When Christian call Jesus God, it is important to know that they don't mean simply divine or some form of elevated or evolved status. They mean that Jesus possesses attributes that the Bible teaches only belongs to the Almighty Creator of the Universe. In John 17:5, Jesus says:

5. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

We will take a look at some of the attributes of this shared glory below.

All Powerful, Knowing, Present

In other words, Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended into heaven, and his presence fills everywhere in heaven and on earth and in the hearts of every believer.

Peter is one of the first people to claim that Jesus knows all things, stating:

  1. He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

This claim is backed up by the rest of the bible, Jesus displays divine knowledge in multiple instances. Examples include His knowledge of people's thoughts (Matthew 9:4, Mark 2:6-8), His foreknowledge of events (Matthew 24:35), and His understanding of future occurrences (John 2:22; 14:29; 16:4; 18:32; 21:23).

Andrew T. Lincoln shows us that In the Old Testament, only God is shown to have this power and being able to predict the future is His alone (Isaiah 41:21-23, 42:9, 43:8-13, 44:7-8, 46:10). God give a challenge for anyone to come forth and show that they are God by knowing the future. In Revelation 2:18-23, we find that Jesus says that his judgement on Jezebel will show the churches that He is the one that searches the mind and heart:

  1. “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19. “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23. and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

Jesus did not make this claim in isolation, once again the Old Testament ideas of who God is and what He can do are being applied by Jesus. In 1 Kings and Jeremiah we see that God is the only one that can search the hearts and minds of mankind.

  1. then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind),
  1. I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

The Bible Claims God Created Everything ALONE

Scripture begins with the affirmation that God created the universe (Genesis 1:1), The Bible is also clear that God alone made the universe and asserts that God actively sustains His creation.

6. “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

Throughout the book of Isaiah we find God claims sole responsibility for creation

24. Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

12. I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

God continues to claim that He gives life to everything (Isaiah 42:5) and it was his words that made everything in creation (Psalm 104:5-9, Genesis 1) beautifully illustrates how God established and maintains the earth and its natural laws. Even in the New Testament we find God needs nothing (Acts 17:25) as He continues to life to all creation.

The New Testament Claims That Jesus Created Everything ALONE

John starts off his gospel in the New Testament declaring Jesus to be the word of God himself (Jesus Is The Word Of God), paralleling the Genesis opening to show that Jesus was there in the beginning with God (John 1:1). John 1:3, 10 asserts,

3. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made...10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him."

Similarly, Colossians 1:16 affirms that:

16. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.

We find that these verses teach that Jesus was their at the beginning of creation, and God worked though Jesus to make everything. This seems like it could possibly fit in with the Old Testament theology, although it seems more like an addition to the Jewish belief. However this is not where the New Testament stops talking about Jesus.

The Gospels are replete with instances where Jesus demonstrates divine sovereignty over nature. He calms storms (Matthew 8:23-27), multiplies food (Matthew 14:13-33, 15:32-39), and even controls the catch of fish (John 21:1-14). These events reveal His authority over the natural world, a characteristic often attributed to God. Not only was Jesus there at creation, the Bible teaches that Jesus actively holds creation together just as God does (Romans 11:36). Colossians 1:17, this directly contrasts with the old testament that says God alone created and sustains the universe.

17. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 1:2-3 continues this reasoning, not only did God make the world though The Son, Jesus is "upholding the universe by the word of his power," a clear testament to His continuous action in maintaining creation. 1 Corinthians 8:6 directly compares both God and Jesus, saying they both created the universe and sustains it:

6. yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Furthermore, Hebrews 1:10 takes the Old Testament claim about God the Father in Psalm 102 and applies it directly to Jesus:

10. And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

Thus, the Christian scriptures present a unified vision of God's and Jesus' roles in creation. Initially, the Old Testament attributes creation and maintenance of the universe solely to God. However, the New Testament extends these divine attributes to Jesus, portrays Jesus not merely as a part of creation but as central to its existence and ongoing existence.

Jesus' love for us is magnified by His almighty nature as depicted in the New Testament. God became man and stood in our place so that we may be saved. What wonderful, everlasting love from the creator of heaven and earth.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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