Does the New Testament present Jesus as God himself, worthy of divine worship, or as a lesser, created being? The debate with those who deny his full deity.
25 verses are cited on this page. Each one links to its chapter in the Greek text.
...and the Word was God.John 1:1
The Word is God. The grammar (a definite predicate noun before the verb) marks full deity, not "a god"; John says the same in different words at 1:18 and 20:28. (See the theos word study.)
The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.John 1:18
This edition reads monogenes theos, only begotten God, the reading of the oldest manuscripts. John opens his prologue calling the Word God and closes it the same way.
Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord and my God.John 20:28
Thomas addresses the risen Christ as God, and Christ accepts the confession rather than correct it.
...the coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.Titus 2:13
One article binds "great God" and "Saviour" to the single person of Christ.
...the justice of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.2 Peter 1:1
The same construction again names Jesus as our God and Saviour.
Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed for ever.Romans 9:5
Paul, writing as a Jew, calls the Messiah God blessed forever. Some translations repunctuate this into a separate doxology to the Father, but that is a punctuation choice, not a textual one.
But to the Son: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.Hebrews 1:8
The Father addresses the Son as God, quoting Psalm 45. The verse sits inside a chapter arguing that the Son is greater than the angels.
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power.Hebrews 1:3
Apaugasma of his glory and charakter of his hypostasis. The second word is what a seal leaves in wax: not a likeness of the thing but its exact impression. Nicaea reached for this verse when it needed language for the Son being of the same substance.
...whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.Romans 10:9-13
Paul applies to Jesus a text (Joel 2:32) that names YHWH, calling on the name of the Lord. (See the kyrios word study.)
...that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow... and that every tongue should confess.Philippians 2:9-11
Paul applies Isaiah 45:23, spoken by God of himself, to Jesus, before whom every knee bows.
...and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.1 Corinthians 8:6
The one Lord through whom all things exist, the Creator's role given to Jesus.
...they came up and took hold of his feet, and adored him.Matthew 28:9
The risen Christ receives worship (proskyneo) and does not refuse it. (See the proskyneo and latreuo word studies.)
And he said: I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him.John 9:38
The healed man worships Jesus, who accepts it.
And let all the angels of God adore him.Hebrews 1:6
God commands the angels to worship the Son, which is due to God alone.
...To him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction, and honour, and glory.Revelation 5:13-14
The Lamb receives the identical worship given to God on the throne.
...he said also that God was his Father, making himself equal to God.John 5:18
His hearers understood him to claim equality with God, and he did not deny it.
...before Abraham was made, I am.John 8:58
Christ takes to himself the divine "I am" (Exodus 3:14), and they take up stones to kill him for blasphemy.
I and the Father are one.John 10:30
The Greek says one thing, not one person: hen is neuter, and the verb is plural, so two persons and one being stand in six words. They take up stones for blasphemy, and he does not correct them.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for in him were all things created in heaven and on earth. And he is before all, and by him all things consist.Colossians 1:15-17
Prototokos is a title of rank and inheritance, not a statement of manufacture. Israel is called God's firstborn and was not his first creature. And the objection answers itself in the next breath: if all things were created in him, he is not among the things created.
And: Thou in the beginning, O Lord, didst found the earth: and the works of thy hands are the heavens.Hebrews 1:10
The writer is still quoting what the Father says to the Son, and the psalm he quotes addresses the Lord who made the world. So a psalm about the creator God is applied to Christ without comment, as though it needed none.
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.Revelation 22:13
The one coming quickly in verse 12 takes for himself the title God speaks over himself earlier in the book. Note that in this edition the beginning and the end stands here and at 21:6, not at 1:8.
If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I.John 14:28
The word is meizon, greater in order, not kreitton, better in nature, which is the word Hebrews 1:4 uses when it compares natures. The Son speaks here as sent and as incarnate, and a son under his father in mission is not less in kind.
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God.Revelation 3:14
Arche means source or origin, and it is the same word God speaks over himself at 21:6 and Christ takes for himself at 22:13. Read as first item in a series it makes Christ a creature; read as source it makes him what John 1:3 already called him.
Why callest thou me good? None is good but one, that is God.Mark 10:18
He does not say he is not good. He asks why the man chose the word, and he never corrects the premise that only God is good, which leaves the man one conclusion he has not yet drawn.
The New Testament calls Jesus God (John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13), gives him the divine name Lord in texts that in the Old Testament name YHWH (Romans 10:13; Philippians 2:10-11), renders him the worship owed to God alone (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:13-14), and ascribes to him creation and the eternal "I am" (John 8:58; Colossians 1:16). He is not "a god" but God the Son. The First Council of Nicaea (325) confessed him true God of true God, one in being (homoousios) with the Father.