Note: This is another apologetics entry in the "Season for the Reason" writings that I like to do at times. As with most all of these entries, this is written in response to a question from a skeptic. In this case, I am answering a common question from Muslims, who do acknowledge Jesus as a great prophet, but don't believe in His crucifixion or Resurrection or His position as God Almighty. This is actually a challenge that a number of people of other religious views as well as atheistic views raise. When did Jesus Christ declare Himself to be God and command people to worship Him? Let's look at what The Gospels in The Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) actually say.
Yes, I know that Islam views Jesus quite differently from Christianity. However, He is revered as a prophet doing many miracles as Muslims assert. However, if Jesus healed the blind, made birds out of clay and raised the dead to life as recorded in the Quran- how could He do this without the power of God? The Quran also commands Muslims to obey Jesus in surah 43:63. Yet how can a good Muslim follow this without knowing Jesus' commands? One needs to read The Bible for that. And in the New Testament, Jesus gives us commands and does indeed state His equality with God.
John 10:30-33 records Jesus as flat out saying that He and The Father are one. And the Pharisees clearly recognize His claim to divinity here, as they raised stones to stone Him. (In fact, this is what got Jesus crucified- the Pharisees pegged Him as a troublemaker who claimed to be God.) John 14 records Jesus stating Himself to be The Way, The Truth and the Life- no man comes to The Father but by Him. When Philip then asks for Him to show the disciples the Father, Jesus says that when they've seen Him they've seen the Father. After Jesus' death and Resurrection, He appears to the disciples- and in John 20, He appears again when Thomas is there (who had been doubting Jesus' Resurrection)- but when faced with the proof in his face, Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus asked if he now believed because he saw- and then says that those who have not seen and believed are blessed. Note that Jesus does not correct Thomas, but rather accepts the praise as God and says that those who haven't seen Him and believe in Him as Lord and God are blessed.
Jesus assumes the title of Lord in Matthew 7:21-23 and makes clear that He will be the One to judge whether people enter the kingdom of Heaven or not. (See also Luke 6:46.) In fact, Jesus is often called Lord throughout the Gospels- Matthew 8:2 and Matthew 8:6 both record people calling Him Lord- right as Jesus is doing miracles by restoring a leper to clean health and healing a Roman centurion's servant. His disciples called Him Lord- Matthew 8:25 records one such instance, when Jesus told the winds and the waves to be still and they did it. (Also in Mark 4:35-41 and Luke 8:22-25). In Luke 12:41-42, Peter first addresses Jesus as Lord and then Luke goes on to identify Jesus as The Lord in the next verse. This is significant to note since The LORD is the name of God given in Exodus 3:15. (Luke does this again in Luke 13:15, identifying Jesus as The Lord.) It is also interesting to note that Jesus asserts that David, in the Holy Spirit, called Christ The Lord in Psalms 110:1. (Jesus specifically says this in Mark 12:35-37. See also Matthew 22:41-46 and Luke 20:41-44.) And in Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus states that the most important commandments are to love The Lord our God with all our hearts, all our souls and all our minds. The second is like it- we must love our neighbours as ourselves. And in Matthew 4:10, Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy to the devil when He told him that, "You shall worship The Lord your God and Him only shall you serve." Thus, we have Jesus' command to worship Him as God.
In Matthew 9:1-8, Jesus again faces a blasphemy charge from scribes who are taken aback when Jesus forgives the sins of a paralytic- since only God can forgive sins. However, Jesus proves His divinity and identity as God when He both forgives sins and heals the paralytic. (This is also in Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26. See also John 5 for a similar incident.) In Luke 7:36-50, there is an incident of a sinful woman who comes to worship at Jesus' feet and anoint His feet with an alabaster jar of ointment as well as her tears, which she wiped with her own hair. Jesus sees her show of repentance and forgives her sins. Again, people talk and balk, asking, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"
In Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus asks His disciples to tell Him who people say that He is- and they tell Him that some call Him John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But then Jesus asks- "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter replies- "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus declares Simon blessed because the Father Himself has revealed this to him. In this passage, Jesus distinguishes Himself as the Messiah- the Christ- the Son of the living God- and more than just a prophet. (See also Mark 8:27-30 and Luke 9:18-20.)
