The Most Googled Questions About God — Episode 5: Who Is Jesus?
There have been more books written about Jesus than any other person who ever walked the earth. Yet there is still debate about who He was. Some of the most common questions people ask about God and religion today include “Is Jesus God?” and “Was Jesus God and man?”
It’s ironic that Jesus asked His disciples what people were saying about Him in Matthew chapter 16. They all saw the same miracles He did. They had the same prophecies in their Old Testament. But they came to different conclusions about who He was.
This episode will give clarity to this question by pointing to some of the great evidences of Jesus in the Scriptures.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-8; Isaiah 53; Psalm 22
- Pillars of the Faith, Part Two
Listen to more on this subject
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Who is Jesus? That’s another common question today. But did you know that people had different opinions about Jesus when He was on the earth 2,000 years ago?
In Matthew 16 the Bible says, “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, ‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’ So they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Matthew 16 verses 13 through 16).
When Jesus healed the blind man in John chapter 9, the Jews argued with each other about who He was. “Therefore some of the Pharisees said, ‘This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.’ Others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?’ And there was a division among them” (John 9 verse 16). Later the Bible says, “Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. And many of them said, ‘He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?’ Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’” (John 10 verses 19 through 21).
There were several views, but there was only one that was right. Peter gave the right answer. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. A person can know the truth about Jesus if he wants to know. He can know who Jesus is just like he can know if God exists. He can know who Jesus is the same as he can know what the Bible says. Sometimes people say you can’t know the right interpretation of the Bible because people have different interpretations. You might as well say nobody in the New Testament knew who Jesus was because they were different opinions about Him.
Today, 2,000 years later, the human race still cannot agree about Jesus. Some even say He’s a myth. They say Jesus of Nazareth never existed. That’s ridiculous. Even non-Christian writers in the first century wrote about Jesus. One of them was a Jew named Flavius Josephus. He lived from 37 to 100 A.D. He was a Jewish soldier who fought in the war with the Romans. But he was captured and eventually became friends with the Roman Emperor Vespasian. He wrote a history of that war. He also wrote a history of the Jewish people. He mentioned many of the persons and events mentioned in the New Testament such as John the Baptist, the different Herods, and others. He was not a Christian. And yet, listen to what he said about Jesus: “Now, there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” Now why would a Jew who wasn’t a Christian say this if it wasn’t true? Why would he make up something that went against everything he had been his whole life?
Even more amazing was a Roman historian named Cornelius Tacitus. He lived from 55 to 120 A.D. He wrote The Annals of Imperial Rome. In a section on the infamous ruler Nero, he talked about the great fire of Rome that destroyed much of the city. He said the common people in Rome suspected that the Emperor himself started the fire. So, Tacitus wrote, “To suppress this rumor, Nero fabricated scapegoats and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called). Their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius’ reign by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate.” Now here is a man who called Christianity a superstition. He had no love for Christians. He would never have written anything to support the Christian cause intentionally. But that’s exactly what he did. Here is a man who hated Christianity and wrote against it, and yet his very words state that there was a man named Jesus who was executed by Pontius Pilate and had many followers called Christians just like the New Testament says! Now this kind of outside evidence is especially interesting. We call people like him hostile witnesses or antagonistic witnesses to the truth. They were not just skeptics. They were not neutral about Christianity. They were opposed to it, sometimes very strongly opposed to it. They had no intention of making statements to support Christian claims about Jesus. But when they wrote against the early Christians, they unintentionally verified the existence of Jesus.
