Where Jesus said He is God

“Jesus never said He was God.”

That’s the insistence of a range of unbelievers in Christianity, whether it’s explicit atheists or false Christians like Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. They think they can say this because Jesus never spoke the exact words “I am God.”

But He came pretty darn close, enough that His hearers knew that’s what He meant. We’ll look at that and other Scriptures from the gospels that make an overwhelming case that Jesus did indeed claim deity.

‘I AM’

Twice in John’s gospel, Jesus’ hearers picked up stones to throw at Him. Whatever He said provoked such a rage in them that they disregarded the fact that under Roman law, they were not allowed to execute anyone. In their religious fury, they wanted Him dead right there and then.

One of those times was in chapter 10, when Jesus said in verse 30, “I and the Father are one.” That’s a good starting point for the Biblical case for Christ’s divinity, but skeptics can counter with His prayer in John 17 that all believers “may be one in Us … just as We are one.” Jesus was speaking of unity in relationship, they say, not ontologically.

But that’s not how the Jews in Jerusalem heard Him. Jesus asked them why they were trying to stone Him; their answer was, “because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” They obviously thought He was claiming to be God.

Maybe they misunderstood Him, some would say. But that’s not the only reason that they picked up stones — again. They had tried that once before, in chapter 8, also in Jerusalem.

John records a lengthy discourse between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, beginning with Jesus proclaiming Himself as “the light of the world.” It’s also where He said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” That led to an exchange about Abraham. They asked Him in verse 53, “Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? … Who do You make Yourself out to be?” In His answer, Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day.”

The incredulous Jews asked how He could possibly say that. Jesus’ answer, in verse 58: “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

Jesus did not mean that He existed before Abraham; a created being could say that. No, the religious leaders immediately knew what He said. He invoked God’s holy, covenant name — I AM, as the Lord identified Himself to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3 — in reference to Himself. That’s what incited them to pick up stones. They knew blasphemy when they heard it, and that’s what it would have been if anyone else had said it.

And that’s not even the only time Jesus did so in that chapter. In verse 24, He said, “if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” In verse 28: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.” Notice that in both of those statements, the word “He” is in italics, meaning it’s not in the original text. Jesus actually said “if you do not believe that I am” and “you will know that I am.” Was He merely saying “if you do not believe that I exist” and “you will know that I exist”? That seems pretty nonsensical. The text uses the same Greek phrasing in verses 24 and 28 that is in verse 58 — ego eimi, I AM. He had been saying it all along, and when He emphasized it in verse 58, the Pharisees finally lost their temper.

Unbelievers will deny this, or they’ll try to discredit John’s gospel as fiction written long after Jesus’ life. Let’s go to the other gospels, then; there’s plenty of conclusive evidence there.

Lord of the Sabbath

All three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) include the story of Jesus and His disciples plucking grain as they walked through fields on the Sabbath. When the Pharisees confronted Him about this, Jesus defended them not only by pointing out when David fed his hungry men forbidden bread in the tabernacle, but He also said something rather astonishing: “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28, Luke 6:5).

Lord of the Sabbath?? How could a man say that? God, of course, established the Sabbath in the fourth commandment, which reads:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. The week was based on the six days of creation; we cease our labor on the seventh day, as the Lord did. The authority to establish the Sabbath was God’s authority as the Creator. Therefore, only God is Lord of the Sabbath. Any claim to be that is a claim to be both the Creator and the Lawgiver.

Unbelievers may say that authority was delegated to Christ — an argument from silence — but we can keep going.

Psalm 110

During Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem, leading up to His crucifixion, He debated the chief priests and scribes on various issues, such as the resurrection of the dead and paying taxes. Most of those discussions were instigated by them, except the last one. It was Jesus who asked,

“What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”

They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’?

If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” (Matthew 22:42-45)

What was Jesus’ point?

The people in Jerusalem already knew that He was purported to be the Christ. He had just entered the city to the cries of “Hosanna to the Son of David!” This was not a new claim, nor was it enough to warrant the death penalty.

In the religious leaders’ minds, the Christ (the Messiah) was a man, an anointed leader who would re-establish the kingdom of Israel to the glory of his ancestor David. Jesus here was not saying He was the Christ, but what the Christ is — not only David’s descendant, but also David’s Lord. The One whom David worshiped.

To prove this, Jesus quoted the first verse of Psalm 110, which begins, “The Lord said to my Lord.” If you read that in the psalm, most Bibles will have the first “Lord” in small caps, meaning it’s God’s holy name, YHWH (the same name Jesus invoked in John 8). The second “Lord” is the title Adonai. The line can be read, “Yahweh said to Adonai.” Jesus was saying that the Christ is the pre-existent Adonai.

Jesus’ final public teaching on earth was that the Christ is God. That’s the point of this exchange, which is also in all three synoptic gospels.

The chief priests and scribes had no answer for this. In fact, during the first few centuries, rabbis stopped teaching Psalm 110 as messianic. Christians were widely quoting it because it’s referenced in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament text. It’s a key passage in proving that Jesus is Lord.

Why it matters

More evidence of Jesus’ deity in the gospels:

• He forgave the sins of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof. The Pharisees correctly said only God could do that.

• The glimpse of His divine glory at the transfiguration.

• He never sinned, an achievement still standing alone in human history.

• He raised Himself from the dead. “I lay down My life that I may take it again,” He said in John 10:17. “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”

That last one goes toward why this truth is so important. Jesus’ divinity is directly tied to His death and resurrection. Only God has authority over life and death, and only God could bear all the sins of millions of His people and satisfy the Father’s wrath for them in a few hours. The crucifixion and resurrection, of course, are why Christians have eternal life.

Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Christ’s Lordship is an essential, fundamental tenet of Christianity. Those who don’t believe it don’t believe in the only One who can deliver us from death. They’re following another Jesus.  

If Jesus is not God, no one is saved.

See also: Jesus did everything He did as God, or else He doesn’t save