Does Jesus ever claim to be God? Not in those words exactly, but even after a light reading of the four biographies of the life of Jesus and it’s impossible to walk away without thinking that Jesus claimed to be God. This morning we’ll explore a defense of our faith on that point.
The first place that we’ll go is to the Burning Bush of Exodus 3. There we see Moses do two things. 1) He takes off his shoes. The ground that he was standing on was holy – made that way because he was in the presence of the Almighty God. 2) He asks for and is told what the name of God is: I AM. It is this eternal present that reflects who our God is. He is timeless and unchanging. This is good. You won’t find God changing his mind – ever. He can’t. He’ll never go back on his promises. This is an extreme comfort to us who struggle with so much change in life – much of it coming from within ourselves!
The second place we find ourselves is Mark 14. There Jesus is on trial for his life. One accuser after another comes before the kangaroo court meeting under the cover of darkness to try and condemn Jesus to die. The problem was that nothing would stick. The accusers couldn’t agree on any crimes that Jesus had committed because Jesus never committed a crime. So how does Jesus a free Jew walking into the court walk out condemned to die? The high priest asked him if he was the Christ the Son of the living God. Jesus reply echoed all the way back to Moses’ bare feet. “I am.” At that the high priest tore his clothes and everything goes sideways for Jesus. He was guilty of blasphemy – a crime punishable by death. What is blasphemy? You don’t see that on Judge Judy much, do you? Blasphemy was the crime of claiming to be God. This is a bad idea for any normal person, but Jesus was far from normal. Jesus was God. So for him to deny the accusation would’ve been just as bad as telling a lie.
If someone says to you, “Jesus never claimed to be God.” Ask the person why he was condemned to die by the Jewish authorities. They knew that he claimed to be God. Want to hear more including why “any stick will do” when it comes to attacking our Savior? Watch this week’s Bible study from our series Not Sorry – Apologetics: “Jesus never claimed to be God.”
Please click HERE to view the Bible class slides.