A Bible lesson by Ivor Jefferies
1. What is Jesus explicitly called in the verses referenced below?
Read John 1:1, 18, 20:28, Rom. 9:5, Tit. 2:13, Heb. 1:8-9, 2 Pet. 1:1, Isa. 9:6.
Jehovah’s Witnesses say that Jesus is the mighty god (el gibbôr) of Isa. 9:6, but not God Almighty as revealed in the rest of Scripture. However, this would imply that there is more God than one, or that Jesus is a false god. Rather, Isa. 9:6 reveals Jesus as the true God. In summary we can say:
Premise A: Jesus is the mighty God (Isa. 9:6).
Premise B: Yahweh is the mighty God (Isa. 10:20-21).
Conclusion: Jesus is Yahweh.
2. Find the parallels between Gen. 1:1-5 and John 1:1-5. What does this imply about Jesus?
3. What do you learn about Jesus by comparing the passages below?
- Deut. 10:17 with Rev. 19:16.
- Exo. 3:2, 14-15 with John 18:5-8.1
- Ps. 102:25-27 with Heb. 1:10-12.
- Ps. 110:1 with Matt. 22:42-45.
- Isa. 40:3 with Matt 3:3.
- Isa. 43:11 with John 4:42, 1 John 4:14.
- Isa. 44:6, 48:12 with Rev. 1:8, 17, 2:8, 22:13.
- Dan. 7:13-14 with Matt. 26:63-66.
4. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses Jesus is the Son of God but not God. How does the Bible refute this logic?
Read John 5:17-18, 10:30, 33, 36, 14:9-11, Col. 1:19, 2:9, Heb. 1:3.
What about John 14:28 where Jesus says, “...the Father is greater than I”? According to Phil. 2:6-7 Jesus is equal to God, yet He humbled Himself by becoming a man. In this sense He was lower than the Father (John 14:28), but now He was returning to his place of equality with God (John 17:5).
Jesus never ceased to be God, but for 33 years He submitted the independent use of his divine attributes to the will of his Father (Matt. 4:3-4, John 12:49). This means that He did not perform his miracles by tapping into his divine nature, but He worked as a man by the power of the Spirit (Matt. 12:28, Acts 10:38). Therefore, we must not say that Jesus had it easy while it is hard for us to do God’s will or fight against temptation.
5. Which of Christ’s divine attributes do we see in the following verses?
Read Matt. 28:20, Mark 1:24, 2:5-12, John 10:17-18, 17:5, Col. 2:3, 2 Thess. 1:7-9, Heb. 13:8, 1 John 3:16, Rev. 2:18, 23, 5:12-13, 19:11.
6. How should we respond to the fact of Christ’s divine nature?
Read Matt. 17:5, John 14:1, 13-14, 5:23, Acts 3:14, 4:12, Phil. 2:10-11, Col. 3:17, 1 John 5:20-21.
1 In the Greek text of John 18:5-8 Jesus simply says egō eimi which means, “I AM”.