Did Jesus Claim to Be God? What Matthew, Mark & Luke Actually Say

[00:00:00]Jesus never explicitly says, "I am God."

[00:00:03]But he says and does things that seem so far beyond an ordinary teacher or prophet. So what exactly was he claiming?

[00:00:16]Before we get into the evidence, I want to be clear about what this video is and what it isn't. One video isn't going to settle every question about the divinity of Jesus. There's way too much to cover honestly in one video. So, this is really the beginning of a much larger conversation. And look, I know this is one of the most sensitive subjects in Christianity. So, all I'm asking is that you walk through the evidence with me before deciding that you already know where this is going. This video isn't meant to determine whether or not Jesus is divine. I believe he is. And this series is ultimately going to build that case. But what I'm asking here is more specific. When Jesus talks about himself, what kind of relationship with God is he actually claiming? Because asking whether Jesus is divine and asking whether he directly claimed to be God aren't the same question, but we tend to treat them like they are.

[00:01:20]Christians will usually say that Jesus clearly claimed to be God, while critics argue that he never claimed that at all.

[00:01:29]But when you actually examine what Jesus says and does in the Gospels, it's more complicated than either side usually presents. So to keep this focused, we're going to start with Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Now, these are usually called the synoptic gospels because they overlap so much. They tell many of the same stories, often in very similar ways, and they're generally considered earlier than John. John is noticeably different.

[00:01:58]It gives us much longer speeches from Jesus, and it brings the deeper theology of who he is and how he relates to the father much closer to the surface.

[00:02:08]There's way too much going on there to squeeze it all into this video. So, John is getting a video of its own. Now, some people argue that if you leave John out, Jesus looks like a purely human teacher who never claims anything close to divinity. Jesus says the father has knowledge that he doesn't have. He submits himself to the father's will.

[00:02:27]And even after the resurrection, he describes his authority as something that was given to him. But at the same time, he claims authority that belongs to God. Though he does describe that authority as something he received from the father. So, the real question for this video is, do the synoptic gospels portray Jesus as claiming to be God? And what kind of relationship with God does he actually claim? Let's start with a moment where Jesus does something so bold that he gets accused of blasphemy on the spot. In Mark 2, Jesus is teaching inside a house in Capernaum when four guys show up carrying their paralyzed friend. Now, this place is so packed that they can't even get through the door. So they climb onto the roof, make an opening, and lower the man down on his mat right in front of Jesus.

[00:03:14]Everyone in that room is probably expecting Jesus to heal him. And he does eventually heal him. But before Jesus says anything about the man's paralysis, he looks at him and says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." And the wording is interesting here. Jesus doesn't say, "I forgive your sins." He says, "Your sins are forgiven." He leaves the person doing the forgiving unnamed. Now, some scholars call this a divine passive.

[00:03:39]It's a way of speaking where God is understood to be the one acting without being named directly, but the grammar isn't really the main point here. What makes this moment so significant is that Jesus looks directly at this man and personally declares that his sins are forgiven. And the scribes hear this is Jesus claiming an authority they believe belongs only to God. They start thinking to themselves, why does this man speak this way? He's blaspheing. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Now Jesus knows exactly what they're thinking and instead of backing away, he answers them directly. He asks, "Which is easier? To say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven." Or to say, "Get up, pick up your pallet, and walk. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive." And then he turns to the paralyzed man and says, "I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home." It's a pretty clever move. Saying your sins are forgiven is easy because nobody in the room can verify whether anything actually happened. But get up and walk can be tested immediately. Either the man stands up in front of everyone or Jesus gets exposed as a fraud right there and the man stands up. He picks up his mat and he walks out through the crowd. Mark says the crowd glorifies God. So in Mark's telling what just happened points back to God as its source. Even though Jesus is the one exercising the authority, Jesus doesn't call himself God here, he calls himself the son of man. And he says the son of man has exusia, authority or the right to act to forgive sins on earth. You've probably heard the story used to make a very simple argument. Only God can forgive sins and Jesus forgives sins.

