By Brad Miner.
Have you heard this from someone? "It's absurd to say Jesus is God, since he never made the claim himself!" People can get away with this if the Christian with whom they're speaking isn't prepared to refute it, citing chapter and verse.
Of course, militant unbelievers won't be convinced of the divinity of Christ, no matter how clearly and thoroughly one cites Scripture to show it's exactly how He described Himself, because for them the Bible is a work of fiction.
Those who admire Jesus as merely a "great moral teacher" note that Jesus never said the words, "I am God!" But these literalists miss the forest for the trees. C.S. Lewis addressed this in Mere Christianity. It's foolish, he writes, to say you're "ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God."
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. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
What, then, are the occasions on which Jesus made clear that He is God incarnate? They are numerous throughout the New Testament (and, by extension, the Old), but I'll focus only on John's Gospel (with connections to the Hebrew Scriptures).
In John, Jesus uses the phrase "I am" repeatedly, often with titles or descriptions, to assert His divinity. These "I am" statements, along with other declarations, highlight Jesus' eternal existence, His preeminence, and His role as intermediary between us and the Father:
"I am the bread of life." (John 6:35) Jesus, the source of spiritual nourishment and eternal life. (Gifts that only come from God: Exodus 16:4 and the manna, the bread from heaven.)
"I am the light of the world." (John 8:12) Jesus is the Creator's illumination. ("Let there be light," Genesis 1:3.)
"I am the gate for the sheep." (John 10:7)The only way to enter the Kingdom, through the ultimate gatekeeper. (Jesus as the shepherd of Isaiah 40:11,)
"I am the good shepherd." (John 10:11) Jesus presents Himself as the protector of His people, a role traditionally associated with God's care and guidance. (40:11 again.)
"I and the Father are one." (John 10:30) This declaration asserts Jesus' unity with God the Father, implying that He shares the same divine essence. (Perhaps an allusion to the Shh'ma of Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.")
"The Father is in me, and I am in the Father." (John 10:38). The unity between Jesus and God the Father. (The Shh'ma again.)
"I am the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25) Jesus' power over death and His ability to grant eternal life. (Isaiah 26:19: "Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.")
"I am the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6) Jesus is the only path to God. (Isaiah 30:21: "And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'")
"I am the true vine." (John 15:1) Jesus is the source of life. (Isaiah 5: "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.")
"All that the Father has is mine." (John 16:15) Could it be clearer? (1 Chronicles 29:12: "Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all.")
I've saved for last what is, I believe, the clearest statement by Christ of His divinity: John 8:58. The context: He is in the Temple precincts and is speaking to a gathering of followers and skeptics. He has just told them that "the t...
