Jesus is God: 8 Reasons from the Bible

Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, Pros and Cons of Christianity

The question of “is Jesus God?” has been a subject of discussion since not long after the world timetable flipped to A.D. So let’s take a look at this most critical issue.

Though the theories on who Jesus is vary, I would like to summarize a compelling treatment I heard in a sermon recently of eight reasons that Jesus is God, from the Bible itself. When I say God, to be clear, I mean capital G. Yahweh/Jehovah—the one true God. The points I will outline below are taken from a sermon by Phil Johnson at Grace Life Pulpit.

Before I begin, however, let me offer this consideration. If you want to know about someone you may not have direct access to, you ask people that know him. Just as a potential employer calls references for a candidate, or a customer reads reviews about a product or service before they buy, to find out about Jesus, the best source of information is that which was written about Him by his closest friends and disciples. Those who traveled with Him, learned from Him and captured His words day in and day out. Incidentally, those are the people God chose to use to write the books of the New Testament. They are the ones with the most direct knowledge. We’ll examine what they, as well as various Old Testament (OT) writers, have to say about Jesus Christ.

This will be a Scripture-dense post, with some narrative between verses. Some verses I will quote in full, and some I will merely drop references for additional study. The sermon from which these points were pulled is linked above if you prefer audio over reading.

Eight reasons Jesus is God

An important note for reading the Bible is the term “LORD.” It often appears, especially in the OT, with a capital “L” and smaller caps “O-R-D.” When you see that, it is an English translation of the Hebrew word for Yahweh (YHWH) or God. For this post, I will denote that as LORD.

1. The Old Testament predicted a Divine Savior

In Psalm 2, a messianic psalm, written centuries before Christ’s incarnation, we see the following verses.

“Worship the LORD (note, “LORD” refers to God, remember that) with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that he not become angry, and you perish in the way.” Psalm 2:11-12

In that text, the writer uses parallel phrases, which are meant to be logical equivalents. Thus, the LORD and the Son are equivalents.

A few other messianic prophecies:

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

It is worth noting that Isaiah gave this child these titles, and assigned capital letters for His pronouns, declaring divinity to Him in doing so.

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.” – Micah 5:2

From this passage we see Christ’s birth in Bethlehem predicted (again, long before it happened), as well as a clear statement that Christ is an eternal being.

2. Jesus is called Yahweh (YHWH)

Psalm 23:1 states, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

In John 10:11, 14, Jesus applies that title to Himself:

I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” – v 11

I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know me.” – v 14

The prophet Joel, writing centuries before Christ, says this of the coming Savior:

“And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered…” – Joel 2:32a

After Christ’s death and resurrection, more than one New Testament author apply that promise to Jesus.

“And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”
– Acts 2:21

That is a quote from Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, recorded by Luke in Acts.

“for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the LORD will be saved’” – Romans 10:13 (the apostle Paul, also applying it to Christ).

3. Titles reserved for YHWH are given to Christ

The LORD speaks through the prophet Isaiah and on multiple occasions declares who He is. These declarations are freely applied to Christ throughout the New Testament. Just a few examples are below.

Example 1:

“I, even I, am the LORD and there is no savior besides Me.”
– Isaiah 43:11

“…looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,” – Titus 2:13

Example 2:

“For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God, who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.” – Deuteronomy 10:17

“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are the called and chosen and faithful.” – Revelation 17:14

Examples for further reading:

Isaiah 44:6 –> Revelation 1:8 & Revelation 22:13

Zechariah 12:10 –> John 19:37

4. Jesus possesses all the incommunicable attributes of God

There is A LOT here, so I will just list the attributes and their supporting verses so you can read them on your own if you wish.

