There are many Scriptures (and other reasons) that prove that Jesus was fully God. Not just the Son of God (which sometimes merely referred to kings) but truly God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity. This list is only a sample of all the Biblical evidence out there but I believe these are some of the best.
For the sake of brevity, I do not post all the content of the Bible passages but I highly recommend you read them along with the blog. For further reading please see Greg Lanier’s “Is Jesus Truly God?” and Michael F. Bird’s “How God became Jesus.”
#1 John 1:1-14
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (v.1-2)
The Word, of course, speaks of Jesus and this passage is a ringing endorsement for his divinity. Some, like the JW’s, manipulate the Greek text to say “The Word was a god,” thus diminishing Christ to some type of creature. However, for those who know Greek (I am not one) the context obviously translates it as “The Word was God.” (See Lanier’s book, p. 111-112 and 123-124 for an in-depth explanation.)
We see in verse 3 that Jesus could not possibly be a creature according to this passage for “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (v.3). So we see he is above the creator/creature divide. And in verse 14 we acknowledge the equally important truth that Jesus became fully human. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
#2 Philippians 2:6-11
“…Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (v.5-7)
What a stunning declaration of Jesus’ full deity – “in very nature God.” This statement is thought to go back even earlier than Paul’s writing; to the very earliest times of the church. The passage then talks about Christ “emptying” himself to become human; some say he emptied himself of his divinity but this does not fit the context. Jesus was always God and then became a human as well – fully God and fully man all at once. It was not His Divine nature He emptied Himself of but rather His Divine rights; not His Divine attributes but rather His Divine privileges.
Verses 9-11 are equally amazing as they quote a passage from Isaiah 45:23 that referred clearly to Yahweh (Jehovah). But here, Paul applies it directly to Jesus – he is saying Yahweh and Jesus are the same triune God.
#3 Mark 14:61-64 (Daniel 7:13-14)
“Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” (v.61-62)
In answering the high priest, Jesus borrows from the prophet Daniel’s vision in the Old Testament. Daniel speaks of “one like a son of man” and, in context, we see this is a divine being given divine rights. Here, Jesus applies it to himself! We can further see the weight of his declaration by the response of the high priest – he rends his clothes, accuses him of blasphemy and condemns him to death.
#4 Colossians 1:15-20
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation… For by him all things were created… And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…” (v.15,16a,17,19)
This passage, like the Philippians one, may also go back to a much earlier time in the church. “Firstborn of all creation” refers to Christ’s pre-eminence in rank not the idea that he was ever created in time; we see this in the next verse when we read that all things were created by Christ. See also Colossians 2:9.
#5 Hebrews 1:1-9
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…” (v.3)
The English word, imprint, is from the Greek, “charakter.” Again, we see that Christ created all things and upholds all things; something which only God could do. Its interesting to note that (like some of our other passages) we see here a pattern. First Jesus 1) existed as God before time 2) then he humbled himself to redeem humanity while retaining deity and 3) was later exalted again to the right hand of the Father again. Jesus did not become “adopted” by God as a son after his resurrection, he always was God the Son and always will be.
In verses 9 and 10, the writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 45:6-7, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” However, the author says that Yahweh was actually talking about the Son! “But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.”
#6 John 12:39-41 (Isaiah 6:1-10)
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD (Yahweh) of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)
In Isaiah 6 we get a glimpse into the throne room of God where the angelic seraphim’s praise God by declaring the above statement about Yahweh. Later, Isaiah is told about how difficult it will be to minister to his people.
When we jump ahead centuries later, we see John the Apostle quoting this passage about hardships - but this time about Jesus Christ. Then to drop a proverbial deity bomb, John says, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” (John 12:41). In context we realize John is saying that the glory Isaiah saw in the throne room was that of Jesus the Son.
#7 John 10:30-33
“I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
Here again we see religious leaders of the day clearly understanding what Jesus was saying and reacting accordingly. The first verse though, “I and my Father are one,” is really indicative of a beautiful theme in the Gospels of Jesus declaring his unique relationship to his Father (Mark 14:36, John 10:38) and vice versa (Luke 3:22, Mark 9:7). In fact, only Jesus uses the term “My Father” in the New Testament – everyone else says “Our Father.”
John 3:16 as well as 4 other references in John refer to Jesus as the “monogenes” of God the Father. The translation of this term is debated but can mean “only”, “only begotten” or “unique”. Truly whatever relationship Jesus has with his Father is beyond any other type of relationship that humanity has with God.
This special Father/Son relationship, as well as the relationship of the Holy Spirit (thus the Trinity) can be found in Luke 10:21-22 – a passage that even the most critical of secular scholar’s claim belongs to Jesus.
#8 John 8:56-59
“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad… Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (v. 56, 58)
This is just one of the instances when Jesus says “ego imi” or “I am” without a predicate following it. This connects to Exodus 3:14, “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” But Yahweh makes the “I am” statement elsewhere in the OT as well (Deuteronomy 32:9, Isaiah 41:14 and 43:10 etc.).
By repeating this statement, Jesus is not just matching himself to Yahweh; he is also reinforcing the monotheism of the OT while strongly implying that God is more than just one Person (i.e. the Trinity).
#9 Luke 24:51-53
“While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.”
The Greek word for “worship” is proskynein. In addition to worship of God, it can also mean a servant bowing down to his master (see Matthew 18:26) so we have to look carefully to see which one it means in context. In this example in Luke (one of the earliest Gospels written), we see that Jesus ascends to Heaven and then the disciples began to proskynien – clearly, they are not bowing down to a master because the Master has already left. This is indeed worship of God.
Other examples of Jesus being worshiped as Yahweh include Revelation 5:13-14 and Matthew 28:9 and 17. We must also note that when this type of worship was offered to an Angel (Rev 19:10, 22:8-9) and to a man (Acts 10:25-26) both beings refused it as it was only meant for Yahweh. Jesus had no issue with being worshiped this way.
#10 John 20:27-28
Then he (Jesus) said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Here Thomas confesses That Jesus is Lord and God. The Greek, theos, we admit can sometimes be used to refer to a god, not the God. However, as we look at the context of the Gospel of John as well as the early Christian worship of Jesus as Yahweh, we see clearly what Thomas meant.
Two other instances (there are more) of Jesus being called theos come to us in Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1. The former declares that we are, “…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Conclusion
There are critics who claim that Jesus was not God at all but later became exalted to a god-like figure with the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). As we have seen though, the Old and New Testaments together declare the full divinity of Christ almost immediately after his time on earth. There was no time for a legendary status to grow; those who knew Jesus personally believed he was God and worshipped him as such from the beginning (Luke 24:52). I’ll close with a couple of quotes from the scholars mentioned at the beginning:
“In other words, (*the creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople) of the fourth century are not purely politically driven and radically innovative statements of faith. They are, instead, contextualized clarification of New Testament teaching.” Michael F. Bird
“…the concepts that later coalesce in the creeds are right there in the pages of Scripture from the outset of the Christian Church.” Greg Lanier
