“Whom say ye that I am?”

Jesus Christ – Matthew 8:29

 

The following Bible verses confirm that Jesus Christ has the exact same divine attributes as God Almighty (Jehovah God):

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are called Saviour: Isaiah 43:11 (Jehovah), Philippians 3:20, Titus 1:4, Titus 2:13, Titus 3:4-6 (Jesus)

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are called Judge and have a judgment seat: Judge: Isaiah 33:22 (Jehovah), 2 Timothy 4:1 (Jesus Christ) Judgment seat: Romans 14:10 (God/Jehovah), 2 Corinthians 5:10 (Jesus)

 

BOTH God the Father (Jehovah) and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit: John 14:16-17 & 14:26 (Jehovah), John 15:26 & 16:7 (Jesus)

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are called the Shepherd: Psalms 23:1 (Jehovah), John 10:11 (Jesus)

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are called the Light: Psalms 27:1 & Micah 7:8 (Jehovah), John 8:12 (Jesus)

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are called Lord of Lords: Deuteronomy 10:17 (Jehovah), Revelation 17:14, 1 Corinthians 8:6 (Jesus)

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are called the First and the Last: Isaiah 44:6, Revelation 1:8 (Jehovah), Revelation 1:17-18 & 22:12-13 (Jesus)

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are called King: Isaiah 33:22 & 44:6 (Jehovah), Revelation 17:14 (Jesus)

 

BOTH Jehovah and Jesus are Creator of all things: Genesis 1:1, Hebrews 3:4, Isaiah 44:24 (Jehovah), Hebrews 1:10, Colossians 1:16-17 (Jesus)

 

Notice in the above verse that Jesus said ‘I am the way’. He did not say religion is the way or a church is the way or some denomination or organization is ‘the way’. Neither did Jesus say that Charles Taze Russell’s Watchtower Bible And Tract Society headquartered in Brooklyn, New York is ‘the way’ and everyone else is wrong and cannot possible know more than those folks.  In fact history has proven that when some group of people gets preoccupied with a person and their teachings, and when they to put too much TRUST in any one person or organization, they start to become off-base in their theology.

 

If Jesus really is God and if He truly is the ONLY Saviour, then we better care about what he preached because the Bible says there are serious eternal consequences for not obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

What About Jesus being just ‘a god’?

 

Nowhere in the Bible is polytheism recommended but rather it is strongly condemned. We become polytheists when we incorrectly interpret John 1:1 to say “and the Word was a god”. Exodus 20:3 makes this point very clear: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Additionally, no one but the living and true God is capable of paying for all of the sins of entire world. It is no accident that the Messiah is called “mighty God” and “everlasting Father” in Isaiah 9:6. You can claim (though not conclusively) that the term ‘mighty God’ used here is referring to someone other than the ‘almighty God’ but you can’t say that ‘everlasting Father’ means something other than Jehovah God, so why then is the Messiah called everlasting Father, if indeed Jesus is not co-equal in deity with God the Father? It is clear that the Jews who wanted to stone Jesus for blasphemy knew that Jesus was calling himself God when he used the term for God almighty, the ‘I am’: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him” (John 8:58, 8:59). This point is re-confirmed in John 10:32-33: “Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”. Exodus 3:14 gives further proof of this argument: “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.” In John 8:58, Jesus was clearly calling himself the I AM of Exodus 3:14!

 

Just What Is The Gospel Of Jesus Christ?

 

What is the ‘Good News’ of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? After all, that is the most critical article of the Christian faith. The ‘Good News’ that so many people seem fail to recognize, is that a person can know for sure that if he or she dies, they will have eternal life in glory with the Lord. Our sins separate us from God and we are hopelessly, eternally lost if God does not intervene and save us. He saves by giving a complete pardon for sins so that the individual no longer needs face the wrath of God (eternity in Hell): “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5:9). When God saves us, Christ becomes our substitute. God the Father poured out His wrath on Christ: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

 

Salvation is “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:9). It does not depend on us doing any kind of good works. It is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5). Paul knew that he and others were saved, that their names were written in the Lamb’s book of life (see Revelation 20:15). God refuses to share the glory for salvation with anyone else, and rightly so. No man will ever be able to boast before God (Romans 4:2 & 1 Cor 1:29), that he in some way contributed to his own salvation.

 

Salvation is all God’s undeserved grace and nothing but grace! The works mentioned in James 2:20, ‘faith without works is dead’, to which many people refer to, to justify feeble attempts to earn or contribute to salvation, pertain to works that are produced by and are the fruit of faith in Christ and are done to show that we are thankful to Christ for purchasing our salvation with His precious blood. Those who use James 2:20 and other verses to argue that no one can know for sure if they are saved until they meet God don’t understand what God is saying in Isaiah 64:6: “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”. Our works are valueless in God’s eyes with respect to obtaining salvation.

 

Many religions teach that we need to do good works to get on God’s good side so He will save us or reward us more highly than others. If we reject Christ’s claims about himself and the completed work of salvation by his death, burial and resurrection, there is no way to be on God’s good side, considering that God the Father’s wrath had to be poured out on his Son at Calvary to purchase salvation. Believing Christ’s claims and having the desire to serve him in spirit and in truth requires a spiritual transformation that God must perform in our hearts. We must be born from above (see John 3:3). To deny the divine nature of Christ, is to downgrade the price of salvation. “How shall we escape [God’s wrath] if we neglect so great salvation” (Hebrews 2:3). If we insist on paying for our sins ourselves, it will take all eternity in hell to pay for them (see Romans 4:3-8). That is why it is so important to understand the holiness of God, His hatred of sin, and why only God Himself could pay the price. God’s demand far exceeds anything we could ever pay.

 

Be a skeptic, be thorough in your search for spiritual truth:

 

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
[Jeremiah 29:13]

 

We need to check out EVERYTHING that our religious organization and religious leaders are teaching us.  We must never assume that any one person or group has cornered the market on truth and is right about everything.  A group or denomination could be right about lots of things and yet wrong about just one thing, and if that one thing is the most important issue, namely salvation, then we could be trusting the eternal destiny of our souls to a false gospel which is no gospel at all.  And to die in such a state of false belief would mean that we would be lost for all eternity, forever separated from God and all that is good and holy.  So I urge you to check out these related bible studies:

Closing remarks:

 

With our finite minds we will never be able to fully understand an infinite God: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). If we could fully comprehend God, He would not be God.

 

Why not seek peace with God today? Ask Him to have mercy on your soul and save you from the wrath to come (see Romans 10:9-13). If you have any doubts about the deity of Jesus Christ, ask God to reveal the truth to you. He did it for Paul on the road to Damascus and He can do it for you.

 

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:1-5)