In John Gerstner’s little known treatise, A Primer on the Deity of Christ, he provides several unique proofs of the deity of Christ from the Gospels. His treatise is a short dialogue and worth reading for the discussion around the proofs. The most compelling include the following:
- In John 8:31a, John makes reference to “the Jews who had believed him”. But by the end of the chapter many of those same people “picked up stones to throw at him” (8:59a). Why the change? They thought Jesus was one person, but when they learned that Jesus claimed divinity, they were outraged in did not believe in Him any longer.
- On many occasions Jesus appeals to nothing as His source of authority outside of Himself. In the Beatitudes He proclaims the types of people will inherit the kingdom, who are the children of God and so on without appealing to the Father’s name as the basis of His pronouncement. Likewise, Jesus puts Himself at the level of Old Testament revelation when He says “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago…, but I tell you…” (Matthew 5:21, 33)
- In Matthew 5:11-12, Jesus states, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” By saying this Jesus implies that the prophets from hundreds of years earlier suffered for Him, so at a minimum He is expressing that existed before taking human form. He is also implying that the prophets suffered for Him as God.
- Only God can provide assurance that one who follows Him will be saved, yet Jesus says in Matthew 7:24-25, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
- God is the judge of the living and the dead, but Jesus said that He will assume this role, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
- Jesus implied that He uniquely knew the Father and the Father knew Him when He said, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27). No man or angel knows God uniquely save God Himself.
- Jesus commands the disciples to baptize in His name making Him equal with the Father. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). He then implies His omnipresence by promising to always be with them.
- To make Jesus’ message clearer in John 14:9 and John 10:30, substitute “God” for “Father” when Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father (God)” and “I and the Father (God) are one.”
For more Biblical proof of Jesus divinity, see the page Who Is God?