Establishing His Identity

In John 5: 18 we read that when Jesus called God His “Father”, the Jews understood this to mean that He was making himself equal with God! He was claiming to be God!

For those who are sceptical that Jesus claimed to be God, Jesus goes on, in the rest of the chapter (John 5), to give quite a lot of indirect evidence to this claim. These are a list of some of His indirect claims.

He claims to be the source of life (21, 26)

He claims to be the final judge of mankind (22, 26-30)

He seeks the same honour (worship) that God seeks (23)

He has the ability to offer people eternal life (24, 25)

His work (and His words and wonders) testify to His deity (36)

The bible (Old and New Testament) testifies to His deity (39)

John testified to His deity (33-35)

Moses testified to His deity (45-47)

He was even able to testify about Himself but did not take up that right (31)

Why does Jesus go to all this trouble to establish His identity? He says it's so that we may believe Him and be saved (34). He really is the God who has the power, to save us from our sins, and from death, and to give us eternal life.

Believe Him!