Does the Bible present Jesus as God in the flesh? Is the Son of God really God? Or did the doctrine of Christ’s deity evolve over the centuries? Christianity rises and falls upon this doctrine just as much as any other. It is not an overstatement to say that salvation hangs in the balance. So, what’s the answer?

Dan Brown writes in his enormously popular book The Da Vinci Code that Jesus’ deity was a doctrine proposed and voted on at the Council of Nicaea in 325. He writes that the Roman emperor at the time, Constantine, “turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable.”[1] However, The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, and so is this claim. Fiction.

Not only is this claim historically inaccurate (the deity of Christ was not proposed/voted on at the council of Nicaea), it is biblically and theologically inaccurate. The Scriptures clearly present Jesus as God and our theology of salvation requires it. Yet countless cults and critics have bought into Brown’s claims or those like it, believing that the deity of Jesus is a historical development rather than biblical truth.

Biblical Evidence

I would like to pose three arguments that demonstrate that the Bible clearly expects us to believe that Jesus is God: 1. Jesus bears the names and titles of God. 2. Jesus does the works of God. 3. Jesus receives the worship of God.

1. Jesus bears the titles of God.

Consider the following verses:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

“Thomas answered him [Jesus], ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28)

Titus writes that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). This verse features the Granville Sharpe Rule in Greek, where God and Savior refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. It is similar to how we might say “our father and friend David.” We would understand David to be both the father and friend referenced.

There’s another one of these in 2 Peter 1:1- “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”Peter clearly refers to Jesus as God and Savior.

Paul writes, “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 9:5)

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 21:6). Compare this to what Yahweh says about himself in Isaiah 44:6, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”

The New Testament authors clearly identify Jesus as God by using these titles in reference to him.

2. Jesus does the works of God.

Not only is Jesus called God, but he does the things God does.

He creates. “For by him [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).

He forgives sins. “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? (Mark 2:5-7).

He performs miracles that demonstrate his authority over creation. He feeds the five thousand, calms the raging sea, heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind, and raises the dead.

He provides salvation. In Isaiah 43:11, God says, “I am the Lord and besides me there is no savior.” In John 12:47, Jesus says that he did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

He executes judgment. In his first coming, he came to provide salvation. In his second coming, he will save his people but also judge the earth. Judgment is an office explicitly reserved for God. In Genesis 18:25, Abraham calls God “the Judge of the earth” (Gen 18:25). In John 5:22, Jesus says that the Father “has given all judgement to the Son.” Paul charges Timothy to preach the Word, “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead” (2 Tim 4:1-2).

3. Jesus receives the worship of God.

Not only does Jesus given the titles of God, not only does Jesus do the works of God, but he also receives worship as God.

After calming the sea, Matthew writes that “those in the boat worshiped him saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’” (Matt 14:33). In Philippians, Jesus is presented to us as the one before whom “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

John records this day of worship in Revelation, writing, “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped” (Rev 5:13-24).

Jesus is clearly worshiped in the New Testament. This is no trivial thing, for the first commandment is to have no other gods beside God. He is a jealous God, and will not take lightly to us worshiping another (Exodus 20:1-4). Either the New Testament and its presentation of Jesus as God is correct, or it is a blasphemous lie. There is no middle ground.

Historical Evidence

I’d like to circle back to Dan Brown’s claim that this doctrine was postulated and voted on at the council of Nicaea. Those who hold this view often assert that no one really believed in the deity of Jesus before Nicaea. Below is a small sampling of some of the most influential church fathers and what they wrote regarding Jesus’ deity:

Ignatius (AD 50-117)-“There is only one physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering and then beyond it, Jesus Christ our Lord.”[2]

Polycarp (AD 69- 155)- “Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth…and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.”[3]

Justin Martyr (AD 100-165)- “And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.”[4]

Clement of Alexandria (AD 150- 215)- “This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man, He alone being both, both God and man…”[5]

Tertullian (AD 150-225): “For God alone is without sin; and the only man without sin is Christ, since Christ is also God.”[6]

These men demonstrate the consensus of the early church fathers: Jesus is the divine Son of God. The council of Nicaea was convened to defend the deity of Christ and clarify the church’s stance on the Trinity against Arius and his heretical teachings, not to vote on the newly proposed deity of Christ. 

Theological Evidence

We also need to consider the theological evidence of Jesus’ deity. Here’s a couple of questions that help us consider this aspect. If Jesus is not divine, how could he bear an eternity’s worth of sins in just three hours on the cross? If he was only a man, or even an angel, how could these three hours pay for mankind’s sins? Only the eternal One could atone for an eternity’s worth of sins in these few hours.

If Jesus is not God and man, how can he be a perfect mediator between God and man? This is what makes Jesus fundamentally different than the high priests of old. He is not just a man. He is not just an angel. He is God himself in the flesh, able to reconcile both God and man because he possesses both natures of God and man.[7] Anything less could not accomplish perfect mediation.

If Jesus is not God, how can he be called the Alpha and the Omega and the Beginning and the End in Revelation 1:8 and 21:6? If there is only one God worthy of this title (see Isaiah 44:6), how can these titles be attributed to Jesus? If they are reserved for the God of Israel alone, how can the resurrected Christ claim them about himself, and how could we affirm them, and not be guilty of blasphemy?

The Question

The remaining question is not “does the Bible teach that Jesus is God?” or “has the church historically confessed that Jesus is God?” As we’ve seen above, the answer is a resounding YES.

The remaining question is this: will you believe what the Bible teaches and what the church has confessed? Will you bend the knee and worship Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, and submit to his Lordship and Rule? My prayer is that you do- for there is life and salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12)!

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[1] Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, 253.

[2] Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, 7.2.

[3] Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians, 12:2.

[4] Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 128.

[5] Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, 1.

[6] Tertullian, Treatise on the Soul, 41.

[7] This is referred to as the “hypostatic union” and was affirmed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.