Is Jesus God? – Part I - The Names of Jesus

  When you look at the Scriptures you cannot help but come to the conclusion that Jesus is God Himself, the second person in the Trinity. One way to prove that is see how the deity of Jesus is shown through His names in Scripture.

 

  First, Jesus is outright called God in the Scriptures.

 

Isaiah 9:6 – “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

John 20:28 – “And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”

  Secondly, Jesus claims to be the Jehovah of the Old Testament. You see this claim when you compare some passages of Scripture in the Old Testament to the New Testament and what Jesus said.

  When you compare John 8:58 and what Jesus said about Himself to Exodus 3:14 it comes out very clearly.

John 8:58 – “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

Exodus 3:14 – “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

  This passage was so clear to the Jews of the day that they picked up stones to kill Him for blasphemy.

  You can also compare what Jesus said in John 17:5 with Isaiah 42:8 and the reality that He is God Himself comes out.

John 17:5 – “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

Isaiah 42:8 – “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”

  Thirdly, Jesus is called the Son of God.

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

  This title can sometimes be misunderstood as being inferior to God the Father. Yet, you have to understand the culture in which this was given, and no inferiority is implied whatsoever. It was so clearly understood that such a term made Jesus equal to God, and not inferior, in this time; that the Jews wanted to destroy Jesus for making Himself equal to God.

John 5:17 – “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”

  In just looking at the names the Bible assigns to Jesus we can clearly see that the Scriptures proclaim the full deity of Jesus Christ who is the Messiah.