“Did Jesus really claim to be God?  I have heard this teaching was something the early church did not even believe until the time of Emperor Constantine, and when I read the New Testament, the most I can find is Jesus claiming to be the Son of God.  That is not the same thing.”

Actually, it is. In those days people didn’t understand the term Son of God as they do today. Today we think of all people as children of God. But in ancient Israel, Son of God was a special title of deity. To be the Son of God was to be of like essence with God and of equal authority with God.

John 5:18

For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

In fact, this was the exact reason Jesus was executed.

Mark 14:61-65

Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." 

 The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. 6 "You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"

They all condemned him as worthy of death.

The charge was blasphemy. Obviously the blasphemy must have been more than saying, “Gee…I think we’re all sons of God.”

No.  This was a claim to deity. For an ancient Jew to claim to be God was the most blasphemous thing one could say, unless by chance he happened to be telling the truth.   But they did not believe he was telling the truth and that’s why he was executed.

“OK…Well…Maybe. But it would be nice if Jesus had actually called Himself God in so many words.”

He did. He called himself by the name of God. That is as clear and specific as the words could possibly have been in those days.

While arguing with some Jewish rabbis, Jesus spoke of Abraham as if he had known him personally. The Jews asked how he could have known a man who lived long before he was born.

John 8:58-59

 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Even in those days, that would have been incorrect grammar.  Why didn’t he say, “Before Abraham was, I was”?  Because the term “I Am” was a special claim to deity. This was the very name God gave Moses at the burning bush.

Ex 3:13-14

 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Incidentally, just in case there is any doubt in your mind, we know the Jews understood his claim to deity quite clearly.  Why else would they have picked up rocks to stone him at that very moment?

“But this makes no sense. How can God be a man?”

The claim is not that God is a man, but that the same God, who created men, chose to become a man Himself. This was to relate to our circumstances better and establish empathy. It was also to be an example. God was not going to ask us to do anything He wasn’t willing to do Himself. Rather than sitting up on His cloud, giving commands, God made himself human.

Whatever form and power God the Son had in eternity past, He gave it all up and somehow transformed Himself into a real human being (Phil.  2:5-8). He knew hunger, thirst, pain and suppressive government rule.  Although He never sinned, He was tempted (Hebrews 2:18) and the experience gave Him a special empathy (Hebrews 4:15).  It is as though God were saying, “I will not ask you to go through anything which I am unwilling to go through myself.”  After rising from the dead, Jesus returned to Heaven to rule with the Father, but, although He regained the position of God He remains in the form of a man for all of eternity, a glorified immortal man certainly, but still a man (Phil. 2:9-11, I John 3:2).

Phil 2:5-11

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,  but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

“But I don’t understand the Trinity. How can God be three yet one?”

Whether or not we understand the Trinity is NOT the current question. The current question has to do with Jesus’ claims. Does the New Testament teach the Trinity?  It absolutely does.

If we could understand everything about God, He wouldn’t be much of a God.

Deut 29:29-30:1

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

What is the secret?  The metaphysical explanation of the Trinity. What has been revealed? That the Trinity still exists despite our lack of comprehension.

Even though the Trinity cannot be explained, the concept of being three, yet one, is not foreign to the field of Science.  In Quantum Physics, the notion of alternative dimensions is being discussed very seriously today.  Hugh Ross, in his excellent book The Creator and the Cosmos, raises the question of God existing in more than one dimension at a time and suggests that this might be part of the secret behind the Trinity.  Or how about a completely different area of Science, Genetics?  Look at the studies they have done with identical twins. Sometimes even twins who were separated at birth and who found themselves as adults, discovered that they had made similar choices in life as regards, marriage, job, even the names they gave to pets.  I saw two such men on a television program years ago. They had each named their dog, Toy. Now if they named him Spot or Rover, I wouldn’t have exactly fallen out of my chair, but, Toy?

Identical twins and identical triplets are a fascinating concept to behold. Once one cell, his cell splits into three cells, each with an identical 23 pairs of chromosomes. They are the same person. And yet they are three different people.

Please understand. I am not claiming to explain the Trinity. Once again, I am comfortable that God knows some things we don’t know.  All I’m saying is that the concept of being multiple, yet one, is not unknown to nature.

It is true that Jesus is one member of a co-equal trinity but this mystery does not dilute His divine identity.  The other two members retained their position while Jesus walked the earth.  He lived in obedience to the Father (John 15:10) and He performed miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matt.12:22-28). Late in His ministry, He finally revealed His true identity.

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip even after I have been among you such a long time?  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:8-10).

Imagine following somebody for years because He seems to have such a special insight into spiritual matters.  Now, at a quiet private moment toward the end of His ministry, Jesus let’s His disciples in on a little secret.  The reason He knows so much about God is that He is God.  Can’t you just feel the shivers that must have accompanied this incredible conversation?

Jesus’ disciples never forgot this claim.  Indeed, John opens his gospel by making the deity of Jesus abundantly clear:

John 1:1-2

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

The term word, (“logos” in ancient Greek), meant more than a spoken or written word.  It was an expression, often associated with some kind of heavenly expression from above. We have only to read the Bible in context to let the scripture interpret itself.  John tells us just exactly what he means by the term, word.

John 1:14

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We can now re-read the phrase above, substituting “the word”  for Jesus:

1:1 In the beginning was (Jesus), and (Jesus) was with God, and (Jesus) was God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE

New International Version  NIV

Copyright  1973, 1979, 1984 by International Bible Society

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

All rights reserved.

Also from Bob Siegel:

Did Jesus Really Claim to be The Messiah?

How a Reformed Jew Became an Evangelical Christian Part One

How a Reformed Jew Became an Evangelical Christian Part Two

How A Reformed Jew Became an Evangelical Christian Part Three

How a Reformed Jew Became an Evangelical Christian Part Four

How a Reformed Jew Became an Evangelical Christian Part Five