Undoubtedly, one of the most important aspects that must be considered when studying the life of Jesus Christ is whether or not He was truly the divine Son of God as He claimed to be. The significance of establishing this issue rests upon the fact that if Jesus was merely another man, and nothing more, then all of Christianity is a lie, which would make it one of the largest, longest, and most intricate conspiracies known to mankind. However, on the other hand, if Jesus was more than just another man then all who do not believe in and follow Him are doomed to a fate much worse than death. In his book, Jesus: Who Is He?, Dr. Tim LaHaye comments that:

"Almost everyone who has heard of Jesus has developed an opinion about Him. That is to be expected, for He is not only the most famous person in world history, but also the most controversial. Most of the popular views about Him can be reduced to two: either He was God in human flesh or He was merely a good man. Both cannot be right. It is impossible to view Him as a good man if He is not the Son of God, for that is precisely who He claimed to be. If He was not God, but claimed to be, then He would not be good; He would be either deranged or utterly evil."

Dr. LaHaye continues by saying:

"Because of His upright character and charitable deeds, hardly anyone considers Jesus in a negative light. Even those who bristled at His name-Hegel, Voltaire, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, and Marx, to name a few-were unable to ignore Him. Some were even respectful of Him. Yet they knew His teaching and their own could not coexist, so they spared no effort in a futile attempt to stamp out His influence. It boils down to this: If Jesus was and is God in human flesh, then He should be worshiped. If He is not, He should be forgotten and labeled an impostor or lunatic."

Regardless of what some may say, there is no room for a middle ground somewhere in-between these two possible choices; it must be one or the other. Either Jesus Christ was God incarnate who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died upon the cross to take away the sins of the world, was resurrected, and ascended back into heaven-as the Bible claims-or He was just another moral teacher who became a martyr.

There are several possible ways in which a person can go about establishing and verifying the deity of Jesus Christ. One such way would be to honestly, logically, and without prejudice examine the wealth of extra-biblical evidence that points to a more-than-human impact upon the world by this one Individual. In addition to this there are also multiple ways through Scripture alone that a person can confirm and positively determine that Jesus was and is the Son of God. The focus of the subsequent material will be to look at the Biblical evidence supporting Christ's deity through such things as miracles performed, fulfilled prophecies, and character proclaimed by Jesus Christ.

The first Biblical item, miracles performed by Jesus Christ, unquestionably attest to His deity. By its definition-an exercise of divine power-and purpose-to authenticate the messenger and his message-it is not hard to understand why Jesus chose miracles as one way to reveal who He truly was. Concerning this issue Dr. LaHaye observes that:

"If a man came onto the world scene healing lepers, restoring paraplegics, reconstructing crippled limbs, and restoring sight to the blind, we would instantly acclaim him more than a man. We might even call him a god in human flesh. In addition to this, if a man walked on water, calmed storms, and fed more than five thousand men at one time with a boy's lunch, we would suspect that man was more than human. Then, if a man stopped a funeral procession and raised the only son of a grieving widow, returning him to his mother-all before many witnesses-we would indeed acclaim him a god. For in the history of the world, no human being, save Jesus Christ, has ever performed one of those miracles by his own power, much less all of them."

These supernatural acts, and others like them, must have been what Jesus was referring to when He told the unbelieving Jews, who objected to His claim of being the Son of God, that the works He did bore witness of who He was (John 5:36). Therefore, "anyone who carefully studies Jesus' life discovers that it would be impossible to separate Him from His miracles. They indeed establish His authority [over nature, death, disease, and demons]."

Another aspect of miracles is that they are not the sort of thing that is quickly forgotten, especially if it was personally experienced. Dr. LaHay points the following truth out:

"Jesus of Nazareth ministered publicly for only three and one-half years, a short time to establish Himself as 'the Son of God' for all time and to found a religion that would stand the test of the ages. Thus it was important to Him that He establish His personal credibility early in His ministry so that His work could be carried on by His followers."

He then adds:

"The significance He placed on miracles appears in His response to the disciples of John the Baptist, who asked whether He was the predicted Messiah… or should they look for another? Note the Lord's answer: 'Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them' (Luke 7:22)."

It is evident that many of the miracles that Jesus performed were well planned, purposeful, and personally revealing. Many of them were "widows" into Christ's character (John 11).

