Is Jesus really God?

Few questions reach deeper than this one, because everything else about the Christian faith hangs on the answer. If Jesus is only a great teacher or a holy prophet, His words are wise but His cross is just a tragedy. But the witness of Scripture is far higher than that. The Gospel of John opens by reaching back before the world began: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Notice how carefully it is said. The Word is distinct from God — "with God" — and yet the Word is fully God Himself. A few verses later we learn who this Word is: "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The eternal God did not send a substitute or a messenger only; He came in person.

Jesus said as much in His own words, and He said it in a way no faithful Israelite could miss. When His hearers appealed to their descent from Abraham, He answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). He did not say "before Abraham was, I was," but "I am" — the very name God spoke from the burning bush, "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14). His listeners understood the claim instantly and took up stones. Elsewhere He was just as plain: "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30), and to Philip He said, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). These are not the words of a man content to be admired as a teacher. They are the words of One who knew exactly whose place He was standing in.

Then there is what Jesus does and what He receives. He forgives sins, commands the wind and the sea, raises the dead, and calls Himself the giver of eternal life. And He accepts worship. When the once-doubting Thomas saw the risen Lord, he fell down and cried, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28) — and Jesus did not correct him, but blessed him. This is striking, for throughout Scripture angels and prophets recoil from worship and turn it back to God alone. Jesus receives it. The apostles, who were devout believers raised to confess that the LORD alone is God, came to write of Him in these terms: "by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth... and by him all things consist" (Colossians 1:16-17), and "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Hebrews calls Him "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person" (Hebrews 1:3). The Maker entered His own creation.

How can this be? Here we walk humbly, because we are speaking of the living God. Scripture does not hand us a formula to master; it shows us a Savior to adore. The same Jesus who is fully God is also truly man — born of a woman, hungry and weary, weeping at a friend's grave, dying upon a Roman cross. Isaiah saw both together centuries before: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given... and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). A child born, and the mighty God given. He had to be man to stand in our place, and He had to be God for that one life to be worth more than all the world. We are not asked to dissolve the wonder of it, only to receive it with reverence and joy.

So when you ask, "Is Jesus really God?" — the whole of Scripture answers yes, and it does so to draw you near, not to win an argument. The God who flung the stars into place came close enough to be touched, close enough to bleed, close enough to be loved. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow... And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11). That confession is not first a doctrine to defend but a Person to trust. The same Lord who received Thomas with a blessing waits to receive you. You need not have every mystery resolved before you kneel; you need only do what Thomas did, and say to the One who came to find you, "My Lord and my God."