Jesus of
Nazareth was, is and forever will be fully God. When I say that He is fully God
I mean that He is divine (or Deity) like the Father, that is to say, He is
one in essence and nature with God the Father and therefore He is without
beginning and without end. Here are some Bible verses, taken from the New
Testament, that clearly show that Jesus is God. |
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John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. …. And the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3,14).
Therefore, since the apostle John states that the Word was God and the Word
was made flesh, we proclaim that God was manifested in the flesh in the
person of Jesus Christ. The following words written in the book of Psalms:
“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made” (Psalm 33:6) confirm what
John said, that is to say, that “the Word was God” (John 1:1), because we
know that the heavens were made by God, as it is written: “In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). |
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Jesus said: “I and my Father are one” (John |
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Jesus said to the rich man who called Him “Good Master” (Mark |
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Paul said to the Colossians: “It pleased the Father that in him [Christ]
should all fulness dwell” (Colossians |
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apostle Paul said to the Romans: “Whose [of the Israelites] are the fathers,
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed
for ever. Amen” (Romans 9:5). Therefore Jesus Christ, even though He was
found in appearance as a man, is the eternally blessed God. |
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The apostle Paul said to Titus: “For the grace of God that brings salvation
has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking
for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour
Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13 – NKJV). Now the prophet Daniel called God “the
great God”, for he spoke to king
Nebuchadnezzar saying: “The great God hath made known to the king what shall
come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation
thereof sure” (Daniel 2:45); Jeremiah also called God ‘the great God,’ as he
said: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the
iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the
Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name” (Jeremiah 32:18); and
David acknowledged that only God is great, for he said: “For I know that the
LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods” (Psalm 135:5). Therefore
if Paul called Jesus ‘our great God’ that means that he firmly believed that
Christ was God. If Jesus were not God, and thus if he were not equal with God,
Paul would not have called Him “our great God,” lest he should call a
creature “God”, and thus lest he should commit the sin of idolatry. Remember
that Paul was a Jew by birth and he knew very well that God had said: “Thou
shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), and therefore if Jesus
were only a man he would not have dared to call Him “our great God”. Also the
fact that Paul called Jesus Christ “our Saviour” shows that the apostle
believed that Jesus was God. He knew that God had said through the prophet
Isaiah: “There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is
none beside me” (Isaiah 45:21); however, he did not call only God the Father
‘our Saviour’ (he says to Titus: “But hath in due times manifested his word
through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of
God our Saviour” [Titus 1:3], and to Timothy: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, our
hope” [1 Timothy 1:1 - NKJV], and again: “For therefore we both labour and
suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of
all men, specially of those that believe” [1 Timothy 4:10]) but he called
also His Son Jesus Christ ‘our Saviour,” as it is written in the epistle to Titus:
“To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 1:4). |
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The apostle Peter also called Jesus Christ “our God and Saviour,” for at the
beginning of his second epistle he wrote: “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and
Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours” (2 Peter 1:1
– NIV). Peter also knew that there is only one God and only one Saviour, yet
he called the Christ, whom he knew in the days of His flesh, “our God and
Saviour”, because he is indeed our God and our Saviour. |
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According to the book of the Acts of the apostles, one day Paul spoke to the
elders of the Church of Ephesus, saying to them among other things:
“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He
purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28 - NKJV). Now Paul said that God
purchased the Church with His own blood; that seems incredible, for we know
that it was not God who died on the cross and shed His blood for us, but His
only begotten Son. But if we examine this verse carefully and we compare it
with other verses of the Scripture we will note that Paul with those words
did refer to the Son of God and not to God the Father, for the Father, during
the days of the flesh of His Son, was sitting on His throne in heaven.
Remember that when Thomas said to Jesus: “My Lord and my God” (John |
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the epistle to the Hebrews it is written: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the
sceptre of thy kingdom” (Hebrews 1:8). Also from these words it is evident
that the Son is God. |
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this same epistle it is written: “And again, when he bringeth in the
firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship
him” (Hebrews 1:6). Now we know that the angels worship only God, as it is
written: “Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven
of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein,
the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host
of heaven worshippeth thee” (Nehemiah 9:6). Therefore, since the angels know
that only God is worthy to be worshiped (the angel of Jesus who appeared to
John on the isle of |
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The apostle Matthew says that the wise men, “when they were come into the
house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and
worshipped him….” (Matthew 2:11). These words attest that Jesus was God even
when He was a young child, for those wise men who had come from the East
worshiped Him, that is to say, they did something which can be done only
toward God. The worship of men is due to God alone. |
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The same apostle, at the end of the Gospel he wrote, says that after Jesus
rose again, when He met the women, “they came and held him by the feet, and
worshipped him” (Matthew 28:9), and that the eleven disciples “went away into
Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw
him, they worshipped him…” (Matthew 28:16-17). Now, since it is written in
the law: “Thou shalt worship the LORD thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”
(Matthew |
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the epistle to the Hebrews it is written: “But ye are come unto ….. God the
Judge of all” (Hebrews |
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Mark tells us that Jesus said to the paralytic who was carried by four men:
“Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5). Then some scribes who were
sitting there reasoned in their hearts saying: “Why doth this man thus speak
blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7). But Jesus
perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, and “he
said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it
easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say,
Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of
man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house”
(Mark 2:8-11). As you can see, Jesus Christ had power to forgive men their
sins. So He must be God, because in the book of Psalms David says about God: “He
forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases” (Psalm 103:3 – NIV), and he
says to God: “Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5). If Jesus
were only a man, then He would have blasphemed, but the fact is that besides
being fully man He was also fully God, and thus He had authority to forgive
men their sins. To His holy and blessed name be the glory now and
forevermore. Amen. |