WEBVTT

00:00.000 --> 00:02.300
Jesus never said, I am God.

00:02.820 --> 00:05.880
You may have heard this statement from a
Muslim friend, religious skeptic,

00:05.920 --> 00:07.060
or family member at dinner.

00:07.640 --> 00:08.320
Are they right?

00:08.780 --> 00:10.540
Well, kind of yes and kind of no.

00:11.080 --> 00:15.100
Let's take a few moments to unravel what
Jesus really said about himself in the

00:15.100 --> 00:15.380
Bible.

00:16.120 --> 00:20.740
In John chapter 5, Jesus says,
My Father is always at work to this very

00:20.740 --> 00:22.760
day, and I too am working.

00:23.520 --> 00:28.220
After stating this, the Jewish leaders
tried to kill him, because in calling God

00:28.220 --> 00:32.160
his own Father, Jesus was making himself
equal with God.

00:32.700 --> 00:35.620
He was claiming to be the unique Son of
God.

00:36.220 --> 00:41.660
In the New Testament, Jesus uses the term,
My Father, as a direct and unmistakable

00:41.660 --> 00:43.240
declaration of his Sonship.

00:43.940 --> 00:48.360
In verse 23, he claims that the Son and
the Father receive the same type of honor,

00:48.560 --> 00:53.140
stating, So that all may honor the Son,
just as they honor the Father.

00:53.820 --> 00:58.260
Three verses later, he claims to possess
life as the Father does, just as the

00:58.260 --> 01:03.260
Father has life in himself, so also he
gave to his Son the possession of life in

01:03.260 --> 01:03.720
himself.

01:04.820 --> 01:09.200
Moving to the Gospel of Matthew,
in chapter 11, Jesus claims a direct

01:09.200 --> 01:13.260
relationship to God the Father,
saying, No one knows the Son except the

01:13.260 --> 01:17.940
Father, and no one knows the Father except
the Son, asserting the shared knowledge he

01:17.940 --> 01:18.920
has with the Father.

01:19.660 --> 01:24.900
When in chapter 16, Peter states,
You are Christ, the Son of the living God.

01:25.480 --> 01:29.360
Jesus not only accepts the titles but
calls Peter blessed because his

01:29.360 --> 01:33.060
declaration had been revealed to him by My
Father who is in heaven.

01:34.580 --> 01:39.440
Jesus claims eternal existence in John
chapter 8, verse 58, when he says,

01:39.820 --> 01:44.100
Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham
was born, I am.

01:44.840 --> 01:49.240
Here Jesus has echoed the language of
deity, the same words by which God

01:49.240 --> 01:53.280
revealed himself to Moses from the burning
bush in Exodus 3, verse 14.

01:53.660 --> 01:58.500
To the Jews, this was clearly blasphemy,
for they knew that in doing so Jesus was

01:58.500 --> 02:00.160
again claiming to be God.

02:01.320 --> 02:06.200
Later, in John 10, verse 30 to 33,
Jesus explicitly told the Jews,

02:06.580 --> 02:08.040
I and the Father are one.

02:08.600 --> 02:12.960
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone
him, but Jesus said to them, I have shown

02:12.960 --> 02:14.860
you many great miracles from the Father.

02:15.460 --> 02:17.160
For which of these do you stone me?

02:17.820 --> 02:22.360
We are not stoning you for any of these,
replied the Jews, but for blasphemy

02:22.360 --> 02:25.280
because you, a mere man, claim to be God.

02:26.160 --> 02:31.480
In the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus recorded
in Mark 14, Caiaphas the high priest asked

02:31.480 --> 02:34.600
him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the
blessed one?

02:35.100 --> 02:36.680
I am, said Jesus.

02:37.000 --> 02:41.200
And you will see the Son of Man sitting at
the right hand of the Mighty One and

02:41.200 --> 02:42.620
coming on the clouds of heaven.

02:43.500 --> 02:47.860
Those unfamiliar with the Old Testament
writings might miss the importance of that

02:47.860 --> 02:52.520
statement, but Caiaphas and the council
clearly knew that in saying he was the Son

02:52.520 --> 02:57.200
of Man, who would come on the clouds of
heaven, Jesus was delivering a clear

02:57.200 --> 03:00.800
reference to the Son of Man in Daniel's
prophecy in Daniel 7.

