Is Jesus Truly God? The Answer that Changes Everything

A few years back, I was at my gym working through the tail end of my routine when I saw a guy approaching from my peripheral. I pulled off my headphones, and right there in the middle of a packed gym, he looked at me and asked, "How do I stop being a lukewarm Christian?"

I started to answer him. As I answered him, he began to cry. That's when I realized this wasn't a trivia question. It was a life-defining question for him. We exchanged numbers, started reading the Bible together beginning in John and then moving through Romans, and not long after, he came to church, gave his life to Jesus, got baptized, took our discipleship course, and is now out somewhere in the Air Force serving God.

One question changed the trajectory of his life.

The question we're tackling in this series, Burning Questions, is just as significant. In fact, I'd argue it's the most important question you'll ever be asked: Is Jesus truly God?

Why This Question Is the Center of Everything

Every major belief system in the world has an opinion about Jesus. Muslims honor Him as a prophet. Hindus regard Him as a wise spiritual teacher. Mormons believe He's one of many gods. Many Jewish people see Him as a first-century rabbi. And in American culture today, both sides of the political aisle use Him as a tool for their agenda. Everyone is trying to figure out who Jesus is, and everyone is coming up short.

Here's the thing. This question isn't one you can stay neutral on, because wrapped inside "Is Jesus truly God?" is an even more personal question: Who is Jesus to you?

The most important thing about any of us is what we believe about Jesus. And according to the scriptures, He is not just a prophet, a teacher, or a political symbol. He is the eternal God made flesh. I'm not giving you my opinion here. I'm showing you what our faith actually claims and why it stands apart from anything else in the world.

What the Bible Says: The Word Who Became Flesh

To understand how Jesus can be God, we have to start with how the Bible describes Him. One of the most powerful places to look is the Gospel of John.

John wrote his gospel primarily for a Greek audience. The Greeks had something deeply significant in their philosophy: the concept of the logos, which translates roughly to "the word." When they looked out at the world and saw how perfectly ordered everything was, the sun and moon following their paths, the seasons cycling through without fail, they concluded there must be some all-powerful force behind it all. They called it the logos. They knew it existed. They just couldn't put their finger on it.

John looked at that belief and essentially said, "Let me introduce you to Him."

He opens his gospel with this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)

Not a force. Not an idea. God. And then verse 14 arrives like a thunderclap: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

That all-powerful logos the Greeks were searching for? He has a name. He walked on dirt roads. He had calloused hands from carpentry. He was born to a young woman in a small town and grew up like the rest of us. His name is Jesus.

Colossians 2:9 puts it another way: "In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form." I like to use this analogy. If God were an ocean, Jesus Christ is all of that ocean contained in a water bottle. He is not a portion of God. He is fully God in human flesh.

Colossians 1:16-17 says something that stops me every time I read it: "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible... all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

Every blade of grass. Every galaxy. You. You were made through Him, and you were made for Him. That's not a minor theological footnote. That redefines your entire purpose.

Why God Became a Man

So why would the eternal God take on human flesh? Why would the one who hung the stars in the sky allow himself to be born in a manger?

Because of sin.

And I want to be clear here. Sin isn't just a mistake or a personality flaw. According to the scriptures, sin is a sickness in the soul that leaves us terminally separated from God. Every time we choose sin, we're essentially saying to God, "I don't want you. I want this instead." Because God is perfectly just, that choice creates a real divide between us and Him.

But God isn't a tyrant, and he's not a pushover. He is both perfectly just and deeply loving. Those two things meet in one place: in Jesus on the cross.

Here's what I want you to see. God didn't fake his humanity. He wasn't pretending to be human. He got tired. He got hungry. He suffered. He felt every single thing that you and I feel in these physical bodies. He had to be fully man in order to pay the price for man's sin. But because only God is perfect, He also had to be fully God in order to destroy sin and death entirely. The God-man. That's who hung on that cross.

The one who hung the stars in the sky was Himself hung on a wooden cross. The one who paints every sunrise painted that cross with His own blood. And He did it because of love. There was a chasm between us and Him, and instead of demanding we cross it on our own, He came all the way down to us.

What This Means for You Right Now

Here's where it gets personal. If Jesus is God, it means He's not some distant, unknowable deity sitting far off, untouched by human experience. He came down. He lived here. He showed us exactly what God is like.

Have you ever wondered if God is actually kind? Does He care about me specifically? Look at Jesus. Watch how He responded to broken people. See how children ran to Him because they found something safe in Him. See how He was merciful to the sick and to sinners but stood firm against pride and hypocrisy. That is God. That is what God looks like up close.

C.S. Lewis described it this way. It's like helping a child learn to write for the first time. You could stand over them and say, "Just do it." But what you actually do is get down on their level, take their hand, and guide them. That's what God did by becoming flesh. Jesus is not at the finish line telling us to figure it out. He got in the trenches with us, walking the same ground we walk, showing us how to love our enemies, how to forgive, how to face suffering, how to live.

And here's something I keep coming back to when I'm in a hard season. God has scars. After the resurrection, when the disciples weren't sure it was really Jesus, He showed them the scars on His hands, His side, and His feet. He rose from the dead and kept His scars. Which means that when you feel abandoned or worn out or in pain, your God can look at you, point to those scars, and say, "They did it to me too."

You have a God who doesn't just sympathize from a safe distance. He went through it. That suffering you're carrying has become an open door to deeper fellowship with the God who knows exactly what it feels like.

Now What?

Here's the question I want to leave with you. Is Jesus just a good teacher to you, or is He actually your God?

If you've been a Christian for years, don't let this become routine. It's easy to grow accustomed to the gospel, but the moment it becomes familiar background noise is the moment you start to drift. The cross doesn't get old. The resurrection doesn't lose its power. You can always come back to the center.

And if you've never given your life to Jesus, let me be direct. There is no other offer in the world like this one. No other belief system has a God who came down from the mountain to walk with His people. No other religion has a God with scars. No other savior paid the price himself.

Galatians 2:20 says it as well as anything can: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

That surrender of faith is the most important decision you will ever make. If you're ready to make it, or ready to come back to it, the door is wide open.