Is Jesus God?
Sometimes we need to get back to the basic questions.
A few days ago, on one of my daily LinkedIn posts (connect with me here), my new friend Tina Maldonado asked to hear more about the truth that Jesus is God. You see, she was born and raised in a faith tradition that says, “Jesus is a created being, and the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force. They deny the deity of Christ.” She left that faith tradition at the age of 18 and is now a true Jesus follower. However, she is concerned about loved ones who are still following that other path.
I would like to start by pointing out something that was shared with me as part of serving in the internship program at our local church. It is this: The test of whether a faith system is false and does not lead to Heaven is simple. Unless it regards Jesus as God, equal to the Father and Holy Spirit, it is to be discarded as a false gospel, nothing more than an invention of man directed by the enemy and designed to lead us astray. Saying Jesus was just a prophet, or just a good moral teacher, or anything but God is at odds with what the Father Himself declared when He said, “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
The Plan for this Post
All the previous is preamble. The question at hand is, “Is Jesus God?” Of course, saying He is God, and making a biblical case for that truth are two different things. So, in this post, we will use the Bible to make the clear case that Jesus is God.
One caveat, if you don’t accept the Bible as the true, complete, and inspired Word of God, then this post may be of little value to you. But feel free to read through our post, “Does the Bible Have Errors?” to fill any questions on that topic.
Ok, let’s break this down into some of the characteristics of God. These are unique to God. No created being can have them. If Jesus has these characteristics, then He is undeniably God. We will cover five in this post (there are several more, you can read books which go much deeper if you like). The five we will discuss are:
God is love.
God is eternal.
God is omnipresent (everywhere at all times).
God is omnipotent (all-powerful).
God is omniscient (all-knowing).
God is Love
The Apostle John let us know that God doesn’t just love us, but that God is love.
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
-1 John 4:8 ESV
God loves us because He is love. His nature is love. Here is a great remined from the Psalms:
“Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
-Psalm 136:26 ESV
Ok, God is love. But is Jesus love? For this we turn to John’s gospel (and there are many other examples) to answer the question. Here we have Jesus Himself speaking.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
-John 15:12-13 ESV
Of course, we know Jesus did lay down His life for us. In that He gave us the ultimate example of no greater love. Jesus was completely innocent, and He took on the punishment me we all deserved. Yes, Jesus is love. Jesus is God.
God is Eternal
Well, this one gets right to the heart of the question my friend Tina brought to us. If Jesus is not eternal, He cannot be God. If He is eternal, He can be nothing but God. Only God is eternal.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
-Genesis 1:1 ESV
Only the One who has no beginning could create the beginning of everything else.
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
-Psalm 90:2 ESV
God is “from everlasting to everlasting.” That’s a great description of eternal. So, is Jesus eternal or is He a created being?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
-John 1:1-2, 14 ESV
Here Jesus is referred to as “the Word” and then “the only Son”. But the point is, Jesus was with God, “in the beginning.” That means before anything was created. It’s a direct reference back to Genesis 1:1. In fact, if we jump back to Genesis, you can see God refer to more than one Presence.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
-Genesis 1:26 ESV
“Let us” means there is not just God the Father. It’s actually the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus was there. Jesus has always been and always will be.
One more verse on the eternal nature of Jesus (we could quote many more).
“And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.]”
Colossians 1:17 AMP
God is eternal. Jesus is eternal. Jesus is God.
God is Omnipresent (everywhere at all times)
A great passage from Jeremiah to start this point.
“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.”
-Jeremiah 23:23-24 ESV
God fills “heaven and earth”. He is everywhere all the time. He is omnipresent. And now you think I’ve made an error. Jesus came to earth as a human being. It’s not possible for a human being to be omnipresent. And you’re right. A human being living inside a human body cannot be in two places at once, let alone all places at once. So, are we done then? Has this proven Jesus is not God? Certainly not!
Remember that Jesus is eternal, and before He lowered Himself to be in a human body for a short time (about 33 years) He was in existence with God. In that time, He was omnipresent. But would you like to know something interesting? Even in His time as a human on earth He showed evidence of His omnipresence.
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
John 1:47-50 ESV
When Jesus said He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree, Jesus wasn’t under the fig tree with Nathaniel. No, it appears He saw Nathaniel through the omnipresent eyes of God. But even if this event does not appear as it seems, after Jesus was resurrected and returned to the Father, we know He again had omnipresence.
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
-Matthew 18:20 ESV
Where two or three are gathered in His name? Any two or three? Any two or three anywhere? Sisters and brothers, that’s only possible to Someone who is omnipresent.
God is Omnipotent (all powerful)
If you’re even slightly acquainted with the Bible, you know there are many miracles which cannot be explained by science. The first and most obvious is the creation of all things as recorded in Genesis. But rather than referencing miracle after miracle we will just see that the Bible clearly says God is all-powerful.
“Then Job answered the Lord and said, “’I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.’”
-Job 42:1-2 ESV
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
-Luke 1:37 ESV
That’s all well and good, but is Jesus also all powerful? This quote from Hebrews makes it clear.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”
-Hebrews 1:13- ESV
And one from back in John.
“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
-John 1:3 ESV
Jesus is omnipotent. There is no limit to His power. Jesus is God.
God is omniscient (all-knowing)
“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
-Psalm 147:5 NIV
God knows everything. To be the Creator and Sustainer of everything He would have to. But is Jesus also omniscient?
Jesus knew the woman at the well had had five husbands and was unmarried. He knew Peter would deny Him three times. He knew He would be crucified and would rise again on the third day.
Over and over Jesus proved He knows all things. Jesus is omniscient, Jesus is God.
Did Jesus Say He was God?
The final point is this. Some will respond that Jesus never said He was God. Except He did. Repeatedly. We just miss it. He told us the He and the Father are one. He told us He is the I AM (the name God told Moses to call him in the book of Exodus). There are many more examples. But let me leave you with just two more as we wrap up.
In Revelation 1:8 we hear from God the Father.
“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”
-Revelation 1:8 ESV
Then in Revelation 22:13 Jesus is speaking.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
-Revelation 22:13 ESV
Jesus and the Father are One. The Bible is clear. Jesus is God.
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Love you Jesus follower!