Here’s another Roman writer. A man called Pliny the Younger lived from 62 to 113 A. D. He was the governor of Bithynia and a friend of the Emperor Trajan. Pliny the Younger was having problems with the Christians in his province. That wasn’t because they were doing anything wrong. The problem to the Romans was that the Christians would not bow down to Roman gods. So Pliny wrote a letter to the Emperor about year 110 or 111 A.D. He asked Trajan’s advice about how to deal with these stubborn Christians. In this letter, Pliny said he tortured Christians to get them to “curse Christ” if possible. He also said that the Christians met together on a “fixed day” to sing songs and to partake of a meal. Trajan wrote back and told Pliny that he was handling this “problem” wisely. Now think about this. This Roman official despised Christianity. He tortured them to see if he could get them to renounce Jesus and worship the Roman gods. But as he wrote to the Emperor about this so-called problem, he admitted the very history of Christ and Christianity! He too was a hostile witness to what really happened.
Those are just a few examples. There are many more outside sources that attest to the truth about Jesus and the early church. Now, of course, the main proof that Jesus lived is the New Testament. The New Testament records are genuine history, but more than that, they are inspired of God. But we won’t look at how we know the Bible is inspired at this point. We’ll do that in the next episode.
Others say He was just a man. That’s what many Jews who are not Christians say to this day. Some say he never existed or at least doubt that He did, but others say Jesus was just a man Mary conceived outside of wedlock. And, they will tell you straight up that He was not the Messiah. He was a false Christ according to them.
They don’t even believe their own Scriptures—the Old Testament. They talk a lot about Moses, but they really don’t believe what Moses said. That’s what Jesus told a group of Jews 2,000 years ago. He said, “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me” (John 5 verses 45 and 46). Jews had the Old Testament prophets for hundreds of years before Jesus came. The rabbis had studied the prophecies about the Messiah and His kingdom. We find in Matthew 2 verses 1 through 6 that He would be born in Bethlehem. How did they know that? Because that’s what God told them in Micah 5 verse 2. But when it came time for them to listen to what Jesus had to say to them, they didn’t want to hear it. He was not the kind of king they wanted. So, they ridiculed Him. They lied about Him. They sent Him to Pilate to be executed, and they were so blinded by pride that they didn’t realize they were fulfilling God’s plan in doing so! It will be a sad day for people like this when the King of kings comes to judge the world.
There are others who say Jesus was only a man. For instance, the religion of deism says God exists. But it says God doesn’t intervene in the world. It teaches that God never did the miracles in the Bible. It says God did not appear on earth in Jesus Christ. A deist believes in God but not the Bible. I know that’s inconsistent, but that’s what they believe. Some of the founders of this country were deists. Thomas Paine was an American revolutionary. He was strongly in favor of the American revolution. But he was just as much against the Bible. His motto about religion was, “I believe in one God, no more.” He said the Bible is nothing but a book of fables and lies and said Jesus, if He did exist, was certainly not the Son of God and never did the things the Bible says He did. Thomas Jefferson was also a deist. He left behind his edition of Matthew Mark, Luke and John. It’s called The Jefferson Bible. He literally took a sharp knife and cut out verses about miracles in these four books. He didn’t believe in miracles. He didn’t believe in the deity of Jesus. He did believe that Jesus’ teaching was good for society. He appreciated moral teachings of Jesus such as the Golden Rule and the command to love one’s neighbor as himself. So, he cut out the parts he didn’t agree with and published the rest. That was his “Bible.” The actual title was The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French and English. He “extracted” the parts he agreed with and threw away the rest that mentioned miracles. Does that remind you of a warning in the Bible? It’s Revelation 22 verses 18 and 19: “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
Then there are some who say Jesus was a prophet of God, but not the Son of God. And when I say “some” believe this, I’m not talking about a handful. I mean the two billion people on earth who call themselves Muslims. The Islamic religion teaches that Jesus was a prophet just like Moses or John the Baptist. But it says that Jesus was not the last or the greatest prophet. That distinction, according to Islam, belongs to Muhammad. Muslims believe Jesus actually lived. However, they teach that He was a mere man who was a prophet of Allah. In Islam, Jesus was one of many in a line of prophets that ended with Muhammed, the final prophet of Allah who restored the true religion by receiving divine revelations. Muhammed is more important than Jesus in Islam. This is seen in the confession required of anyone who wishes to become a Muslim: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammed is his prophet.” The Quran describes Jesus as a servant of Allah who acted as a messenger like Moses and other prophets. Listen to what the Quran, which is the book Muslims believe is the true word of God, says about Jesus. “Christ Jesus the son of Mary was no more than a Messenger of Allah and His Word.” It also says, “Christ, the son of Mary was no more than a Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him.” The Quran of the Muslim religion says it is blasphemy to say that Jesus is deity. This so-called holy book says, “They do blaspheme who say: ‘Allah is Christ the son of Mary.’ But said Christ; ‘O children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’ Whoever joins other gods with Allah, Allah will forbid him the Garden, and the fire will be his abode.” It also says “Christians call Christ the Son of God. That is a saying from their mouth; in this they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be upon them.”
