Is Jesus God?
The idea that Jesus is divine isn’t something Christians invented centuries later. It’s something that runs straight through the heart of the New Testament from the Gospels to the letters of Paul to the final words in Revelation. What I want to do here is walk through some of the clearest most powerful places where the Bible shows us that Jesus is not just a good teacher or a prophet but God in human flesh.
John 1
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1 1 14)
Here Jesus (the Word) isn’t just someone sent by God. He was with God and was God from the very beginning. Not only that but He’s described as the one through whom everything was created. John 1 14 then makes it unmistakably clear that this eternal divine Word took on flesh and walked among us. This is not poetic language or metaphor. It’s a straightforward claim Jesus is God entering into human history.
Thomas Calls Him “My Lord and My God” John 20
After Jesus rises from the dead He appears to His disciple Thomas who had been doubting. When Thomas sees the risen Christ he doesn’t hold back:
“My Lord and my God!” (John 20 28)
That’s a direct declaration of Jesus’ divinity and what’s striking is that Jesus accepts it. He doesn’t correct Thomas or redirect the praise to the Father. Instead He blesses those who will later believe without seeing. This isn’t a mistake or exaggeration from Thomas. It’s a truth Jesus affirms.
Colossians 2 9
The Apostle Paul writes something breathtakingly clear about who Jesus really is
“In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” (Colossians 2 9)
Notice the word fullness. Not a part of God not just a representative of God but the entire fullness of the divine nature. Paul is saying that everything that makes God God is fully present in Jesus even in His human body. This leaves no room for seeing Jesus as just a spiritual teacher or messenger.
Colossians 1
Earlier in the same letter Paul says this about Jesus
“By Him all things were created… and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1 16–17)
Jesus isn’t part of creation. He’s the Creator. Every atom every galaxy every living soul came into existence through Him. That alone is something Scripture reserves for God alone (see Isaiah 44 24). If Jesus is the one holding the universe together then He is no mere man.
The Father Calls the Son “God” Hebrews 1
The writer of Hebrews opens his letter by contrasting Jesus with prophets and angels. Then he drops this line
“But about the Son He says ‘Your throne O God is forever and ever.’” (Hebrews 1 8)
This is God the Father speaking and He calls the Son “God.” That’s not a title handed out lightly. Hebrews goes on to say Jesus is the “exact representation” of God’s nature (Hebrews 1 3) reinforcing the idea that Jesus fully shares in the divine essence.
Paul Refers to Jesus as “Our Great God” Titus 2 13
Another powerful verse often overlooked
“…we wait for the blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2 13)
In the original Greek both “God” and “Savior” refer to one person Jesus. This isn’t just poetic language. Paul is being precise. He calls Jesus our great God. There’s no ambiguity.
Jesus Existed in the Form of God
Paul again reflects on Jesus’ divine nature and humility
“Though He was in the form of God He did not consider equality with God something to cling to but emptied Himself…” (Philippians 2 6–7)
Jesus already had equality with God but chose to humble Himself and take on the form of a servant. The passage ends by saying that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is a reference to Isaiah 45 where God says that every knee will bow to Him alone. Paul applies this to Jesus.
Jesus Takes the Divine Titles Revelation
In Revelation Jesus says
“I am the Alpha and the Omega the First and the Last the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22 13)
These are titles used for God Himself in the Old Testament (see Isaiah 44 6). Yet Jesus claims them for Himself. He even says “I died and behold I am alive forevermore” linking His death and resurrection directly with these divine titles (Revelation 1 17–18). No one else in Scripture is spoken of like this.
Isaiah 44 6
One of the most direct and forceful statements about God’s nature in the Old Testament comes from Isaiah 44 6 It is easy to miss the weight of it if you are reading quickly but if we slow down and think carefully about what is being said here the implications are huge especially when we compare it to what Jesus says about Himself in the New Testament.
Here is the verse:
“This is what the LORD says Israel’s King and Redeemer the LORD Almighty I am the first and I am the last apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44 6)
That is an absolutely clear cut statement from the mouth of God He is identifying Himself as the only God and He anchors that claim with a title the first and the last.
This is not poetry for its own sake God is revealing something about His eternal nature He has no beginning and no end He was before all things and He will still be after everything else fades And most importantly there is no other No second God No partner No lesser deity
This is pure monotheism.
Now here is where things get interesting.
Jesus Takes the Same Title
Fast forward to the book of Revelation Jesus appears in a vision to the apostle John and this is how He introduces Himself.
“Do not be afraid I am the First and the Last I am the Living One I was dead and now look I am alive forever and ever” (Revelation 1 17–18)
Again later in Revelation Jesus says:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega the First and the Last the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22 13)
If you have been paying attention you will recognize those words. They are straight out of Isaiah And here is the issue those titles belong to God alone That is not just a traditional phrase or figure of speech According to Isaiah the First and the Last is a name God uses to distinguish Himself from every other being in existence.
So if Jesus is using that name for Himself we are left with two options:
1 He is either committing blasphemy by taking God’s unique identity for Himself
2 Or He really is who Isaiah was talking about
Jesus and the “I AM” Statement in John 8 58
A Direct Claim to Divinity with Deep Old Testament Roots
When Jesus stood before a hostile crowd and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), He wasn’t just making a bold theological claim He was invoking the divine name of God itself. This statement sent shockwaves through His listeners, and their immediate reaction was to pick up stones to kill Him. That kind of violent response didn’t come from a misunderstanding. They knew exactly what He was claiming and so should we.