  1. Eternal: Micah 5:2
    1. Revelation 22:13
  2. Omnipresent: Matthew 18:20
    1. Matthew 28:20
  3. Omniscient: John 16:30
    1. John 21:17
    2. Revelation 2:23
  4. Omnipotent: Philippians 3:21
    1. Hebrews 1:3
  5. Immutable: Colossians 2:9 (this is a mic drop verse)
    1. Hebrews 1:10-12 (quotes the Psalms)
    2. Hebrews 13:8

5. Jesus does the works of God

  1. Created all things
    John 1:3 – “And all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”Colossians 1:16-17 – “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”See also John 17:1-2 and Ephesians 1:22-23
  2. Forgives sin
    See Matthew 9:2-7 and Mark 2:5-10
  3. Judges the dead
    See Acts 10:42, 17:31; 2 Timothy 4:1

6. Jesus receives worship

The Bible makes it clear that only God is to be worshiped (Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:20). Therefore, to worship something other than God is idolatry. For someone other than God to accept worship is blasphemy. So when we see multiple examples in the New Testament of Jesus receiving worship, we have to conclude that either He was God, or that He was an idolater and blasphemer. Here are some citations.

Matthew 14:33 – His disciples
John 9:38 – The blind man He healed
Matthew 28:9 – The Marys
John 20:28 – Doubting Thomas
Hebrews 1:6 – The angels
John 14:1 – Jesus asserts Himself as the object of our faith

7. The Bible says Jesus is God

John 1:1-3: 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 came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Note: some religions, to dilute or undermine Jesus as the one true God, claim that 1:1 says Jesus was a God. It is imperative to note that the article “a” does not appear in the original Greek manuscripts. Per Mr. Johnson, to translate it that way is not only bad Greek but bad grammar. Furthermore, if you insert that incorrect article and try to apply it to the rest of the chapter, that reading comes unraveled as non-sensical.

See also:

John 1:18
Romans 9:5
Philippians 2:6
Hebrews 1:8 – God the Father calls Jesus “God.”
1 John 5:20

8. Jesus claimed to be God

Just as Jesus receiving worship would automatically allow us to discredit Him if He wasn’t God, if He claimed to be God and weren’t, He would be the worst of all blasphemers. We’ll see that He did, emphatically, claim to be God.

John 8:53-58 (verse 58 is the focal point)
John 10:30 – “I and the Father are one.”

And finally, an unmistakable claim of Deity:

John 8:24 – “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

If you’ve read this far, dear one, thank you. If you’ve honestly engaged with the words here, you will prayerfully come to realize that Jesus is the Christ, Savior, God, the prophesied Messiah. Crucified, resurrected, ascended to the Father, and returning soon to judge the world. What you choose to do with Jesus determines your eternal destiny. I pray you won’t take the decision lightly.

If you have any questions, let me know. I will do my best to answer them.

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revised 3/12/23

 

15 responses to “Jesus is God: 8 Reasons from the Bible”

  1. Thank you for this.. Had a discussion the other day with an acquaintance.. jaw dropping.. if you wish to respond, great, otherwise…. this is FYI.. And, she’s into some guy on YouTube..

    Here’s her comments.. still picking up my jaw from the carpet..

    Revelation is difficult. I generally, my belief, is that it’s mostly heresy, as it teaches of a different Jesus. Not the Jesus of the gospels.
    The Jesus of Revelation is a killer.

    Jesus tells us in John 10:10 The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

    The Jesus of the gospels is loving, healer, bringer of truth, no violence etc

    Also in Hebrews 2:14 we are told that the one who has the power of death is the devil.

    Also death is an enemy to God according to 1 Cor. 15:26. So if it’s His enemy then why would He use it? Also death is an enemy to God according to 1 Cor. 15:26. So if it’s His enemy then why would He use it?

    Well, as you can see, this Lockdown is bringing them out of the woodwork.. There is much that many twist for their own ears..

    Loved your article.. Thank you..

    1. Summer Sorensen Avatar
      Summer Sorensen

      Hi Jan,

      Thank you for reading and commenting! I really appreciate it. I am grateful to Phil Johnson for doing the initial research to pull together the points I curated for this post.

      As for your aquaintance, wow. There are a lot of people like her that hold to wacky beliefs, and follow others who do.

      I’ll try to offer a response in line with what I would tell your friend if I were the one in conversation with her. You can use it as you see fit.

      First of all, though I hesitate to reference my own work as a resource, in this case, it wouldn’t hurt if you shared this post with her as a framework for illustrating who Jesus is.

      I would start with some basic questions to get to know where she stands and perhaps to get her to do some self-examination.

      Questions like:
      – What is your goal for your Bible studying? Are you seeking the truth of what scripture teaches? And if you find that some of your beliefs are incorrect in light of scripture, would you change them?

