WHO Says Jesus Is God?
Does the Bible REALLY teach that Jesus is God? Let's put church tradition, social media and “because somebody told me so” to the side for a minute and actually open the Gospel of John.
In This Article
Why Does This Even Matter?
Where does this doctrine that JESUS IS GOD even come from?
Why do so many Christians believe that a man walked this earth, was actually God in the flesh, came to save us, died and then rose again?
That's not a small claim.
And I don't want you to believe it because I said it.
Because if Jesus is merely a teacher, Christianity has seriously exaggerated Him.
If He is merely a prophet, worshiping Him would be wrong.
But if He really is who Scripture presents Him to be, then there may not be a more important question you could ever answer.
Who is Jesus?
“Don't We Only Live Once?”
I want to start with something personal.
When I first got saved, I had not read the Bible.
During that season, I kept having dreams that were doubled.
Repeated imagery.
Things happening twice.
I prayed and prayed because I had no clue what I was being shown.
Eventually, I understood those dreams as pointing me toward something Scripture calls the second death.
And suddenly that phrase we've all heard — “YOLO: You Only Live Once” — hit me completely differently.
Because the Bible does not actually teach that physical death is the end of us.
“This is the second death, the lake of fire.”
Revelation 20:14 · NASB 1995This is where the thought that shook me came from:
In Christ: born once, born again, die once, and live again.
Let me clarify what I mean because there are two different biblical ideas here.
Jesus teaches that we are born again spiritually while we are alive.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3 · NASB 1995But Scripture also teaches a future bodily resurrection.
So after physical death, the Christian hope is not that we become ghosts floating around forever.
The hope is resurrection.
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25–26 · NASB 1995Read what Jesus just said carefully.
“Even if he dies...”
He acknowledges physical death.
Then He says:
“He will live.”
First Corinthians 15 later explains that resurrection includes a transformed, imperishable body.
So when I say “live twice and die once,” I'm talking about the bigger biblical picture:
- physical birth
- spiritual rebirth through Christ
- physical death
- resurrection life
And Revelation gives the opposite warning concerning the second death.
That realization is what sent me digging.
“Why Are You Using the Gospel of John?”
For most of this article, I'm staying inside John on purpose.
Not because Matthew, Mark and Luke don't testify about Jesus.
They absolutely do.
But John puts the question of Jesus' identity front and center and contains some of the clearest statements in the New Testament about who He is.
And we have early manuscript evidence showing that John's Gospel was circulating very early in Christian history.
Don't Take My Word for the Manuscripts Either
P52 is a Greek papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John dated to the second century. It preserves portions of John 18:31–33 and 18:37–38.
View P52 at the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts →
P66 is a late-second or early-third-century manuscript containing a substantial portion of John's Gospel.
Does a manuscript fragment by itself prove everything Christianity teaches?
No.
That's not the point.
It means we're not talking about a book that suddenly appeared a thousand years later with no textual trail behind it.
Now let's actually read what the book says.
“Where Does John Actually Say Jesus Is God?”
We don't even make it through the first sentence.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1 · NASB 1995Read that slowly.
The Word was with God.
And the Word was God.
John gives us distinction and divinity in the same sentence.
The Word is not simply another name for the Father because the Word is with God.
But John does not call the Word merely an angel, messenger or created being either.
He says:
So naturally the next question becomes:
Who is the Word?
“How Do We Know ‘the Word’ Means Jesus?”
Keep reading.
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 · NASB 1995The Word becomes flesh.
Then a few verses later John names Him:
“For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
John 1:17 · NASB 1995So we don't need to guess.
John's opening argument flows like this:
- The Word existed in the beginning.
- The Word was with God.
- The Word was God.
- The Word created.
- The Word became flesh.
- John identifies Jesus Christ in that same revelation of grace and truth.
“But Jesus Looked Like a Normal Man”
Yes.
That's actually part of the Christian claim.
Jesus did not simply appear human from a distance.
John says:
“The Word became flesh.”
He experienced hunger.
Fatigue.
Grief.
Pain.
Physical death.
Christianity calls this the incarnation.
John can therefore tell us both:
The Word was God.
And:
The Word became flesh.
“If Jesus Was God, Did He Actually Know Things a Normal Man Couldn't Know?”
John keeps showing us that He did.
When Jesus meets Nathanael for what appears to be their first encounter, Jesus describes him before Nathanael has even introduced himself.
