Claims of Jesus According to John

There are many people who claim to be Christians who also say that Jesus never claimed to be divine in nature, that he was not the Son of God. These people have either never read the Gospel of John or they have chosen to ignore the plethora of claims that Jesus made about himself. Jesus absolutely claimed to be God both directly and indirectly. The following is a list of scriptures from the Gospel of John in which Jesus is recorded as having made statements claiming His divine nature.

Right off the bat in John chapter two, the Jews were demanding that Jesus show them miraculous signs and wonders and Jesus replied to them in verse 19, ‘Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Just a couple of verses after that John explains Jesus’ words. In verse 21 John says, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body.” John is letting us know in this passage that Jesus is indirectly claiming to have power over life and death which we know only God has. In every instance in both Old and New Testament texts in which someone was raised from the dead, it was the power of God working through the prophet or person, not any power of their own. Only God has this power and the Jews knew it. Jesus was making a bold claim about himself in this statement.

Jesus clarifies this statement for anyone who didn’t catch it the first time. In John 5:21 John records Jesus as saying, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” This could not be any more blatant. Jesus has again claimed to be God. He follows this up with another statement later in chapter 10:17-18 where Jesus is recorded as saying, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” This list goes on and on.

Then there is the woman at the well in chapter 4 where Jesus claims to have power over eternal life. John 4:13-14 ‘Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” And then in chapter 6:40 Jesus says, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” In each of these two moments Jesus has claimed to have the power over the eternal soul of all human beings. He holds the keys to Heaven and Hell and determines who goes where. We see this further proven by Jesus’ words to Martha in regards to Lazarus, (this can be found in chapter 11:25-26).

In the following scripture references Jesus claims to have: Been the only one to have come from Heaven to do His Father’s will, he has stood in the presence of His Father, that He would be returning to His Father, and that He shares in the glory of the Father. (3:13, 6:38, 8:36, 16:28, 17:5) Jesus repeatedly refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” which is in reference to what is said about Him in the book of Daniel. He also said in chapter 4:26, “Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” This was in reference to the previous comment concerning the coming Messiah. Jesus claims here to be the long awaited Messiah from God which the Jews would have known and believed to be God according to the writings of Isaiah that we read so often at Christmas time.

In both John 8:12 and 8:25 Jesus claims to have power over the forgiveness of sins, a position and level of authority that up to that point only God had claimed for himself. Herein Jesus is claiming to be the very God who possess such power.

In John 14:26 Jesus states that in His coming absence the Father would send the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Later in chapter 16:7 Jesus says, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” Jesus has thus claimed to be the Father who will do the sending of the Holy Spirit. And in John 5:23 and John 16:15 Jesus claims equality with God the Father. According to Jesus, he deserves the same honor as that of the Father. Why? Because he is God! TO know Jesus is to know the Father and visa-versa. They are one in the same.

All of the above are a small drop in the bucket of the indirect claims made by Jesus about himself in relationship to the Father and his claims to be God in the flesh. But, the really cool part is when you get to the direct statements that He made, primarily the “I AM” statements. Jesus uses the same exact language used by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Jesus is essentially calling himself YHWH the I AM!

And lastly, the Jews themselves believed Jesus to have claimed to be God in the flesh. They even accused Him of it and tried to stone Him for it. They claimed it as blasphemy. This can be seen in both John 5:17-18 and John 10:33.

The entire Gospel of John is a testament to the statements that Jesus made about himself and was written by the closest person to Jesus, someone who, in all probability, knew Him the best. This adds credibility to the accuracy of the statements as recorded. John clearly believed that Jesus, on multiple occasions, claimed to be and was in fact God in the flesh.