WE HAVE BEEN DISCUSSING the Divine nature of Jesus and how it is clearly expressed in the Bible. Below we have listed more attributes and titles of Jesus, with some Scriptures referenced, to prove this point even more.
Omniscient
“HE SAITH unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep” (21:17).
Omnipotent
“ALL THINGS were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (Jn. 1:3). “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19).
“Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus [the brother of Mary and Martha]…When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. … Then when Jesus came, he found that he [Lazarus] had lain in the grave four days already. …Jesus said unto [Martha], I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world….Jesus…cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go” (11:1-44).
Sovereign
“FOR AS the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (Jn. 5:21-22). “…And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (vv. 27-29). “I lay down my life…No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (10:18).
Creator
“ALL THINGS were made by him [Christ]; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (Jn. 1:3). Jesus Himself claims that He is the theme, the focus, of the entire Old Testament (5:39-40).
God Almighty or mighty god?
JESUS IS not just a “mighty god” or only “a prophet,” but He IS GOD!! We don’t have a polytheistic teaching in our Bibles, we have ONLY ONE GOD (e.g., see Jn 17:3).
Check Out These O.T. Verses
DEUTERONOMY 32:39-“See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me” (KJV). “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me” (NIV). “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god beside Me” (AMP). “Don’t you see that I alone am God?” (TLB).
ISAIAH 43:10-11-“Ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside Me there is no saviour” (KJV). “You are My witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from Me there is no savior”” (NIV). “You are My witnesses, says the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know Me, believe Me and remain steadfast to Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, and beside Me there is no Savior” (AMP). “But I have witnesses, O Israel, says the LORD! You are My witnesses and My servants, chosen to know and to believe Me and to understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never was and never will be. I am the LORD, and there is no other Savior” (TLB).
ISAIAH 44:8-“Is there a God beside Me? yea, there is no God; I know not any” (KJV). “Is there any God besides Me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one” (NIV). “Is there a God besides Me? There is no other Rock; I know not any” (AMP). “You are My witnesses-is there any other God? No! None that I know about! There is no other Rock!” (TLB).
ISAIAH 45:5-“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me” (KJV). “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God” (NIV). “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God besides Me” (AMP). “I am Jehovah; there is no other God” (TLB).
Tricks!
THE WATCHTOWER Society (WTS-Jehovah’s Witnesses) renders John 8:58 like this: “Jesus said to them: ‘Most truly I say unto you, Before Abraham came into existence, ‘I have been.” How in the world do they come up with this? The Bible states, “…before Abraham was born, I AM.” There certainly is a difference here.
The JWs, along with the Jews, can admit to Jesus’ preexistence (“I have been”) but deny His ETERNAL preexistence (“I AM,” signifying “I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN”). That name, “I AM,” comes from Exodus 3:14-“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He [God] said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent Me unto you.” Scripturally, the “I AM” of the Old Testament is the same in the New Testament: “I AM who/that I AM” appeals to the Father’s and Son’s infinite existence. Now take a look at Revelation 4:8b-“…[the] Lord God Almighty, who WAS, and IS, and IS TO COME.” The name “I AM” communicates the idea, “I AM the One WHO IS.”
You see, God-Father, Son, Holy Ghost-is not just a static God but an ACTIVE God.
“I AM” or “I Have Been”
AGAIN, HONEST scholars disagree with the WTS’s translation of the Greek ego eimi (èyà Єiμí, “I AM”). Scholars see no reason why the JWs translate John 8:58 (èyw eiμí) as “I have been.” Some scholars point out “that at one time the Jehovah’s Witnesses attempted to classify the Greek word ‘eimi’ as a perfect indefinite tense rather than a present tense. However, this claim proved to be very embarrassing when Greek scholars pointed out to the [JWs] that there is NO SUCH THING as a perfect indefinite tense in Greek grammar” (Bowman, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus Christ, and the Gospel of John, pp. 90-98).
It is really sad that so many JWs are misled about the Deity of Jesus Christ. Yet we find a contradiction here, for, as one former JW wrote, “[The] Witnesses’ own study Bibles prove that Jesus was claiming to be the ‘I AM’ in John 8:58. Their 1984 [NWT] has a footnote on Exodus 3:14, admitting that the Hebrew would be rendered into Greek as ‘ego eimi’-‘I am.’ At the same time, their 1985 Kingdom Interlinear Translation of Greek Scriptures reveals that Jesus’ words in John 8:58 are the same: ‘ego eimi” (Ron Rhodes’ book, Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Harvest House publishers).
The JWs are like the Muslims: they contradict themselves to their own embarrassment.