Islam also strikes at the very heart of Christianity in another way. It denies the crucifixion of Jesus: “That they said in boast, ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah’—but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them.”
The interesting thing about this is that the Quran of Islam calls the Bible “the Book.” That’s right! The Quran admits that the Bible or the “Book” existed before the Quran. And here’s the real catch—they admit that the “Book” or the Bible was inspired of God. So you probably wondering, “If they say the Bible came from God, then why don’t they believe it?” Because Muslims say the Bible we have now is not the same as it was when God gave it. Muslims argue that Jews and Christians changed the wording of the Bible. But that is ridiculous. There’s not a shred of evidence that proves Christians intentionally altered the text of the Bible, and there is every reason to believe that they copied it accurately and passed it down through the generations. And here’s something else to remember. Muslims say the Bible was given by God originally. But, the Quran says repeatedly that the words of Allah cannot be changed. Now that’s an outright contradiction!
The real question Muslims are trying to get you not to ask is this: what is the evidence that God spoke to Muhammad, and what proof do you have that the Quran is the word of God? There is none. And yet this worldwide movement is growing rapidly. That’s not because Islam is logical, it’s because Islam is a political ideology that aims to conquer the world. The word Islam means submission. The goal of Islam is to bring the world into submission to Allah and implement sharia, the law of Islam, in the place of all other law systems. Islam is not so much a religion as it is a political movement.
Then there are some who even say Jesus is an angel. There is an old belief that God created Jesus. That cannot be true. Jesus was not created. He is the One who created everything. The Bible says, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth” (Colossians 1 verse 16). Jesus is eternal. But there was a man who lived about seventeen hundred years ago that taught that God the Father made Jesus. His name was Arius. He was an elder of the church at Alexandria. He said there was a point at which Christ did not exist. He said Christ was begotten before time began, that He is the “perfect creature of God,” but that He is “not together with the Father.” This heresy was the occasion of the famous meeting in Nicea in 325 A.D. which condemned this doctrine in what is known as the Nicene Creed.
Arius is not a household name today, but there is a group that believes Jesus was and is a created being. That group is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This organization teaches that Jesus is an angel. Specifically, they teach that He is Michael the archangel in the Bible. This is absolutely false. The Bible teaches that Jesus is deity or God. There are many verses in the New Testament that teach this. In John chapter 1 verse one the Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We know the “Word” is Jesus because verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Now what does verse 1 in John chapter 1 say? It says “the Word was God.” How could the Bible be any plainer? And yet, the Jehovah’s Witness group changed this statement to say “the Word was a god” (little g). That contradicts the Bible, and it’s without any support in the original Greek of the New Testament. Not only that, it goes against what verse three says about Jesus: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Only God has the power to create. Angels don’t have that kind of power.
Hebrews chapter 1 shows us clearly who Jesus is. So remember those two chapters when you deal with someone who tries to convince you that Jesus is not the Son of God: John chapter 1 and Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews 1 verse 3 says Jesus is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,” that is, Jesus is the express image of the person of God. That means He has the very essence of deity. He has the same nature that God the Father has. That’s why He could say, “I and My Father are one” (John 10 verse 30). The Bible never says that about an angel.
