Was Jesus Christ Really God?
By: Dr. Charles F Stanley/ In Touch Ministries

For centuries, seeking men and women have asked the same ageless question: "Who is Jesus?" We may say He is our Savior, and that is true. We may say He is Lord, and that is also accurate. We may say He is the pattern for our lives, and that is likewise compatible with Scripture.

But He is MORE than just our Savior, Lord, and Living Example.

Jesus Christ is God. cross That is the foundational truth we celebrate at Christmas: the incarnation-God becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

Because the Babe in the manger was God, human history was altered. Man's eternal destiny was affected. The CREATOR had taken on the form of His creation-man-in order to reconcile holy God and sinful man.

Born to a carpenter and his wife, Jesus of Nazareth was a divine lineage--the only begotten of the Father the Second Person of the Trinity.

John's intent in his magnificent introduction was to reveal that Jesus Christ is fully God, the exact and express image of the Father:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

"He was in the beginning with God.

"All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men...

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-4,14). " -
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John establishes the central truth that Jesus was God Who came to earth in human form--without sin--in order to die for the sins of mankind. -

Though human, He was without a sin nature; for He was conceived by God, not man.

As He taught and lived for thirty-three years, He revealed the Father, proclaimed His deity, and finished His redemptive work on Calvary's cross.

His resurrection attested to His absolute deity, giving man certain hope that his sins can be forgiven through faith in Him, thus receiving the gift of eternal life.

In coming to earth, Jesus chose to lay aside some of His divine privileges that were righfully His at the right hand of the Father. He chose to humble Himself to become man, subordinating Himself to the Father to accomplish the Father's amazing plan of salvation.

Jesus as man was fully human yet fully God. He retained all of His deity. Had He come in His full, radiant glory, He could not have been approached. [No man can look upon God and live.]

Jesus was God before He came to the earth. He was God on the cross. He was God in His resurrection. He remains forever God, and by the Father's decree, Christ will one day reign as Lord of lords and King of kings over all creation.

Jesus was deity cloaked in humanity--Spirit clothed in flesh.

When John calls Jesus "the Word," he is referring to the full, verbal, visible expression of God. Jesus is the tangible, visible manifestation of the invisible God.

Paul describes Jesus in this manner:
"And He ,Jesus, is the image of the invisible Good, the first-born of all creation.
"For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth.." (Colossians 1:15-16).

The divinely inspired writer of Hebrews says that Jesus "is the radiance of His (God's) glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.." (Heb. 1:3).

Jesus Christ was preexistent as God before time began.

It was Christ, the Son of God, Who walked in the blaze of fire with the three Hebrews. (Daniel 3:25)

It was Christ Who, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, participated in the CREATION of the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:26)

In order for Jesus Christ to become sinless human flesh and live among men, He had to exist in eternity past. Only God exists in eternity past; and that is John's inspired logical thesis in his Gospel prologue.

Someone has said that Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. Every word of Scripture and every event in Jesus' life affirms that He is Lord of all.

Jesus claimed to be God on many occasions:
"...I am the way, the truth and the life.."(John 14:6)

When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus responded: "...He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, 'Show us the Father'?

"In order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:22-23).

It is the 'deity' of Christ that men must ultimately accept or reject.

Our eternal destiny hinges upon our belief and acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior of all who believe in Him.
His deity was clearly expressed not only in His pre-existence but also in His power.

It was through the divine power of His resurrection that He conquered death, removing its sting and giving us the hope of eternal life. It was through His divine power that He performed miracles of healing, even bringing dead men back from the grave.

In each instance Jesus was validating His perfect deity, provided us with evidence that His personhood was that of the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God.

He was the Light that came to expose the darkness of sin and evil. idea He was the life that came to overcome death.

Through Christ's divine power and authority, we can be born again by His Spirit.

That is why we cannot deny the deity of Christ and be saved.

Only God can save us, for only God can forgive us. Good works, self-effort, morality cannot transform a man from death to life. Only Jesus Christ can do that, and He does so because He is God, Who alone gives life to men:
"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes" (John 5:21).

"And the witness is this, that God has give us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

"He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life" (1 John 5:11-12).

The wonder of Christmas is God becoming flesh in person of Jesus Christ. It is the heart of the Gospel. If Jesus is not God, then we are without hope of eternal life and without help in this life. Jesus came to die on a cruel cross so that we might be reconciled to friendship with Father God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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Please study out these Scriptures from God's Holy Bible and ask Him to open your spiritual eyes, so that you too, can be born again and have eternal life with our Lord Jesus, Creator of all things, the first born of all creation, our Redeemer.
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Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]