building being locked) and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” To which Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27-28). Thomas’s response was not simply “Jesus!” or “My Savior!” but “My Lord and my God!”. The title Jesus is given is undoubtedly one of deity and equality with God Himself.

And not only is this seen in the gospels, but soon after, followers of Christ called Him God within the epistles (see Philippians 2:5-7 and 2 Peter 1:1).

The Old Testament Refers to the Coming Messiah, the Christ, as God

Knowing that Jesus Christ came to fulfill the prophecies of the Messiah, the savior of the world, it was also told in the Old Testament that the Messiah would be God Himself, from the beginning of His earthly birth: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means “God with us,” and Jesus is indeed God who was literally, physically, “with us.”

The prophet Isaiah also spoke of the Messiah being God with what very clearly matches the story of Christ:

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

The prophets of old predicted that the child born into the world to save it was also the Mighty God and Everlasting Father - titles that would only be given to God Himself.

Not to mention, the apostles of the New Testament saw how Jesus was in many of God’s miracles recorded in the Old Testament, though He was not yet flesh incarnate. One of the most famous examples is in the very beginning of John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:1-3, 14)

The very first chapter of Genesis where God creates light and darkness, heaven and earth and all that fills them, shows the creation that was made through and because of Christ. Christ existed before He was in human flesh, and He worked miracles that only God could do long before the New Testament because it is Christ who “is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Christian Author Glen Scrivener summarizes this point well:

Jesus unites the Bible. He is not absent from the Old Testament, sitting on the bench, awaiting his fourth quarter winning play. He is the player-coach-manager directing all things. Throughout the Old Testament, he is the one and only Mediator of God Most High, marching purposefully toward his own incarnation. Jesus is Lord. He always has been.²

For other examples of how Christ can be found in the old testament, see Hebrews 11:26, Jude verse 5, and 1 Corinthians 10:4.

The True Reason for Doubting Christ’s Deity

Quite frankly, the biblical evidence of whether or not Jesus is God could not be clearer. Even the evidence of secular history cannot deny the fact that Jesus really existed and the things that He truly taught. Even with all of the evidence in the world, however, His deity would still be denied by those whose hearts are still hardened to God’s word. To deny the existence of God and hold our own beliefs, desires, and very identities as objects of worship and superiority has been the human tendency since Adam and Eve, so it is no surprise that scholars deny the deity of Christ today just as the Pharisees did 2,000 years ago. While many, including Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, view Jesus simply as a great moral teacher, we must remember that this title for Jesus is not an option, as C.S. Lewis famously explained in Mere Christianity:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.³

Do not be shocked, dear friends, when the unbelieving world is so quick to refute irrefutable evidence. To stand in the presence of those who have studied Jesus in all His glory yet have not felt the power of God from His words does not reveal some kind of slowness to reason as much as it reveals a deadness of the soul. We know that Jesus is Lord because He has done the work to awaken our hearts and open our eyes to His glory. We can only pray and witness to those who do not submit to Him as King - something only the Holy Spirit can enable.

References

1. Ehrman, Bart. “If Jesus Never Called Himself God, How Did He Become One?” Fresh Air, NPR, 2014.

2. Scrivener, Glen. “Where is Jesus in the Old Testament?” Desiring God, 20 Dec. 2018, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/where-is-jesus-in-the-old-testament.

3. Lewis, C.S. “C.S. Lewis Quotes.” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6979-i-am-trying-here-to-prevent-anyone-saying-the-really. Accessed October 5, 2022.