Rom. 10:9 (ESV) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
One of the beliefs required for Salvation according to Romans 10:9 is to believe Jesus is Lord. This isn’t just saying we must just believe He existed, or that we must make Him Lord of our lives, but we must believe and agree that Jesus is the Lord God.
Lately I’ve been studying the prologue of the gospel of John. In that prologue, John explains the things he will prove in his gospel, the deity of Christ being first among them. I’d like to share some of what John tells us about the deity of Jesus. John begins with the very first verse in the very first chapter:
John 1:1 (WSV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Here, John identifies a Person called the “Word,” Who we understand to be Jesus according to verse 14:
John 1:14 (ESV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So, the Word is God and Jesus is the Word, therefore, Jesus is God.
John also tells us in chapter 5 verse 18 that in calling Himself the Son of the Father, Jesus was claiming to be equal with God:
John 5:18 (ESV) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Then in chapter 8 and verse 58, Jesus was having a long drawn out argument with the Jewish leaders about who He is. At the end of the chapter, He makes this statement:
John 8:58-59 (ESV) Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
They picked up stones to kill Jesus because He used the divine name, “I Am.” Jesus was telling them He was the very God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush:
Ex. 3:13-14 (ESV) Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
The punishment for blasphemy was stoning, so the Jews were about to stone Jesus for what they believed was blasphemy. We see this more clearly later in John chapter 10:
John 10:33 (ESV) The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
The Jews clearly saw what Jesus was saying. He was claiming to be God Himself, but they didn’t believe Him.
The final passage I’d like to share is John 20:28-29 where Thomas, the tough-to-convince Thomas, identifies Jesus as his God:
John 20:28-29 (ESV) Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If Jesus were not God, it was incumbent upon Him to rebuke Thomas for blasphemy. Instead, Jesus confirmed Thomas’ statement.
Why is this important?
Many deny Jesus is God Himself. They say He is a great teacher, a great man, but never God Himself.
C. S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity, said “You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Jesus really is Who He claimed to be, He is the one true God in the Person of God the Son, second Person of the Trinity.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 