"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone."- Isaiah 9:2
Jesus is God
"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God"
-John 1:1
Make no mistake about it. The Messianic Prophesies indicated the coming Messiah would be God. Jesus claimed divinity through word and action here on earth. All the Apostles stated clearly that Jesus was God. It is the most integral part of His identity. The 3 parts of Jesus' identity are inseparable. Jesus' title is Messiah and Lord, Jesus is functionally the Only Way, and Jesus is essentially God.
What scriptural basis do we have for this claim?
As indicated above we have 3 basic ways for identifying Him as God in Scripture, the Messianic Prophesies, the Direct claims of Jesus, and the clear Apostolic expression.
Let's start with a Messianic Prophesy:
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,
Against the Man who is My Companion,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered;
Then I will turn My hand against the little ones."
-Zechariah 13:7
God speaks of this Man-Shepherd (Clearly Jesus) as His Companion, this implies equality. This prophesy has similarities to Paul's expression of Jesus' divinity found in Phillipians 2:6:
"Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God,
did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation,
taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself
and became obedient to the point of death,
even the death of the cross.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him
and given Him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of those in heaven, and of those on earth,
and of those under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
This Scripture alone should put the argument of Divinity to rest. It states that Jesus pre-existed as God before His incarnation. The last part about every person coming to Jesus to bow and admit He is Lord sis a clear reference to this scripture found in Isaiah 45:
“Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow,
Every tongue shall take an oath."
-Isaiah 45:22,24
God says "Look to Me" and "there is no other" but then has people come to glorify, bow the knee, and Worship Jesus in the Phillipians 2? This Isaiah 45 passage only makes sense if its Jesus speaking before His incarnation. And He clearly says: "For I am God". How shall every knee bow and every tongue confess and give Glory to Jesus if He is not God? after all God explicity says:
"My glory I will not give to another"
- Isaiah 42:8
But now think about it, it fits in perfect context with John 17 where Jesus prays:
"O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself,
with the glory which I had with You
before the world was"
-John17:5
Again this makes no sense if Jesus is not God! because God will never share glory with anyone who is not God. Instead this helps us clarify the fact that Jesus had the right to be glorified. In fact, Jesus says:
"I and the Father are One"
-John 10:30
Lets review: "the Man who is My Companion” is God speaking on equal terms about the second revealed person of the trinity, Jesus Christ. Equality with God is not robbery for Jesus in Phillipians, where we find pre-existence and Worship attributed to Jesus as well. The Phillipians passage is an obvious reference to the Isaiah passage where the speaker claims "I am God" and "there is no other". We also proved this point again by showing Jesus' pre-existence claims in John 17 as He asked the Father to "glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" and quoted the passage in Isaiah where God says "My glory I will not give to another" and reconciled this with Jesus' identity statement in John when He says "I and the Father are One".
But that was really just implied theology! There are countless ways to prove Jesus' Divinity through Scriptural inference. That was just a round about way of proving Jesus' divinity and pre-existence through Worship and inference.
The next Scriptures are so obvious that only someone who has no interest in the truth would dismiss, to their own destruction.
Isaiah predicts Divinity the coming of the Hebrew Messiah:
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,
and shall call His name Immanuel"
-Isaiah 7:14
Matthew clarifies the literal meaning of Immanuel:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son,
and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated,
“God with us.”
-Matthew 1:23
Isaiah makes another unmistakebale reference to Divinity again in a second reference to the birth of Jesus:
"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called;
"Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace."
-Isaiah 9:6
Anyone miss "Mighty God" as a name for Jesus? or "Everlasting Father"?
We've explored enough to prove the Messianic Prophesy point although we could go on forever, let's move on to the direct claims of Jesus.
“Don’t you know Me, Philip,
even after I have been among you such a long time?
Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father”
-John 14:9
This is another equivalency statement where Jesus expresses equality with God, if you dont believe this then maybe the context with the next passage (which was reviewed above) will help
"I and My Father are One.” [Jesus]
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
Jesus answered them,
“Many good works I have shown you from My Father.
For which of those works do you stone Me?”
The Jews answered Him, saying,
“For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy,
and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God
-John 10:30
Still have any question Jesus claimed to be God? this next one is unequivocal, but for some it may need some background with a text from Exodus 3 when God is sending Moses to deliver the Isaelites from Egypt:
Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I
come to the children of Israel and say to them,
'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me,
‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”
And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel,
I AM has sent me to you.’”
-Exodus 3:14
Now this is the unequivocal statement Jesus makes about 1500 years later:
"Jesus said to them,
'Truly, truly, I say to you,
before Abraham was born, I AM.'"
-John 8:58
"I AM" is clearly identified with the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob in this passage and in the verses immediately following. This is an unmistakeable claim to be God by Jesus, and carries the moral equivalency of a later claim that is also unmistakable: "I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life" from John 14:6
There is no point to continue to explore Jesus' statements and claims since it can't get any clearer than the last statement. So lets finish with Apostolic expression, or, the Apostles affirming Jesus' Divinity. This reference is from the book of Hebrews, and the Holy Spirit inspired writer is clarifying the identity of Jesus compared to Angels.
"And of the angels He says:
“Who makes His angels spirits
And His ministers a flame of fire.”
But to the Son He says:
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
And:
“You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
They will perish, but You remain;
And they will all grow old like a garment;
Like a cloak You will fold them up,
And they will be changed.
But You are the same,
And Your years will not fail.”
-Hebrews 1:7-12
Now think about this; the writer of Hebrews was writing the first portion of the book of Hebrews to make sure the readers correctly identified who Jesus is. Then he quotes 2 passages where the Father calls the Son "God" and "Lord". You can't get any clearer than that! And yet we find myriads of examples scattered throughout the Scripures:
"And Thomas answered and said to Him,
“My Lord and my God!”"
- John 20:28
"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God"
-John 1:1
"Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him,
because He not only broke the Sabbath,
but also said that God was His Father,
making Himself equal with God."
-John 5:18
"And when they had come into the house,
they saw the young Child with Mary His mother,
and fell down and worshiped Him"
-Matthew 2:11
"Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him,
saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
-Matthew 14:33
"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds"
-Titus 2:13-14
"I will bring the one–third through the fire,
Will refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them.
I will say, ‘This is My people’;
And each one will say,
‘The Lord is my God.’”
-Zecheriah 13:9
"And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life."
-1 John 5:20
"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;"
-Colossians 2:9
See additional referneces below if you genuinely want to learn more, but if you still don't want to confess Jesus' true identity as God, there is really only one you need to know:
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins;
for if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
- John 8:24
Consider also: Exodus 3:14, Hebrews 1:8, Isaiah 9:6, John 20:28, Col 2:9, John 1:1, John 5:18, Matt 2:11, Matt 14:33, Acts 7:55, 1 Cor. 1:1-2, Zech. 13:9, Rom 10:13-14, Joel 2:32, Isaiah 44:6, Rev 1:17-18, Isaiah 7:14, Phil 2:5-9, Acts 20:28