Verses that show Jesus Is God

A set of verses you can learn in preparation for discussions with Muslims.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
--John 1:1-2

God made creation, and he can enter into it:

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.
--John 1:14

30  “I and My Father are one.”
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works have I shown you from My Father. For which of those works do ye stone Me?”
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy and because thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”
--John 10:30-33

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when He had found him, He said unto him, “Dost thou believe in the Son of God?”
36 He answered and said, “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe in him?”
37 And Jesus said unto him, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.”
38 And he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.
--John 9:35-38

58 Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am!”
59 Then they took up stones to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
--John 8:58-59

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
--John 17:5

Jesus did not refuse this title:

28 And Thomas answered and said unto Him, “My Lord and my God!”
--John 20:28

This shows "God" was born:

 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
--Isaiah 9:6

14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (Emmanuel means God with us)
--Isaiah 7:14

17 And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, “All power is given unto Me in Heaven and on earth.
19 Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
--Matt 28:17-29

Jesus is the Son of Man, from Daniel 7:

61 But He held His peace and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him and said unto Him, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
62 And Jesus said, “I am; and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
63 Then the high priest rent his clothes and said, “Why need we any further witnesses?
64 Ye have heard the blasphemy. What think ye?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.
--Mark 14:61-63

9 And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 who also said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven.”
--Acts 1:9-11

This is Daniel 7: Jesus applied the title "Son of Man" to himself about 80 times.

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.
14 And there was given Him dominion and glory and a Kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
--Daniel 7:13-14

13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
--Titus 2:13

Paul expands on the "shemah":

6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
--1 Cor 8:6

They "called on" Jesus, or prayed to him:
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:
--1 Cor 1:2

Ligonier contributes to Christian response to Islam

I am excited to see that R.C Sproul and his group are helping to equip Christians to articulate their faith to Muslims.

First they recently came the statement on who Jesus is:

http://christologystatement.com/

What would cause one ministry to propose a modernized credal statement on Christology?  I heard their official response, but there was no mention of Islam, as I recall. However, I think the statement was really motivated in large part as a response to the challenge of  Islam to the Church.

Now they have released a "one-stop shop" set of teaching in audio form called "The Cross and the Crescent" where Abdul Saleeb explains the Muslim mindset and R.C Sproul answers from the Christian perspective.

What I particularly like is that this material is accessible to lay people and, while building on what most Christians already know, and does not rely on detailed knowledge of Islam, which would soon be forgotten anyway by most people.  So much material in this space is just disparaging Islam, rather than learning to articulate the Gospel to Muslims (and to others).  The questions that Muslims raise are also asked by other people.

You can get this material at the Ligonier.org store as the "Cross and the Crescent" CD series.

Or, presumably, the series may be available somewhere on SermonAudio, along with the rest of their daily podcast, or from their Ref.net Android app.

Bible Corrupt: Persistent and Verifiable statements in the Bible +

People who have never opened a Bible may think that it is a religious book, maybe like a fairy tale or a book of wise sayings.  Actually the Bible is more of a historical book that describes people's encounters with God.  What many don't realize is that, it contains many statements that would have been provable or disprovable at the time they were written, to some degree.

Let me explain what I mean so you can find or select your own favorite statements that you can share with conviction.
(1)

Mark 5:1-20 describes how Jesus cast demons out of a demon-possessed man  in a particular time in his short ministry and a specific location.  It says that 2,000 pigs drowned themselves, and that the man "began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled".  Decapolis means ten cities.  Think about this:  With that many dead pigs, there must have been either a very stinky lake, or, more likely, a lot of bacon on sale that week.  Either way, this event would have been remembered, and talked about, for a long time.  Anyone traveling through that region would have known about this if it had happened.  So if you found yourself reading this story in Mark's Gospel in that day, you would have known if this was true or not.

(2)

Matt 28:14 describes how the Jewish leaders responded to the resurrection: "This saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continues until today."  What saying?  That the disciples stole the body of Jesus while the guards slept.  This means that if you stopped a typical Jew in the street, around the time that Matthew was written, he would basically admit that Jesus' tomb was empty, and the Jewish leaders had no better answer to the resurrection than this saying.  Therefore we can say that, from a historical perspective, there was widespread acceptance that Jesus was crucified at the time--contrary to the Quran claims.

