Loading John 20:28…
Scripture says yes, and it does not say it in one verse only. Jesus is called God directly, is said to have made all things, forgives sins, receives worship, and takes to himself words that the Old Testament reserves for Yahweh. At the same time he prays to the Father, obeys the Father and calls the Father greater. The Bible holds both together without apology, and the reader who wants an honest answer has to read the whole case rather than one proof text.
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God's answer first
Read three passages before any argument. One is a claim Jesus made, one is what his hearers understood by it, one is what a disciple said to his face.
The passage that answers this
Loading John 8:58…
The grammar is deliberately strange: before Abraham came into existence, I AM, not I was. The next verse records the response, they took up stones. Exodus 3:14 is the passage his hearers had in mind.
Read these with it
Loading John 10:30-33…
The charge is stated by his opponents, in the text, in their own words: you, being a man, make yourself God. Whatever he meant, that is what they heard, and he does not withdraw it.
Loading John 20:28…
Said to the Jesus, directly to him, not as an exclamation about God in general. Jesus answers by blessing believing rather than by correcting the words.
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Why we ask this
It is the hinge of the Christian faith and the point where Christians and several other religions actually divide, so it deserves evidence rather than assertion.
Many people have only ever been given one verse and one counter verse, which leaves the impression that the whole question is a stalemate.
Honest readers notice that Jesus prays, obeys and says the Father is greater. If a page ignores that, it is not answering the question.
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Historical context
- Written by
- John, writing about events in Judea and Galilee
- Written to
- readers inside and outside Judaism, decades after the events
- Written because
- a Gospel that records repeated attempts to stone Jesus for what he said about himself
First century Jewish faith was strictly monotheistic. The Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4, was recited daily, and Isaiah 42:8 says God will not give his glory to another. This is exactly why the reactions in John are violent rather than curious.
That background is the strongest evidence that the New Testament writers were not casually promoting a second god. They were Jews who kept saying there is one God, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, while also saying Jesus is Lord in the same breath.
Blasphemy in that setting was a capital charge, Leviticus 24:16. Mark 14:64 records the council reaching exactly that verdict, which tells us what they they had heard him claim.
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Verse by verse
Loading John 1:1-3…
Two statements are kept side by side: with God, and was God. The first keeps him distinct from the Father, the second keeps him from being less than God. Verse 3 then puts him on the Creator's side of everything made.
Loading John 5:18…
This is the narrator explaining the reaction, not an opponent's slander. His own Father is the phrase that provoked it. Jesus then answers by claiming to do what the Father does and to receive the honour the Father receives, John 5:19-23.
Loading John 8:58…
He answers a question about age with a statement about existence. The tense break is the point. Read Exodus 3:14 beside it and then read John 8:59, which records the stones being picked up.
Loading Hebrews 1:8…
The writer quotes Psalm 45:6 and says the words are spoken of the Son. God is the form of address. The whole argument of Hebrews 1 is that the Son is above the angels, and this quotation is one of the seven texts used.
Loading Titus 2:13…
One article governs great God and Savior, so the natural reading is that both titles belong to Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:1 has the same construction. This is a grammatical argument, and it is fair to say so rather than to hide it.
Loading Philippians 2:5-11…
Existing in the form of God comes before emptied himself, so the emptying is of a status held, not of a nature gained. The closing lines quote Isaiah 45:23, where every knee bows to Yahweh, and apply it to Jesus, ending to the glory of God the Father.
Loading Revelation 1:17-18…
Compare Isaiah 44:6, where Yahweh says I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God. Here the same words are on the lips of the one who was dead. Note also that John's worship is not refused, unlike Revelation 22:8-9.
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What Scripture says
He is called God directly, in several books
My Lord and my God. Add John 1:1, John 1:18 in many manuscripts, Hebrews 1:8, Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1 and Romans 9:5. No single one of these carries the doctrine alone, and together they are not a fringe reading.
He does what only God does
He forgives sins, and the scribes object that only God can. He calms the sea, Mark 4:41, gives life, John 5:21, and will judge the world, John 5:22 and Matthew 25:31-32.
He receives worship without refusing it
The disciples worshipped him in the boat. Compare Thomas in John 20:28, the healed man in John 9:38, and the angel's refusal in Revelation 22:8-9. Faithful messengers in Scripture consistently refuse what Jesus accepts.