Nathanael asks:
“How do You know me?”
“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
John 1:48 · NASB 1995Nathanael immediately responds:
“Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”
John 1:49 · NASB 1995But John gives us an even broader statement in chapter 2.
Jesus “knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
John 2:24–25 · NASB 1995Near the end of the Gospel, Peter says to Jesus:
“Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
John 21:17 · NASB 1995So I wouldn't build the argument on one fig tree alone.
John gives us a repeated pattern of supernatural knowledge.
“Didn't the Samaritan Woman Just Think Jesus Was a Prophet?”
At first.
Jesus tells her details about her life that she had not told Him.
“For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.”
John 4:18 · NASB 1995Her reaction makes perfect sense:
“Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”
John 4:19 · NASB 1995But the conversation doesn't stop there.
She brings up the coming Messiah.
“I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
John 4:25 · NASB 1995Jesus answers:
“I who speak to you am He.”
John 4:26 · NASB 1995She begins by recognizing a prophet.
Jesus reveals that the conversation is much bigger than that.
And right before this He tells her:
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:24 · NASB 1995Later in John, Jesus declares:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
John 14:6 · NASB 1995I don't think “spirit and truth” should be treated like a secret code where “Spirit = Father” and “Truth = Jesus.”
But John absolutely connects genuine worship, truth, access to the Father and eternal life to Jesus.
“Okay. But Did Jesus Ever Actually Claim Divinity?”
This is the verse where the conversation gets very uncomfortable if we want Jesus to remain merely a nice teacher.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
John 8:58 · NASB 1995Abraham had lived centuries before Jesus' earthly ministry.
Yet Jesus doesn't simply say:
“I existed before Abraham.”
He says:
That language immediately brings us back to Exodus.
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Exodus 3:14 · NASB 1995And John's next sentence tells us how Jesus' audience reacted.
They picked up stones.
Whatever someone today wants Jesus' sentence to mean, the people standing there understood it as an extraordinary claim.
“Maybe ‘I and the Father Are One’ Doesn't Mean He Is God”
Then let's let the people standing in the conversation tell us what they thought He meant.
“I and the Father are one.”
John 10:30 · NASB 1995Again, stones come out.
Jesus asks why.
They answer:
“For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”
John 10:33 · NASB 1995That is not me interpreting Jesus for them.
That's their accusation.
You are a man making Yourself out to be God.
“Wait. Didn't Jesus Respond With ‘You Are Gods’?”
Yes.
And this is exactly why we should read the whole conversation instead of stopping at one sentence.
Jesus quotes Psalm 82 while answering their accusation of blasphemy.
Some readers interpret that response as Jesus backing away from His claim.
But look at what He says immediately afterward:
“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
John 10:37–38 · NASB 1995That is not much of a retreat.
And their response confirms it.
They try to seize Him again.
Whatever theological debate we have about exactly how Jesus is using Psalm 82, the surrounding passage does not portray Him as saying:
“Relax. I'm just another human being.”
“But Jesus Said, ‘The Father Is Greater Than I.’ Doesn't That Prove He Isn't God?”
Jesus does say that.
“The Father is greater than I.”
John 14:28 · NASB 1995So don't hide the verse.
Read the context.
Jesus is speaking as the Son who has entered the world and is preparing to return to the Father.
John has already told us that the Word was God and became flesh.
And in Jesus' prayer only a few chapters later, He says:
“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
John 17:5 · NASB 1995Before the world existed, Jesus says He shared glory with the Father.
So John 14:28 cannot simply mean:
“I am nothing more than a created human being.”
John will not let us make the rest of his Gospel disappear to interpret one line.
“Didn't Jesus Call the Father ‘the Only True God’?”
Yes.
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
John 17:3 · NASB 1995Again: don't run from the verse.
Keep reading the prayer.
Two verses later Jesus asks to be glorified with the glory He had with the Father before the world existed.
Later He says:
“All things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine.”
John 17:10 · NASB 1995John's Gospel distinguishes the Father and the Son.
Christianity does too.
Christianity is not claiming:
Jesus is the Father.
It claims the Father and Son are distinct while sharing divine identity.
That's why John can say the Word was with God and the Word was God without seeing a contradiction.
“Did Jesus Even Know He Was Going to Die?”
Repeatedly.
Jesus constantly speaks in John about His coming “hour.”