[00:05:21]Therefore, Jesus is God. Case closed.

[00:05:25]But that isn't quite what happens in the text. Jesus never says, "I am God and that's why I can forgive sins." What he actually says is that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, which is still an enormous claim. So, at the very least, Jesus is saying that the son of man can exercise on earth an authority that the scribes believe belongs to God alone. But Mark doesn't stop and explain where that authority came from. Does the authority belong to Jesus by nature or was it given to him by the father? Mark's version of the story doesn't tell us, but Matthew's version adds a detail that Mark leaves out. After the man is healed, Matthew says, "When the crowds saw this, they were all struck and glorified God who had given such authority to men." That's an interesting way of describing what just happened here. Jesus is still the one actually exercising the authority in the story, but Matthew describes that authority as something God gave him. And he doesn't simply say that God gave it to Jesus. He says the crowd glorified God for giving this kind of authority to human beings. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that Matthew is saying every human being now has the authority to forgive sins. But it does mean that Matthew is presenting this authority as something that comes from God and is being exercised through a human being.

[00:06:48]So Matthew's version of the healing makes the source of Jesus's authority clear. It came from God. And in Matthew 11:27, Jesus takes that idea much further. He says, "All things have been handed over to me by the Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him." There's a lot packed into that. Jesus says everything has been handed over to him by the Father. He says the father is the only one who fully knows him and he's the only one who fully knows the father. Then he goes even further and says that anyone else who comes to know the father does so because the son reveals him. Now that goes way beyond a prophet claiming they have a message from God. Jesus is claiming a relationship with the father that no ordinary prophet claims. He knows the father in a unique way and he says the father is revealed to everyone else through him. Now, that's one of the highest claims Jesus makes anywhere in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. But the same pattern is still there. Everything that Jesus has has been handed over to him by the father. So, the claim is massive.

[00:08:00]But Jesus still presents the father as the source of what he possesses. But then Mark gives us a statement that pulls in the other direction. Jesus is talking about the end, the day and the hour when everything will come to a head. And he says, "But of that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but the father alone." Jesus draws a clear distinction between himself and the father. Here, the father knows something the son doesn't. Now, traditional Christian theology has an explanation for this.

[00:08:31]The usual explanation is that Jesus didn't know according to his human nature while still remaining all knowing according to his divine nature. Now, that may be a valid theological explanation, but it comes from later Christian thinking about Jesus's human and divine natures. Mark doesn't explain it that way. He simply gives us Jesus saying that the father knows something that the son does not. And we see that same submission again in Gethsemane on the night he's arrested when Jesus prays, "Yet not that I will, but what you will." In that moment, he clearly distinguishes what he wants from what the father wants. and then he submits his own desire to the father's will. Not long after that, Jesus is arrested and brought before the council where the question of who he is becomes a matter of life and death. Mark is the gospel that explicitly says Jesus is accused of blasphemy. So that's the account we're following here. By this point, Jesus has been arrested and brought before the high priest and the council. They're trying to build a case against him, but the witnesses can't even agree with each other. So the high priest finally stops listening to them and asks Jesus directly, "Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one?" The Christ means the Messiah, God's chosen king. And son of the blessed one is a reverent way of saying son of God. Neither title by itself was the same as claiming to be God. But Jesus doesn't just answer yes.

[00:09:55]He says, "I am. And you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven." That answer goes far beyond simply admitting that he's the Messiah.

[00:10:06]Jesus is drawing from two passages in the Hebrew scriptures. The first one is Psalm 110 where God invites a king to sit at his right hand. The second is Daniel 7 where a human figure called the son of man comes with the clouds of heaven and is given authority, glory, and an everlasting kingdom by God. So Jesus is telling the people judging him that the situation is eventually going to be reversed. right now they're sitting in judgment over him. But he says God is going to vindicate him, place him at the right hand, and give him authority over them. That's when the high priest tears his robe and says, "What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy.

