Is Jesus God? Why should I believe that Jesus is God?

The opening words of the first verse carry us back to the most remote moment that our minds are capable of conceiving: the moment when there began the first thing that ever had a beginning: the moment on the further side of which there was only — GOD. In that moment of "beginning" the Word "was," that is, existed. He did not begin then; He existed then. His eternal Being is proclaimed, and we are carried back before the opening words of Genesis 1. Further He was "with God." Our minds are still back at that remote moment, and we discover that then He was possessed of distinct Personality. The Word is not a title of the Godhead in a general way, apart from any special distinction, for in being "with God" a special, distinctive place is definitely stated.

This being so, the reasoning mind would be inclined to argue: then we cannot speak of the Word as being God in any full or proper sense; even if He is not exactly a creature, seeing He existed before creation. Such reasoning is flatly contradicted by the closing words of verse 1, "the Word was God." Essential Deity was His. Attempts have been made to weaken the force of this great statement, and translate it, "the Word was Divine," or, "the Word was a god," based upon the omission of the definite article; i.e., it does not say, "the Word was the God." But we are told by those who know the Greek that there is in that language no indefinite article, and the word translated "God" is a strong one, denoting proper and absolute Deity; and had it stated that the Word was the God, it would have confined Deity to the Word and excluded therefrom the other Persons of the Godhead. The words are chosen with Divine exactitude: the Word was properly and absolutely God.

To fully safeguard the divine glory of the Son, the Spirit of God adds, "The Word was God." If the Son has become Man, God has taken care to secure His glory in His word, lest occasion should be taken of His condescension to deny His glory. And how often has this very Scripture been used to assert the Deity of the Son when men have denied it. Fulness of Godhead is here claimed for Jesus by the Holy Spirit; although distinct in Person from the Father and the Spirit, the Word was God.

In the beginning, then, before there was any creature, was the Word, and the Word was with God. There was distinct personality in the Godhead, therefore, and the Word was a distinct person Himself (not, as men dreamt, an emanation in time, though eternal and divine in nature, proceeding from God as its source). The Word had a proper personality, and at the same time was God — "the Word was God." Yea, as the next verse binds and sums up all together, He, the Word, was in the beginning with God. The personality was as eternal as the existence, not in (after some mystic sort) but with God. I can conceive no statement more admirably complete and luminous in the fewest and simplest words.

Then, in verse 2, His distinctive personality with God in the beginning is affirmed, the emphatic pronoun being used in the original to identify Him beyond dispute with the Word: "He [this very One, just named as the Word] was in the beginning with God." We learn, therefore, our hearts meanwhile being charged with adoration, that the Word Who became flesh was not in the beginning an abstract quality or attribute, nor a special emanation of the Deity, but a Person existing with God; and moreover, that this Word was God Himself. Thus, the Word was not a personal distinction of God, but a distinct Person with God, as well as and as truly as He was God Himself. We do not read God was the Word, but the Word was God; let us carefully store in our hearts this distinctiveness of expression.

The deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most vital truths to be found in the Scriptures; many writers inspired by the Holy Spirit of God enlarge upon this holy theme. The blessed God Himself sets His seal on this precious truth in that remarkable utterance — "Unto the Son He (God) saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Hebrews 1:8). Critics have sought to weaken the importance of this verse by saying it is "just a quotation from Psalm 45," but the vocative case us used — one Person addressing Another, the "God of truth" addressing the Son as God! The Lord's own references to His deity are many, including the assertion of His Sonship to the erstwhile blind man of John 9, and of His Messiahship to the Samaritan woman of John 4. Again, we have that truly magnificent statement in John 8, "Before Abraham was I AM," — the Name so frequently used to express the eternal character of the blessed God; a Name which in an atmosphere of hatred and betrayal shone with a power and glory before which men could not stand (see John chapter 18). The simple, yet powerful, monosyllables of John's gospel assert the deity of our Lord in a way which is beyond all questioning — "the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; "All things were made by Him;" "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." Eternally divine, the mighty Creator in whom life is inherent! We bow in adoration and worship, the volume of which is increased as we contemplate the apostle Paul's words in Colossians 1 — "Who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that He might have the first place in all things; for in Him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell" (New trans.). These are but a few of the very many Scriptures which plainly teach the deity of our Lord.

Surely the cloven foot was visible in all this—nor is that foot withdrawn today. But the whole deception is met by the three following words of divine contrast: “not after Christ.” Christ is the absolute antithesis, the pattern and touchstone—“for,” it says, “in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Not a lack, not a deficiency, not one single quality that goes to make up that fullness, but is found to be bodily in Christ. So then, if in Him, we too are complete, filled full, without lack or deficiency either—yea, if in Him! If so, what room can there be for poor human philosophy, or teaching, or worldly elements? God’s fullness cannot be complemented! It suffices for Him, and therefore for faith. Oh! let us maintain earnestly the magnificence of this God-inspired statement: “In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Then, how comes it that we, once so destitute, should be thus “complete”? What has happened to us?

There is a strong likeness between Col. 1:19 and verse 9 of our chapter; only there it refers to that which was true of Him in the days of His sojourn on earth, whilst here it is stated as being true of Him today. It is hardly possible to imagine a stronger statement of His deity, and yet it plainly infers that He still is Man in saying, "bodily." If then we are rooted and built up and filled full in such an One as He, it would be manifestly very foolish to turn aside to the philosophizings of poor little human brains that ere long will be eaten of worms.

What gives a more wonderful view of Christ than this truth which the simplest believer knows, or ought to know, however little able to explain it? There is nothing like it. There alone we have the truth. We know God now; and how? Not by reasoning, as if thus we could search and find Him out. We know Him in Christ as a living Person who lived once bodily in this world, who still has His body above the world. We know from God, from His Word, that in the Person of Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," not merely in His spirit, but really in Him bodily, though He be now glorified. He had a real, true body from the incarnation; but He had all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him thus.

V. 9. Having warned us of this snare the Apostle at once brings before us the great positive truths that would preserve us from being turned aside by the emptiness of human wisdom. First, he turns us to Christ — "In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Instead of the misty speculations of men, we have God perfectly revealed in all His fulness in Christ. There is not a single attribute of the Godhead that is lacking in Christ. Moreover, it is in Him "bodily". Christ has taken a body and become manifest in flesh, so that the fulness of the Godhead could be presented in a way that can be known by the most simple of men. It may require a giant intellect to understand even the terms in which philosophy struggles to express its speculations; simple fishermen of Galilee can see the fulness of God in Christ, and thus enter into truths that lie outside the comprehension of the greatest natural intellect. One has said, "To faith which saw through the veil of His humiliation when here, there was not a trait in His character, an act in His conduct, or an expression of the feeling of His heart going out to the misery around Him, that was not the revelation of the Godhead" (J.N.D.).

Psalm 104 speaks of angels as servants. "He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire." They are spirit and not flesh. They are made to do His will and can never be anything else but servants. And then the contrast is shown what the Son is by the quotation from the Forty-fifth Psalm. Angels are servants and cannot reign nor can they ever occupy a throne, "but unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." He is addressed as God in this psalm in which He is revealed as the coming King Messiah. He has a throne which is forever and ever, and as Messiah, and the promised King, He will have an earthly throne and rule with a sceptre of righteousness, He loved righteousness and hated iniquity when down here and therefore He is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. Thus we learn from this psalm His deity. He has a throne forever and ever. His humanity: He was on earth and loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Who are the fellows mentioned? Angels are not His fellows and could not be. His fellows are all they who are made one with Him through grace and who will be ultimately conformed to His image. It includes the believing remnant of Israel and all who put their trust in Him.