Did Jesus ever say he was the Son of God?

[magdalisa]

I know that Jesus is the Son of God, but my daughter’s teacher told her that Jesus never actually said that he was. Can anyone please tell me where in the scriptures or catechism I can find the references as to his claim to divinity? Her teacher is Catholic, and teaching in a Catholic school.

Thank you!

Magdalisa

 

[kleary]

I Found this at scripturecatholic.com/jesus_christ_divinity.html#jesus-III

Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12 - Jesus tells satan, “you shall not tempt the Lord your God” in reference to Himself.

Matt. 5:21-22; 27-28; 31-32; 33-34; 38-39; 43-44 - Jesus makes Himself equal to God when He declares, “You heard it said…but I say to you…”

Matt. 7:21-22; Luke 6:46 - not everyone who says to Jesus, “Lord, Lord.” Jesus calls Himself Lord, which is God.

Matt. 9:2; Mark 2:5; Luke 5:20; 7:48 - Jesus forgives sins. Only God can forgive sins.

Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5 - Jesus says that He is “Lord of the Sabbath.” He is the Lord of God’s law which means He is God.

Matt. 18:20 - Jesus says where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of them.

Matt. 21:3; Luke 19:31,34 - Jesus calls himself “Lord.” “The Lord has need of them.”

Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:70 - Jesus acknowledges that He is the Son of God.

Matt. 28:20 - Jesus said He is with us always, even unto the end of the world. Only God is omnipresent.

Mark 14:36 - Jesus calls God “Abba,” Aramaic for daddy, which was an absolutely unprecedented address to God and demonstrates Jesus’ unique intimacy with the Father.

Luke 8:39 - Luke reports that Jesus said “tell how much God has done for you.” And the man declared how much Jesus did.

Luke 17:18 - Jesus asks why the other nine lepers did not come back to give praise to Him, God, except the Samaritan leper.

Luke 19:38,40 - Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. If these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

John 5:18 - Jesus claimed to be God. The Jews knew this because Jesus called God His Father and made Himself equal to God. This is why Jesus was crucified.

John 5:21-22 - Jesus gives life and says that all judgment has been given to Him by the Father.

John 5:23 - Jesus equates Himself with the Father, “whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”

John 6:38 - Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven.”

John 8:12 - Jesus says “I am the light of the world.” - 1 John 1:5 - God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

John 8:19 - Jesus says, “if you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

John 8:23 - Jesus says that He is not of this world. Only God is not of this world.

John 8:58 - Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Exodus 3:14 - “I AM” means “Yahweh,” which means God.

John 10:18 - Jesus says He has the power to lay down His life and take it up again - Gal. 1:1 - God raised Jesus to life.

John 10:30 - Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” They are equal. The Jews even claimed Jesus made Himself equal to God. Jesus’ statement in John 14:28, “the Father is greater than I,” cannot contradict John 10:30 (the Word of God is never in conflict). Jesus’ statement in John 14:28 simply refers to His human messianic role as servant and slave, which He, and not the Father or the Holy Spirit, undertook in the flesh.

John 10:36 - again, Jesus claims that He is “the Son of God.”

John 10:38; 14:10 - “the Father is in me and I am in the Father” means the Father and Son are equal.

John 12:45 - Jesus says, “He who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.” God the Father is equal to God the Son.

John 13:13 - Jesus says, “You call me Teacher and Lord and you are right for so I AM.”

John 14:6 - Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth and the life.” Only God is the way, the truth and the life.

John 16:15 - Jesus says, “all things that the Father has are Mine.” Jesus has everything God has which makes Him God.

John 16:28 - Jesus says that “He came from the Father and has come into the world.”

John 17:5,24 - Jesus’ desire is for us to behold His glory which He had before the foundation of the world.

John 20:17 - Jesus distinguishes His relationship to the Father from our relationship by saying “My Father and your Father.”