Words spoken of Yahweh are applied to him
Isaiah 45:23 is applied to Jesus. Isaiah 44:6 stands behind Revelation 1:17. Joel 2:32, whoever calls on the name of Yahweh will be , is applied to calling on Jesus in Romans 10:13.
He is the maker, not part of the made
All things have been created through him, and for him, and in him all things are held together. John 1:3 and Hebrews 1:2-3 say the same. Isaiah 44:24 has Yahweh saying he stretched out the heavens alone.
And he prays, obeys and calls the Father greater
The Father is greater than I. He prays, Luke 6:12, does not know a day the Father knows, Mark 13:32, and says he came to do the will of him who sent him, John 6:38. Scripture states this as plainly as it states the rest, and a truthful answer includes it.
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The words behind the question
egō eimi
An ordinary phrase in Greek that can simply mean it is I, John 9:9. What makes John 8:58 different is that it answers a question about time with a present tense and that the hearers immediately treat it as blasphemy. The context, not the phrase alone, carries the weight.
morphē theou
In Philippians 2:6 it is set opposite the form of a servant in verse 7. The contrast is between two conditions genuinely held, which is why the passage is read as describing one person before and after the incarnation.
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Cross references
Called God in the New Testament
.
My Lord and my God, said to the Jesus.
Your , O God, spoken of the Son.
Yahweh's own words used of him
I am the first and the last, besides me there is no God.
The same words spoken by the one who was dead.
Every knee bows to Yahweh, applied to Jesus in Philippians 2:10.
What his hearers understood
Called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
You, being a man, make yourself God.
The council's verdict of blasphemy.
The Son who obeys the Father
Not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
The Father is greater than I.
The Son subject to the Father at the end.
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Common misunderstandings
Jesus never once said the words I am God, so the answer is no.
Scripture rarely answers questions in the exact form we ask them. Nowhere does he say I am a prophet either. The evidence is in claims like John 8:58 and John 10:30, in what he did, and in the reactions those provoked. Requiring one sentence in one wording is a rule the text was not written to satisfy.
Because he prays to the Father, he cannot be God.
That would be a real objection if Christians claimed he is the Father. They do not. John 1:1 says and was God, which is why Scripture can record the Son praying, John 17:1, without contradiction.
John 10:34-36 shows he was only claiming to be a son of God like anyone else.
He quotes Psalm 82:6 as an argument from lesser to greater, and the passage ends with the Father is in me, and I in the Father, John 10:38, and with a renewed attempt to arrest him. The paragraph does not end in a lower claim than it began.
It is a matter of translation, so nothing can be known.
A few texts are genuinely debated, including Titus 2:13, Romans 9:5 and John 1:18, because Greek word order and articles are involved. The case does not rest on the debated ones. John 1:1-3, John 20:28, Hebrews 1:8, Colossians 1:16-17 and Revelation 1:17-18 are not textually disputed in the same way.
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Things most readers miss
The objections in the text come from his opponents, not from later theology.
John 5:18 and John 10:33 record the charge in the mouths of hearers. The idea that his deity was invented centuries later has to explain why the earliest accounts already show people trying to stone him for it.
Angels refuse worship; Jesus does not.
Revelation 19:10 and 22:8-9 have an angel telling John to stop. Matthew 14:33, John 9:38 and John 20:28 record Jesus receiving it without objection. The contrast is inside one author's writing.
Philippians 2 ends by glorifying the Father.
Verse 11 says to the glory of God the Father. Confessing Jesus as Lord is not presented as competition within God but as the Father's own purpose.
Hebrews 1 is a chain of quotations.
The writer stacks Psalm 2:7, 2 Samuel 7:14, Psalm 45:6-7 and Psalm 102:25-27. The argument is built from the Old Testament, not around it.
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Someone in Scripture faced this too
The people who first faced this question were monotheists who recited that Yahweh alone is God, Deuteronomy 6:4. Their reactions are recorded.
The crowd in the temple at Hanukkah
What he or she went through
They asked him to tell them plainly whether he was the Christ, and then heard him say I and the Father are one.
How God responded
He did not soften the claim. He argued from Scripture, John 10:34-36, and then said, that you may know that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.
What we learn
Jesus is presented as pressing the claim under threat of stoning rather than defusing it. The passage also shows him reasoning from the text with them rather than asserting alone.
The high priest at the trial
What he or she went through
He asked directly, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, in a hearing that would decide the sentence.
How God responded
Jesus said, I am, and added that they would see sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds, joining Psalm 110:1 to Daniel 7:13.