Jesus often identifies Himself as the Son of Man (see Matthew 8:18-22 for one such instance). In Matthew 24 and 25, He states that the Son of Man will come on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory and will send out His angels to do His work. Matthew 25 again depicts the Son of Man (Jesus) as having glory and angels at His command and seated on the throne as King- and He judges all people at the end of time. (Jesus also states this in Mark 8:38. See also Mark 13 and Luke 9:23-27 and Luke 13 and Luke 21.) In Matthew 26:63-68, Jesus again affirms His title of the Christ, the Son of God. (See also Mark 14:61-62 where Jesus confirms that He is the Christ, the Son of the Blessed. In Luke 22:70-71, Jesus again affirms Himself to be the Son of God.) He affirms His title as King of the Jews in Matthew 27:11-14. And in Matthew 28:16-20, when Jesus has been crucified and has risen again- He appears to His disciples one last time to commission them to preach the Gospel in all the world. He states in Matthew 28:18 that all authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Him. Who else but God could make that claim?
Of course, there are other incidents that happened that prove Jesus to be God. In a beautiful picture of the Triune God, at Jesus' baptism, we see Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, with the Holy Spirit descending on Him like a dove and the voice of God the Father declaring Him as His beloved Son in Whom He's well pleased. (See Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22 and John 1:29-34) Even the demons and devil recognize Him as the "Holy One of God" and the "Son of God" and the Christ (see Mark 1:24 and Matthew 4 and Mark 3:7-12 and Mark 5 and Luke 4:31-37) A similar scene happens in Matthew 17, which is reiterated in Mark 9 and Luke 9, wherein Jesus is glorified in an event known as the "Transfiguration of Christ". James, John and Peter get a glimpse of Jesus' glory as God on a mountain with Him, when Moses and Elijah appear to talk with Jesus and God the Father's voice again identifies Christ as His beloved Son and commands us to listen to Him. In another similar incident of God The Father speaking from Heaven, in John 12:27-36, Jesus asks God The Father to glorify His Name to which God The Father replies, "I have glorified it and I will glorify it again." Jesus states that the voice was for the benefit of the people with Him listening and not for His. It's yet another scene to help people believe in Jesus as the God Who came to save us all.
In Mark 2:27, Jesus declares Himself (again using the Son of Man title that He often uses) as Lord even of the Sabbath. [The "even" here is important, as it implies that He already is Lord of everything else too.] In Mark 5, when Jesus is healing a man with a horde of demons (who identify themselves as Legion because they are many)- the demons both identify Jesus as the Son of the Most High God and implore Him not to torment them. Again- only God has the power to torment demons and their leader the devil in hell. Jesus demonstrates His power as God here and drives the demons out of the man and into a herd of 2000 pigs. (See also Luke 8.)
In Luke 4:16-30, Jesus attends synagogue and reads from Isaiah 61:1-2 for the congregation- a prophetic passage about the Messiah. He affirms Himself as the fulfillment of that passage- the One Whom The Spirit of The Lord is upon. The One who proclaims good news to the poor and liberty to the captives- who recovers sight for the blind and sets at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaims the year of the Lord's favor. Note too that again people try to kill Him here, doubtless due to His outrageous claim to be God, which would be blasphemous- unless He's telling the truth.
