WHAT IS THE PROOF THAT JESUS IS GOD?

The Catholic Church believes in the divinity of Christ. This truth will not change forever. Many verses in the Bible show this truth, as we can read in the Gospel according to St. John.

 

John 1:1,14

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. 

 

Jesus is the Word who is with the Father, and the Word is God. He is with God the Father from the beginning, while He is God the Son. He is the Second Person in the Holy Trinity. We cannot deny that Jesus is the Word of God (Revelation 19:13), and He became a man so that we are saved from sin. But, there are a few sects that believe He is not God. One of them is the Iglesia ni Cristo, or INC, which says that He is just a plan or mere idea in the Mind of the Father, and this plan became a man. According to a member of INC,

 

"He is the plan of God before he even existed. This is why He is a Plan who became a man, not God who became a man [1]."

 

Even if this is the view of some, like the members of INC, their belief is wrong. I will divide this article into three parts to see the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. 

 

I. Right Understanding of Foreknowledge

 

II. Pre-existence of Jesus 

 

III. The Creation through the Word

 

First Point: Right Understanding of Foreknowledge

 

We do not deny the truth about foreknowledge. This can also be seen in some statements in the Bible, such as in the letter of Saint Peter and the Acts of the Apostles.

 

1 Peter 1:20

20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake.

 

Acts 2:23

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

 

In a Facebook post by a member of INC, he mentioned the meaning of the word "foreknowledge." According to the Oxford dictionary, it means:

 

"Awareness of something before it happens or exists [2]."

 

According to one member of INC, because the Father knew the birth of Jesus, it meant that Jesus was not alive or He did not exist before His birth. But, this understanding of "foreknowledge" is incorrect. Rather, what has not yet happened or existed is about the event. There are many examples that can prove this. Let's say that I will go to church next Sunday, and because of God's foreknowledge, He knows that I will go to church next Sunday. Does this mean that I am not alive or that I do not exist until next Sunday? No, but it just means that the "future event" of going to Church next Sunday hasn't happened yet. In the same way, it does not mean that Jesus did not exist before His birth just because God the Father has "foreknowledge" about His birth. It only means that before the creation of the world, His birth as a Man had not yet taken place. In addition to this, we can see in the Bible some proof of the pre-existence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Second Point: Pre-existence of Jesus 

 

The word "pre-existence" is about the truth and our belief that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus, existed before He was born. He himself mentioned in the gospel that He came down from heaven. According to the Gospel according to St. John,

 

John 6:38

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me;  

 

If Jesus came down from heaven, it means that He was already in heaven before He was born and became Man. For the members of INC, it only means that Jesus was only in God's mind which was the reason why He said that He came down from heaven. However, we are also in God's mind (Psalm 139:1-18), but we cannot say that we came down from heaven. And, let us remember that our Lord said that He "came down" to do the will of the Father. There were two actions that Jesus did in heaven, it was to "come down" and "do" the will of the One who sent Him. The mere thought is incapable of doing actions, and only a person can do them. In the letter of St. Paul, we can also see the truth of His "pre-existence."

 

Philippians 2:5-7

Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

 

According to what we read above, Jesus is fully God in His nature, which means Jesus is God. In addition, St. Paul also said that He humbled Himself by becoming a Man. The actions or works mentioned here took place before Jesus was born as a Man. This means that our Lord Jesus was alive before He was even an infant. In the gospel, we saw Jesus Christ declare to the Jews “...before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58. This is an indication that He is God as God used this statement to name Himself in the Old Testament. “But Moses said to God, 'If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:13-14.

 

As such, the Jews picked up stones because they thought that Jesus was blaspheming the name of God even though the truth was that they did not accept that the God whom they worshiped was already in front of them. Not only is Jesus mentioned as God, but the Bible also shows that all things were created through Him.

 

Third Point: The Creation through the Word

 

Members of INC are saying that Jesus was merely a plan and not a Person because He was mentioned as the Word in the first verse of the gospel according to John. But, we can see that the Word is God, and all things are made through Him. 

 

John 1:1-3

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

 

We are also in the mind of God, but we cannot say that the world is made through us. This description is only appropriate to our Lord Jesus Christ because He is with the Father and the Holy Spirit before all things are created. And, creation is a work that a Person can do, not a mere thought. St. Paul also clarified that everything is made through the Son. 

 

Colossians 1:16,19

16 for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.

 

19 For in Him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, 

 

The pronoun "Him" proves that Jesus was a Person even before He was born on earth. The Father is God. Jesus, His only Son, is God. The Father and Jesus are one. Jesus is God's Word; through Him, all things in heaven and earth are created. God created the heavens and the earth and everything here. He spoke and things were made. Again, this Word is Jesus. We cannot separate the Father and the Son because they are one. If the Father has been present since the beginning, Jesus has always been present because they are one.

 

The words of Saint Paul are also clear that the Son is fully God. It is true that the events of Christ's entire life were in the mind of God, but this did not mean that Christ was not alive before He was born. God knows everything in the past, present, and future, which is true. One cannot use one's own thoughts or what one thinks is right in this matter because there is only one universal truth. This one truth is held by the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ. Our Lord invites us to believe in the entirety of the truth that is revealed through His Church. This truth includes God’s immense love for us. Because of His love, God became Man and gave His whole life to us for our salvation. He chose this willingly, even if He was nailed to the Cross, for us to have eternal life through His Church. The people who will receive salvation are those who believe in the teachings of Christ, especially those who believe that He is our Lord and God. I pray that all of us will get to know the God Incarnate who loves us so much.

 

Amen + 

References:

[1] Facebook post of a Member of INC who denies the divinity of Jesus:

https://www.facebook.com/100009592538706/posts/pfbid025Bm48eZbGwQ75GfxiJgUEedzdhRRPDQjhMD3tcXpHB7iaxtyDnPjrzv1ZJtHy9E5l/?d=n

[2] Meaning of the Word "Foreknowledge":

https://www.lexico.com/definition/foreknowledge