Rev. 1:8 - God says He is the “Alpha and the Omega.” In Rev. 22:13, Jesus also says He is the “Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the beginning and the end.” The only possible conclusion one can reach is that Jesus is equal to the Lord God.

Rev. 1:17 - Jesus says again, “I am the First and the Last.” This is in reference to the God prophesied by Isaiah in Isaiah 44:6, 41:4, 48:12.

Rev. 1:18 - Jesus, the First and the Last, also says “I died, and behold, I am alive for evermore.” When did God ever die? He only did in the humanity of Jesus Christ our Lord and God.
Rev. 2:8 - Jesus again says, “The words of the First and the Last, who died and came to life.” When did God die and come to life? In our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Ken

 

[Pug]

magdalisa:

I know that Jesus is the Son of God, but my daughter’s teacher told her that Jesus never actually said that he was. Can anyone please tell me where in the scriptures or catechism I can find the references as to his claim to divinity? Her teacher is Catholic, and teaching in a Catholic school.

Thank you!

Magdalisa

First please note that God the Father calls Jesus his beloved Son when Jesus gets baptized, so we have no doubt that God considers him to be so.

Next, notice how Jesus talks of himself as the Son and uses the phrase “my Father”:

Luke 10:22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Nevertheless, it is true that Jesus is called Son of God left and right in the gospels, but he doesn’t typically go around self-identifying himself by saying, “I am the Son of God.” For example, Nathaniel calls him the Son of God and Jesus accepts that. Or Jesus talks about how the Son of God will do such and such, and he means himself (see the whole famous John 3:16 passage). Perhaps the teacher was trying to talk about this phenomenon. Jesus likes the phrase Son of Man quite well.

However, if you want something close to I am the Son of God as a phrase, this is close, try John 10:36. It is not quite what you want, though.

I like the claim he makes of, “before Abraham was, I AM.”

Also, when he is before the Sanhedrin (on trial), he is confronted with the idea that he claims to be the Son of God. He doesn’t deny it, but says, you say that I am. They respond by saying something like, what do we need witness for, we’ve heard the blashpemy for ourselves. Obviously he wasn’t denying the claim.

This is just a few thoughts from many.

 

[Coder]

Excellent list!

Also, Philip said that he would believe if he saw the Father. Jesus responded that anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father.

 

[NotWorthy]

In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses the phrase “I Am” over 50 times. Phrases like, "Do Not be Afraid, it is I (literally “I Am”).
Of course, “I Am” is the name God told Moses to give to the Egyptians, “Tell them I AM sent you”.

As far as the Son of God, Martha in John noted, “She said to him, 'Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.’”

Jesus constantly prays, “Father, …”

Notworthy

 

[PaulDupre]

Plus, Jesus frequently referred to Himself as “The Son of Man”, a clear reference to Daniel 7:13

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

Daniel here was having a vision of Jehovah, the pre-mortal Christ.

God bless,
Paul

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

John 5:18-19 (King James Version)
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

John 17: 1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

Matthew 26:62-64 (New International Version)

62Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 63But Jesus remained silent.
The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: **Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” **

64"**Yes, it is as you say," **Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

 

[Eileen_T]

John Chapter 8:
*56 Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. 57 The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. 59 They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. *

The important thing to note here is that the ***Jews themselves *** understood that Jesus made the claim that He is God with those words. They were outraged by His claim, which they regarded as the vilest blasphemy. That is why they immediately wanted to kill Him, without even taking Him before the Sanhedrin.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

One might regard the Angel Gabriel trustworthy Luke 1:35

And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

 

[scapularkid8]

I personally am most convinced that He is The Son in Scripture by His use of the Divine Name “I AM”. This is God’s mysterious name and it’s so mysterious that in the Torah it was not even written out of respect for it’s awesome power. (I have to admit I’m not a fan of writing it either) It was abbreviated with “YHWH” which are the first letters of the words “I AM WHO I AM” in Hebrew. God came to be called “Elohim” which means “Lord”, again out of respect for the mysterious name by not using it. But it is monumental when Christ takes that name, which most Jews at that time would not even speak. Just a point to ponder.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

I also like the combination of John 4:25-26 and Is 9:6.

