Is Jesus Really God?

16 July 2025  Matthew 11:25-27

“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son….” Matthew 11:27

There are those who believe that Jesus never claimed to be God. While it is true that Jesus never in the gospels used the formula, “I am God,” there are dozens of other texts that establish Jesus’ claims to divinity. “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son” (Matthew 11:27) shows a knowledge so intimate that it can only be the knowledge of someone who is God. Then there are the many “I Am” declarations of Jesus – “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). “I Am” is how God identified Himself to Moses (Exodus 3:14), and every Jew who heard Jesus’ “I Am” declarations would have made that connection. Then there are the many times when Jesus claimed divine power, as when He healed the paralytic by first forgiving his sin (Mark 2:5-12), declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28), and corrected misinterpretations of the law ten times in Matthew (“You have heard that it was said…, but I say unto you…). And of course there is also Jesus stunning claim in John 10:30, “The Father and I are One.” The assertion that Jesus never claimed to be God is pretty hard to sustain.

But was He right about that?

There are only three ways to sustain the claim that Jesus was mistaken in His claim to be God.

One is that He was lying, that He knew He wasn’t God but said it anyway. The problem with this is that it would make His miracles and moral teaching very difficult to explain. People who are liars make very bad moral teachers, and generally do not perform healings and exorcisms. Plenty of Jews, even Jewish leaders, made the connection between Jesus’ goodness, truth, and power during His earthly ministry – Nicodemus said to Him during their nighttime visit, “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” (John 3:2).

Another way is to say that Jesus was misinformed about what the Bible really said. However, many scholars and teachers of the Law challenged Jesus again and again, only to find that they could not refute His understanding of Holy Scripture, and eventually they stopped asking: “And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions” (Matthew 22:46 – see also Mark 12:34). Even the great teacher Gamaliel, after hearing the testimony of the Apostles, advised the Sanhedrin that God might be with them: “Keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God” (Acts 5:38-39).

The only other way Jesus could be mistaken about His divine claims is if He was mentally ill. The particular mental illness He was accused of was possession by an evil spirit: “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (Matthew 12:24). But this was just arrant nonsense, which Jesus quickly dispatched: “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?” (12:26). Like the claim that Jesus was lying, the claim of mental illness would make His miracles and moral teaching impossible to explain.

So, if Jesus isn’t lying, or misinformed, or mentally ill, what’s left?

What’s left is that He is right: “No one knows the Father except the Son…and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

He is trying to reveal Himself to you.

If He is not lying, misinformed, or mentally ill, you know what to do.

Believe Him.