Jesus Christ was, is, and forever will be fully God and fully man. Aspects of his divine nature are a mystery to us because we only share in his humanity.
The claim of Christianity is that Jesus is God. It's a bold claim and one that is frequently challenged.
I want to explore the divinity of Christ, what it means for me, and for all his disciples.
Jesus is Eternal
Mankind exists inside a material universe and time always marches forward. Humans perceive time as the past, present, and future. However, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8).
In regard to the past, Jesus came before all things (Colossians 1:17), he is from ancient days (Micah 5:2), before the foundations of the earth (John 17:5), and before Abraham (John 8:58).
He exists today in heaven at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19, 1 Peter 3:22), and in my article The Humanity of Jesus we saw that he was born (Luke 2:7), he lived (Luke 2:40), and died (Mark 15:44-45). Now he exists as the high priest and king of humanity for eternity (Hebrews 7:3).
In John's Gospel we see this truth stated plainly, referring to Jesus as the Word of God being with God and being God, but becoming human flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:1-2 ESV
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 ESV
Being an eternal God, Jesus and the Father planned our salvation before taking on flesh (Ephesians 1:3-5, 1 Peter 1:20). For us as believers, the eternal nature of Jesus and his mortal body create theological questions. We must be prepared to defend our faith (1 Peter 3:15), so we can't shy away from this challenge.
The best way that we can understand it is that Jesus is fully man (born in the flesh), but his being existed beforehand (begotten of God). Below, we'll look at these two natures and what theologians call the 'hypostatic union'.
The Exact Nature of God
In the beginning, God created Adam in his image and when God made the woman, Adam joined together with her to fill the earth. However, Jesus was not born to a human father, he was begotten by God (Luke 1:35, Matthew 1:18).
Before examining those passages, it's worth understanding that begotten means to be fathered. When something is begotten, it is of the same kind. For example, bird begets bird, fish begets fish, man begets man, God begets God.
It's useful to think about how that contrasts with something being made. God made man, but man is not God. A man can make a fire, but a fire is not a man. Lastly, a bird can make a nest, but a nest is not a bird.
Clearly, it is possible to make something of a different nature, but you beget something of the same nature. God reveals to us that Jesus is begotten:
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
Psalm 2:7 ESV
this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’
Acts 13:33 ESV
For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?
Hebrews 1:5 ESV
There are a number of other verses that Jesus is begotten, but most are debated among biblical scholars. The debate centres around whether the word monogenous means 'only son' or 'only begotten son'. It's clear that the word mono refers to single, but genous could mean a kind, or an offspring.
To clarify which is most likely, we look to the author of Hebrews who writes that Jesus is of his Father's nature. The word translated nature is hypostaseōs, which in English we read as hypostasis. It's hotly debated how this word should be translated, but its meaning can be clearly broken into two:
hypo - under authority
stasis - to stand
It can literally mean title deed, but in this context the author claims Jesus is the exact imprint of that which underpins God (Hebrews 1:3). He upholds the universe by his power, which is the power of God.
The meaning of this word is translated as substance, essence, nature, person, or being.
Unfortunately, each translation comes with heavy theological baggage, historically making it difficult to reach any agreement on how to translate this word. However, the key takeaway is that Jesus is the exact imprint of the Father, meaning he is distinct from the Father, yet he is of the same deity.
While it is the author of Hebrews that makes this claim about Jesus, it's also a claim that Jesus makes about himself. He plainly claims to be one with the Father (John 10:30), which was understood that he was claiming to be God (John 10:33).
For us as believers, the doctrine of the trinity is our best solution to God being one, yet revealing himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. We believe in one God in trinity, and trinity in unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the essence.
Jesus Forgives Sin
Throughout the Bible Jesus forgives sins, but only God can forgive sins (Mark 2:5-7). Sin is an act against God's divine law, it is His moral standard and He alone defines good from evil in accordance to his nature.
You and I cannot define God's law, nor can we decide when we transgress it. The psalmist writes that we rarely can discern our own errors (Psalm 19:12). However, Jesus did what you and I cannot, he forgave sins:
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Mark 2:5 ESV
And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Luke 7:48 ESV
Much of what we know about Jesus' role as high priest comes from Hebrews, though he makes clear during his ministry that his sacrifice was willing (John 10:18) and a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).
He is the one all prophets bear witness towards for forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43), his sacrifice is once and for all (Hebrews 7:27), and he is capable of cleansing us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Therefore, as believers, we must always confess our sins to Christ and he will intercede for us. You can find out more in my article about intercessory prayer.
Jesus Conquers Death
Medical advancements led physicians to make a distinction between death and clinical death. When somebody is dead, they have truly died. They cannot be resuscitated.
Jesus truly died after losing a significant volume of blood from scourging (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15), a crown of thorns pushed into his head (Matthew 27:29), collapsing from their effects on his way to Golgotha (Luke 21:26, Mark 15:21, Matthew 27:32), and then nailed his hands and feet to the cross (John 20:25) as a crowd of people watched him slowly suffocating before his sudden death.
Many Muslims argue that Jesus only appeared to be dead, or that he was clinically dead, or that a lookalike took his place.
All biblical and historical accounts testify that Jesus truly died. His resurrection was not a resuscitation; he was buried inside a tomb after a very public trial and death.
Another argument against Jesus death is that tension exists with Paul's claim that Jesus was immortal (1 Timothy 6:13-16).
How can Jesus die and be immortal?
Hebrews writes that he [Jesus] became like us in every respect (Hebrews 2:17), so that he might defeat the one who holds the power of death over our flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:14). However, Christians believe God made us with physical bodies and his life giving breath (Genesis 2:7).
Only God can destroy spirit (Matthew 10:28), but in his humanity, Jesus was surely crucified and died. For this reason the author of Revelation tells us that Satan is furious because Jesus conquered him through death (Revelation 12:11-12).
Jesus demonstrates his deity in his ability to conquer death. He alone is immortal, and he alone conquered death.
You can find out more about the humanity of Christ in my other article.
Final Remarks
Although there are no passages that Jesus clearly and explicitly states in these three words "I am God", there are many passages where he demonstrates it or makes himself equal to God. His Jewish audience knew that is what he claimed and hence they wanted him crucified.
While many of these verses and translations are hotly debated, it only speaks to the strength of the argument. If it was easy to dismiss the claim, we wouldn't be having this debate 2,000 years after the event.
Put simply, there is too much historical and biblical evidence that Jesus was claiming to be God for any credible argument against.
The only real question is whether you believe his claim.
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