To understand the weight of Jesus’ words, we have to go back to the burning bush in Exodus 3. Here, Moses asks God for His name, and God replies, “I AM WHO I AM,” and tells Moses to say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). In Hebrew, the phrase is “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh,” and it carries the meaning of timeless self-existence. God is not defined by anything outside Himself. He is the uncaused, eternal One.
Now fast forward to Jesus’ day. He doesn’t say, “I was before Abraham,” which would have made grammatical sense. Instead, He deliberately says, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” using the Greek phrase ego eimi, which means “I am” in a present continuous sense. There’s no predicate here no object just existence, pure and simple. That phrasing doesn’t sound normal because it’s not. It’s intentionally divine.
This phrase, ego eimi, appears in several key moments in the Gospel of John, and each time it is carefully placed. For instance, when Jesus walks on the water in John 6:20, He tells the disciples, “It is I; don’t be afraid,” but in the Greek, it’s again ego eimi “I am.” And when He is arrested in the garden in John 18, the soldiers fall backward when Jesus says, “I am he.” Once again, the phrase is ego eimi.
These are not throwaway lines. Jesus is intentionally echoing the language God used to reveal Himself to Moses and to Israel. For first-century Jews steeped in Scripture, this was unmistakable. Jesus was not just saying He existed before Abraham He was saying He is the eternal One who always existed, the same “I AM” who spoke to Moses at the bush.
Scholars who take Scripture seriously have pointed out that Jesus’ use of “I AM” without a predicate is not a coincidence. It’s rare and purposeful. In standard Greek grammar, this kind of sentence construction doesn’t happen unless you’re making a statement about being itself about identity at the most essential level. New Testament scholar Daniel Wallace has observed that the way Jesus uses ego eimi is unique and intentional a claim not just to preexistence, but to divine identity.
The crowd’s response in John 8 confirms this. They didn’t argue with Jesus about the grammar or ask Him what He meant. They knew full well that He was applying the sacred name of God to Himself and according to the law, that was blasphemy punishable by death if He was wrong. But Jesus doesn’t back down. In fact, in the context of John’s Gospel, this moment is part of a larger pattern where Jesus reveals who He is in ever-increasing clarity, until this final declaration leaves no more room for ambiguity.
When Jesus says “I AM,” He’s not just giving us a theological riddle to solve. He’s identifying Himself with the God of Israel the unchanging, ever-present Lord who exists outside of time and creation. It’s one of the most direct declarations of His deity, and it’s why this single sentence in John 8:58 has remained one of the most powerful and controversial things He ever said.
The Son (Jesus) In The Old Testament
When we read the Old Testament with an eye toward the New, we begin to notice a consistent thread pointing toward someone to come someone unique, set apart, and unlike any other. This "someone" is later revealed in the New Testament to be Jesus, the Son of God, and when we revisit the Hebrew Scriptures through that lens, the evidence becomes not only fascinating but deeply compelling.
Take Genesis 3:15, often called the "first gospel," where God speaks of a coming seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. This is widely seen as a veiled reference to Christ’s victory over Satan. In Psalm 2, God speaks of a Son who is not only set on Zion as King but is to be honored by the nations a statement echoed in the New Testament when Jesus is declared the Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
Isaiah 7:14 predicts that a virgin will bear a son named Immanuel, meaning “God with us,” and Isaiah 9:6 describes this same child as “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father,” titles that go far beyond any earthly ruler. Then we come to Isaiah 53, where we meet the suffering servant who is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities language that perfectly matches the crucifixion account and is heavily quoted by early Christians.
Daniel 7 describes a mysterious “Son of Man” figure coming on the clouds of heaven, receiving glory and eternal authority exactly how Jesus described Himself repeatedly in the Gospels.
Micah 5:2 identifies Bethlehem as the birthplace of one “whose origins are from of old, from ancient times,” which the Gospel writers directly connect to Jesus' birth.
Zechariah 12:10 speaks of God being pierced and mourned for as an only son, a remarkable image that aligns closely with the crucifixion.
Hosea 11:1 speaks of God calling His son out of Egypt, which Matthew later applies to Jesus’ early life. Beyond these prophecies, the Old Testament also contains multiple appearances of “the Angel of the Lord,” who speaks as God, receives worship, and forgives sins leading many scholars to identify these moments as pre-incarnate appearances of Christ, known as Christophanies.
Even outside the biblical text, ancient Jewish writings like the Dead Sea Scrolls reflect expectations of a divine Messiah, sometimes described as the “Son of God,” long before Jesus arrived in history. Altogether, the case for Jesus appearing throughout the Old Testament isn’t based on wishful thinking or forcing connections it’s grounded in the consistent testimony of Scripture and a pattern of divine revelation that finds its fulfillment in Christ.
Across the New Testament we don’t just find vague hints or symbolic titles. We find bold direct affirmations. Jesus is called God. He is worshiped. He creates and sustains the universe. He forgives sin. He shares the divine throne. And every knee will bow before Him.
This is not something later Christians added. It’s something Jesus’ earliest followers believed taught and were willing to die for. The identity of Jesus as God is not a side issue. It’s the center of everything.