Luke 7:18-35 records an interesting incident where John the Baptist's disciples come to question Jesus and ask if He's One who is to come- the Messiah. Jesus tells them to report to John what they've seen and heard- the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them. (Just as Isaiah 61:1-2 and many other Old Testament passages predicted the Messiah would do.) And Jesus says this in Luke 7:23- "And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me." This is a quote that has an Old Testament connection as well, as the image of the Messiah as the "stone the builders rejected who has become the capstone [or cornerstone]" is one used in a couple of places- Psalms 118:22 and Isaiah 28:16 to name a few. Jesus Himself quotes Psalms 118:22 in Matthew 21:42 and this is reiterated in Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:6. Isaiah 8:14 says that this stone is a "stone of stumbling and a rock of offense."
Hence, Jesus' reference to Himself as the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense and His blessings offered to all who are not offended by Him. (i.e. He blesses all who are not scandalized by His offer of grace and who are not offended by the Truth He presents- the Way to God- the only Way by acknowledging our sins to Him and trusting His death and Resurrection for forgiveness of them.) (See also Luke 20:9-18.)
In Luke 9:37-43, we read of Jesus casting a demon out of a boy. It's interesting to note that verse 42 states that Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy- and verse 43 goes on to stay that all were astonished at the majesty of God. In these two verses, we again have an equating of Jesus with God. In Luke 10:17-20, the disciples rejoice because the demons are subject to them in Jesus' Name. Jesus then states that He saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven and Jesus has given the disciples authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt them. Of course, He also said not to rejoice because the spirits are subject to them, but rather because their names are written in Heaven. Again, we have a claim from Jesus to have authority over the demons and Satan and poisonous animals and all power of the enemy. And who else but God has that authority?
In Luke 11:29-32, Jesus declares Himself to be something greater than Solomon and Jonah. And He declares Himself to be a sign to that generation. In Luke 12:8-12, He goes on to tell us that everyone who acknowledges Him before men, the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. Everyone who denies Him will be denied before the angels of God. We again have another passage equating Jesus with God, as the Name that must be acknowledged for entry into God's presence.
In Luke 18:35-43, we have yet another healing, wherein Jesus makes a blind beggar to see again. Verse 43 tells us that immediately after Jesus said for him to recover his sight, it happened- and he followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. (Again in these successions of verses, we see Jesus being linked with God.)
In Luke 19:28-40, Jesus is hailed during the triumphal entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as "the King who comes in the Name of The Lord." Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest are ascribed to Him. Glory in the highest should only be reserved for God. The Pharisees recognize this and tell Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." Jesus tells them that if they were silent, the very stones would cry out. Even the stones would cry out that Jesus is the King who comes in the Name of The Lord- the One worthy of glory in the highest! (See also John 12:12-19.)
In Luke 21:28-30, Jesus speaks of the kingdom that His Father has assigned to Him- another example of His alignment with God. Jesus has authority to let people into that kingdom because He does so even while on the cross in Luke 23:39-43. While one criminal on the cross next to Him rails at Him and demands that He as the Christ save Himself and them, the other criminal asks him the pointed question, "Do you not fear God?" Clearly this thief on the cross recognizes Jesus as God and again, Jesus does not correct him. When he asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom, Jesus assures him that that day he would be with Him in Paradise. After that day, when Jesus had risen again, He appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus and in Luke 24:25-27, He again identifies Himself as the Christ and goes through Moses and the Prophets and interprets to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. After Jesus leaves them, they declare to the other disciples that The Lord has risen indeed and appeared to them. While all this is going on, Jesus shows up again and confirms to the disciples that He is the Christ Who had to fulfill all that's written about Him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. He opens the Scriptures to them again and explains how they speak about Him.
In the book of John, John opens up by first identifying Jesus as God Himself in John 1:1. "In the beginning was The Word and The Word was with God and the Word was God." As John 1:14 goes on to say, "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." As John 1:17-18 go on to tell us, the law was given through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. While no one has ever seen God- the only God, who is at the Father's side- He has made Him known. How did He do this? By sending Jesus Christ- God in the flesh.
