Did Jesus Say He Is God?

So you want to know, ‘Did Jesus Say He Is God?’  Or maybe your question is more like this, ‘Did Jesus ever claim to be God?’  Or maybe you don’t even believe that much, maybe your question goes more like this, ‘Did Jesus think he was God?’  Or maybe, you are saying to yourself ‘How can I prove that Jesus didn’t say he was God?’  Hahah, could be.  But if you are thinking any of these questions, you aren’t the only one.  The Jews of Christ’s day, the people he came in contact with daily had the same questions.  Not only did they think it… but they also asked Him.  One time there was an interaction face to face with him that wasn’t too disimilar to your Google search, it went like this:

So the Jews surrounded him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us so plainly.”

Curious what His answer was?  You’ll find it at the bottom of this post.  It’s an interesting answer.  We’ll get to it. But before we do, I would ask you to consider your heart.  You probably came to this post with a preconceived idea already formulated in your head and you just want to find evidence to support your belief, or disbelief. Maybe you think this stuff about Jesus being God is silly.   But have you ever stopped and read what the Gospels say specifically about this question?  Do you even know what Jesus said about Himself?  Maybe we ought to go through the various details of what the Bible itself said about Him while he was on planet earth and evaluate it based on the evidence as opposed to hearsay, rumor and myth. Just today on NPR there was a show about how Jesus never said or claimed to be God.  “If Jesus Never Claimed to be God, how did he become one?”  You can find the show and the article over here.  Just the title alone supports my point here.  Let’s take spirituality and God out of it – did Jesus even SAY that he was God.  Whether he was insane or not?  This author’s position is that Jesus literally never said he was God.  Apparently the author claims that his disciples pushed this God idea on Him… and that it was a normal thing to do at that time.  All the Roman leaders claimed to be God.  So therefore, the God-thing, was a social construct, not a relevant claim Jesus Himself made.  This is obviously a hot topic if it is so often being asked and reasked.  This author even wrote a book about this topic.  So apparently, even after two thousand years, society wants to know if Jesus believed Himself to be God.  But I can tell you this, even before we get down into the details, this author distorts scripture.  And so we should probably take a peek at the actual scriptures and see which way it goes.

I prefer to read the Bible on my iPad, or my phone.  And for the past few years I have been fairly fastidious about marking up the gospels as I go.  I have been specifically highlighting various attributes or questions in certain colors.  So for this question, ‘Did Jesus Say He Is God’, I marked it in blue.  For the question of how does one go to heaven?  Or, how do I gain eternal life?  I marked those passages in green.  For every healing and every miracle that Jesus performed, I marked them all in pink.  I marked all the times questions were asked in yellow.  And then one day I just got fed up with everyone telling me that Jesus never said that He was God, so I counted.  And having all the highlights easily listed out it was a fairly easy exercise to just count them out. I have coupled up all the scriptures that are parallels in the same line to show that it wasn’t just one gospel that stated that this event occured, but multiples.  I have also tried to keep them in chronological order:

Did Jesus Say He Is God? You Tell Me…

1. John 1:3 – “Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made.”
2. John 1:48 – “Nathaniel said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.””
3. John 1:51 – “Then he said to him, “Truly, truly I tell all of you, you will see heaven standing open and the angels of God going up and coming down to the Son of Man.””
4. John 4:25-26 – “The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
5. John 4:42 – They kept telling the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world.”
6. Mark 1:24 – Luke 1:34 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
7. Mark 1:34 – Luke 4:41 – “Even Demons came out of many people screaming, “You are the son of God!”
8. Mark 3:11 – “Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and scream, “You are the Son of God!”
9. Matthew 8:29 – Mark 5:7 – Luke 8:28 – “Suddenly they screamed, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Did you come here to torture us before the proper time?”
10. Matthew 9:2 – Mark 2:5 – Luke 5:20 – “All at once some people brought him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Be courageous, son! Your sins are forgiven.””
11. John 5:18 – “So the Jews were trying all the harder to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal to God.”
12. John 5:22 – “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,”
13. John 5:26 – “For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself.”
14. John 8:18 – “I am testifying about myself, and the Father who sent me is testifying about me.””
15. John 8:23 – He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, but I am not of this world.”
16. John 8:58 – “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I tell you, before there was an Abraham, I am!””
17. John 9:35 – “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out. So when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”l… Jesus said to him, “You have seen him. He is the person who is talking with you.”
18. John 10:24 – “So the Jews surrounded him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us so plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I have told you, but you do not believe it. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it from the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”
19. John 10:29 – “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”
20. John 10:33 – “For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”
21. John 10:38 – “Know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
22. Matthew 12:28 – “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.”
23. Matthew 16:16 – Mark 8:30 – luke 9:20 “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
24. Matthew 17:5 – Mark 1:11 – Luke 9:35 “He was still speaking when a bright cloud suddenly overshadowed them. A voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am pleased with him. Keep on listening to him!”
25. Matthew 26:63-64 – Mark 14:62 – Luke 22:69 “Jesus said, ‘I am.  And ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right had of the Power and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’”
26. John 13:19 – “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.”
27. John 14:10 – “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”
28. John 16:14 – “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
29. John 16:27 – “for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”
30. John 17:1 – “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,”
31. John 17:21 – “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
32. Matthew 27:11 – Luke 23:3 – John 18:36 “The governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.”
33. Matthew 28:18 “Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
34. Mark 15:2 – Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “You say so.”
35. Matthew 21:11 – Mark 11:10 – Luke 19:38 – John 12:13 – “They said, ‘How blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! ‘“
36. John 18:37 – “Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
37. John 19:14 – “Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”
38. John 19:19 – “Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.””
39. Acts 2:33 – “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”
40. Acts 2:36 – “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Fifty seven distinct scriptures directly point to Jesus being the Son of God.  If I take out all the scriptures that weren’t specifically spoken by Jesus we still get TWENTY FOUR times that Jesus stated that He was God throughout the Gospels.  I mean, really?  Say that Jesus was a lunatic, but don’t say that he didn’t believe himself God.  I mean, the evidence is strewn across this blog post – and I’m probably missing a couple.

So, remember that situation at the top of this post?  The one where the crowds were literally in suspense?  So how did it end?

“So the Jews surrounded him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us so plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I have told you, but you do not believe it. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it from the Father’s hand…”  and then He finishes by saying, “I and the Father are one.”

What do you think?  After reviewing all the scriptures for yourself, do you think Jesus said He was God?  Or was He ambiguous about it?  Don’t listen to anyone else, decide for yourself.  Was Jesus God?  Or did He think himself a man just like you and me?  Today’s the day to decide.