A Quick Overview of Jesus’ Own Words
They say there are SEVEN STAGES of GRIEF. I spent a lot of time in DENIAL, ANGER, and BARGAINING. I wanted to know. I wanted information about who Jesus is, but when confronted with that knowledge, I did a lot of bargaining and testing.
Who is Jesus?
Where’d you get that Information?
I knew from my college courses that primary sources are preferred over secondary sources. I needed to go right to the earliest recorded documents.
— Eyewitnesses
— Direct Verbal Statements
— Supressed Information
I believe and believed that history is a form of absolute truth. It is set in stone. We cannot change it. We can destroy the information, hide the information, or misinterpret it, but Truth exists.
We can never achieve absolute Truth, but we can live hopefully by a system of calculated probabilities.
Agnes Meyer Driscoll
What Jesus said about Himself
For this information, the only recorded statements come from the 4 main gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I will address the gnostic gospels, which I have read, separately (here).
These documents are considered published documents from eyewitnesses (Matthew, Mark, John) and an investigator (Luke)
Jesus Claims Deity
References to the Names of God
Jesus refers to Himself repeatedly as the Son of Man. The Jewish leadership understood what Son of Man implied, so when in Matt 26:63-65, Jesus referenced Daniel 7, the priest tore his robe, claiming Jesus blasphemed.
Jesus claimed attributes of God. Jesus told His disciples, “many will come in my name, saying ‘I am the Christ.'” Matt 24:5 Others called Him the Son of God, Messiah, and King of the Jews. Jesus never rebuked them.
- Lord of the Sabbath. Matthew 12:5-8. What is the Sabbath?
- The Christ/ Messiah Matt 16:20, Matt 24:5, Luke 24:44-49, John 4:25-26
- The Son of Man Matt 26:63-65, Luke 9:20-22, John 3:11-15, Daniel 7
- Baptize in name Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Matt 28:18
Names of God
Times when others identified Jesus as God.
- Son of God Matt 14:33, 16:16-17
- God Spoke from Heaven Matt 17:5, Luke 3:22
- Demons Called Him Son of God Luke 4:34-35,41
Claims to have come from heaven and lived before Moses and the World
One of my favorite passes of scripture is from John 8:48-59. Here Jesus claims to have lived before Abraham was born. Not only that but the way He says it, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
This “I am” statement literally is the Greek form of YHWH (I am that I am), ego eimi, “I am, I am.” Again the Jews response is telling. The Jews picked up stones to kill him for blasphemy.
Jesus says in John 6:38 that He came down from heaven. Also, in John 17:5, He asks for glory with the father like they had before the world existed. Crazy!!
Claims equal powers to God the father
In John 10:24-30, Jesus says, “I give them eternal life..” then says, “I and the Father are one.” This is a claim of equality with God. Again the Jews picked up stones. BLASPHEMY!!
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.”
They understood, but many today are just as deaf as the Pharisees. Some humans might say, ‘God is in me,’ but in John 14:8-10, Jesus says, “I am in the Father.” What human could ever say ‘I am in God’?
Jesus Displays Deity
Healing and Sin
There are some things Jews understood; only God can forgive sin. In Matthew 9:2-8, Jesus says that He can forgive sin, and to demonstrate the truth of this statement, heals a man as proof.
The Jews understood, “who can forgive sins but God alone?” Luke 5:20-26. So is Jesus or the writer lying, or is Jesus something more? Jesus then says in Matt 26:27-28 that His death (His blood) is for the forgiveness of sin.
Reads Thoughts and knows detailed personal information
Jesus repeatedly ascertains people’s thoughts. Maybe he was just good at reading a room, but this is another piece of evidence. Luke 11:37-39, Luke 5:22. Or consider the Samaritan woman by the well in John 4:16-18.
Jesus knew she had five husbands and currently lived with a man, not her husband.
Raised the Dead and the Dead hear His voice
In Luke 7:11-16, Jesus raises a mother’s son from death. Then in John 5:28-29, Jesus says those in tombs will hear His voice and will “come out” – they will be resurrected.
To leave no confusion in John 6:40, Jesus says He is the one who will raise the dead on the last day. Then Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11:38-44 after saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live.”
- Matt 4:1-11
- Matt 4:14-17
- Matt 13:14-23
- Matt 27:11,22
- Luke 2:49
- Luke 4:17-21
- Luke 18:18-19
- Luke 19:37-40
- Luke 20:41-44
- John 12:28-30
- John 12:44-50
- John 17:16-21
- John 20:28-31
What those closest to Jesus said about Him
Every person who seeks God wants to know who is God? Here is a man, Jesus, whose followers claim He is full Deity – not just being a god, but all the fullness of Deity. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form Col 2:9
This statement is from Paul, who persecuted the church and wanted to kill Christians. Remember, the writer, Paul, was Jewish. He persecuted Christian followers of Jesus. Paul believed in one God. For Paul to state, Jesus is God would be to anathema to the Shema and everything he believed if it were not true. Hear oh Israel. The Lord is our God; the Lord is one! Deut 6:4
Paul would not concern himself with a lesser deity to claim all fullness dwells in Him; that would be blasphemous idolatry. He did not believe that each individual had some god consciousness or was some manifestation of God. He was concerned about the true God. Col 1:15-19 or John 1:1-14
The idea that God dwelt in Jesus and so too dwells in every one of us and therefore makes all of us the manifestation of true God is a form of pantheism. We are looking for the first being, the creator.
The being who has always been. We know that is not us to claim somehow man can become like God is the lie we all strive to believe. We all wish to be our own determiner of our fate and our lives.
So when we ask, is Jesus God? We want to know not whether God dwells in Him, which could happen to any man, but is Jesus the Incarnate God, the First being who took on human flesh and speaks as God.
For Jesus’s followers, the answer is Yes – Jesus is God incarnate. Some want to argue that His followers, not Jesus, made Him into God that Jesus never claimed Deity for Himself. As you already read Jesus’ words, judge for yourself.
A great moral teacher
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.
That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.
You must make your choice.
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . .
Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
Liar, Lunatic, or Truth
Many people call Jesus a liar. My solution was to deny and ignore the information, put off the discovery. I was in grief. I was still a good person; God would understand. Right?
The Truth requires recognition, but it is not like math or science. This Truth, the truth of Jesus, requires moral obedience, it requires our heart and mind, but we are not willing to cede control.
Informational Reliability – Can I trust the eyewitnesses?
Still struggling about whether you can trust Jesus’ words or wondering if maybe the church suppressed information. Check out these resources.
- How was the bible transmitted through the centuries?
- Was the bible translated acurately?
- Were there any discarded or missing books from the bible?
- Did the writers of the new testament tell the truth?
Next Steps
There are two components of Truth knowledge and belief, the mind and the heart, what the Greeks called the nous and vous. Do you need a savior? Do you need forgiveness of sins? We might mentally believe, but does your heart?
- How do I accept Jesus?
- What is sin? Why can’t I just be a good person?
- Need more information about Jesus? Check out main Jesus page
- Need more information about Christianity? Check out main Christian page
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- Why is that significant?
- If you agree, the next steps.
- If you disagree, please consider reading.