Jesus is identified by John the Baptist as The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and Andrew identifies Him as the Messiah. Nathanael identifies Jesus as the Son of God and King of Israel. (See John 1:29-51.) Jesus tells him that he will see greater things than Jesus' ability to see him under the fig tree before he had even met Jesus. He would see Heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
In one of the most famous passages in The Bible, Jesus states to Nicodemus that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus identifies belief in His Name as necessary for eternal life- something that only God can grant. In another incident, in John 4, in talking with a Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus confirms her identification of Him as The Messiah- The Christ. Because of her testimony, others come to believe in Him and declare Jesus to be the Saviour of the world- again, a role that only God can fill.
In John 5:17-18, Jesus calls God His own Father and makes Himself equal with God, inspiring the Jews to want to kill Him, because of His apparent blasphemy. (Unless, of course, He was telling the truth and He is in fact God.) In John 5:30-46, Jesus goes on to explain the works He has done (His miracles) bear witness about Him that The Father has sent Him. Jesus says that while the Jews search the Scriptures for eternal life and it's they that bear witness about Him, the Jews refuse to come to Jesus so that He can give them life. Verses 43 and 44 are telling- "I have come in My Father's Name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?" Then Jesus really sticks it to them. He tells them that Moses himself will accuse them- the one on whom they've set their hope. If they really believed Moses, they should believe Jesus- because Moses wrote of Jesus.
In John 6:35-59, Jesus declares Himself to be the bread of life- whoever comes to Him shall not hunger and whoever believes in Him shall never thirst. All that The Father has given Him will come to Him and whoever comes to Him He will never cast out. While the Pharisees doubt that Jesus has really come from Heaven, Jesus explains that no one can come to The Father unless He draw them. And Jesus will raise them up on the last day. (A power only God possesses.) Jesus then says that it's written in the Prophets, "And they will all be taught by God." (Isaiah 54:13). Jesus goes on to say that everyone who has heard and learned from The Father comes to Him. Thus, Jesus is the fulfillment of this verse as the people are being taught by God- Jesus Himself. Peter again affirms Jesus as the One who has the words of eternal life, the Holy One of God in John 6:68. In John 7, Jesus again affirms that His teaching is from God and by God's authority He teaches. John 7:31 records the people who saw Jesus' miracles as saying, "When the Christ appears, will He do more signs than this man has done?"
Jesus declares Himself to be the Light of the world in John 8:12. Jesus goes on to say that He is from above and not of this world in John 8:23. In verse 24, He insists to the Pharisees that they must believe He is who He says He is or they will die in their sins. In verses 25-59, He goes on to say that if they abide in His Word and are truly His disciples, then they will know The Truth and The Truth will set them free. (Note that Jesus identifies Himself as The Truth in John 14:6.) The discussion turns to Abraham and some more outrageous claims from Jesus, including the claim that if anyone keeps His word, they will never taste death. (Which is only outrageous if Jesus isn't who He says He is, of course.) Jesus says that Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus' day- He saw it and was glad. Jesus goes on to tell the Pharisees, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." At this, the Pharisees pick up stones to stone Him, but Jesus escapes them. This is incredibly significant to point out because Jesus uses a phrase that correlates to Exodus 3:14, where The Lord God identifies Himself with the Name, "I AM WHO I AM." The Pharisees recognize that Jesus has just equated Himself with this Name, thus, again stating Himself to be God.
In John 9, Jesus heals a man who was born blind. He asks him if he believes in the Son of Man. The man asks who is the Son of Man and Jesus affirms that it is Him. The man then says to Him, "Lord, I believe." (John 9:35-39) Again we have someone not only calling Jesus the Son of Man but also using the title of Lord with Him. In John 10, Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd and the Door for the sheep that all must come through to receive abundant life. In John 10:30-33, He makes one of the clearest statements in The Bible of His divinity when He plainly states that He and the Father are one. The Pharisees again try to stone Him because they recognize that He is equating Himself with God. In John 11:4, Jesus declares Himself to be the Son of God and demonstrates His power as God over life and death when He raises Lazarus back to life. In John 11:25, Jesus says He is the Resurrection and the Life. Everyone who lives and believes in Him shall never die. Martha confirms that she believes this; she believes He is The Lord- The Christ- The Son of God.
