Did Jesus Say He Was God?
What would you say if someone asked you, “Did Jesus say He was God?” In this post, I’ll give you a few talking points that you can use to give a thoughtful response to a question like this. But first, let me tell you a little story.
One day, I was at an event where a woman decided to engage me in a religious conversation. I usually don’t go looking for these kinds of discussions. What I was looking for was more potato chips.
But this woman cornered me and started talking about how Jesus never claimed to be God. In fact, she grabbed my Bible off the table, held it up like a visual aid, and said, “According to this, Jesus never claimed to be God.”
The popular concept is that Jesus never said He was divine or never claimed to be God. Did Jesus really say He was God? What does the historical evidence show?
Did Jesus really say He was God?
That’s exactly how Jesus’ original audience seemed to take it when He said, “I and the Father are one.” In fact, the Jews were ready to kill Him right there! Why? “Because you,” they said, “a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33). It’s very possible they heard Jesus’ words as an allusion to the shema —Jewish confession of faith in one God (Deut. 6:4)—indicating Jesus’s claim that he and the God of Israel, together, are actually one God.
On another occasion, He outright used the personal name of Israel’s God–the name revealed to Moses (Exodus 3:14)–to refer to Himself. And He even used the Torah for context, so no one would misunderstand Him: “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58).
This would be about wild as telling a Muslim today, “I am your God, Allah.” Can you imagine the offense? It’s no wonder the Jews tried to stone Him to death. That was the exact penalty for blasphemy under the Jewish legal system.
So, he wasn’t saying something like “I’m some other, generic god” like he was advocating polytheism. Not at all. It was pretty clear to everyone there that He was being much more specific…
Jesus was saying, “I am Israel’s God.”
So did Jesus say He was God? Not in the way you might have expected him to. But as Dr. Michael Kruger says, “We should not confuse the directness of a claim with the existence of a claim.” The historical evidence shows that Jesus actually claimed to be divine when he claimed to have divine authority.
Jesus claimed to be divine in a way that came through loud and clear in his culture. He didn’t have to say the words “I am God,” in order to claim to be divine. But why is this a problem? I don’t have to say the exact words, “I am married” to indicate that I’m married. I can say, “I’m her husband” or “this is my wife.” Even just wearing a wedding ring is making an implicit claim to be married. And that claim comes through loud and clear in our culture. Directly saying “I’m married” is not the only way to claim to be married.
But some people wonder, “If Jesus really said things like ‘I am the Father are one” like we read in John 10, why don’t we find any hint of a divine claim in the earlier gospels?'” This is a common challenge raised by atheist scholars like Bart Ehrman. So let’s turn to the Synoptics and consider the earliest miracle story in the earliest gospel.
Jesus often showed people, by his actions, that he had divine authority.
Jesus claimed to forgive sins (Mark 2:1-12). While priests and prophets could mediate forgiveness by praying for people, forgiving sins committed against God was something the Jewish scribes believed only God had the authority to do.
Jesus also clarified what you could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath. By the way, keeping the Sabbath is one of the 10 commandments. Who’s got the authority to lay down the law when it comes to obeying the 10 commandments? Jesus also called himself the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).
Question: Who runs the Sabbath? That would be God.
So Why Don’t People Get It?
Honestly, some never look into it. But others do look into the data for themselves and give the Bible a fair hearing. Why don’t some of these people get it right away?
Jesus claimed to be God in ways that were pretty clear to the people He was talking to. Our problem as 21st century readers, is that we might not easily get what some of Jesus’ sayings actually meant to the people who were part of the conversation. For example, Jesus also claimed to be divine when He said He was the “Son of Man.” I’ll admit that the first time I heard this title, I thought it was kind of like Muhammad saying, “I am but a man like you” (Qur’an 41:6)—Now there’s a religious figure who never claimed to be God! But this isn’t what Jesus meant at all. Let’s take a look at the term, “Son of Man.”
Jesus claimed to be the Son of Man
“Son of man” was often just used to refer to a regular guy, but many times when Jesus used it, he was referring to a very specific “Son of Man;” The “Son of Man” the prophet Daniel talked about back in the day. Interestingly, this seems to be Jesus’ favorite thing to call Himself–He uses it 80 times in the New Testament Gospels (69 times in the Synoptics). And it’s only used 1 time outside the gospels (Acts 7:56). So this probably wasn’t something the church made up. Think about it: How many modern worship songs can you think of that use the term, “Son of Man?” So this title probably didn’t emerge later on in history and it probably wasn’t written back into the earlier traditions about Jesus.
But why is this reference to a specific “Son of Man” important? Because it’s referring to a figure that Jews recognized as having divine authority. Here’s what the Jewish prophet Daniel wrote (7:13-14):
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
The “Son of Man” in Daniel’s vision is rightful heir to the divine throne. According to the prophecy, He’ll rule forever. Nations will worship Him and His kingdom will be unstoppable.
Jesus claimed to be a Divine Messiah
Back to my conversation with the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post. I asked her where she heard that Jesus never claimed to be God. I let her talk and explain her ideas. Then, I gently took my Bible back from her and asked, “Could you read this for me?” I turned to Jesus’ trial, as recorded by Mark (14:60-64). She read the record of Jesus’ cross-examination:
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death. (63-64).
Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed to be the Son of God. He might have even used the divine name in His answer: “I AM.” Now, at the very least, Jesus answered, “Yes, I’m the Messiah. I’m the Son of God.” At that point, the High Priest probably thought something like, “Gotcha.”
But then, Jesus follows up by saying that he is the Son of Man. And predicting that high priest would see him seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.
Saying you’re going to be “sitting at the right hand of power” is a massive claim of exaltation that was offensive to the Jewish leadership saying you’re going to be “coming on the clouds” is something deity does. That’s a God thing.
To the Jewish leadership, Jesus basically said, “God is going to vindicate me. There’s going to be another trial one day. And you won’t be judging me.”
The high priest didn’t misunderstand Him for a second. His response was essentially, “You think you’re going judge us and everyone’s going to worship you one day?!” While some may choose to reject the high view of Jesus in the Gospel of John, it seems tough to give Mark a fair reading without acknowledging that Jesus made a divine claim in this scene.
But all this just expressed what Jesus already seemed to assume by walking around and doing the things He did; Things like claiming to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-11, Luke 5:20-24) and calling himself THE Son of Man. This is almost like a title that brings authority in heaven and earth together. Darrell Bock explains the Jewish concept of a transcendent “Son of Man:”
“Here was a human figure who also possessed divine authority. Jesus chose this name [Son of Man] for himself because it was the perfect mix of who he was–a human figure who also possessed the functions of God.”[1]
Jesus said He was God through His words and actions
There’s a reasonable explanation for the early Christian belief that Jesus was divine: Jesus Himself said He was through a combination of his words and deeds. Jesus claimed to be divine when he claim to have divine authority on earth to forgive sins and divine authority in heaven to judge sins. This goes way beyond any kind of human, priestly claim. It’s a claim to have authority over all of reality!
Even people who hated Jesus attest to the fact that this is what He said about Himself. And He certainly didn’t object when people worshiped Him or called Him God (John 20:28-29).
So if anyone ever asks you, “Did Jesus Say He Was God?” You can answer, “He said it through a combination of his words and actions.” Just be ready to mention at least a couple of these talking points. It doesn’t hurt to memorize at least a couple of the Scripture references, too. Try it!