But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. (John 5:17–18; NKJV)

One of the most popular criticisms of the doctrine of the Trinity is that Jesus never claimed to be God. The implied conclusion is, if Jesus never claimed to be God, then He is not God. Is this claim valid? Does does it stand up when tested according to the Scriptures? Let’s get to it.

First, there is the question of whether the claim is valid. At face value, the condition—Jesus never claimed to be God—seems accurate. The Bible has no clear, direct statements of Jesus saying “I am God.” But this is a logical fallacy called a red herring. People say things all the time that are untrue. And people regularly do not directly say things that are true. The test of whether Jesus is God is not that He did not directly say it. It depends on what He actually says and does. So, the conclusion—Jesus is not God—does not follow from the condition. The claim is invalid. But what about the conclusion—is Jesus God?

Second, we look at what Jesus did say about His relationship to God. Jesus often called God “my Father.” Although the Jews usually referred to God as “our Father,” and sometimes as “my Father” with qualifications (like “in heaven”), Jesus broke with these cultural norms and called God “my Father” without qualification. The Jewish leaders understood Jesus to be equating Himself with God. As one scholar explains,

Jesus was not teaching that God is the Father of all. The Jews would have accepted that. His claim meant that God was his Father in a special sense. He was claiming that he partook of the same nature as his Father. This involved equality. So the Jews held that he was guilty of blasphemy as well as of Sabbath breaking.1

This shows why, when Jesus called God “my Father,” the Jews tried to execute him for blasphemy (John 5:17–18). Further, Jesus, Himself growing up Jewish, would have been well-aware of the implications of His language. Yet, He chose to refer to God and Himself in this way, which reveals how He viewed His own nature with relationship with God.

Third, we see moments in Scripture where others attribute titles to Jesus that belong to God alone and Jesus received it. In one instance, a rich young ruler called Jesus “good teacher.” Jesus, without correcting the ruler, responded, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God” (Mark 10:18). After the Resurrection, Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, called Jesus “my Lord and my God” and Jesus did not correct him, but commended him for his belief (John 20:28–29). Jesus received the title “good teacher” and “God.” The first He clearly says belongs to God alone. The second quite obviously belongs to God alone. Jesus’ receiving these names and titles reveals that He viewed Himself as a member of the Godhead.

Fourth, we see Jesus attribute to Himself names that belong to God alone. One of God’s names is “The First and the Last” (Isa 44:6). In Revelation 1:17–18, John wrote, “He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.’” The ‘He’ who said these things cannot be the Father, because the Father never died. He cannot die. Revelation 1:13 identifies the speaker as “One like the Son of Man.” This title, “Son of Man,” is a title Jesus used frequently for Himself (e.g., Mark 2:10, 28), identifying the speaker of vv. 17–18 as Jesus. Further, Jesus’ death and resurrection of Jesus is one of the essential beliefs of historical Christianity (1 Cor 15:3–5). John is attributing these words to Jesus. Which means Jesus called Himself “The First and the Last,” a title that God reserved for Himself alone.

These are just a few select examples. But even these few examples bring each of us face-to-face with the question—what do I do with what the Bible says about Jesus? As C. S. Lewis so eloquently observes,

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.²

So, did Jesus claim to be God? No, not directly. Does this mean Jesus was not God? No, that reasoning is invalid. And there are many indirect ways the Scriptures point to Jesus as God. There really is no middle ground when it comes to the Bible and Jesus. We can choose deny parts of the Bible and believe in a Jesus of our own imagination. Or we can receive the whole Bible as God’s inspired Word and believe in the deity of God the Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Notes

1. Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, Rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 275. Logos Bible Software.
2. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Digital ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 2021), 52. Kindle.