Jesus is God

    I could not think of a more perfect post to start off the blog with, so here it is. This subject has been a heated topic of debate for me since around 2016, when I first discovered the Flat Earth movement that was surging at that time. For me, the revelation was the catalyst that propelled me from looking at the Bible as a set of excellent guidelines to live by, to being the inerrant Word of God full of complete Truth. The rest of that story is a story for another blog post, though! This post is to establish the most essential part of my faith as a follower of Jesus Christ, which is to establish who I am putting my faith in. If we don't know who this character is, Jesus Christ, then it matters not if we profess to have faith in him and it matters not what we call him. So, getting on with it; Jesus is God. 

Isaiah 43:10 “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.”

               *God point blank states in this verse that He IS the "servant whom He has chosen"; He says plainly that he wants us to know, and believe, and understand this fact. He even reiterates that there was no god before Him and there shall be no other god after Him. It is just HIM. We know that Jesus is "the servant" as He is called precisely that in the New Testament, such as in Matthew 12:18.

John 8:57-58 The Jews, therefore, said unto him, `Thou art not yet fifty years old, and Abraham hast thou seen?' 58 Jesus said to them, `Verily, verily, I say to you, Before Abraham's coming -- I am

            *Jesus here refers to Himself as “I am” (Ego eimi). The same name that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob gave to Moses as the name of the One True God of creation. Jesus is not a created being he always existed. While at the same time he is a descendant of Abraham? Yes. Exactly.   

 

John 8:23-24 and he said to them, `Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world; 24 I said, therefore, to you, that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye may not believe that I am, ye shall die in your sins.'

            *Jesus again refers to Himself as “I am”. Worth noting that many translations add in the pronoun “he”, after the “I am” statement, but it does not exist in the original text. All we have is “Ego eime”. One of my personal irks, as they seem to think they can add to our understanding of the verses by adding in helping words? No. In fact it detracts from the message that Jesus is making by deliberately choosing to leave them out. This verse is particularly bold in that Jesus states that if you do not believe that He is God you will die in your sins.

 

John 18:5-8 5 “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I Am [he],” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) 6 As Jesus said “I Am [he],” they all drew back and fell to the ground! 7 Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” 8 “I told you that I Am [he],”

            *Again, the “he” is being added in. The original in all verses is simply Ego eimi/I am. I left them above to illustrate the difference in effect. In all 3 verses above, Jesus chose to respond simply “I AM”; in lieu of all other ways he could respond. Also, we see when considering this in proper context, why “they all drew back and fell to the ground”. Those present knew exactly what claim Jesus was making (by his deliberate word choice) and were absolutely floored by it.

 

Micah 5:2 And thou, Beth-Lehem Ephratah, Little to be among the chiefs of Judah! From thee to Me he cometh forth -- to be ruler in Israel, And his comings forth [are] of old, From the days of antiquity.

            *This verse is speaking of how Jesus will descend from the line of Judah. It makes the statement that Jesus’ “comings forth” are from “old” from the “days of antiquity”. Compare with John 1:1, that claims Jesus had no beginning, he simply was. In the original text it is “qedem” from “qedmah” meaning “aforetime”, “ancient”, “before”, “eternal”, among other things. It can also mean “East”, “everlasting”, “front”, “old”. The context determines the interpretation along with comparison to other verses.

 

John 1:1-11

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;

2 this one was in the beginning with God;

3 all things through him did happen, and without him happened not even one thing that hath happened.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men,

5 and the light in the darkness did shine, and the darkness did not perceive it.

6 There came a man -- having been sent from God -- whose name [is] John,

7 this one came for testimony, that he might testify about the Light, that all might believe through him;

8 that one was not the Light, but -- that he might testify about the Light.

9 He was the true Light, which doth enlighten every man, coming to the world;

10 in the world he was, and the world through him was made, and the world did not know him:

11 to his own things he came, and his own people did not receive him;

 

            *The Word is Jesus. The Light is Jesus. This is clear by the bold statements (along with the whole of the Bible message), particularly “to his own he came and his own people did not receive him”. That is the Jews rejecting and crucifying their God (whom, they also believed he was claiming to be, see John 10:33) And particularly by “the Light, that all might believe through him”. Even more blatant; we read, “in the world he was, and the world through him was made”, The world was made through Jesus? So he was there in the beginning, like these verses state.  These verses tell us that the Word (Jesus, the Word made flesh/the fulfillment of the Word) existed since the very beginning with God, that the Word was God, that through the Word was the world made, that nothing was made without Him. It could not really be any clearer. Jesus existed in the beginning; he is a part of God. God, as the name Elohim illustrates. Elohim is a plural word. God refers to himself as “we” and “us”. He is a triune being. We see this not via the word “trinity” which is nowhere in the Bible’s texts, but via the works of God and how he shows himself to us. God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit. God the Son, aka Jesus/Yeshua makes many appearances in the Old Testament, because he already existed he had simply not been born into a human body at that time.

