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God from Heaven

3 min read
3 minutes to read

 

John’s gospel presents Jesus as God more than any of the other three Gospels.  Being God, makes Jesus incomparable to any human who ever lived.

While born a human, Jesus did not cease to be God, He just limited Himself while on earth to live as a human and relied totally on God the Father.

Jesus as the Word

John 1:1-14  (NIV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind….”

This can be a challenging concept but Jesus was and is the Word in human form and the Word is Jesus expressed in written form. We rely on the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word to speak to our hearts and this is what brings the Word of God alive and makes it life-changing.

Jesus, a member of the Trinity

The scriptures present a concept we call the Trinity, which is a word describing God as three persons in one: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Elohim, the Hebrew word for God found in the first verse of scripture is a plural Hebrew word indicating the plurality of God. The Trinity is very evident at the Baptism of Jesus where the Father speaks over His beloved Son and the Holy Spirit descends on Him like a dove. (Matthew 3:13-17 /  John 1:32-34)

God the Son came to earth, putting aside his divinity and lived in human form. Philippians 2:6-7 As a human with human limitations, Jesus relied totally on God to lead and guide Him, but He did not cease to be God.

Jews understood Jesus claimed to be God

One of the key accusations the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus made against him was, that the terms he used about himself, such as “Son of Man”, meant that he claimed to be God. Either He was crazy or a liar or He spoke the truth, but there can be no doubt that he made this claim because that is one of the reasons they called for His death.

The I AM of the burning bush

Moses in the Old Testament meets God at the burning bush and asks His name.  God replied with that unique “I AM” statement (Exodus 3:1-17) speaking of His eternal self-existence. Jesus presented himself as the I AM of the burning bush. In John 8:59 Jesus said “before Abraham was, I am” which meant that he claimed to be God and the Jewish leaders wanted to stone Him for blasphemy.

Jesus proved He was God

John records the miracles Jesus performed that proved He was who He said he was:

  1. Jesus fed 5000+ people with bread and thus proved He was the bread of life. John 6:1-13
  2. Jesus gave sight to the blind and proved He was light. John 9:1-12
  3. Jesus walked through the locked door. John 20:19.
  4. Jesus as the Good Shepherd reached out to a man who no one had helped for 38yrs. John 5:1-14
  5. When the nobleman believed Jesus, he went on his way, he found the truth that his son was alive.  John 4:50
  6. Jesus proved He was the grapevine by changing water into wine in Cana. John 2:1-11
  7. Jesus raised Lazarus proving he was the resurrection.  John 11:38-44

Any teaching that takes away from Jesus being God, and considers Him to be a mere human or created or something else, does not have the true Jesus.  They have a different gospel.

Next steps

We understand Jesus to be the Co-creator, all-powerful and self-existent God who reached down in love to us. Once you know Jesus as not only human but as God, then it will help you trust Him more.  Start to think about what these  7  I Am statements say about Jesus and how that relates to you.