People from all over the world have tried to settle this issue since the dawn of Christianity. This is one of the most fundamental doctrinal debates that still rages on, and probably will never be settled until Jesus Christ Himself would come and resolve this matter. Or does He need to? Everything we need to know about the nature of Christ Jesus can be found in the Holy Scriptures. Today, let's read what the Bible has to say about this issue, is Jesus Christ God or not?
The Unchanging Truth
In the time of the Old Testament, God had always presented Himself to be just one being. In fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, God Himself stated "Now, see that I, and only I, am God! There is no other God!" (Deu. 32:39 Easy to Read Version). The monotheistic view is very much prevalent, that prophets and key figures from the Old Testament have repeated it over and over again, There is only ONE GOD. The Old Testament was specific about who is the God worshiped by the Israelite community of old. In the last book in the Old Testament, Prophet Malachi said "Don't you know that we all have God as our Father? Didn't the one God create each of us?" (Malachi 2:10 Contemporary English Version). It is therefore clear that during that time, before the arrival of Jesus Christ, only THE FATHER was held as God. Also, God explicitly said "understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me" (Isaiah 43:10 A.S.V.)
As Jesus Presented Himself
During His 3 year ministry, Jesus mentioned this to His disciples, "If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples" (John 8:31 Good News Bible). What exactly did Jesus say about Himself about His nature?
The number one fact that we should never ignore is that Jesus Christ Himself never claimed to be God. Even the most used verse in the New Testament about Jesus claiming to be God is used, John 10:30, can not be used to successfully argue for the case of Jesus being God. To clarify, the verse states "I and my Father are one." (King James Version). To understand why Jesus said this, one only needs to read the preceding verses. John 10:28-29 notes "I give my sheep eternal life. They will never die, and no one can take them out of my hand. My Father is the one who gave them to me, and he is greater than all. No one can steal my sheep out of his hand"(ERV). First, notice that Jesus refers to The Father as completely different entity from Himself. They are not the same. They are not even on the same level, as The Father has "given" Jesus the sheep, meaning he is lower than The Father. Next, Jesus was talking about taking care of the sheep. Their oneness is in reference to the preservation of the sheep. To support this, in another version of the bible, the Contemporary English Version, writes the verse "and I am one with the Father". Jesus was not talking about being equal with the Father in this instance.
"The Father is Greater than I"
Perhaps, if a person did believe in Jesus' words, then they must believe Him when He said "the Father is greater than I am". This is taken from John 14:28. This came from Jesus Himself. God will never claim such, as He is the Ultimate, Supreme Being in the Universe. Another way to look at it is to see that Jesus Christ answers to a higher authority than Himself. In John 5:30, Jesus said "I cannot do anything on my own. The Father sent me, and he is the one who told me how to judge. I judge with fairness, because I obey him, and I don't just try to please myself" (C.E.V.) The Father is omnipotent and has intrinsic powers and authority, never needing anyone's permission or approval, clearly not the case for Jesus. Also bear in mind that Jesus was exalted by God to be Ruler and Savior (Acts 5:31) God bestowed everything on Him (Philippians 2: 9-11) making every one in Heaven, Earth and under the Earth kneel before Him for the glory of God.
In another verse Jesus proved that the only God is The Father. In John 17:1-3, Jesus has done the following " After Jesus said these things, he looked toward heaven and prayed, "Father, the time has come. Give glory to your Son so that the Son can give glory to you.You gave the Son power over all people so that he could give eternal life to all those you have given to him. And this is eternal life: that people can know you, the only true God, and that they can know Jesus Christ, the one you sent." Notice that Jesus prayed to the God in Heaven, and on top of that, specifically mentioned that The Father is the One True God. God will not pray to anyone else, thus making it clear that Jesus is not God.
To further show that The Father is far greater than Jesus, Jesus further asserts that He does not know the hour nor the day of his return, only the Father knows (Matthew 24:36). The Father's omniscience is described as "He knows everything" (1 John 3:20). In a prophetic way, 1st Corinthians 15:24-28 that when Jesus will rule over every on Heaven and Earth, He will then surrender to God.
The Truth Has Not Changed Even When Jesus Left
Some have argued that when Jesus ascended to Heaven, He automatically "got back" to His nature as God. No such thing is written in the Bible. In fact, 1st Corinthian 8:6, written after Jesus have already risen to heaven says: "yet for us there is one God, the Father" (E.S.V.) Furthermore, 1st Timothy 2:5 explicitly says of Jesus: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (E.S.V.)"
All this proves that Jesus is not God. He has never claimed it and never will.
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