Here’s something else this chapter says about Jesus that proves He is God. It says Jesus made the universe in verse 2: “He made the worlds.” But it doesn’t stop there. It says in verse 3 that Jesus “upholds” all things by the word of His power. Jesus didn’t just make the world. He sustains it. He keeps everything in place and keeps the universe going. Angels sure can’t do that. They depend on God for their existence just like everything else in the universe does.
But Hebrews chapter 1 gets even more direct. In verses 4 through 6 this chapter says Jesus is “so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You’? And again: ‘I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son’? But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: ‘Let all the angels of God worship Him.’” Does that sound like Jesus is just one of the angels? Angels worship Jesus. Only God is to be worshipped. The Bible specifically forbids worshipping angels. Twice in the book of Revelation the apostle John tried to worship an angel and both times the angel told him not to do this. In Revelation 22 verse 8 and 9, the Bible reads, “Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.’”
But there’s one more thing we don’t need to leave out in Hebrews chapter 1. This chapter directly calls Jesus God! Here’s what it says in Hebrews 1 verses 7 and 8: “And of the angels He says: ‘Who makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire.’ But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.’” Notice the contrast. In verse seven God is talking about angels. He says they are ministers or servants. But in verse eight God the Father is talking to the Son (Jesus). And what does He say to Jesus? “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever”! God the Father called Jesus God! And if God the Father called Jesus God, then He is without a doubt God.
Let’s talk about the proof Jesus gave that He was God in the flesh. How could people in Bible times know that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God? They could know by His miracles. Any honest person could see that. In John 3 verse 1 and 2, the Bible says, “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’” Nicodemus was right. There was only one way to explain the miracles Jesus did. He had to be from God!
There was a situation where the Jewish leaders confronted Jesus and demanded proof. Here’s what happened. “Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me’” (John 10 verses 24 and 25). These Jews wanted Jesus to tell them directly that He was the Christ. Jesus said He had already told them, and they didn’t believe. But then He pointed to another way they could know that He was the Son of God: “the works that I do” which means His miracles. Nicodemus believed in Jesus because of the works He did. These Jews could have done the same if they had been honest. In that same discussion Jesus told them, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him” (John 10 verses 37 and 38).
But even Jesus’ disciples wanted to see more from Jesus. Here’s an interesting story that happened the night before Jesus was crucified. ‘Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves’” (John 14 verse 9 through 11).
These and many other passages teach that the miracles of Jesus proved that He was the Son of God. The prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament are also proof of who He is. One of the first things we read in the book of John is that everyday Jews connected Jesus to the prophecies of their Old Testament about the Messiah. In John 1 verse 45, the Bible says, “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip was no rabbi. He wasn’t a Bible scholar. But he could see that Jesus fit perfectly the description the prophets gave about the Messiah. One of the greatest prophecies of Jesus is in Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah wrote this over 700 years before Jesus was born. Here is what its says. “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.” These are some of the most beautiful and striking words in the Bible about Jesus. How on earth could anyone read these words and not believe in Jesus?
Then there is the great prophecy in Psalm 22 verses 1 through 18. And this time, the writer was David, and he wrote this 1,000 years before Jesus! “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.’”
Whenever you talk to someone who doubts the Bible, show that person these verses. Whenever your faith grows weak, look at these verses again. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He became a man, but He was not just a man. He was God in the flesh. He was a prophet, but he was much more than a prophet. He was the mediator of the New Testament. He was sent by God the Father, but He was not an angel. Jesus is eternal. He has always been. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last” (Revelation 1 verse 11). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1 verse 29). He was before the world was, and He was the One who made the world. He is in heaven now, and some day He will come to judge the whole world. That is the Jesus we love and serve.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.