 

Isaiah 9:6 For a Child hath been born to us, A Son hath been given to us, And the princely power is on his shoulder, And He doth call his name Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.

     *This verse directly calls Jesus Christ by the names of both "Mighty God" and "Eternal Father". Because Jesus is God. They are the same entity; the only perfect entity that could ever provide a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world (Wrestle with Mark 10:18 against 2 Cor. 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22,1 John 3:5!) . This verse has sparked debate, particularly in regard to the Eth Cepher translation, but that is also a topic for another post.

                                               

John 20:26-28

26 And after eight days, again were his disciples within, and Thomas with them; Jesus cometh, the doors having been shut, and he stood in the midst, and said, `Peace to you!'

27 then he saith to Thomas, `Bring thy finger hither, and see my hands, and bring thy hand, and put [it] to my side, and become not unbelieving, but believing.'

28 And Thomas answered and said to him, `My Lord and my God;'

29 Jesus saith to him, `Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; happy those not having seen, and having believed.'

 

            *Thomas directly calls Jesus, God. Jesus does not correct him, which He certainly would have done if this was not a true statement. To think otherwise is to assume the son of God is an egotistical liar that would allow his followers to call him God when he is not. We know this is not the case. In Him is no deceit (see 1 Peter 2:22) Instead, Jesus accepts and confirms the statement. The word used here is Greek, theos. If you look in Strongs Concordance this word is used frequently when referring to the One True God of creation so the usage is consistent. 

 

John 14:6-9

6 Jesus saith to him, `I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one doth come unto the Father, if not through me;

7 if ye had known me, my Father also ye would have known, and from this time ye have known Him, and have seen Him.'

8 Philip saith to him, `Sir, shew to us the Father, and it is enough for us;'

9 Jesus saith to him, `So long time am I with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? he who hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how dost thou say, Shew to us the Father?

 

            *Philip wants Jesus to “show him the father” and this is Jesus’ response. There’s really no commentary needed here. If you had known me you’d have known the Father, AND SEEN HIM? No one can look upon the face of God. Unless of course he’s standing right in front of you in human form. “So long time am I with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip?” This is just incredibly sad to me. Philip asked to see the father and Jesus response is to tell him that if he doesn’t realize that he already has, he doesn’t know Him at all.

 

John 17:1-5

1 These things spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to the heaven, and said -- `Father, the hour hath come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee,

2 according as Thou didst give to him authority over all flesh, that -- all that Thou hast given to him -- he may give to them life age-during;

3 and this is the life age-during, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and him whom Thou didst send -- Jesus Christ;

4 I did glorify Thee on the earth, the work I did finish that Thou hast given me, that I may do [it].

5 `And now, glorify me, Thou Father, with Thyself, with the glory that I had before the world was, with Thee;

 

            *Verse 5 is perfection. This is Jesus own words, stating unequivocally that He existed with God since before the world was even created. This concept is only hard to understand from a human perspective, which is why (one reason!) the Bible says it is impossible to please God while living in the flesh; why it says we can’t understand spiritual things without the Holy Spirit. The question itself of “How can Jesus be himself AND the Father” is preposterous from a spiritual perspective; because he’s not human! That question ONLY makes sense from the flesh. When we accept Jesus Christ died and rose again as atonement for our sins we NO LONGER are bound by the flesh, and this becomes understandable. Yah is a we, an us, as he refers to Himself as. Again, Elohim. 

    Why is Jesus speaking in the third person here; “Thou didst give him authority over all flesh..” ? The being speaking, the one inhabiting the body of the man Jesus Christ, is a part of God/Elohim and has always existed with God, as God; he is required to make the fullness of God (again John 1). These verses absolutely blow me away because we see Jesus reverting back and forth from speaking about himself in the third person, “Father, glorify THY SON”, “Thou didst give HIM authority”, back to 1st person, “I DID glorify thee”, “now glorify ME thou Father”. Why? This shows us how Jesus is both God and Man. We see him speaking from the perspective of not being man, “Father, glorify THY SON”, “Thou didst give HIM authority”, and then we see him speaking from the perspective of indeed being that man also, “I DID glorify thee”, “now glorify ME thou Father”. Jesus is fully BOTH God and Man. This isn’t an isolated case of him speaking from both perspectives. It’s the norm. Often he refers to God as The Father (see John 20:17) and often he refers to himself as God as well (see John 10:30). You cannot cherry pick or isolate the verses from one another. It's hard for us as humans to see things from a supernatural perspective, but we have to realize that Jesus being man and God simultaneously is in fact a supernatural occurrence. We would do well to stop trying to make a supernatural God fit into the limitations of our mere humanity.