Does the Bible say that Jesus is God?

Does the Bible say that Jesus is God?

According to the Gospel of John

In John 1:1 the Word is said to be God, meaning that the Word is divine (see footnote in New World Translation).  Later, in verse 14, it is said that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.  The Word that was with God and that was also divine, became flesh.  It goes on to say “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father”.  I think it can be concluded that the Word who at the beginning was already with God, and is also divine, is Jesus.

Divine means having the nature of or being a deity.  The phrase “sons of God” is used for both men and angels, but nowhere is it said they are divine, or God in any way.  They are created beings.  But the one unique Son of God is said to be God, meaning divine.

According to Paul

Consider 1 Cor 8:6, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

I think, when Paul referred to God, he was referring to the Father of Jesus.  He would refer to Jesus rather as the one Lord.  But of Jesus, Paul said,

ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς Θεότητος σωματικῶς, Col 2:9

The New World Translation translates this as “because it is in him that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily.”  The NWT translates τῆς Θεότητος as “the divine quality”.  If by “divine quality” the translators mean merely godlike, or having God’s character, or something like that, I think they are way understating what’s being said.  The Berean Literal Bible translates it like:

For in Him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily.

τῆς Θεότητος means the state of being god, divine character/nature, deity, divinity.  This is real similar to what the Gospel of John says in John 1:1 when it’s said that the Word is God, meaning divine.

I think that referring to Jesus as God is more our type of language and way of putting things.  But the biblical authors referred to Jesus in such as way that they obviously thought of him as the unique Son of God, sharing the Father’s divine nature.  Jesus is never referred to as a creature, but rather the unique Son of God.  Referring to the Son as a “spirit creature” is saying something that Scripture never says.

How should we think of who Jesus is if we start afresh with the Bible rather than rely on how the church throughout the centuries has spoke of Jesus and explained who he is?

We should affirm:

Jesus existed with God the Father before he was born as a man.  In the beginning, he was.  “Was” is in the imperfect tense in John 1:1, meaning that in the beginning the word was, referring to past time.

Jesus became a man, lived as a man, relied on his Father and God in Heaven, was murdered by men, and was resurrected to life on the third day.

Jesus, the unique Son of God, shares the same divine nature as God the Father.

Objections based on Jesus’ manhood

It seems that most objections are based statements about Jesus that refer to his manhood.  For example, how can God learn obedience, as the writer of Hebrews says the son did through what he suffered (Heb 5:8)?

Jesus became fully man.  He lived fully as a man trusting in his God.  He “increased in wisdom” (Luke 2:52), learned and grew as a man does.  He completed all righteousness as a man.  This is what the author of Hebrews is referring to.

But what we can’t ignore from our understanding of who Jesus is that in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, for Jesus is the unique Son of God who became man.