Christians believe the bible teaches that Jesus is God right?
Yes, that’s right?
In what way does the bible teach that Jesus is God? God has all the power, glory and authority in heaven while Jesus lived as a man on earth with human limitations. Jesus could become tired and hungry and he had a body that could be injured and even destroyed.
Yes, Jesus did have all the human limitations you mentioned and this is because Jesus was fully god and fully man. The bible says that Jesus who though he was in the form of god did not count equality with god a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. That is why he could be tired, hungry and so on now.
I understand why the bible described Jesus’ manhood because he is fully god and fully man. Some people immediately jump to the conclusion that the bible is teaching that Jesus is not god when they saw verses that talk about his manhood. While Jesus was fully man, he was also fully God. Jesus was equal with God the father in glory and power before he emptied himself and came to earth as a man. We know that Jesus had the same glory his father had because Jesus asked his father to glorify him with the glory he had with the father before the world was created.
You mentioned that Jesus submitted himself to his Father. Doesn’t that show that he is of a lower rank than the Father and therefore is not God? I believe there are verses in the bible that says Jesus cannot do anything by himself.
You must be referring to the passage in the gospel of john in which Jesus said the son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his father doing because whatever the father does the son also does.
Yes, I was referring to this verse. Jesus is not an independent deity that does whatever he likes regardless of the Father but is completely united with the Father in purpose. He does only his Father’s will. Jesus is also like God in power – whatever his Father does Jesus does also. Can any human being make that claim that whatever God is doing he is able to do the same thing? This is clearly another of Jesus’ claim to deity.
What about the verse that says that Jesus’ knowledge is inferior to that of the father and he does not know when the time of the end of the world would be?
Jesus said that because he emptied himself when he took on human form. For example, God is everywhere at the same time but Jesus in human form could only be at one place at one time. God is omnipotent and cannot be destroyed but Jesus in human flesh could be injured and even killed. God is all-knowing but Jesus had limited knowledge while on earth. It was because Jesus was emptied of those attributes which is why he taught that the father is greater than he.
I have another question which puzzles me. If Jesus is God, why did he have to pray to God?
This does not make sense only if you believe God is only one person. Christians believe that there is one God existing in three persons. That means Jesus, who is God, can still pray to God the Father.
If Jesus is God, he must have existed with God from the beginning. However, wasn’t he born only 2 000 years ago?
Earlier I shared the verse that says Jesus asked his Father to glorify him with the glory he had before the world was even created. In other words, even before the creation of the world and any human being, Jesus was already in existence. Elsewhere, Jesus told the crowd that he existed even before Abraham, who was born thousands of years before him.
How then do we reconcile the fact that Jesus was both eternal and born at a particular point in time?
Many religions believe that the word of God existed with God from eternity. Yet this eternal word of God came down to man and take the form of physical text at a particular point in time. Therefore, it is possible for something to have eternal essence and yet take on physical form at a particular point in time.
If Jesus was claiming to have existed from eternity past, that was equivalent to claiming to be God isn’t it?
Exactly, the bible says that God does not share his glory with another so the fact that Jesus claimed to have shared glory with his father is yet another claim to be God. The Jews also understood this because after Jesus made those remarks, they tried to stone him.
Thanks for answering my questions on who Jesus is. I have other questions about Jesus that I hope you will help me with the next time we meet.
Certainly. I look forward to discussing with you more on the topic of Jesus.
Evidence of Jesus’ deity from his life
Old Testament testifies that Jesus is God
Jesus was not a man who become God