THE GODHEAD PT. 7: The Deity of Christ – John’s Gospel

Let’s end this series with a few verses from the book of John.

The fortunate advantage of the deity of Christ proponents is the book of John. It is the book in the NT with the most textual witnesses, and the oldest manuscripts we have come from John’s gospel (truly). It’s, as if, John had an agenda to present the deity of Christ to the readers. And boy did he ever! It is rumored in church history that actually it is a reaction to believers who started to question the deity of Christ.

John1:1-2 (this verse is enough).In the beginning, was the Word. The Word was existing during the beginning. The Word was with The God (I’m leaving the “the” in for my Jehovah’s Witnesses friends).In other words, the word was with the God. They were with each other. And get this… The Word was God). Both were and are God. God is God and the Word is God. Two beings, and were with each other in the beginning. All things through Him (The Word that was God) came into being or existed (John1:3). This passage comments on what the Word is (essentially) and what He did at that time, and it concluded that the Word, in the beginning, was God, and this God (the Word) created everything. But hold up, here’s the trick… to be consistent, just because you’re called God that doesn’t mean you’re God by nature, I mean even idols are called God. What’s the anchor text for Christ’s nature? Verse 3. I mean unless you know any other idols and false gods that created everything?

John 5:18. Note that Christ is implying that He is the Son of God. Two things are happening here. Please focus, for our controversy with our oneness brethren is here. After hearing this, the Jewish leaders seek to kill Christ because He said that God was His own Father and making Himself equal to God. (1) Merely claiming to be the Son of God is claiming equality with God. Meaning throughout the Gospels where Christ is claiming to be the Son of God, those references are clear references to His equality to the Father. (2) Unlike a lot of today’s oneness proponents, the Jewish leaders knew and recognized that the Father and Son were equal. Hence they sought to kill Him more. Christ declared himself the Son of God meaning He is equal with His Father. The Jews knew that such a claim was a divine claim.

John8:58. Jesus said, “I am!”. Surely, this is a divine claim?! I mean note how he even said it.” Before Abraham was, I am!” The Jewish leaders could have dismissed him as deluded. He is obviously not older than Abraham! But they sought to stone him and not mock him? They would never seek to stone him unless they felt they had a righteous reason. Delusion vs Blasphemy? For which would the Jewish leaders stone Christ? To us, it’s clearly the latter, and this makes it clear that the “I AM” is a divine claim.

These three verses cover various aspects of Jesus’s claim. The first claim is that Christ is the creator. The second claim is that Christ is equal to the Father. The third claim is that He is the I Am. These three verses pretty much cover the whole of Christ’s divine claim. If we correctly exegeted these texts, why would one consider Jesus less divine than the Father? Don’t confuse authority with nature. Nature is what you are and authority is what you have. You can’t say that because it seems that the Father has more authority than Jesus that He is good and Jesus isn’t. The argumentation there would be faulty.

There are many verses to establish Christ’s deity. We’re purposefully holding them back to show that a correct reading of even these simple verses can clinch the doctrine