Is Yeshua / Jesus Truly GOD?

 I was recently challenged on whether Jesus Christ is truly God, and was told that there is no Scriptural proof of this. After all, the Bible tells us multiple times that there is one God, beginning in Deut. 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!"

1 Tim. 2:5 adds, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." And 1 Cor. 8:6 tells us, "Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live."

Is this the end of the matter? Is Yeshua/Jesus truly God, or is only the Father truly God? Let's dig into this and see what God's Word reveals to be the whole picture.

Let's turn over to John 1:1-3, where we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."

So here we have a Being described as the Word, who was in the very beginning with God, who made all things with God, and who Himself was God. Who is this Word?

Let's drop down a few verses to John 1:14, which tells us, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Who is the only begotten Son of the Father? Yeshua/Jesus! John 1:18; 3:16, 18; and 1 John 4:9 all tell us this. Furthermore, Rev. 19:13 describes Jesus Christ at His return this way: "He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God."

So John 1:1 is telling us this: "In the beginning was Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was with God, and Jesus Christ was God." How can this be? How could the Father and the Son both be God, and yet there be only one God? Let's hold on to this question for now, and continue.

In John 20:28, Jesus' disciple Thomas addressed Him, "My Lord and my God!" There's no record of Jesus correcting Thomas for this, but only for being slow to believe in His resurrection (John 20:29).

1 Tim. 3:16 tells us, "God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory." Who's it talking about? Obviously Jesus Christ, Whom it also calls God!

We also find these words from God the Father in Heb. 1:8, "But to the Son He says: 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.'" Thus, God the Father Himself proclaimed His Son to be God!

If this isn't sufficient, we also find other indications.

For starters, only God is worthy of worship. We find this in Ex. 20:2-3, where God said to Israel, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me."

No man, no church, not even any angel, is worthy of worship. Nothing living or not living can be placed on par with God.

The Apostle John, overwhelmed by being in the presence of a holy angel, made this mistake in Rev. 19:10 and was quickly corrected: "And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!'"

The Apostle Paul, in Col. 2:18, listed worship of angels among the heresies being taught by false teachers.

Finally, in Acts 10:25-26, the Roman centurion Cornelius fell down at Peter's feet to worship him, "but Peter lifted him up, saying, 'Stand up; I myself am also a man.'"

Yet many times we see Yeshua/Jesus being worshiped, without any correction being given. In Mat. 8:2, a leper worshiped Him; in Mat. 9:18, a ruler worshiped Him; in Mat. 14:33 and John 9:38, His disciples worshiped Him; in Mat. 15:25, a woman whose daughter was demon-possessed came and worshiped Him; and in Mat. 28:9 & 17, as well as Luke 24:52, His disciples worshiped Him after His resurrection.

If Jesus Christ is worthy of worship, and only God is worthy of worship, then obviously Jesus Christ is God. No wonder John 5:23 tells us, "that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."

The Father and the Son are described in other similar ways, also. Throughout the Old Testament, God is described as our Rock.

Here's an example from a song written by Moses, "For I proclaim the name of the LORD: ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He" (Deut. 32:3-4). Several more times in his song, Moses again called God the Rock. Here's another example: "Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you" (Deut. 32:18).

In Psa. 18:31, David asked, "For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?" Again, in v. 46, he said, "The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted." Throughout the Psalms, David called God his Rock, even the Rock of his salvation.

Moses and David weren't alone in this. The prophet Habakkuk wrote, "Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction" (Hab. 1:12).

The prophet Isaiah, too, wrote, "The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel" (Isa. 8:14).

So we can see throughout the Old Testament that the LORD God is the Rock of our salvation.

What do we find in the New Testament? Let's turn over to 1 Cor. 10:1-4: "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ."

If God is the Rock, and Christ is the Rock, then Christ is also God.

In 1 Pet. 2:6-8, we also learn that Jesus Christ is the "stone of stumbling and rock of offense" spoken of in Isa. 8:14. We read, "Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.' Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,' and 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.' They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed."

Jesus Himself is the cornerstone, as He told us in Mat. 21:42, Mark 12:10, and Luke 20:17. That makes Him also, as we just read, the stone of stumbling and rock of offense, yet we also read in Isaiah that God Himself is the stone of stumbling and rock of offense. Again, that can only mean that Jesus is God.

Here's the clincher. Let's turn to Isa. 44:6, 8: “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God. Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’”

There is no other Rock but God; Jesus is the Rock; therefore, Jesus is God. But there's another fascinating thing here. First, God proclaims, "I am the First and I am the Last." Where else do we find this in Scripture? We find it several times in the Book of Revelation, but there's one verse in particular I'd like to start with.

Let's turn to Rev. 1:8: "'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,' says the Lord, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'" A few verses later, in v. 17, John wrote that, in his vision, he saw Yeshua/Jesus Himself: "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, 'Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.'"

There we have it. Yeshua/Jesus is the First and the Last; the Rock of our salvation; who lives, and was dead; the Almighty.

In fact, not only is Yeshua/Jesus the Rock of our salvation; His name means salvation! The Greek name Iesous (Strong's # G2424), from which we get the name Jesus, means, "Jehovah is salvation," or "Jehovah is help." Iesous, in turn, is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua or Yehoshua. Yeshua (Strong's # H3442) means "salvation"; Yehoshua (Strong's # H3091) means "Jehovah is salvation."

What, then, are we to make of the verses that tell us there's only one God? If God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are both God, then how can there be only one?

Firstly, it's because the Father is supreme. Everything that's done by the Father or the Son is according to the will of the Father. Yeshua/Jesus is in no way separated from or independent of His Father. He plainly said, "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).

Instead, Yeshua's power comes from His Father: "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself" (John 5:26). He also added, "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 5:30). Jesus did not even come in His own name, but in the Father's name (John 5:43).

Secondly, the Father and the Son are of one mind and one spirit. Jesus prayed to the Father for His people in John 17:21, "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us." He told the Jews, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30). Likewise, the Holy Spirit, as we saw in a previous post, is both the Spirit of God sent from the Father (Acts 2:33) and also the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). They are of one Spirit.

As such, when His disciple Philip asked to see the Father, "Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, "Show us the Father"? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves'" (John 14:9).

Just a human father may have a son who is a human being like himself, so God the Father has a Son who is also God. Just as a human father passes on the family name to his son, so God the Father shares His name with His Son. Just as a human father and his son are never equals, but the son always owes honor to his father (Ex. 20:12), so Jesus Christ always owes honor to His Father. Just as a human son inherits many of his physical traits from his father, so Jesus Christ, being a spirit being rather than a physical one, shares the same Spirit as His Father.

Even beyond this human analogy, Yeshua/Jesus is one with His Father. He has received all His power from the Father. Everything He does is according to the Father's will. Together with the Father, He created everything that exists. The Father and the Son are of one mind and one spirit, wholly unified in purpose and action. This is how the Father and the Son can both be God, and yet there is only one God.

Another interesting question is raised by this: if Jesus Christ is God, if He was the Rock of Israel, if He created everything that exists, then was He the God of the Old Testament? Is He the One who plagued Egypt and spoke to Moses? Or was that the Father? Is there any way of knowing? That's a topic for another time!