We Might Ask…
SINCE THE Greek Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament, which predates the birth of Christ Jesus by a couple of centuries) renders the Hebrew phrase “I AM” in Exodus 3:14 as ego eimi-and since this is the same as we find in John 8:58, used by Christ is it not clear that an obvious connection exists between the two verses?
Ego Eimi
YOU MAY want to look up the following verses where ego eimi is found: Jn. 4:26; 6:35, 48, 51; 8:12, 24, 28, 58; 10:7, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5 and 18:5, 6, 8. The JWs correctly translate these as “I AM” except for Jn. 8:58! One might ask why the JWs refused to correct John 8:58!
What About John 8:24?
“I SAID therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I AM He, ye shall die in your sins” (KJV).
Here we find Jesus using the Greek ego eimi in the same way as 8:58-identifying Himself as God. The Greek text for verse 24 (“I AM He”) does not have the word “He” in the original manuscripts. The verse literally reads, “If you do not believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins.” We see the same repeated in verse 28-the word “He” is not there in the original Greek text. Why? “It is all too clear that Christ purposely used the phrase ego eimi as a means of identifying Himself as Yahweh” [M.J. Erickson, The Word Became Flesh (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991), pp. 28- 29].
Jesus Like Adam?
REALLY? SAYS who? Ahmed Deedat (late Muslim apologist) said, “What makes Jesus God? His birth? He was born without a human father, but He must have had a father. So His father was God? The Qur’an answers that very simply. ‘Lo! the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, then He said unto him: Be! and he is’ (Surah 3:59).” So Mr. Deedat believed like the JWS believe-Jesus was a created being, just like Adam.
Deedat carries his ignorant reasoning further: “If Jesus is God, and the very Son of God because he has no earthly father, then Adam is a greater god, because he had no father and no mother!”
No, Jesus was begotten of the Holy Ghost, and this is much UNLIKE the creation of Adam. Jesus had no father biologically, no human father, but as it says in the Bible, He is “the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” “the (very) expressed image of the Father,” “the Word become flesh.” Adam may not have had an earthly father or mother, but he was simply a man created out of dirt, not the infusion of God into human flesh. BIG DIFFERENCE!! Can’t you see it?
Remember, the Bible was written centuries before the confused Qur’an was compiled.
Also, remember that it was an angel that announced to Jesus’ mother, Mary, this great proclamation about Jesus: “He will be GREAT and will be called the Son of the Highest” (Lk 1:32). Was the angel lying? The Lord God was making a mistake here? If the title were not special, why would the angel make mention of it? Indeed, Jesus was and is SPECIAL. The Bible says that Jesus and His Father “are ONE” (Jn. 10:30).
Luke 1:35 tells us, “And the angel answered and said unto her [Mary], ‘The HOLY GHOST shall come upon thee, and THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST shall overshadow thee: therefore also THAT HOLY THING which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
Jesus had a mother biologically, and He was conceived in the womb by the Holy Ghost, for Mary was a virgin. Jesus WAS NOT CREATED like Adam, out of the dust, but BEGOTTEN solely by a MIRACULOUS DEED of God the Father. As a result, Jesus would be holy and sinless (the Qur’an even says Jesus was sinless!).
Did you notice that the angel explains the supernatural conception? Since his words are “cast in the parallelism of Hebrew poetry,” the second statement he makes is a repetition of the first: THE HOLY GHOST (or SPIRIT) is therefore the same as or equivalent to THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST (or MOST HIGH). It was God who came upon the virgin Mary in this miraculous conception.
The RSV says, “And the angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”” The “Son of God” involves the idea of physical (or metaphysical) relationship to Deity, whereas “Son of the Most High” in verse 32 (RSV) was only a title that God would confer on Jesus the Messiah.
Son of Man-Son of God
JESUS WAS both! Dr. John Drane, Lecturer in Religious Studies as Sterling University, writes in his book Introducing the New Testament, “The actual Aramaic words ‘son of man’ may well have no specific meaning, but were probably just a longer (tautological) phrase for ‘man.” He goes on to state, “In the Old Testament, the term ‘son of man’ had been used to describe human beings and their difference from God. In the book of Daniel and other Jewish apocalypses, the ‘Son of man’ was a transcendent, heavenly figure who shared in God’s own power…For He (Jesus) wanted to claim both that He was an ordinary human, and that He was specifically sent from God Himself-and both these ideas could be found in the Old Testament use of the ‘Son of man.’”
Our study is the corresponding side to this, that Jesus is the “Son of God.” Indeed there is NO WAY to deny His claim to be both “Son of man” and “Son of God”!
