Fully God
The New Testament doesn’t present Jesus as just a great teacher or a moral example. It presents Him as God who came near.
FULLY GOD
The idea that Jesus is God is so pervasive throughout the New Testament that it is present in virtually every paragraph. I think that sometimes we feel like we need to find one particular verse to prove that to be true. But that’s like trying to prove ocean water is salty by taking a microscope to a drop of it.
You don’t have to isolate and test a drop of water to know. Just stand by the ocean smelling it and tasting the water. You’ll know immediately: it is salty.
The same is true of Jesus in the New Testament. You can certainly point to John 1:1—“the Word was God.” You can turn to Thomas in John 20:28, when he looked at the risen Christ and said, “My Lord and my God!” You can read Colossians 2:9, which says, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”
Those aren’t isolated declarations floating in an otherwise ordinary story. The entire New Testament is saturated with the deity of Jesus.
He possesses the authority of God. He forgives sins. He receives worship. He exercises authority over nature, demons, disease, and death. He claims an eternal relationship with the Father. He says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
The New Testament doesn’t present Jesus as just a great teacher or a moral example.
It presents Him as God who came near.
That is why Christianity is not ultimately about following the teachings of a remarkable man. It’s about knowing and worshiping the One who is God Himself.
The hands that touched lepers were the hands of God.
The voice that spoke peace to frightened disciples was the voice of God.
The One who walked the dusty roads of Galilee is the One through Whom all things were created.
Jesus is God. That truth changed the world. We don’t merely look to Jesus to learn about God. When we look at Jesus, we see God who came near.
