God Incarnate

Did Jesus ever claim to be God? As a matter of fact, He did. For example, He said, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:23–24 NKJV). That was a clear statement of equality with God the Father.

We also know that on many occasions, Jesus accepted worship, something that was reserved for God alone. In fact, in the wilderness, when the Devil tempted Jesus to worship him, Jesus quoted Scripture: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve” (Matthew 4:10 NKJV).

Jesus was underscoring the fact that worship is to be given to God alone. Yet, He accepted worship on many occasions. If He was not God, then He would have immediately stopped the people who worshiped Him.

As we read in the book of Revelation, an angel revealed some great truths to the apostle John. As a result, John was so overwhelmed that he fell down to worship the angel. But the angel told him, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God” (21:9 NKJV).

Yet Jesus accepted worship. We find an example of this after the resurrection, when He appeared before Thomas, who said, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28 NKJV).

Jesus replied, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (verse 29 NKJV).

Now, if Jesus wasn’t God, He would have basically said, “Thomas, stop right now! That’s blasphemy!” But Jesus accepted worship because He was—and is—indeed God.