Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity

There are so many passages from the Bible that clearly portray Jesus Christ as not just a man but as divine (God, the Son, the second person of the Trinity). The deity of Christ is best shown through the claims that Jesus made about Himself, the claims that other people made of Him, and the actions of Jesus.

First, Jesus makes the statement “before Abraham was, I am” in John 8:58. This has a direct connection to Exodus 3:14 in which God names Himself in front of Moses as “I AM.” The significance of Jesus using these words is that He is directly claiming divinity. The Jews that he was speaking to knew this instantly as they begun to pick up stones to stone Him for blasphemy. Jesus’ claim for divinity is a statement that He and God are one in the same (Jn. 5: 16-18, 23; 10:30). To know Jesus is to know God the Father (Mt. 11:27; Lk. 10:22; Jn. 14:1), and Jesus was making that as clear as day.

Secondly, there are countless second-hand testimonies. In legal court, it is one thing to claim something yourself, but when there are several outside testimonies from other people all saying the same thing, it has to be true. John 1:1-3 states that the Word was in the beginning with God, as God. Later in verse 14 John explicitly says, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Even more are the names that are used for Jesus and their connections to Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. Jesus is called “the Son of Man” (Jn. 5:27; 9:35-37) connecting Him to the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13-14 who is given dominion, authority, glory, and an everlasting kingdom. Jesus is called “Immanuel” (meaning “God with us”) from before His birth (Mt. 1:23). This name connects Him to Isaiah 7:14, the prophecy of the coming Messiah conceived and born of a virgin (clearly Jesus fulfilled many prophecies of the Messiah, in fact he fulfilled them all). One of the most notable persons to claim that Christ was indeed God would be Paul. Paul states that Christ is above all things (Ro. 9:5) and that in Christ the fulness of God dwelt (Co. 1:19). Even the unknown author of Hebrews claims that He was “the exact imprint of [God’s] nature” (1:3).

Finally, we see that the actions of Jesus Christ are actions that are only done by God. In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus heals a paralytic man by saying “Son, your sins are forgiven” (v. 5). This is not the only time he makes this statement, Jesus actually forgives the sins of many people (Mt. 9:2- 7; Lk. 5:20-25). Each time he forgives sins and says this line, we see two responses. One response is from the Pharisees and other religious leaders in asking “who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk. 2:7). If only God can forgive sins, and Jesus is forgiving sins, then Jesus must be God. This line of reasoning lead to the second response of all of Jesus’ followers, that is worship. Interestingly enough, Jesus never rebukes those who worship Him. In fact, He goes as far as to accept their worship (Mt. 14:33; 28:9). Receiving worship is an act that is done by God alone (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11), so much so that even the angels reject worship and instead they redirect worship toward the Lord (Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9). I want to finish by pointing to the strongest piece of evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ, namely His Resurrection. In John 20:19-30, we see the resurrected Jesus appear to His disciples. What other prophet was resurrected from the dead? Even beyond that, Jesus also claimed that He would die and be raised, and He was! If He was telling the truth about being resurrected, then how much more was He telling the truth of being the Son, the second person of the Trinity?