In John 4, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well. "25: The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.”
26: Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

So was the Messiah, whom Jesus just claimed to be, supposed to be Divine? Check out Isaiah 9…

6: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
7: Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

One time, a Jew and I were discussing Is 9:6 and he said that modern day Jews believe this verse to be referring to Hezekiah. But that doesn’t make sense to me, since verse 7 is clearly talking abuout the eternal throne of David and there was only one person destined for that… the Messiah.

We have to remember that Jesus had a mission. He could not come right out and say “I am God” or “I am the Son of God” etc, because He would have been stoned to death before He could preach the Gospel. Yet, He still found a way to tell us He was Divine, just like He found a way to tell us about the Trinity. Very clever, our Lord was!

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I know that Jesus is the Son of God, but my daughter’s teacher told her that Jesus never actually said that he was. Can anyone please tell me where in the scriptures or catechism I can find the references as to his claim to divinity? Her teacher is Catholic, and teaching in a Catholic school.

Thank you!

Magdalisa

He allows others to use it of Him, but never says “I am the/a son of God”. Your teacher is right ​

Jesus’ problem was that others had ideas about Him - and even when the content of the ideas themselves did not misrepresent Who He was, the titles, and the associations of the ideas & titles, might misrepresent Him seriously.

For example, the title “king” caused endless trouble - yes, He is a king; but no, He is not a king of the political sort, who would act as Messiah and as the kind of king depicted in Psalm 2 or Psalm 110: he was not the kind of Messiah-king Who had come to kick the Romans out of Judea. His Messiahship, & kingship, was not of that kind at all. The enemy He came to destroy was death - a far greater tyrant than the Romans.

“Son of God” is itself a title which in some contexts has royal overtones, because the kings of Judah descended from David were viewed as in some sense “sons” of God, by adoption - their coronations being their adoptions. Jesus was anointed king, as they were - His royal anointing was at His Baptism by John, when He received the Holy Spirit. For the Evangelists, His coronation is His Trial, and the Crucifixion is His enthronement. The title itself, as used in the Gospel, does not necessarily imply that Jesus is God.

Originally, outside the Bible (and even within it at times) “son of god/the gods/Elohim” means “god/divine being/“angel”/member of the Assembly of the gods”. Confusion arises from the fact it can be applied both to the earthly kings descended from David, and to divine beings as a class - as in Job 38 & Genesis 6.

What He did, was take old titles, and give them new content - “Messiah” is an example; because He is a suffering Messiah, not a Messiah who overthrows the enemies of his people and becomes a world-ruler thereby making Judaea Top Nation. Or rather, He does overthrow those enemies - by dying on the Cross; and instead of national chauvinism and contempt for others, He teaches humility. But it took faith to see in this man the Messiah, King & Redeemer of His people - and most people lacked this faith. Who Jesus is, is a secret known to Him & His Father - so it His Father Who must reveal it, as He does to Peter (Matt. 16). This is why the “Kingdom of Heaven”, the “Reign of God” is a “mystery”, and why it is “good news” to be preached; and why it is told of in parables - as in Matthew, which especially emphasises the Kingship of Jesus

 

[TOME]

Of late I have been spending most of my reading time reading the works of our Pope. In his work, “Introduction to Christianity” (of coarse written as Card. Ratzinger) he dedicates a section on this topic. I highly recommend you read this book or atleast the section where he writes about “The Son of God”.

Actually, I recommend all to read as many of our Pope’s works as possible (and perhaps you will come to agree with me that Pope John Paul II’s first mircle was not to let Cardinal Ratzinger retire).

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Matthew 7:21

Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of **my Father **who is in heaven.

Matthew 10:32-33

So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven;but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 11:25-27

At that time Jesus declared, ;I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes;yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the** Father,** and no one knows the **Father except the Son **and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Matthew 12:50

For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.;