The Greeks
THE GREEK-SPEAKING peoples often used the phrase “son of God” to indicate some heroic human figure. The centurion at the cross uttered, “Truly this was the son of God”; possibly all he meant was that Jesus was a great man (see Matt. 27:54). Luke’s account clearly suggests this, for there the centurion says, “Certainly this man was innocent” (Lk. 23:47). But there can be no question that in the Gospels the phrase “Son of God” is used to indicate that Jesus claimed a special relationship with God the Father Himself. Even as we saw in Luke 1:35, the angel said “the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God”-He was called “holy, the Son of God” (and was even WORSHIPED by wise men, Matt. 2:11) before He ever did anything that men (like the Greeks) would call worthy of commendation. Furthermore, even at a young age, He regarded the temple as “My Father’s house” (Lk. 2:49).
Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22 indicate this special relationship between God the Father and Son of God. These verses leave little room for misunderstanding.
Jesus Not God?
BOTH THE Jews and Muslims and many non-Christians deny His Sonship. And even “Christian” theologians have debated, searched, and given forth their views on what Jesus meant when He said He was God’s Son. But the testimony of Scripture still stands, Jesus is still revealing Himself to men as the Divine Son of God, and His declaration yet rings true: “If you do not believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins” (Jn. 8:24).
Logos of God
JOHN 1:1 calls Jesus “the Word” (Gk., Logos). It means something more than an expression—that is, God’s message to mankind was not just written in a book, it was displayed in the Person of God Himself. The “Word” is “truth” (17:17). John also says that “the Word became a human being” (1:14): God Himself was “the Word,” embodied in Jesus Christ the man.
The Son of God is the eternal Word made flesh. He is the “I AM” God. It is pretty hard to miss what Jesus was stating when He used the “I AM’s”-e.g., “I AM the Bread of Life,” “I AM the Water of Life,” “I AM the Light of the world,” “I AM the Good Shepherd,” “I AM the Resurrection and the Life,” “I AM the True Vine,” etc. No mere human can be these things, not even a “great” human. No man can say, “I AM the Door of the sheep [-those who enter will be saved and given eternal life],” but Jesus did.
Jesus Knew!
JESUS KNEW exactly who He was, but kept some things secret for a while. He knew that He was the Son of God sent into the world (Jn. 1:18; 3:16-17). Of course, Jesus also knew that He could do nothing (as a man) apart from God the Father, but what He observed His Father doing, that He did-He worked as the Father worked (5:19). There is no way we miss what He is saying here-He carries out the same functions as the Father in the world. As the Father is the source of Life/Power, so the Son has this Life in Himself (5:26). The Son can also give this Life/Power to others (5:21; 6:40, 57).
The Son is a Judge as the Father is (5:22) and should receive honor just as the Father does (5:23). The Son bears witness of the Father (5:30): He hears the Words spoken by the Father and speaks the same (8:26, 28); He is thus obedient to the Father. So, the Father loves the Son (3:34-35; 5:20) and gives Him glory (8:54; 12:23- 28). Jesus Himself provides the inner meaning of the title “only Son of God” (Jn 1:14, 18). But because of the blindness of our opponents, they can’t believe all this.
He is The Way, the Truth, the Life
JESUS STATED this about Himself! (Read Jn. 14:6.)
The fundamental problem of the Bible’s adversaries is their unwillingness to accept the claims to which Jesus’ Words themselves testify. The Jews of Jesus’ day said that Jesus had a devil! and sought to kill him! You see, if God the Father was the Jew’s God, as they claimed, they would have loved the Son (see Jn. 8:42). The same holds true for everyone today. Those who are of God will honor the Son of God.
So-
SO, SINCE the Father is always with the Son, He is a second witness to Jesus’ Words; this fulfills the requirement of “their law” (Judaism), that the witness of two men is required to establish a matter (Jn. 8:17; Deut. 19:15).
Here we see that the Law of Moses finds its “fullness” in the “grace and truth” revealed by and in Jesus (Jn 1:16-17). Jesus told the disbelieving Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life; and it is they who witness of me” (5:39). Only this angered them the more. Jesus continued-“It is Moses who accuses you, on whom you hope; if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me” (vv. 45-46).
The Midrashic reading of Psalm 82:6 shows that Jesus is Scripturally justified in calling Himself “Son of God.” Luke T. Johnson, Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, wrote in his book, The Writings of the New Testament, that “…even those to whom Torah was revealed were called God’s sons, how much more the One whom God sanctified and sent into the world (Jn. 10:34-36). If they were really faithful to Torah, they would also have faith in Jesus.” That calls us to read John 8:47: “He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” That pretty well sums up Islam and Judaism and many cults-they are NOT OF GOD!!
So? So they DIE IN THEIR SINS! Jesus, in John 8:51, says, “If anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.”
Jesus the Christ is as Living Son: God’s Holy Word.