Did Jesus Claim to Be God?
Did the historical Jesus really claim to be God as Christians say? Last week we started to look at what the New Testament says. This week we’ll explore two of Jesus’ favorite ways to refer to himself and then we’ll look at some evidence to see if the claims of deity go back to Jesus himself.
Son of God
The first of Jesus’ two favorite ways to refer to himself was as the Son of God. This is a title of deity. Jesus often referred to himself as the son of the heavenly Father and in case we think he meant it in just a general way, as you and I might refer to ourselves as children of God, Jesus claimed a very unique knowledge of and connection with God the Father. He said in Matthew 11:27, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Those are some pretty exclusive claims Jesus was making. He was claiming to be the unique Son of God. What’s more, Jesus received worship as the Son of God. Matthew 14:32 says, “Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” Jesus didn’t correct them, as many in the Bible do, saying “No, don’t worship me, I’m just a man like you.”, rather he accepted their worship. In claiming to be the Son of God, he was claiming to be God.
Son of Man
The most common way Jesus referred to himself, though, was as the Son of Man. Now we might not recognize this as a claim to be God. Some have mistakenly said that in referring to himself as Son of Man, that that emphasizes his humanity. But as Gary Habermas points out, this title is just as much a claim to be God. It’s a reference to a passage in the Old Testament, in Daniel chapter 7. Daniel said, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” This son of man would come with the clouds and set up a kingdom and be worshipped by everyone. He would be someone other than God the Father (he approached the Ancient of Days) who would be worshipped by everyone. He himself would be deity.
Jesus used this Son of Man title of himself more than any other title and he got himself in trouble with it. He especially offended the Jewish leaders when he used this title of himself for his future coming in glory and judgement. When he was on trial before the Jewish leaders, before being sent to the cross, they asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” He replied, in Mark 14:62, “’I am,’ said Jesus. ‘And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ The high priest tore his clothes. ‘Why do we need any more witnesses?’ he asked. ‘You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ They all condemned him as worthy of death.” For answering “I am” and using the title, the Son of Man, like this, quoting almost exactly from Daniels 7, they charged Jesus with blasphemy and condemned him to death. They clearly took him to be claiming to be deity, to be God.
How Do We Know Jesus Really Said These Things?
Okay, so maybe both Son of God and Son or Man are claims to be God, but how do we know that the historical Jesus really said these things himself? How do we know the church didn’t just put those words in his mouth later on? There are at least three good pieces of evidence that show that Jesus himself, by using these titles, claimed to be God. I’ll mention the first one right now and then I hope you’ll come back next week for the other two.
How do we know that Jesus used the title, Son of Man, of himself and made this bold claim to be God at his trial before the Jewish leaders? Because they crucified him for it. History clearly tells us that he was crucified. So if Jesus didn’t make this claim, if that wasn’t the reason for his crucifixion, then why was he crucified? Virtually everyone says that Jesus lived a good and loving life and was a good moral teacher. So why was he crucified like a criminal? It seems to me that the best explanation is the one the New Testament provides, that he claimed to be God and was charged with blasphemy and was put to death for it.
What do you think? Give that some thought and then come back next week for the other two pieces of evidence.
Source: Lecture on the Historical Jesus by Gary Habermas
Why were they ready to stone him? Because not only did he claim to be before Abraham, he said, “I am”. We might think he was making a grammatical error, thinking he should have said “I was” instead of “I am”. But what he was doing was referring to the time God spoke to Moses through the burning bush and Moses asked God, “What if I go to your people and tell them ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’ and they say, ‘What’s his name?’, what should I tell them?” And God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘
Every law has a law giver. Laws don’t just come into existence on their own. They are considered and given by law makers/givers. Therefore if there is an objective moral law, there is an objective, transcendent, moral law giver. This law giver would be above and beyond humanity. So who would this moral law giver be? God is the most reasonable explanation for such a transcendent moral law giver. As J. Warner Wallace says, “If God exists, He would certainly transcend all species, cultures, locations and moments in time. For this reason, the existence of transcendent moral truth is best explained by the existence of God as the transcendent source of such truth.”
As Turek and Geisler point out, the United States was established by the belief in an objective moral law and God-given human rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence :
There are a few different issues involved in the misconceptions stated above. One deals with the source of all the translations. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) (with a little bit of Aramaic thrown in in the Old Testament). So how were all the translations made? Some envision it this way. The Bible was translated from Hebrew and Greek into some other language, Latin for example. Then it was translated from Latin into some third language. Then it was translated from that third language into a fourth language, and so on, until it was finally translated into English. And so some people might think that our English Bibles today are a translation of a translation of a translation, and so on.
But why are there so many English translations? The Bible was first translated into modern English in the 1500s. The well known King James Version was translated in 1611. Since those days the way we speak English has obviously changed. While you can still understand those first English translations, it can be a challenge. God chose to have the Bible written in the common language of the people of those days. I believe he wants everyone to be able to read and understand his word. So since English continues to change, I think it’s good that we continue to have updated English translations so that everyone can easily read and understand the Bible.
We live in a fallen, sinful world. I know that I am selfish and sinful. I’m thankful that Jesus gave his life on the cross for us to take care of our sin problem. He loved us so much that, though we have sinned against each other and God himself, Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins and 
Our family recently took a trip to Washington D.C. There we visited the Air & Space Museum and saw the lunar lander which is just like the one that took the crew of Apollo 11 to the lunar surface, when mankind first set foot on the moon. It was fun for me to read and explain to my daughters about the space race and how we actually put men on the moon. Those were exciting days for our country, and the world, as we actually visited that wonderful object in the night sky that has captivated the curiosity and imaginations of humanity for thousands of years.
Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, blocking the sun from our view. A total eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the sun, as seen to the left.
God has given us our minds and he wants us to use them. He wants us to worship him with our minds, thinking deeply about him. There is no deeper subject for us to think about and exercise our minds with than our great God! We can worship God by thinking seriously about the truth that he has revealed to us and the implications of that. The book of Hebrews says that we are to grow in our knowledge and understanding, moving on from the elementary teachings about Christ (Heb 5:11-6:3). This is loving God with all our minds.
