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. In Him was life, and life was the light of men. - John 1:1-4, ESV Ever since Jesus walked the Earth, skeptics and unbelievers have routinely challenged Jesus' deity, often claiming that He could not be God. Often, those seeking to discredit Jesus question His physical death physical resurrection, debate the authorship and validity of the Gospels, or quote "lost" or Gnostic gospels as evidence of Jesus' supposedly imperfect nature. But historical fact provides evidence, time and again, that Jesus' life and ministry happened in accordance with the Gospels as they are written in the Holy Scriptures. At this point, many skeptics turn to one last counterpoint against the claim that Jesus was, in fact, God: that He never, as recorded in Scripture, uttered the line, "I am God."
It is true that Jesus often spoke of Himself in other ways, frequently calling Himself the "Son of Man" or "Son of God" (which, ironically, would have been clearly understood in first-century Israel as an official claim to be God, which is why the Jewish leaders of the day accused Him of blasphemy and sought to kill Him). But let us, for the sake of argument, write all those instances off as poor interpretation or our own misunderstanding. Did Jesus really ever claim to be God? The complete deity and the complete humanity of Jesus Christ are central to the Gospel of John, which sits apart from the other three "synoptic" gospels as a more poetic and more focused history of the ministry of Jesus. In it, John seeks to pull in history that validates that Jesus Christ not only claimed to be God, but that He was able to accurately fulfill Old Testament prophecy and that He could back His claims up with miraculous evidence. In John chapter 4, verses 1-41, we see Jesus having a curious discussion with a Samaritan woman at a well. The woman was coming during an unusual part of the day - midday - likely to avoid the public eye as a result of her later-revealed scandalous lifestyle of having been married five times and yet living with another out of wedlock. Later in the chapter, thinking Jesus to be a prophet following his statements regarding Himself as "living water," her life history, and the true worship of the Father in Spirit and in truth, she responds, "I know that Messiah is coming (He Who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things." (John 4:25, ESV). Jesus responds quite bluntly: "I Who speak to you am He." (John 4:26, ESV) Anyone at the time with even a working knowledge of Old Testament Scripture would have understood that Jesus, in saying He was the Messiah, was saying He was sent from, equal to, and one with God. Indeed, later in John we see Jesus Christ repeating the claim of His title as Messiah to the Jewish leaders. "So the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.' Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.' The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him." (John 10:24-31, ESV) It is hard to miss Jesus' claims here. some of the Jews wanted to kill Him for blasphemy by claiming to be Messiah (Who is, again, equal to and one with God), so they wanted to trap Him and make Him say it openly. They got more than they bargained for: when pressed, He not only told them that He had previously made that claim, but that they would not listen or understand because they did not follow Him. He makes two seemingly similar statements that connect in a supremely theological way: no one can snatch His sheep from His hand, and no one can snatch the Father's sheep from the Father's hand - and He and the Father are One. He's not saying He is "One" with the Father as in merely unified in purpose or objective, but "One" with the Father as in the same eternally existing, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good Being. The Jewish opposition picked up stones at that point, because they understood clearly that Jesus was making Himself out to be God. But it was actually before this moment that Jesus made the most open and startlingly profound statement about His deity. In John 8, Jesus is confronted by more opposition who also seek to trap Him into a "blasphemous" statement. Near the end of the chapter, Jesus says, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad." (John 8:56, ESV) Confused and already enraged, the jeering crowd asked, "'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.'" (John 8:57-58, ESV) This statement absolutely cannot go missed. Jesus was not just saying that He was God. He was defining Himself and His attributes. He was describing What kind of a God He was. He was using the supreme title that God the Father gave Himself when speaking to Moses during the meeting at the burning bush. "I AM" was a title of existence above all; the title of absolute authority and sovereignty. Philosophically, the title speaks to God's eternal and supernatural nature and His Being before, during, and after everything in the universe. As the book of Revelation describes Him, "the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Revelation 22:13, ESV). Jesus' clever use of the title after preceding it with a past tense form of Abraham's being further illustrates that it was no mistake - Jesus was saying He was absolutely and completely God come in the form of man. He was no mere prophet or teacher, nor was He a demigod with some attenuated or weakened form of supernatural power. He carried every last attribute of God the Father in His Being every moment of His time spent on the earth - even during His death, resurrection, and ascension. We should be eternally grateful that Jesus was absolutely God and absolutely man, and that Jesus made the claims about Himself that He did. Without Christ's deity, His work on the cross would have been utterly meaningless, and His resurrection completely impossible. But, because He was a sinless, perfect God come in the form of man, He bore the entirety of God's wrath on man's sin in an infinitely small amount of time, died, and rose again for our sins to be never remembered or held against us again. Christ's deity is central to the message of the Holy Bible, and thankfully, Jesus repeatedly spoke of it on record. It is not the concoction of mere men or radical, religious followers - Jesus was God, and He said it, plain and simple. Thank God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ for His power, love, mercy, and grace!
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Clifton J. Gardner lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, Courtney. He is a Registered Nurse, musician, and writer, as well as an active member of Ezra Baptist Church in Oak Grove, Alabama. Archives
January 2017
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