Though Jesus did not spend inordinate amounts of time stressing His Divinity, He surely did mention it. Here are some key passages in the Gospels:
Matthew 12:8, Lord of the Sabbath. In Genesis 2:1-3, the God of creation ends His initial work, "and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it..." 4,000 years later, a Man stood upon the earth and proclaimed to the Pharisees and anyone else who wanted to hear, "The Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day."(Matthew 12:8) The Man is either very presumptuous, or He is God.
Matthew 24:35. Speaker of imperishable words. In the midst of speaking to His disciples one day, Jesus makes this strong statement: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Mere mortals don't talk this way. He must be the same God referred to by David in Psalm 119:89, "For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven."
Matthew 28:18, omnipotent one. Omnipotent means, "having all power." We think of God Almighty in Heaven as this One. Well we should. But see His Son make this statement, and you will enter once more into the mystery of God-liness: (28:18) "All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in Earth." Truly He emptied Himself when He became a man. Here we see Him re-filled with the glory He had with the Father from all eternity.
Mark 11:3, The Lord. Jesus needs a colt. He is about to ride into Jerusalem, fulfilling prophecy. His instruction to His disciples: "...ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat: loose him, and bring him. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him..." As the Yahweh of old, Jesus was known as "the Lord" to His followers.
Luke 8:39, God. Here Jesus has cast out devils from one possessed. He is being asked to leave by the residents of the area. But a lone figure positions himself next to Jesus, wanting to go with Him. It is the one formerly possessed. Jesus tells him to "Return to thine own house, and show how great things God hath done unto thee."Jesus equates Himself with God.
John 1:18, formerly unseen God. "No man hath seen GOD at any time." A simple enough statement. But can God ever be seen? Oh yes, the verse continues: "the only begotten SON, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Here the Father and the Son are seen as one entity, partially seen, partially unseen, all Mystery! But the meaning is clear: we can see God by seeing Jesus!
John 5:17-18, equal to God. Here the Jews get a piece of the puzzle. Jesus had been working on the sabbath. When challenged by the Jews, Jesus simply answered " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." That did it. "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God." They began to see a glimmer of truth. When they realized just how equal He believed Himself to be, they would put Him on a cross!
John 8:19, Knowable as the Father. The Pharisees want to know where Jesus' Father is. His reply, "Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also." Stirrings. Search for stones. But they can't kill Him now, "for His hour was not yet come." And why so angry? Once more He had just called Himself God the Father! He had just declared that to know One is to know the Other! He repeats this declaration to His disciples (14:7)
John 13:31 , Glorified One. "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." Whenever Jesus is glorified, God is glorified. Can this be said of any other human? Is it not blasphemous to suggest God shares His glorious splendor with a mere son of Adam?
John 14:28, Greater but equal. Here the plot thickens. John 14:28 is quoted by those who wish to challenge the mountain of evidence of the Deity of Christ... "...My Father is greater than I." When the overwhelming sense of Scripture points one way, and a lone passage points another, it is probably best to explain the one passage than explain away the many others. Paul will do the explaining of John 14:28 in his letter to the Philippians, 2:5-7: " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of GOD [ a pretty straightforward way to put it! ] thought it not robbery [" a thing to be grasped," in Greek ] to be equal with God. [He was God, but was not living in the privilege of One Who is God] but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men [hence God with us, one of us, but actually God! Oh , glory to Him!]"
So for those 30 plus years we know of as the Incarnation, the en-fleshing of God Almighty, Jesus saw the Father as greater, since He had deliberately stooped down to our lowly status, so that He could walk with us. His Father was greater than Him because He had chosen to be less than His Father for that short period.John 17:5 should be the last nail in the coffin of those who wish to take God-ness from Christ. Jesus prays to His Father, "Glorify Thou Me[ more presumption unless He is God and deserves glory!] with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." !What a prayer! Jesus says, I was sharing glory with you before, I will again. But now, I deliberately tear away from that glory to save these poor earthlings. What a Mighty God we serve! And His Name is Jesus!
John 16:15, owner of all things. "All things that the Father hath are Mine..." 17:9-10 "I pray for them [disciples]: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are mine; and I am glorified in them." What can we say? God owns it all, including all believers. Jesus lays claim not only to the same possessions, but the glory that goes with it! John is truly filled with the wonder of Jesus' Godness.
http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. I have created over 200 blogs and the site features a live news feed, lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosen together! Contact me any time at diakonos5@yahoo.com
And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. I love to write Scriptural works. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond.
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