Jesus’ Equality with God

September 23, 2025

In John chapter five, Jesus healed a lame man who was lying by the pool of Bethesda.  This man had been ill for 38 years and Jesus healed him by simply telling him to get up, pick up his pallet and walk. (John 5:8) While one might expect that this great miracle and blessing bestowed on this man would induce great rejoicing in those who heard of it, quite the opposite occurred. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath day, and because of that, the Jewish leaders persecuted Him.  They even sought to kill Him.  Why?  Because Jesus said these words: “… ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’” (John 5:17 NASB95)

Why did this statement so enrage the Jews?  The next verse explains: “…because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” (John 5:18 NASB95) They were not wrong.  Jesus was indeed claiming equality with God, and in His teaching in the following verses, He reinforced this claim very clearly in multiple ways.  But how is Jesus’ claim to be working on the Sabbath a claim of equality with God?

The creation account in Genesis tells us that on the seventh day (the Sabbath) God rested from His work which He had done (Genesis 2:2-3).  God made the Sabbath for man as a day of rest, but does God work on the Sabbath?  He certainly does.  People are born and people die on the Sabbath.  The sun shines, the rain falls, and the crops grow on the Sabbath day.  People can be healed from disease on the Sabbath.  We could multiply examples.  Aren’t all of these things the work of God?  In fact, if God stopped working on the Sabbath day, the entire universe and everything in it would cease to exist!

So, when Jesus said that He works on the Sabbath just as God does, He was clearly claiming to be more than a mere human.  Man was to rest on the Sabbath, as commanded.  But just as God has the divine prerogative to continue His work on the Sabbath, Jesus, too has that divine prerogative!  Thus, He made Himself equal to God!

What is the takeaway for us?  If Jesus is God (and He is!) we had better listen very carefully to His word!  Because Jesus is God, He also has the right and the ability to judge, to raise the dead and to give eternal life to whomever He wishes (see John 5:19-29).  Jesus said to the Jews of that day, and His words remain true today, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (John 5:24 NASB95).  Are you listening to the words of Jesus and believing in Him?  Jesus is God the Son!  Let us listen to His almighty voice!

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Scott Colvin

Jesus, the Word

August 7, 2025

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2 NASB95)

These opening words of the gospel of John have been thought of by many as an overture that beautifully introduces the coming symphony.  These words frame how we are to see and understand the rest of John’s gospel.  With the phrase, “In the beginning,” John calls to mind the opening words of Genesis which tells us about God’s creation of the universe.  Here in John’s gospel, we will be told of a new creation which God is bringing about through the Word.  “In the beginning was the Word.” The Word already existed in the beginning.  John wants us to know that the Word is not a created being but existed from all eternity.

“The Word was with God.” Not only did the word exist from the beginning, but He existed in the closest possible fellowship with God, so much so that it can be said, “The Word was God.” John is not saying that the Word had some divine qualities, but that the Word “is fully God.” (NET) The Word, in His essence, was fully deity, just as God the Father is.  Or we might say, what God is, the Word is.

Who is the Word that John speaks of?  We find that answer in verse fourteen which says, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NASB95) As this sentence indicates, and the rest of the gospel shows us, the Word is Jesus Christ.  And so, we learn this profound truth:  Jesus is God.  He is God the Son.  Everything that God is, Jesus is.  As the author of Hebrews says of Jesus, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power…” (Hebrews 1:3 NASB95)

God has expressed Himself to mankind through the Word.  God has revealed to us who He is by sending His Son Jesus to “tabernacle” among us.  Jesus is the exact representation of God’s nature.  When we look at the glory of Jesus, we see the glory of God.  And Jesus, as I write, is upholding all things by the word of His power.

Given all of this, what an amazing thought it is that God in the flesh came down to die for us.  Through the death of God the Son, those of us who have received Him have received eternal life.  We have become children of God.  We have been born again as a new creation.  Let us praise God for this amazing truth.

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Scott Colvin

Where Jesus Is Called God

October 2, 2020

In Christian teaching, God is more complex that what the philosophers of Ancient Greece may have thought. We believe in one God as some of them did, but God is in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Several passages teach this, but there are a couple of often overlooked passages where Jesus is called God. But we have to check our translations to get the Greek grammar correct.

“… waiting for … the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:13 ESV)

The ESV makes clear that in this verse Jesus Christ is called both the great God and Savior. The NKJV, NASB, NIV, NET, CSB, and NRSV render it the same way. The King James has the following.

“Looking for … the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” (Titus 2:13 KJV)

So why is there a difference in the translation? In 1798, Granville Sharp, a linguist, noted that in Greek when you have an article, a noun, the word “and” (which in Greek is kai) followed by a noun without the article, if the two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper nouns), the two nouns are governed by the same article and always refer to the same person. Sharp and the scholars who followed him demonstrated that God (theos) and savior (sōtēr) were common nouns. Proper nouns in Greek are words that cannot form a plural. Both God (theos) and savior (sōtēr) can be found in the plural. Grammarians have attempted to disprove the Granville Sharp Rule for the past 200 years but have been unable to do so. Modern translation after the ASV have reflected the rule in Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1. In both passages, Jesus is called God.

The teaching about the deity of Christ is not dependent on these two verses. We also find it in passages like John 1:1-14, Hebrews 1:1-4, and Philippians 2:6-7.

Sometimes I’m asked do I understand the teaching about the godhead (the traditional term is “trinity”). I would answer yes. But do I necessarily comprehend it all? I would say no. But that is also true of qualities like God’s eternal nature, omniscience, and omnipotence. I understand that these things are taught about God. I understand the implications of these teachings, but do I totally grasp them? The answer is no. The practical outcome of the teaching concerning the deity of Christ is that we worship Jesus Christ. I can accept the plain teaching about the godhead, but I suspect that even in eternity we will be growing in our understanding of the nature of God. God is worth eternal contemplation and worship.

— Russ Holden

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Posted by Russell Holden