Question About Jesus

[MissEm]

Did Jesus actually ever say that He was God?

I read the verse in John 10:30, but it seems He is only saying that His intent and that of God is the same.

Thanks so much!

[Tevko]

John 14:6 (New International Version)

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

That verse always summed it up for me

[B. W.]

Yes, he did so from the Old Testament...

Isaiah 45:21, 22, 23, 24, 25c,"Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. 22 "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other..."

There is no other who can save other than God himself...

Jesus said this

John 3:17, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

Which indicates that for Isaiah 45:21 to be true - Jesus had to be divine as well as human to be the True Messiah, Arm of the Lord, The Word (Messenger/task bearer), revealed in the OT as...

Isaiah 53:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12c

..describes.

Jesus said elsewhere alluding to who he is...

Matthew 18:11, "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost."

John 12:47-50, "And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him— the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

Paul and Luke wrote this knowing who Jesus had to be in order to save...

1 Timothy 1:15 "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."

Acts 4:12, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

All in line with what Isaiah recorded the Lord had said:

Isaiah 43:11. "I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior."

So for Jesus to say he was one with the Father, proceeded forth from the Father, as He Himself revealed in Old Testament times (Wrestled With Jacob, Revealed to Manoah and his wife, Spoke to Moses from the burning Bush, and elsewhere as One God in three distinct person yet still one God thus fulfilling that there is none like God – Isaiah 46:9, Deut 4:35. The Word (John 1:1, 14) became flesh – whom has the Arm of the Lord Been revealed (Isaiah 53:1)?

Bible verses all from the NKJV
-
-
-

[jlay]

Understanding the person and deity of Jesus is not an easy thing to wrap our minds around. Jesus was a man. He was not a man prior to His birth. One necessary element for Israel's salvation and to receive Jesus as the Messiah was to believe that He was the "Son of God." Was it necessary for Israel to believe that Jesus was God Himself? I am not sure. I don't know that you can find that in the texts. Jesus Himself said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." John 5:24 Jesus message was that He was the Messiah, the Son of God, and that Israel was to repent and be baptized. Did this require the average person to understand the trinity? I can't say that I am convinced of this.

Perhaps the most convincing verse as to Jesus' claims of deity is this verse. "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58) In fact, this led to the religious leaders wanting to stone Him on the spot. He distinctly refers to Himself as the, "I am" from Exodus 3:14. The religious authority obviously took Jesus' to be saying that He was equal to God, and thus God. So, it was apparently very clear to His contemporaries, and it should be even more so to us.

Today, we have complete scriptural revelation. And I think the entirety of scripture, as BW points out, reveals Christ as God Himself. A unique person of the ONE Godhead.