I teach on occasion, about how Jesus was and is God. I am asked two questions that deserve an answer.
- If Jesus is God then where does does the Bible speak about Him?
- Who created Him?
As a believer, I cringe at approaching the subject, out of reverence for the Creator.
I will attempt to answer these in the best way I know how.
Question 1 – Jesus (actually, His name is Ye’Shua which means God Saves, Joshua in English) is actually spoken of in the first line of the first book of the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. The language (Hebrew) that it was written in gives a better understanding, so let us take a look = Bre’shiyth ‘Elohiym bara’ Aleph Tav shamayim ‘eth ‘erets (ref: BlueletterBible)
The focus is on Aleph Tav. These are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. When I attempted to translate what these two words meant into English, I was unable to find their meaning. That is until a Rabbi who is also a believer in Ye’Shua gave me the meaning. He rolled his eyes and informed me to look in Revelation where it says in 1:8 & 22:12 Jesus is the Alpha & Omega the first and the last. Duh, Aleph = 1st and Tav = last. Therefore, to put it in a way that I could understand – In the beginning God Jesus created the heavens and the earth. WOW. One of the places in the O.T. that also says 1st & last is Isaiah 44:6.
We see in many other places that God says He created all things. A few examples would be in Isaiah 43:1-3/15 (God, Creator & Savior) 43:10b –no other gods before or after Him to make these claims. Isaiah 44:24 / 45:5-8 /12 /14-18 46:9-10.
These are just a sample of the places that refer to God as the only God, Creator and Savior. This throws a huge monkey wrench into the beliefs of those who believe that there are gods. Even those who have a different jesus.
We see in John 1:1-3 and Col 1:16 that Jesus is the God/Creator. These are two that I like going to when asked. Another passage that should be looked at here are Hebrews 1:6-8 where God the Father instructs the angels to worship the Son and then He calls the Son “God”. There are more in both the O.T. and N.T. supporting that Jesus is God/Creator/Savior.
Question 2 – God created Time, Space & Matter. He is thus outside of these three. He is not restricted by Time, Space & Matter as we are. God says He is from everlasting (eternity past) to everlasting (eternity future). Psalm 41:13 / 90:2 / 103:17 / 106:48.
We are told that we are unable to figure God out. If we could figure Him out, then we might be able to explain Him away, thus not God but rather another god. Isaiah is clear on Him being the only God (chapters 44-46 are filled with these references). Therefore, God has always been and will always be God.
In short, God has always been. He was never not in existence. There is also three other things that should be put in with these two questions:
- God claims to be Omnipresent = everywhere
- God claims to be Omnipotent = All powerful
- God claims to be Omniscient = All knowing (past, present & future).
If God is not all three, then He could not have created everything.