Question
Is Jesus also God?
Answer
The divinity of Jesus:
There is no question that the Scriptures teach that Jesus is divine.
First, the Old Testament prophets predicted this. In Isaiah 7:14, the Messiah is to be called Immanuel, which in Hebrew means “God with us.” Isaiah predicts the virgin birth of the Messiah, and this is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth (see Matt. 1:18-23). Luke says that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35) and adds, “for this reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.” Isaiah also predicted more about the nature of the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6: “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us…and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” We know that this refers to Jesus, because Matt. 4:12–16 cites the verses earlier as fulfillment of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Matt. quotes from Is. 9:1–2). “Mighty God?” “Eternal Father?” How could a “son” who was to be born among us be called by these names if he were not divine?
The New Testament also confirms that Jesus is “Deity in the flesh.” John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word (Gr., logos) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” then in verse 14 says “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Our Jehovah’s Witness friends claim that the passage should be translated, “The word was a god” not, “The word was God.” But the Greek does not easily allow this translation. The literal Greek reads, “God was the Word” as if to emphasize the absoluteness of that statement. The Witnesses, by the way, believe that Jesus was not eternal, but was a created b being. They believe He was Michael the archangel spoken of in the Old Testament (Dan. 20:21, for example). This makes the vision of Revelation 12 particularly difficult to understand, for the vision is one of the birth of the Messiah. If Jesus was Michael, then Jesus would be fighting with Satan over His own birth. More significant than that, though, is the argument made by the writer of the Hebrew epistle in the first chapter. In those verses, he compares what is said to angels with what is said to the Messiah. The difference is crucial. In Heb. 1:4–6 the question is asked, “to which of the angels did He ever say…?” The question is rhetorical. That is, it is self-answering (like answering the question, “Do you like pizza?” with “Is the Pope Catholic?”). The point is: God did not say to ANY of the angels (Michael included), “You are My Son.” Then in verses 7–8 we are shown that the angels are ministers to God, but of the Son He says, “Thy throne O God, is forever…” His argument reaches a conclusion in chapter 2:1–3. The law of Moses was spoken through and ordained by angels, but the gospel of Christ was spoken through and ordained by Christ. If Jesus was anything less than
divine, these verses would be powerless, and the argument for the superiority of the gospel would be rendered useless.
By Doug Focht