[00:10:45]How does it seem to you?" And the council condemns Jesus as deserving death. Rome is ultimately the one that executes him under the political charge king of the Jews. But Mark says the council condemns him because they hear his answer as blasphemy. And it's easy to understand why. Jesus has just claimed that he'll be enthroned beside God in heaven, share in God's rule, and one day stand above the court that's currently condemning him. It's an extraordinary claim, but it still doesn't erase the distinction between Jesus and God. Jesus doesn't say that he's the power. He says the son of man will sit at the right hand of power, at the right hand of God. And in Daniel 7, the son of man is not the ancient of days. He's coming before the ancient of days and receives authority from him. So Jesus isn't identifying himself as the God who enthrones him, but he is claiming the highest possible place beside God and a share in God's authority over the world. That same pattern keeps showing up. God is the one who vindicates Jesus, enthrones him, and gives him authority. Jesus is distinct from God, but he receives that authority and shares in God's rule in a way that no one else does. And that same pattern is still there after the resurrection.

[00:12:02]At the very end of Matthew, Jesus meets with his disciples and says, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." Think about how big this claim is. Jesus is saying that his authority now extends over everything, both heaven and earth. But notice that he doesn't say that he is the source of that authority. He says it's been given to him. And it's the same word we saw earlier in Mark 2, exusia, authority. So even after the resurrection, Jesus still talks about his authority as something he received. Now that doesn't reduce his claim. He's still saying that all authority in heaven on earth belongs to him. But he also continues to distinguish himself from the one who gave it to him. All right, really quick before we wrap this up. Videos like this take a lot of research, and I want to keep putting the time into them that they actually need. So, if this content has been helpful to you and you'd like to support the channel, there's a link to my coffee page in the description.

[00:12:56]And if you're not able to help financially, liking the video, sharing it, and subscribing to the channel also makes a huge difference. I really appreciate all of it. All right, let's bring this one home. So, did Jesus claim to be God in Matthew, Mark, and Luke?

[00:13:11]Not directly. He never says, "I am God."

[00:13:14]But these gospels also give us a picture of Jesus that goes far beyond an ordinary teacher or prophet. He claims authority to pronounce the forgiveness of sins. He says that he knows the father in a way nobody else does. He tells the court judging him that he'll sit at God's right hand. And after the resurrection, he says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. So the idea that the synoptic gospels only give us a human teacher and that Jesus doesn't become elevated until John just doesn't hold up. But the other side of the evidence is just as important. Jesus says the father knows something that he doesn't. He submits his own desire to the father's will. And even in his highest claims, he presents himself as receiving from the father rather than acting independently of him.

[00:14:06]Taken together, these gospels seem to place the father above the son in the relationship they describe. God is the source. Jesus is the son who receives from him, obeys him and shares in his authority. Traditional trinitarian theology explains this by saying that Jesus is equal with the father in his divine nature while submitting to him in his human life and role. But Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't explain the relationship in those later theological terms. What they give us is a real hierarchy between the father and the son while also presenting Jesus as sharing in God's work and rule in a way no ordinary prophet does. So the picture isn't as simple as Jesus is God. But it's definitely not Jesus is just another prophet. Jesus is presented as God's uniquely chosen Messiah and son.

[00:14:56]the one through whom God's forgiveness, judgment, authority, and kingdom are brought into the world. And Matthew's version of the paralyzed man may even give us an early hint that what God is doing through Jesus isn't supposed to end with Jesus. Matthew says the crowd glorified God for giving this kind of authority to human beings. We're going to keep following that idea through this series, but the next step is John.

[00:15:22]That's where Jesus speaks much more directly about where he came from and how he relates to the father. He talks about the glory he shares with the father before the world existed. He says, "I and the father are one." And when he's accused of making himself god, his answers add another layer to everything that we've seen so far.

[00:15:43]That's what we'll work through in the next video. If this video helped you see that Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us something more complex than either Jesus plainly said he was God or Jesus was just another prophet, then hit that like button and share it with someone who's wrestled with the same question or has only ever heard one side of it. I really appreciate all your support as we keep digging into what Jesus actually taught and working to recover the original way he gave us in the Gospels. Thanks as always for watching, guys. I love you all and God bless.