In addition to this, one of most awesome condemnations spoken in the Bible was reserved for the people of two cities in which Jesus performed many miracles. The gospel of Matthew records Jesus' words: "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you" (11:21-22). Dr. LaHaye continues by saying that:

"The miracles obviously were meant to convince people that He was acting in the power and name of God. When the Jews rejected His claim, they were rejecting a powerful witness to His deity and thus were without excuse. To capture the significance of this, He compared them to the cities of Sodom and Gomorah, which were rife with homosexuality. Those wicked cities did not, however, see Jesus perform miracles in their city or hear Him deliver His matchless teachings. Had He done so, He assures us, they would have "repented." Therefore, they will find it "more tolerable in the day of judgment." At least they were not guilty of rejecting overwhelming evidence of His personal identity. Miracles, then, are an overt and powerful witness to Jesus' identity. People reject them at their peril."

With the above examples in mind, the vital importance and place of miracles within Jesus' ministry can be clearly seen, as well as the severity of rejecting their testimony. "With one loud voice, the miracles Jesus performed call to us across the ages and shout, 'Jesus is the Son of God!'"

The second Biblical item, fulfilled prophecies by Jesus Christ, also unquestionably attests to His deity. The following is what Dr. LaHaye has to say about this particular proof:

"Now we come to the most convincing evidence of all regarding the identity of Jesus of Nazareth: the many prophecies He fulfilled during His lifetime. The Hebrew prophets had not left the Jews ignorant about how to identify their coming Messiah. More than one hundred messianic prophecies are scattered throughout the Old Testament, some already fifteen hundred years old by the time Christ was born."

Unfortunately, the Jewish leaders missed Jesus completely despite His fulfilling every messianic prophecy. One of the major reasons why is due to the fact that they were looking for a ruling king to free them from Roman oppression rather than a suffering servant to free them from their sin. However, even with the religious leaders not recognizing their own Messiah, unintentionally or intentionally, Jesus was never confused as to who He was. An unmistakable example of this can be found early in Jesus' ministry just after being tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Luke's gospel describes it this way:

"He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.' Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'" (4:16-21).

Jesus knew who He was and during His ministry He never hid this knowledge, but, again, some hid what they saw from themselves by refusing to admit what could not be denied.

The evidence in favor of Jesus being the Messiah was more than overwhelming. According to Dr. Alfred Edersheim there were no less than 456 different messianic passages, all of which are recorded in his book, The Life and Times of Jesus The Messiah. It is in reference to Edersheim's book Dr. LaHaye comments:

"Many of these 456 messianic prophecies are repetitive and some are quite obscure. But scholars agree there are at least 109 distinct prophecies which the Messiah had to fulfill. For all of them to be fulfilled by one individual requires a man so unusual and a life so unique as to eliminate all pretenders and indeed all men who have ever lived-except one!"

Dr. LaHaye then continues by pointing out the following statistic:

"Consider the mathematics involved in the fulfillment of these prophecies. The probability that just 20 of those 109 prophecies could be fulfilled in one man by chance is less than one in one quadrillion, one hundred and twenty-five trillion. Most people cannot even imagine such a number. If they did, it would look something like this: 1 in 1,125,000,000,000,000."

The score of prophecies Jesus fulfilled during His lifetime identify Him-and Him alone-as the predicted Messiah; Isaiah 53 alone has no less than 11 different messianic prophecies all of which Jesus fulfilled. Considering that even the most recent of Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus were written several hundreds of years before He ever lived, it must be concluded that He was more than a man, and was, in fact, the Messiah and the Savior of the world.

While it would literally take an entire book in and of itself to examine fully each and every messianic prophecy and how Jesus fulfilled them perfectly and completely, there are four specific prophecies upon which hangs all of Christianity. They are the virgin birth, the sinless life, death upon the cross, and the resurrection. Without the virgin birth Jesus would have been born with a sin nature like every other natural born man and thus could not have been the spotless Lamb, without defect or blemish, sacrificed to take away the sins of the world; therefore, unraveling the entire fabric of Christianity. The sinless life's importance is similar to the reason for the virgin birth. If Jesus had sinned while on earth He, again, could not have provided the necessary atonement for our sin. Then, without Jesus' subsequent death upon the cross His sinless birth and life would have no meaning because it was here that God satisfied His holy wrath toward sin by pouring it out upon Jesus as He hung upon the cross. Finally, if Jesus had not been resurrected Christianity would have a dead God, which would mean that He really didn't have any power over death and therefore the Christian's promised resurrection would also be nonexistent. For Scripture on each of these prophecies look at the following list:

