Jesus is God

You forgot that IAM means Jehovah in Hebrew. You acknowledge that the Jews had a good reason to kill Jesus fo saying He was God and then deny He called Himself God. How does that work. Second Jesus did more than card tricks, He actually rose from the dead and performed many miracles. I will get to that. I addition to Christs I Am staetments, He otherwise proclaims His deity and asserts divine prerogatives. On numerous occasions. He claims to be one with the Father. He asserts the authority to answer prayer. He demonstrates His authority to forgive sin. He adopts titles used for God in the Old Testament such as I am the light of the world and I am the good shepherd. He considers Himself worthy to receive honor due to God only. He promises to provide spiritual comfort that only God could provide. He and others assert His authority to judge mankind He refers to Himself as Lord. He proclaims authority over our personal salvation. . Finally, In the Book of Revelation, John qoutes Christ, From his vision, Making a clear claim to divinity Behold, I am coming soon. . . I am the Alpha and Omega, The first and the last the beginning and the end. . . . I, Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. Christ undeniably spoke with authority like no one before or since. He didnt simply say, Follow my teachings, But Follow me. He boldly exclaimed, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The learned Christian writer G. Campbell Morgan expounded on this point in 1913, I propose to examine the claims which Christ made as to His own teaching. I take up the writings of other men, All of them valuable in greater or less degree, And it is always interesting to notice a mans estimate of the value of he things he says himself, And this I have observed; that he greatest human teachers have always been reticent as to the ultimate authority of their teaching. They have always admitted that there is room for interpretation, For question, For further investigation. That note is entirely absent from the teaching of Christ. There is no apology. He never said "It is natural therefore to suppose; or consult the authorities. " Christ left no doubt with this statement: "Heaven and earth will pass away, But my words will not pass away". His words, Recorded in Mathew 7:24~27, Are similarly difinitive, Declaring that everyone who hears and acts upon them would be like a wise man who built his house on a rock. But those who hear and don't act on His words will be foolish, Like a man who built his house on sand. In his gospel, Mark has Jesus arguably going even further, Warning, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of mMe and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, The Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him, When He cometh in he glory of His Father with the holy angels". No ordinary man could conceivably have made such statements! But nothing can beat His declaration in John 5:24: "Truly, Truly, I say unto you, Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, But has passed from death to life. " In His final resurrection appearence recorded in Luke, Jesus makes a statement loaded with assertions of divine prerogative and with His unequivocal claim to be the very person (Christ, TheSon of God) predicted in the Old Testament: "Then he said to them, `These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, That everything written of me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fullfilled. ` Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, And said to them, `Thus is it written, That the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, And that repentence and forgiveness of sis should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, Beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things`". Citing some ofthese statements, G. Campbell Morgan observes, "I at once confess that it seems to my own heart that the mere readin of these passages brings us into an atmosphere in which we are conscious of the august sublimity of Christs conception of the value of His ownteaching. My own convictionis that there is not a single one of these passages that we can believe to be true if we deny the Deity of our Lord. " Morgan adds this profound insight: "And if the statement be questioned, Then take any of these claims, And put them into the lips of any other teacher, And it must at once be seen how entirely and absolutly they are out of place. They are words which claima full and final authority for the One Who uttered them. " It`s also significant that Christ claimed the unfetterred right to interpret the sacred words of the Old Testament, To pronounce what they were intended to teach, And to expose existing errors in interpretation as if He were the final Authority~which He is. He does this six times in the Sermon on the Mount, Where He introduces Old Testament quotes with words like, "You have heard that it was said, " then follows the uotes with, "But I tell you, " and proceeds to somehow modify or amplify the teaching. Writing in 1902, Rv. Hugh McIntosh said, "He developed the principles, Deeened the spirituality, Broadened the application, And put new and unthought of meanings into parts of the ancient Scriptures~though never contrary to or condemnatory of the inspiried Scriptues; and He put His own teachings in contrast as on a higher moral and spiritual plane than other ancient teaching. In short, He claimed right to interpret, Revise, Use and reset the O. T. In His own unique way. " He alsopreceded many of His pronouncements with the words, "Truly, Truly, " which many scholars believe is the functional equivalent of saying, "Thus saith the Lord. " Joachim Jeremias describes it as a consciousness of majesty expressed in a claim to divine omnipotence. In addition to expressly asserting His divine authority, Jesus demonstrates it, Such as when He rises and rebukes the turbulent wids and sea, And causes a great calm, Right on the heels of scolding His disciples for having "little faith". After purging a man of demons, Jesus tells him, "Return to your home, And declare how much God has done for you". He even claims to be Lord of the Sabbath in response to critical Pharisees, Which is so defiant that the Pharisees "were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus". Jesus also walks through the middle of the throngs preparing to stone Him and escapes. And, Of course, He performs His miracle, Which we could talk about in another debate. One of my favority passages on this topic is John 7:17, In which Christ says, "If anyones will is to do Gods will, He will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. " Think about the implications of this. Christ is saying that we can't evaluate His authority or the soundness of His teaching through our own power. As G. Campbell Morgan notes, "Thus Christ said that the only way that we can trust His teaching is by obeying it; not by our own intellectual cleverness can we ever test the truth of His teaching; not by any philosophy or wit or wisdom of our own; but if we will do what He says, In doing, We shall come to certainty as to whether or not the things spoken was speech from God. " Could a mere human being makesuch a claim with any kind of credibility? Morgan explains that what Jesus is really saying is that if any man will resolve to organize his life around His Words-His teachings-then he will be strong enough in character to endure anything life can throw at him. Christ's teachings not only build charaterthat enables us to persevere; they are the gateway to eternal life. "Not only is the foundation of charater found in these words of His, They constitute the very medium of life, " writes Morgan, "for if a man hears His word, It is the word which reveals the Father; and the man receiving it will believe the Father; and so the word will become the medium through which he will receive life. " This is a resounding confirmation of the point that the Bible~the Word of God~can lead one to faith (and salvation). "So faith comes from hearing, And hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). "From infancy, You have known the holy Scriptures, Which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 3:15). We will see two other affirmations of Jesus' diety in the next round.