Is Jesus Really God?

Most people who know a little about Jesus think He was a wise teacher who advocated love and tolerance. The actual Jesus of the Gospels is far more disruptive. He claimed authority to forgive sins. He claimed existence before Abraham. He claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life. He claimed that no one could come to the Father except through Him. He accepted worship. He told a paralytic his sins were forgiven and then proved it by healing him. He told a storm to be still — and it obeyed.

C.S. Lewis put it bluntly: "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 a 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." The one option not on the table is "great moral teacher." Jesus did not leave that door open.

"I AM" is the divine name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). Jesus claims it for Himself — and the religious leaders understood exactly what He was saying. Their immediate response was to pick up stones to kill Him for blasphemy. The only blasphemy here would be a man claiming to be God. They got the claim right; they got the verdict wrong.

In Scripture, worship is reserved for God alone. When Cornelius tried to worship Peter (Acts 10:25-26) and John tried to worship an angel (Revelation 22:8-9), both immediately refused — "I am only a fellow servant; worship God!" But Jesus, on multiple occasions, accepts worship without correction. He cannot have been a faithful Jew if He was not God. He never deflects worship. He receives it.

When Jesus told the paralyzed man his sins were forgiven, the religious leaders objected: 'Who can forgive sins but God alone?' They were theologically correct. Only the offended party can forgive an offense, and ultimately every sin is against God. Jesus then proved His authority by healing the man — demonstrating that the One who forgives sins also has the power to remake creation.

John, who walked with Jesus for three years, opens his Gospel by identifying Jesus as the eternal Word who 'was God.' Thomas, after touching the resurrected Jesus, says, 'My Lord and my God!' (John 20:28). Paul writes that 'in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form' (Colossians 2:9). The earliest Christians did not slowly upgrade Jesus from prophet to God over centuries — they called Him God from the beginning.

Hundreds of years before Jesus, Isaiah prophesied a child who would be called 'Mighty God' and 'Everlasting Father.' The New Testament gives Jesus titles reserved in the Old Testament for Yahweh: First and Last (Revelation 1:17 // Isaiah 44:6), Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16 // Deuteronomy 10:17), Judge of all (2 Corinthians 5:10 // Psalm 96:13). The titles do not transfer; the identity does.

Jesus calmed storms with a word, walked on water, multiplied food, raised the dead. Most striking of all: He predicted His own death and resurrection — and then walked out of His own grave three days later. The resurrection is the historical anchor of the Christian claim. If He stayed dead, the case collapses. If He rose, what He claimed about Himself must be true.