CHRISTIANITY: Jesus is God in the New Testament

EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY - EYEWITNESS

THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.

Jesus is God in the New Testament

To begin with, it is necessary to state that the New Testament clearly presents Jesus as God. Though some appear to imagine otherwise, it must be obvious to anyone who takes time to read it.

He was God's agent in creating the world (Colossians 1:16).

He is God's agent in revealing God to human beings (Matthew 11:27).

He is God's agent in reconciling people to God (2 Corinthians 5:18,19).

One day he will be God's agent in judging the world (John 5:22,23).

He is the Son of God (Romans 1:4), sharing the nature of God (Hebrews 1:3), the form of God (Philippians 2:6), the image of God (Colossians 1:16) and the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3).

"How was it that a dedicated Jewish monotheist like Paul, at the earliest known stage of Christian literature, was already treating Christ as one with God"?

It is significant that New Testament writers often take texts from the Old Testament that refer to God, and there, right in the middle of their quotations, is Jesus. For instance, instead of "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4), we have, "For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live" (1 Corinthians 8:6). The same phenomenon is consistent through the New Testament and is evident across virtually all early Christianity for which we have evidence.

The earliest writing we have in the New Testament is possibly Paul's first letter to the Church in Thessalonica, very likely written in AD 50 when Paul was in Corinth. In this letter, Jesus is the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son in heaven, and the author of salvation. He is risen from the dead, active in his people through the Holy Spirit, and one day coming back to gather his people and judge the world.

New Testament scholar, C. F. D. Moule, insists:

If the deification of Jesus was the end result of an evolutionary process in pious imagination, how was it that a dedicated Jewish monotheist like Paul, at the earliest known stage of Christian literature, was already treating Christ as 'one with God'? ...Whatever explanation is offered for this extraordinary phenomenon, the facile theory of an evolving superstition will not do. It simply does not fit the facts.