In John 12:44-45, Jesus says that whoever believes in Him believes not in Him, but in the One who sent Him. Whoever sees Him sees the One who sent Him. Here we have another statement that whoever has seen Jesus has seen God. In John 13:13, Jesus is having The Last Supper with His disciples, which is also known as The Lord's Supper. This is a fitting name as in that verse, Jesus says that the disciples call Him Teacher and Lord and they're right because He is indeed. In another verses that supports The Trinity, in John 13:20 Jesus says that whoever receives The One He sends (The Holy Spirit) receives Him and whoever receives Him (Jesus) receives the One who sent Him (God The Father).
In another famous passage in The Bible, John 14:1-14, Jesus reveals Himself as The Way, The Truth and The Life- no man comes to The Father but by Him. Philip asks Jesus to show them The Father and that will be enough for them. Jesus then asks Philip, "Don't you know Who I AM?" Whoever has seen Jesus has seen The Father. Jesus again states Himself to be God in this passage a number of times. (John 14:6-7, 14:9-10, 14:11 and 14:20 and 14:24) John 15-17 repeatedly speaks of the Triune nature of God and Jesus explains the relationship between God The Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit- the Blessed Three-in-One. In John 16:2-3, Jesus says there will come a time when whoever kills His disciples will think they are offering service to God. Jesus then says they will do these things because they have not known The Father nor Him. (Yet another identification of Jesus as God.) In John 16:26-27, Jesus again states that He came from God the Father- The Father sent Him and He is with The Father. (see John 16:32)
John 17 is a very interesting insight into the nature of God and the relationship within The Trinity, as Jesus prays to God the Father- stating that He glorified God the Father on earth and then asks that The Father glorify Him in His presence with the glory He had with Him before the world existed. In John 17:11, Jesus says that He and The Father are one. In John 17:20-21, Jesus says that The Father is in Him and He is in The Father. He repeats this in verses 22-23.
Later, when Jesus is before Pilate, He tells Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world and that He bears witness to The Truth. (see John 18:33-40). John 19:7 records the Jews as saying that Jesus made Himself the Son of God (and thus He must die, according to their rules). In John 20:17, after Jesus has been crucified to pay for the sins of the world and been resurrected, He appears to Mary Magdalene. He tells her to tell His brothers that He is ascending to His Father and their Father- to His God and their God. (Again, we have another equation of God The Father with Jesus.) And in John 20:28, we have Thomas' confession of Jesus as Lord and God. John 20:30-31 tell us that Jesus did a lot of other signs that aren't written in John's book- but the ones that are written are written so that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His Name.
And, of course, that is the purpose of the whole Bible. There are numerous other verses that could be mentioned, but I tried to stick only to the ones recorded in The Gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. (I could also mention Saul's encounter with Jesus in Acts 9, wherein he calls Him Lord. Of course, The Lord set him straight on Straight Street and changed his heart forever- so that he became known as Paul- the greatest missionary for the Gospel of Christ. In Revelation, John has a vision of Jesus Christ, wherein He reveals the final days of the world and God's ultimate plan of redemption, where those who reject Christ remain bound in hell and those who receive the grace and mercy He has offered freely through the cross and the empty tomb are welcomed into eternal happiness and joy with Jesus in Heaven. In Revelation 1:8, Jesus identifies Himself as the Alpha and the Omega- the One Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come- The Almighty. John also calls Jesus The Lord God in that verse. Revelation 19:16 calls Him the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.) But all these verses are written so that we would believe that Jesus is Who He said He was- that He is indeed God and that He alone can save us and that He loves us all so much that He died to pay for all our sins and rose again to give us salvation. All we need to do is put our faith in His completed work and accept Him by faith. He who has an ear, let him hear.