      Hopefully that will get her to think, and provide some illumination for you.

      Then, in light of the lessons about Jesus outlined in this post, I would try to move her to seeing a full view of God’s purposes as revealed throughout the WHOLE Bible.

      For example, since we’ve established that Jesus is Yahweh/LORD, then it really illuminates reading the Old Testament, when you realize that everytime God/LORD is mentioned … it IS JESUS … the whole triune God. His eternal nature means that He was still acting as God, even before He came down to earth.

      So, in light of that, we see that Jesus:
      – Gave the law in Leviticus (that one also blows the lid off the theory that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality)
      – Killed the firstborn of Egypt
      – Destroyed Pharoah and his armies in the Red Sea when they persued the Hebrews
      – Directed the Israelites to wipe out the inhabitants of the holy land. Wipe them out. All the warfare and slaughter of Joshua, David and more was in obedience to God (which includes Jesus … and the Holy Spirit).

      This is an uncomfortable truth to realize, especially for people who only live by the NT and limit Jesus to only the “red letters.” They are missing a bulk of the story of God.

      God’s word is consistent with itself from beginning to end. In fact, God declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), so to attempt to use one truth from the Bible to contradict other truths from the Bible is a terrible misuse of God’s word.

      The goal, as followers of Christ, is to know Him, love Him and follow Him completely. That means taking His teachings as a whole, not cherry-picking them to confirm beliefs we like, and ignoring or disbelieving those we don’t like.

      *Stepping off soapbox*
      Those are my initial thoughts on ideas with which to respond to her. I’ll say a prayer for you, and for her, and your interactions with her!

      Thanks again for reading, commenting, and sharing your friend’s note. I started watching that YouTube video. We’ll see if I can manage to finish it! Blessings!

      1. Great comments.. thank you.. ! I do hope for another opportunity to speak the truth to her.. Amazing to me just how many are “Cafeteria Christians.” That’s an old term but, still applicable to today.. She doesn’t want Lord, she wants the warm fuzzies.. Sad.
        Blessings on you, yours and your work.. !

      2. PS.. I didn’t finish watching that video, either..

  2. Thank you Summer!

    1. Summer Sorensen Avatar
      Summer Sorensen

      You bet! Thank you for reading and commenting, Jim! Blessings on this Resurrection Sunday!

    2. Dear Ambassador of God, Greetings from India in Jesus our Lord.

      I am a Servant of God.

      Could you please pray for the salvation of the perishing souls in India?

      Thinking you
      Your Servant for Jesus our Lord

  3. Thank you for posting this, I been looking every where for this. I just starting out learning about the bible and it is very big book for me to go through it all to find out if Jesus is God. I been studying the bible with Jehovah’s witnesses. I know that’s there believe is different I just can’t proven it.

    1. Summer Sorensen Avatar
      Summer Sorensen

      Hi Thi!

      I am glad you found this! This biblical evidence is indeed irrefutable documentation that Jehovah’s Witnesses have a wrong view of Jesus. Thank you so much for reading, and commenting. Are you attending a Bible-believing church?

      1. Hi Summer,

        Thankyou for replying, no I am not attending any Bible – believing church at the moment. I am looking for one but it is very hard to find one at the moment I don’t know which one is the true Bible -believing Christian church out there. There are Baptist church and Seven Day Adventist church near my house. But I think Baptist church is more Bible-believing church at the moment. I am also working on the weekend so I find it hard to go to church on a Sunday. Which church would you advised for me to go to that are true Bible-believing Christian church.

      2. Summer Sorensen Avatar
        Summer Sorensen

        Hi Thi,

        I would recommend the Baptist Church over the Seventh Day Adventist. Baptist churches have a good chance of being biblical. SDA, on the other hand, have some wacky beliefs. Where do you live? I might be able to do some looking for good churches in your area. A fellow blogger I know keeps a pretty extensive list.

  4. This may also be helpful.. graduates of The Master’s Seminary
    https://tms.edu/find-a-church/

    1. Summer Sorensen Avatar
      Summer Sorensen

      Thanks, Jan! Great stuff!

  5. Hi Summer,

    Thankyou for your advised, I did hear a bit about Seventh Day Adventist. But I did not know if it true or not. I live in Para Vista South Australia. Thanks Thi.

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