03:01.400 --> 03:05.800
He was not only claiming to be the
pre-existent sovereign of the universe,

03:05.800 --> 03:11.640
but also foretelling that he would prove
his claim by judging the very court that

03:11.640 --> 03:12.840
was now condemning him.

03:13.600 --> 03:18.240
Further, in combining Daniel's prophecy
with David's proclamation in Psalm 110,

03:18.900 --> 03:23.560
Jesus was claiming that he would sit upon
the throne of Israel's God and share God's

03:23.560 --> 03:24.280
very glory.

03:24.860 --> 03:27.460
This was an unmistakable claim to deity.

03:28.260 --> 03:32.380
This was the height of blasphemy and so
they all condemned him as worthy of death,

03:32.760 --> 03:36.000
as recorded in Mark 14, 64 and 65.

03:36.720 --> 03:41.100
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus also
declared his deity through his claims of

03:41.100 --> 03:41.560
authority.

03:42.080 --> 03:47.060
He announced, I am the Good Shepherd,
a title the Old Testament assigned to God.

03:47.700 --> 03:51.840
He claimed to be the judge of all people,
a task only God performs.

03:52.340 --> 03:56.040
He called himself the Bridegroom,
a role God played with Israel.

03:56.560 --> 03:59.680
He forgave sins, but only God can forgive
sins.

03:59.680 --> 04:04.500
He assumed equal authority with God and
even encouraged prayer in his name.

04:05.140 --> 04:07.760
He also invited people to believe in him
for salvation.

04:08.640 --> 04:12.700
None of the great leaders, teachers or
prophets in the history of Israel ever

04:12.700 --> 04:14.600
offered salvation in their own name.

04:15.160 --> 04:18.920
Appearing blasphemous, it was only Jesus
who made this appeal of faith,

04:19.240 --> 04:21.320
because he was claiming to be God.

04:22.460 --> 04:26.540
In reading through the rest of the New
Testament, one can see that the title of

04:26.540 --> 04:28.440
God is certainly connected to Jesus.

04:29.150 --> 04:34.080
In many places, the authors refer to Jesus
in ways that can only apply to God,

04:34.440 --> 04:38.340
calling him Eternal, even though there is
only one Eternal God.

04:39.000 --> 04:42.200
The Creator of all things, though there is
only one Creator.

04:42.920 --> 04:46.240
Present everywhere, though there is only
one Omnipresent God.

04:46.720 --> 04:50.820
And receives worship from people and
angels, even though the Old Testament

04:50.820 --> 04:53.580
prohibits worshipping anyone other than
God.

04:54.400 --> 04:58.580
Because each of these characteristics can
only be said of God, then clearly the

04:58.580 --> 05:02.280
authors of the New Testament also believed
Jesus was God.

05:02.960 --> 05:06.620
Christians believe that at the heart of
the doctrine of Christ's deity is God's

05:06.620 --> 05:08.560
loving self-sacrifice for us.

05:09.300 --> 05:14.320
That salvation rests not in a man like us,
but in a God who became like us in order

05:14.320 --> 05:16.100
to redeem us from our sins.

05:16.820 --> 05:22.320
So while Jesus never explicitly uses the
phrase, I am God, He is consistently

05:22.320 --> 05:26.320
portrayed in all of the Gospels as one who
speaks and acts as God.

05:26.940 --> 05:30.320
And if such is the case, then we are all
faced with C.S.

05:30.360 --> 05:32.680
Lewis' famous imperative in mere
Christianity.

05:33.680 --> 05:34.920
You must make a choice.

05:35.620 --> 05:40.960
Either this man was and is the Son of God,
or else a madman or something worse.

05:41.940 --> 05:45.060
After Jesus asked, who do people say that
I am?

05:45.640 --> 05:50.140
He asked an even more significant
question, but who do you say that I am?

05:50.940 --> 05:54.640
The answer to this question each person
must decide for themself.