(3)

The feeding of the five thousand, and of the four thousand, is recorded in all four gospels.  This must have become widely known.


Question for Muslims: Does the Quran contain statements like Luke 3:1-2 or is it more of the "Long ago and in a land far away..." genre of literature?

Bible Corrupt: Dating the Gospels +

Muslims often ignorantly claim the gospels were written "hundreds of years" after the events they describe.  However we can confidently show an earlier date because of the following:

We know that Acts and the Gospel according to Luke were both written by the same author. They were both addressed to "Theophilus".
We know that Luke's gospel was written before Acts, because Acts starts like this:

The first book [i.e. Luke's Gospel] I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach...
--Acts 1:1

The Book of Acts does not mention the following important events:


The Death of  James (A.D. 62).  James was the brother of Jesus and head of Jerusalem church, This event was recorded by the Jewish Historian Josephus.

The Death of Paul (A.D. 64).  The book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest for two years.  Paul is the major figure in Acts.

The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.


Probably both Matthew or Mark were written before Luke, because Luke's gospel specifically mentions other gospels, and clearly uses Matthew and Mark as source material:

Since many have undertaken to set in order a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus; that you might know the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed.
--Luke 1:1-4

This means that Luke wrote what he heard from eyewitnesses.

License to Sin: Salvation by grace from the Epistles *

The doctrine of salvation by grace is most clearly shown in Paul's epistles, but as mentioned previously Muslims tend not to believe Paul.

The following verse may be the most concise explanation of the Gospel found in scripture:

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
--2 Cor 5:21 (KJV)

Paul teaches that there are fundamentally two ways to obtain righteousness:
One is by following the law perfectly, and the other is by Christ's righteousness by grace through faith.

Some people may seem to be holy to some people if you look like you are following the laws of Moses, you should not try to do that as a way of earning your salvation, unless you can keep the whole law completely:

For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
--Gal 5:3-4 (KJV)

Salvation cannot be earned, but only received as a gift.  If you try to earn your salvation, you will receive the wages of your actions:

Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
--Romans 4:4 (KJV)

License to Sin: Can Christians Eat Whatever They want? *

Why don't Christians follow the Old Testament dietary laws against eating pork?  Did Paul make more changes to the Old Testament laws?
No, it is because Peter was shown a vision from God that showed that all foods were made clean, and he also learned that they should no longer avoid associating with non-Jews:

 “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.”
--Acts 10:14

Salvation: Jesus Taught Salvation by Grace +

Usually, when we talk about salvation by grace, we will quote verses from the epistles.  However, Muslims have been told that Paul changed the original Christianity that Jesus taught into licentiousness to appeal to pagan audiences.

Let me expand on this point here.  They claim that Paul was able to entirely undo what Jesus came to do, then replace that with something different, all in the same generation that Jesus and his disciples lived in.  This is the same Jesus who is the only virgin-born prophet who performed many miracles.

Nevertheless it is good to be able to show that Paul and Jesus are not at odds.  Here are verses that show that Jesus himself taught that salvation is by grace, through faith.

Fundamentally, the message of the four gospels is that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead.  Jesus did not flee the cross but allowed himself to be captured.  This must have great significance.  As Paul points out:

For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!
--Gal 2:21

Communion was instituted by Jesus:

This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.
--Matt 26:28

Jesus said:
the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
--Matt 20:28

He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.
--Mark 16:16

To the people who were religious people who were trying to keep the law:

I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
--Matt 5:20

whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
--Matt 5:28 (KJV)

About the tax collector compared to a pharisee:

But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
--Luke 10:13,14

To a crowd that had gathered around Him:

“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
--John 6:29

To the paralytic:

 Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
--Mark 2:12

To the thief on the cross:

 He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
--Luke 23:40-42-43

To the sinner woman:

He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." (...)
He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
--Luke 7:48, 50

To whosoever:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
--John 3:16 (KJV)

Jesus left us with a new commandment, not with Moses' law:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another.
--John 13:4

This is not "another" commandment, but a "new" commandment that replaces the old.