“He Never Said That!”

That’s what some guy claimed regarding Jesus’ Divinity.

“Jesus never claimed that He was God.”

As one person has said, “To read the historical accounts of Jesus and not recognise His claims to being God, one must be as blind as a man outside on a clear day at high noon and say that he can’t see the sun.”

I say, “Maybe YOU can’t hear the claims of Jesus that He was God incarnate, but the religious leaders of the day certainly heard them.” Or perhaps you just don’t understand what those people meant when they accused Jesus of blasphemy.

Jesus’ trial was not about what He had done. It was about Who He claimed to be.

. “If you have seen Me, you have seen God.”

. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father, the One who sent Me”

. “He who hates Me, hates My Father also”

. “I and the Father are one.”

It’s significant that Jesus, neither in these verses nor during the cleansing the Temple used the term “our” Father. Instead He said, “MY Father.” "My Father's house." This was not lost on the religious leaders who saw the use of the term “MY Father” as equating Himself with God.


Besides His many other claims to being God, Jesus received worship from others and never corrected people for having done so. Sometimes He even demanded worship (John 5:23). When Peter and Martha and others said to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the living God,” Jesus did not correct them. In fact, the number of times that Jesus compared Himself with or likened Himself to God are so many, to list them all would render even my typically long posts too long. Therefore I’ll only touch on what His enemies said about Him.

Why His enemies? In a court of Law, no corroborative evidence is more convincing to open minded listeners than that of a hostile witnesses. The fact that Jesus laid claim to Divinity / Deity is incontestably established by the action of His enemies.

1) Mark 2 and Luke 7 - This is the account of Jesus healing and forgiving the sins of the crippled man. Rather than immediately healing the man who had been placed in front of Him Jesus first said to the man, “Son, you sins are forgiven.”

The Priests who were present asked, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus asked them, “Which is easier to say, “You’re healed,” or “You’re sins are forgiven.” To show them that He was God and that He had power on earth to forgive sins, Jesus said to the man, “Pick up your mat and go home and the man picked up His mat and walked out from among them.”

. The paralytic (as have all of us) had sinned against Creator God.
. Jesus said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven.”
. No one but God has the right to forgive sins committed against God.
. That is exactly what Jesus did.
. Jesus proved His authority to forgive the man’s sins by healing him. Even those people who atheists derisively call “primitive” knew that quadriplegics are not restored to health by a spoken word. Unlike today’s charlatan faith healers, Jesus’ healings were instantaneous, complete and permanent. Only a supernatural power can heal someone in that manner with a spoken word.
It was true then. It is true today.

2) Mark 14 - At the trial of Jesus - Jesus had stood silent before His accusers. The High Priest then forced Jesus, by placing Him under oath - to answer the accusations against Him.

“Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?” the Priest demanded!

Jesus answered, “I Am. And you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

Jesus’ words were carefully chosen to ensure there was no doubt Who He was claiming to be. Again, the religious leaders had no problem bringing a charge of blasphemy against Jesus based on these comments. Jesus had just identified Himself as:

a) The Son of the Blessed One

b) The One who would sit at the right hand of power

c) The Son of man who would come on the clouds of heaven

To anyone in that religious culture, ALL of these are Messianic titles found in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament in regard to the coming of God to save Israel. The Sanhedrin caught every one of these three points. Unlike most trials, Jesus was NOT tried for some criminal action. He was put on trial for who He claimed to be - God incarnate.

Spiritually blind and deaf, atheists are simply unable to grasp the significance of what took place when God Incarnate pitched His tent among us.

For what it’s worth, it was no idle question that Jesus asked regarding which is easier, to give the paralytic physical health or spiritual healing. As Max Lucado puts it:

. One took a command; one His blood
. One took place in a house with friends close by; one naked and alone on a cross
. One took a moment in time; one took His life

For Creator God, the cost of Grace, the price of Forgiveness was huge.

Of course atheists say, “At worst, Jesus just had a bad weekend.”

That’s what atheists are like. It’s how they think.