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One day, not long after I’d become a Christian, a Jewish friend of mine (not a believer), challenged me as follows. He argued that Jesus never called himself God and that the church had much later made Jesus into a god. He said that the Bible nowhere called Jesus God. Is that true?
All good lies need an element of truth to them, or they wouldn’t be believed. It’s remarkable in fact that the Bible hardly ever calls Jesus God. Why doesn’t it just come out and say it? Why didn’t Jesus just come out and say: “I’m God”? Could my Jewish friend be right?
Well, the Bible actually does just come out and say that Jesus is God, and frankly, so does Jesus. But the whole topic of Jesus’ deity is more complicated than just saying that he is God. To say Jesus is God is actually ambiguous! Does that mean that the Father isn’t God? Or that Jesus is the Father come to earth? Saying “Jesus is God” could be misunderstood in many ways, even though it is true. There are in fact much more accurate ways of saying that Jesus is God.
The Bible actually does just come out and say that Jesus is God. In Titus 2:13 Paul says that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ”. Likewise Romans 9:5 and Hebrews 1:8-9. However these references are surprisingly few. Why is that? I think it’s because Continue reading →
