Who is Jesus?
John’s gospel begins with a very clear message:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5
There is no doubt what the original text means, Jesus is the very substance of God. This is confirmed a little later
“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” John 1:18
The Watchtower has deliberately mistranslated this verse so as to demean the status of Jesus. Tehy have decided that Jesus is not God so had to change the meaning of the translation. For them Jesus is only ‘a god’ who was created by God, who ‘explains’ God but does not embody him. So their translation reads:
“No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten god who is at the Father’s side is the one who has explained Him.” John 1:18 NWT
Jesus, however had no doubt who he was. The prime reason the Jewish authorities wanted to kill Jesus was because of whom he claimed to be:
“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defence Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:16-18
Jesus then continued to explain what he meant by this claim, he equates himself with the Father:
““Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the deadand gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.” John 5:19-23
This is a serious warning from Jesus. If the Watchtower and their followers refuse to honour the son as they do Jehovah they have not crossed into eternal life which can only be found through belief in and following the Lord Jesus. Jesus continues to emphasise this
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24
John made this very clear when he wrote:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” John 3:36
In one conflict with the Jewish leaders Jesus Jesus emphasised this dual nature he had:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30
This really annoyed the Jews who wanted to stone him there and then:
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” John 10:33
Jesus answered them by confirming that he was a man who was also God
“Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” John 10:36-38
Jesus had no doubt that he and his heavenly Father were one.
Here are some more Biblical evidence that the Son of God is fully human yet of the same substance of God.:
“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” John 17:11
Stephen ended his speech to the furious Sanhedrin, it was the last talk he ever gave;
“Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Acts 7:55-56
He was saying that Jesus was equal to God. The religious were furious.
“At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Acts 7:54-59
Stephen prayed to Jesus as his Lord, as Jehovah.
1. Who will be the sun in eternity?
The prophet Isaiah said around 700BC in his vision of eternity:
“The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” Isaiah 60:19
John, the apostle, also explained why there would be no temple or any need for sun and moon in eternity
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” Revelation 20:22-23
Jesus will again have an equal role as the Lord God Almighty on paradise earth because both are Jehovah.
2. Who is the first and last, the alpha and the omega?
Isaiah says this phrase was first used by Jehovah:
““This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.” Isaiah 44:6
This means that Jehovah existed before all things and will always be. Only God can make this claim. However the apostle John uses this idea repeatedly in his book of Revelation:
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.” Revelation 1:17
Who is he describing? It is clearly God, the ‘I am’, but look further:
“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18
He was dead but is now alive – that can only be Jesus. It is Jesus who holds the keys of eternal life, it is he who holds our eternal fate. As God’s disciples pass on the message about who Jesus is and the need to follow him, so we pass on the message of salvation:
“Jesus says to his disciples, ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven’". Matthew 16:19
3. Who formed the earth?
The Bible is clear that the world was created by Jehovah alone
“I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself,”Isaiah 44:24
Genesis chapter 1 makes it clear that the universe was formed by the ‘word of God’. ‘God said’ is the phrase that introduces every stage of the creation and is repeated nine times. Psalm 102 is addressed to Jehovah and worships him as our creator:
“In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Psalm 102:25
In the New Testament this verse is quoted in Hebrews 1, where it is clearly stated that Jesus is not only much superior to angels but that he is also our creator:
“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:1-3
Jesus is our creator, the exact representation of God who was able to sit down next to Jehovah. That means he is his equal. The Son sits in the throne of the King of kings, of God:
“But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a sceptre of justice will be the sceptreof your kingdom. . . . In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Hebrews 1:8-10
The whole of the book of Hebrews is about why Jesus must be worshipped.
That Jesus is the God who created the world is repeated by other apostles:
“Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” 1 Corinthians 8:6
The Father and Jesus are placed together as our creator. This is repeated in another letter,
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” Colossians 1:15-16
The Watchtower teaches that Jesus was created by God—specifically, that he is the archangel Michael. Jehovah's Witnesses insist that Jesus is the first of the created beings of God. In the Greek New Testament the word for ‘firstborn’ in the New Testament is ‘prototokos’ (πρωτότοκος) which is derived from the Greek words "protos" (first) and "tokos" (born). What is not realised is that in the Bible, ‘firstborn’ often signifies a position of authority or leadership, and neednot refer to the literal first child born.
Jesus cannot be both the creator of everything, which is clearly taught in the Bible and at the same time be created. Paul’s letter to the Colossians makes this clear:
“And He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” Colossians 1:15-21
The phrase ‘the firstborn from the dead’ cannot be that he was the first person to raised as Jesus himself had raised three people from the dead. Firstborn means ‘ has authority’ as the previous phrases imply:
“He is before all things . . . He is also head of the body. . . ”
Paul makes his meaning of ‘firstborn’ even clearer in the next phrase,
“ . . . so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything”.
The ‘firstborn’ is often used as a title of authority. An example of this is seen in Psalm 89 which talks about King David:
“I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him.
My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him.
The enemy will not get the better of him; the wicked will not oppress him.
I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries.
My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted.
I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers.
He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Saviour.’
And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.”
Psalm 89:20-27
4. Whose glory did Isaiah see?
When Isaiah was called by Jehovah to be his prophet he was given a vivid experience of Jehovah in all his glory sitting on his throne:
“I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ . . .
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people:
‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Isaiah 6:1-3, 8-10
When John wrote his gospel he recognises that Jesus is the Jehovah Isaiah saw.
“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfil the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
This was a prophecy from Isaiah 53:1. John then continues to use Isaiah’s vision of Jehovah in Isaiah 6 but then says that it was Jesus Isaiah saw in glory:
“For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.” Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him.” John 12:37-42
There is no doubt that John recognised Jesus to be Jehovah.
At the end of the book of Acts Paul has a discussion with local Jewish leaders about Jesus and he quotes this description of the call of Isaiah. Note who he attributes this quote to:
“They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ Acts 28:26-27
The Holy Spirit is said to be saying what Jehovah said. This was not a mistake, it is saying that the Spirit is Jehovah.
There is another clue in the Isaiah passage. Jehovah says, ‘Who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8) There is a plurality within Jehovah. Jehovah is the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
