In our "Good Question" devotional series, we have been exploring the evidence that Jesus is truly God, as the Christian faith claims. After examining the historical record and the reliability of the New Testament, we now turn to the question of whether Jesus himself explicitly claimed to be divine.
The pastor notes that in the early days of the church, there were actually some who claimed Jesus was God but not fully human. This view, known as Docetism, was rejected by the apostles. Today, the main challenge is from those who say Jesus was simply a great moral teacher, but did not claim to be God.
However, the pastor argues that the Gospels present a very different picture. While Jesus remained humble in his lifestyle, he made the "biggest, boldest claims possible" - claiming to be eternal, the judge of all, the light of the world, and the only way to the Father.
He points to two specific passages to demonstrate this:
In Matthew 16, when Peter declares Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus does not correct him or deny this claim.
In John 20, when the disciple Thomas declares "My Lord and my God" upon seeing the risen Christ, Jesus affirms rather than rejects this statement.
The pastor notes that Jesus was put to death by the Jewish authorities precisely because he was claiming to be God, a charge they considered blasphemous. The Romans then executed him for the political offense of rivaling Caesar's authority.
Given these clear claims by Jesus and the reactions they provoked, the pastor argues there is strong evidence that Jesus did in fact identify himself as divine. Join us next week as we continue to explore this crucial question.
