It’s one thing to claim to be something – it’s another to be consistent in your claim. It is clear from the language and intent of the Gospel accounts of what Jesus said about Himself that He claimed to be God. Some have said that Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. Others have said that Jesus was simply a legend of the Christian church. I used to believe that – that Jesus was just a legend. I now believe He is Lord.
One of the reasons I believe Jesus is the Lord God is because of the consistency of how He lived His Life on earth. It’s what I would expect from the Almighty God. Think about it for a minute. You’ve just finished reading the Old Testament. You have this high view of God. He is the Almighty God of Israel, the Lord of Heaven, the King over all the earth. You’ve read about how He spoke to Moses from a burning bush and the top of a mountain. You’ve seen how God led the nation of Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Turn the page in your Bible and the next thing you read is about God becoming flesh and blood to save His people from their sins. What would you expect God to do as He lived among His creation? What would He say to the humans He made? What would He do for them? What would He prove to them?
As I read the pages of the New Testament and see how Jesus lived His amazing Life on earth, He does exactly what I would expect the God of the Old Testament to do. He loved His people deeply and did what was necessary to save them from their sins. He told them how to live in His Kingdom and showed them the path to walk on their spiritual journey. He healed their broken and diseased bodies, fed their hunger, cast out their demons, and refreshed their weary souls. He had superior knowledge and wisdom and shared it with them at every opportunity. He proved to them the power of His Kingdom through His Life, Death, and Resurrection.
As an investigative journalist for many years, I know people make mistakes. Those mistakes, those inconsistencies, are often the reason people are caught in their lies, in their crimes, in their duplicity, in their schemes. Whether a person is a liar or a lunatic, they will be found out. Someone will know they are not real. Jesus is not afraid of “being found out.” He consistently lived up to all His claims about being God. He said it, lived it, and proved it.
Jesus presented the demands of His Kingdom early in His Ministry. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told the multitudes what it would mean to live in His Kingdom. Then, Jesus showed them how to live it. He walked about the streets and hills and valleys of Israel demonstrating the perfection of His Kingdom and the Perfect King. Never has a man walked liked Jesus walked. Never has a man talked like Jesus talked. Never has a man lived like Jesus lived.
Jesus forgave sins, walked on water, knew the thoughts and intents of people’s hearts, and accepted worship from men and women, boys and girls. He demonstrated an absolute power over spiritual darkness. He prophesied about future events with complete knowledge of what would be. He called His disciples to follow Him and live lives of devotion to Him, even as He was devoted to His Father in Heaven. Jesus demonstrated His great Love for them by dying on the Cross and called on them to love as He Loved. He rose from the grave and promised His followers that they too would rise from the dead.
Jesus was consistent in His attack on the teachings of the religious leaders of Israel. They had brought spiritual poverty to God’s chosen people and Jesus consistently opposed them to their face: “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:26-28) Though the religious leaders set many traps for Jesus, He evaded them all through a direct declaration of God’s Truth and Power. Mere men who were learned in the ways of men were no match for the Eternal Son of God. Jesus never flinched, never stumbled. He never changed His story. He never lied. He always told the Truth. Jesus is the Perfect Messiah. He is the Christ, the Son of God. He is the prophet Daniel’s “Son of Man.” Jesus is exactly Who He said He is – God.
I pray that as you read the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and the Letters of the Apostles, you will see the Deity of Jesus on every page. The Bible is the Revelation of God. The Old Testament points to God coming to earth in the flesh. The New Testament shows you God on earth in the flesh. He is Jesus.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
In Christ’s Love and Grace,
Mark McGee
Faith Defense
Building Confidence Through Evidence
“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
Faith & Self Defense 