Claims of Jesus

1. Jesus claimed that by believing in Him one can have eternal life (Jn 1:12, 3:16-18, 3:36, 5:24, 6:27, 47, 10:9, 28, 11:25). This is quite a claim for any man to make. In Psalm 119, the psalmist says about a dozen times that it is God that gives life. Jesus, in John 5:21, claims this power for Himself.

2. Jesus claimed to forgive sin. In Mark 2:5 Jesus said, " My son, your sins are forgiven." The reaction to these words by the scribes give us a clue as to what Jesus was really saying. Remember that when we interpret Scripture we cannot pour our own meaning into it, but can only try to understand it as it was intended to the original audience. In those day it was well understood by Jews that only God could forgive sin. Thus Jesus claiming to forgive sin was a claim to be God. Look at the Jews reaction. "It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus had an excellent opportunity to clarify the situation, to correct the scribes if they misunderstood His words. He did not.

3. Jesus regarded the kingdom of God as His own (Matt. 12:28, 13:41, 19:14, 24)

4. Jesus regarded God's angels (Luke 12:8-9, 15:10) as His angels (Matt. 13:41).

5. Jesus claimed God's elect (Mark 13:20, Eph. 1:4, 11) to be His own (Jn. 15:16).

6. Jesus claimed to be one with the Father (John 10:30). Read along in verse 31. Why did the Jews pick up stones? Well, Lev. 24:16 makes it clear that if someone claimed to be God he was to be stoned to death. Being the law-abiding Jews that they were, the Jews were merely reacting to Jesus' claim of deity. Once again Jesus could have set them straight, after all His life was on the line. He did not. If that is not enough evidence read along to verse 33. They said He claimed to be God and Jesus did not argue with them.

7. Jesus said that seeing Him is seeing the Father (John 14:7, 9). Philip, longing to see God, the Father, says show me Him. Jesus says if you've seen me you've seen God. No doubt this was a claim of deity.

8. Jesus called God His father. This claim was Jesus stating that He was equal with God. John 5:18 reads, "For this reason Jews tried all the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." That is quite a contrast with Romans 3:23 which says we all fall short of the standard of God. That all includes every man ever created. In those times claiming equality with God, was claiming to be God.

9. Jesus juxtaposes God's words with His words. Time and again He says, "You have heard that it was said,... but I say to you(Matt. 5:21-22, 27-28). Here He places His word on the same level of the Old Testament. Some may argue that all prophets spoke this way, and that Jesus was only claiming to be a prophet. But the common formula for a prophet is " the word of the Lord came to me, saying....(Jer. 1:11, Ezek. 1:3) Jesus simply says, "I say to you..."

10. God is called the Alpha and Omega. Jesus is called the Alpha and Omega. "I am the Alpha and Omega," says the Lord God (Rev. 1:8) Yet in Revelation 1:17 John records Jesus as saying, " I am the First and Last." In Revelation 2:8 John says the same of Jesus. And in Revelation 21:6 Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." Here again Jesus is claiming to be the same as the Lord God.

11. Jesus accepted worship. In John 20:28 Thomas say "My Lord and My God." Jesus does nothing to correct or rebuke him. In Revelation John bowed down to worship and angel, but the angel rebuked him. Surely, Jesus would have stopped Thomas had he been making a mistake.

by Kelly Liebengood