What we learn
The clearest recorded claim comes at the moment it costs him his life. The council's verdict of blasphemy shows they did not hear a modest claim.
John on Patmos
What he or she went through
He saw the Christ and fell at his feet like a dead man, the response Scripture reserves for God.
How God responded
Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.
What we learn
First and last is the self-description of Yahweh in Isaiah 44:6. Here it is said by the one who was dead, and the angel of Revelation 19:10 refuses the worship that Christ accepts.
How it points to Christ
The one holding the keys of death is the one who went through it. His deity in Scripture is never abstract; it is always the deity of the .
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Christ and this question
God with us is the whole point of the claim
Matthew opens by calling him Immanuel, God with us, Matthew 1:23, quoting Isaiah 7:14. The Gospel that ends with all authority given to him begins with that name.
John 1:18 says no one has seen God at any time, and that the one and only Son has declared him. The claim is not that a man was promoted, but that God has made himself known where we could hear him.
Hebrews 1:3 puts it in one line: the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, who purified us of our sins and sat down. Whether Jesus is God is not a technical question. It decides whether is God bearing our sin or someone else bearing it for him.
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What to do with this
Read John 5, 8 and 10 in one sitting
Three chapters, three confrontations. Watch what he claims and what the hearers do next. Reading the paragraphs whole prevents the argument from depending on single lines.
Put Isaiah 44:6 beside Revelation 1:17
Read them in your own translation, one after the other, and note what is claimed and by whom. This is the clearest place to see Yahweh's self-description on Christ's lips.
Write the objections down honestly
List the passages where Jesus prays, obeys or calls the Father greater, John 14:28, Mark 13:32, John 6:38. An answer that has to hide them is not worth holding.
Answer as Thomas did
John 20:28. The point of the question in Scripture is not agreement on a doctrine but confession to a person. Say it to him if you it.
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Study the question further
Did Jesus ever claim to be God?
He claimed things that Scripture reserves to God, and his hearers understood him that way and tried to kill him for it. At his trial he answered the direct question about his identity with I am.
John 8:58
Before Abraham came into existence, I AM, followed by stones.
John 10:30-33
I and the Father are one, and the charge of making himself God.
Mark 14:61-62
I am, joined to Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13.
If Jesus is God, why does he pray to God?
Because Scripture does not say Jesus is the Father. It presents the Father and the Son as distinct persons who are one God, so the Son can pray, obey and be sent without ceasing to be God.
Distinct
, John 1:1, and the Son prays to the Father, John 17:1.
Not divided
I and the Father are one, John 10:30, and one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 8:6.
Sent, not lesser in nature
Philippians 2:6-8 grounds his obedience in a status he laid aside, not in a nature he lacked.
Does the Bible teach the Trinity, or is that a later invention?
The word is later; the material is in Scripture. One God is affirmed throughout, and Father, Son and Spirit are each treated as God and as personally distinct. The doctrine is the church's summary of what the texts say together.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one.
Matthew 28:19
One name, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 13:14
Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, love of God, fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
What about the verses that call Jesus the firstborn or the beginning of creation?
Both are titles of rank in their own contexts, and both passages immediately place him on the Creator's side. Firstborn in Scripture regularly means heir rather than first made.
Colossians 1:15-17
Firstborn, explained by for by him all things were created.
Psalms 89:27
Firstborn used of a king's rank, not his origin.
Revelation 3:14
Beginning of the creation of God, read with Revelation 1:17-18 and 22:13.
Do Christians agree about this?
On this, historic Christian teaching across Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox traditions agrees: Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. Groups that deny it exist, and the honest way to test the question is by the passages rather than by the label.
John 1:1-3
The Word was God, and all things were made through him.
1 John 4:2-3
Confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh as a test of teaching.
2 John 1:7-9
Remaining in the teaching of Christ.
How to apply this today
- Which passage in this study did I not know was there?
- Am I willing to let the text change my answer, or only confirm it?
Father, I do not want an opinion about your Son. Show me from your own word who he is, and give me the honesty to accept it.
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Reflection
- Read John 8:48-59 whole. What question was he asked, and why does the answer end in stones?
- Read Isaiah 44:6 and then Revelation 1:17-18. Who is speaking in each, and what is being claimed?
- Read Philippians 2:5-11. What does existing in the form of God tell you about what the emptying cost?
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Prayer
Father, this question is not academic to me. If your Son is God, then everything about my life sits under that.
Keep me from deciding it by preference. Let me read what you have written, including the parts that are harder to fit.