At the Last Supper He tells His disciples:
“Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’”
John 13:33 · NASB 1995Later:
“A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”
John 16:16 · NASB 1995The disciples are confused.
Honestly, I probably would've been too. 😂
But once you know what's coming, the meaning becomes clearer.
They will lose sight of Him in death.
And they will see Him again.
“Did Jesus Know Judas Was Going to Betray Him?”
John says yes.
At dinner Jesus announces that one of His own disciples will betray Him.
They ask who.
Jesus identifies Judas.
“After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, ‘What you do, do quickly.’”
John 13:27 · NASB 1995This scene is chilling.
Jesus is not portrayed as blindly walking into betrayal.
He knows.
And He continues.
Which connects with something He had already said:
“No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.”
John 10:18 · NASB 1995“Why Would God Become Human Just to Die?”
He didn't come just to die.
He came to defeat what we could not defeat.
Jesus taught us.
He revealed God.
He walked in righteousness.
He showed us the way.
He gave us the truth.
But He also entered the enemy humanity had never beaten:
death.
And that's why Jesus doesn't simply say:
“I can resurrect people.”
He says:
“I am the resurrection and the life.”
John 11:25 · NASB 1995
“Why Would Believing in Jesus Have Anything to Do With Eternal Life?”
Because in John, eternal life isn't simply a prize Jesus happens to hand out.
Life is connected directly to who He is.
“In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
John 1:4 · NASB 1995Later Jesus says:
“He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
John 5:24 · NASB 1995And then John tells us exactly why he wrote the Gospel.
“But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
John 20:31 · NASB 1995That's John's own purpose statement.
Don't trust my description of why he wrote the book.
He tells you.
“If Jesus Is God, Why Does He Pray to the Father?”
Because Christianity does not teach that Jesus is the Father.
This is probably one of the biggest misunderstandings in this whole conversation.
John begins with:
The Word was with God.
And:
The Word was God.
The Father and Son are personally distinct.
That's why the Son can love the Father, pray to the Father, be sent by the Father and return to the Father.
Yet listen to what Jesus says about the honor due to Him:
“So that all will 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 5:23 · NASB 1995Not:
“Respect Me as a prophet.”
Honor the Son even as you honor the Father.
So WHO Says Jesus Is God?
John does.
“The Word was God.”
John 1:1 · NASB 1995Jesus claims existence before Abraham and uses the language:
“I AM.”
His opponents say:
“You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”
John 10:33 · NASB 1995Jesus says He shared glory with the Father before the world existed.
He says the Father is in Him and He is in the Father.
He says the Son is to be honored as the Father is honored.
And then, near the end of John's Gospel, Thomas finally sees the resurrected Jesus.
His response?
“My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28 · NASB 1995And Jesus does not correct him.
John begins his Gospel by calling the Word God.
He spends the book showing us who Jesus is.
And near the end, a disciple stands face-to-face with the risen Jesus and addresses Him as:
That is not a random side doctrine Christians created centuries later.
It's woven through the book.
Don't Trust Me. Read It Yourself.
When I first began pursuing Christ, I did not already know all of these verses.
I wasn't sitting around with a theology degree trying to make a doctrine work.
I had questions.
A lot of them.
And the questions kept sending me back to Scripture.
That's what I'm asking you to do.
Don't believe Jesus is God because Adrian Cooper wrote a blog saying He is.
Don't reject Him because somebody on TikTok told you Christianity made the whole thing up either.
Open John.
Start at chapter 1.
Read what Jesus says.
Read what His enemies accuse Him of saying.
Read what His disciples say about Him.
Read what happens when He dies.
Read what happens when the tomb opens.
Then ask the question for yourself:
Because if John is telling the truth, this isn't merely an interesting theological debate.
It's the most important question you could ever answer.
“Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:26 · NASB 1995That question was spoken to Martha.
But it's still sitting there on the page for you.
Do you believe this?
Discover It for Yourself
Read the Gospel of John
Don't use this article as a replacement for Scripture.
Read the Gospel from beginning to end and watch how John's argument about Jesus develops for yourself.
Look at the Manuscripts
P52 is a second-century fragment containing text from John 18.
P66 is a late-second or early-third-century manuscript preserving a much larger portion of John's Gospel.
Check the Translation
This article uses the New American Standard Bible 1995. The Lockman Foundation explains its formal-equivalence translation philosophy and history publicly.
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB® New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org