Lord Jesus, if you are my Lord and my God, then teach me to speak to you as Thomas did, and to trust you accordingly. Amen.
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Further reading
John 5:16-30
His answer to the charge of making himself equal with God.
John 8:48-59
The I AM saying in its full argument.
Hebrews 1:1-14
Seven Old Testament quotations applied to the Son.
Colossians 1:15-20
Creator, sustainer, head and reconciler in one passage.
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Explore the passage
These are questions the text can actually answer. Take one, go back to the passage with it, and read until Scripture answers rather than until you have an explanation you like. Each question names where this study, or another passage, does the answering.
What this reveals about God
Start here, because every passage of Scripture is first about God before it is about us. Read for what He does, what He says, and what He is called.
What does these passages teach about God?
Underline every verb God is the subject of. What He does tells you who He is.
What does these passages reveal about God's character?
Look for the words the text itself uses of Him: holy, merciful, faithful, jealous, patient. Take the text's own vocabulary rather than your own.
What this reveals about us
Scripture is honest about people. Read for what it says of human need, human failure, and the kind of response it calls for.
What does these passages teach about humanity?
Watch what the people in the text want, fear, and trust. Scripture rarely flatters them.
What does these passages reveal about faith?
Faith in Scripture is always faith in someone, about something specific. Ask what exactly is being believed here, and on what word.
Where this arrives in Christ
Jesus said the Scriptures testify of Him. Follow the line the Bible itself draws rather than inventing one.
What does these passages reveal about Jesus Christ?
Look for what the New Testament does with this text. A connection Scripture makes is a connection you can stand on.
What does these passages reveal about salvation?
Ask who does the saving, who is saved, from what, and by what means. Let the text answer each part.
The world behind the words
The first readers knew things we have to learn. Recovering what they knew is study, not speculation.
How would the original audience have understood these passages?
Ask what they had already been told, what they were living through, and what this would have cost them to believe.
What historical or cultural background helps explain these passages?
Look at the work, the worship, the law and the customs the text assumes you already understand.
What do these words carry in the original: egō eimi, morphē theou?
Take the word to its root, its first appearance, and its range of use. Then let the context choose the meaning.
How this connects to the rest of Scripture
Scripture is its own best commentary. The clearest answers usually come from another passage rather than from a scholar.
Which Old and New Testament passages help explain these passages?
Prefer passages that quote or clearly echo this text. Those links are the Bible's own, not ours.
What biblical themes are developed in these passages, and where do they begin?
Trace one theme backwards to where Scripture first raises it, then forwards to where it lands.
What this asks of you
Application is the last step, never the first, and it must come out of the passage rather than out of general advice.
What does these passages teach believers to do today?
Say it as one sentence you could obey this week, and be able to point at the verse it came from.
Where faithful readers differ
Some questions here are genuinely open. Where Bible believing Christians read this differently, the readings are set out with the passages behind each one, and what Scripture states plainly is kept separate from what is interpretation.
Which parts of these passages does Scripture state plainly, and which parts are interpretation?
Write two lists. Anything you cannot put in the first list, hold loosely and say so when you teach it.
Questions Audela will not answer
Where Scripture does not answer a question, Audela says so plainly rather than filling the silence. An honest “the Bible does not tell us” is more faithful than a confident guess, and it keeps the reader’s trust in God’s Word rather than in our reasoning.
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.
- Ask instead: What does the passage say God did, and what does that reveal about His character?
- Ask instead: What has God told us about His purpose here, in this text or elsewhere in Scripture?
- Ask instead: What does Scripture say about how God acts, and where does it say it?
- Ask instead: What happened, and what does the rest of Scripture make of it?
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Study tools
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Where this leads
A question is a doorway, not a destination. Here is where this one leads if you want to keep reading rather than stop at an answer.
Topic hub
Primary study
Romans 8: No Condemnation, No Separation
Romans 8 shows why the question matters in practice: the love that nothing can separate you from is the love of God in Christ Jesus, so who Christ is decides how secure that love is.
Supporting studies
John 5:16-30
Read the fullest answer he gives to the charge.
Hebrews 1
Read the Old Testament case laid out.
Revelation 1:9-18
Read what John saw and what Christ said of himself.
Deep chapter studies
John 15: The Vine, the Branches, and the Friends of God
The words of the one whose claims this study examines.
Romans 8: No Condemnation, No Defeat, No Separation
What is secured for those who belong to Christ.