Virgin birth prophesied: Isa 7:14
Virgin birth fulfilled: Matt 1:18-25
Sinless life prophesied: Isa 53:9
Sinless life fulfilled: Matt 4:1-11; John 8:46; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 1:18-20
Death upon the cross prophesied: Isa 53:5; Deut 21:22-23; Ps 22:16-18; Matt 26:2
Death upon the cross fulfilled: Matt 27:19-26; Mark 15:21-32;Gal 3:13
Resurrection prophesied: Ps 16:10; Ps 49:15; Mark 8:31; John 2:18-22
Resurrection fulfilled: Matt 28:5-7; Luke 24:5-8; John 20:24-29

The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was no accident, but was the fulfillment of the premeditated plan of God from before the foundation of the earth-a plan to which Jesus freely gave His consent. Upon one occasion Jesus even proclaimed that, "No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father" (John 10:18). At no time did the multitudes, the chief priests, the Jews, or even the Romans have power over Jesus to take His life. Instead, He became a willing sacrifice for all the sinners of the world; whoever is willing to accept that sacrifice may receive divine forgiveness. (Matt 26:52-54; John 8:59, 10:32, 18:3-11; Luke 4:29-30) With all of this prophetic evidence available it is no wonder that Jesus rebuked the Jews in John chapter 5 for not recognizing that He was their Messiah.

The third Biblical item, character proclaimed by Jesus Christ, likewise unquestionably attests to His deity. This point examines who Jesus personally claimed to be. Perhaps the single greatest source of personal proclamation spoken by Jesus concerning His own character can be found in the forth book of the New Testament. In his gospel, John records no less than seven "I am" statements made by Jesus to various groups of people gathered around Him. Due to the fact that personal testimony coupled with action clearly exposes a person's nature all of Jesus' statements, in their contexts, are perfectly suited for the purpose of resolving the issue of His deity. In John 6:35 Jesus declares that "I am the bread of life;" in 8:12 He declares that "I am the light of the world;" in 10:9 He declares that "I am the gate of salvation;" in 10:14 He declares that "I am the good shepherd;" in 11:25 He declares that "I am the resurrection and the life;" in 14:6 He declares that "I am the way, truth, and life;" and in 15:1 Jesus declares that "I am the true vine." With this in mind, it is time to carefully investigate several of these "I am" claims of Jesus.

First, in John 6:35, Jesus boldly declares, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry." A careful reading of the immediate context surrounding this verse reveals that Jesus is not speaking of physical bread and physical hunger but rather that of spiritual bread and spiritual hunger; meaning that Jesus is able to completely and eternally satisfy the spiritual desires and needs of the soul. While any man, deity or not, could make such a claim the legitimacy and truth of this statement made by Jesus rises above all reasonable doubt and speculation when the larger context of the entire chapter is taken into account.

John chapter six begins with one of the few miracles of Jesus that is recorded in all four gospels, the feeding of the five thousand. After examining verses one through fifteen a reader will discover that Jesus fed five thousand men with nothing more than a lad's five small barley loaves and two small fish; moreover, after everyone had eaten their fill there was an additional twelve baskets filled with pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. Such a miracle is something that no mere man could ever hope to perform!

The very next day the same group of people who had witnessed this awesome miracle of multiplication sought out, found, and gathered once again around Jesus. Jesus-being the master-teacher that He was-took advantage of this opportunity and began to instruct these people in spiritual matters by using the previous day's miracle and physical subject matter as the introduction and stepping stone to explain who He was, where He was from, what He had come to accomplish on earth, and what man had to do in order to become a part of Him. Ironically, these same people who had seen yesterday's miracle and had subsequently wanted to make Jesus their king by force all of a sudden, after hearing His spiritual truth, began grumbling among themselves against Him. The reason why was due to the fact that they fully understood that Jesus was declaring Himself equal with God the Father and therefore deity.

Before this chapter is over Jesus proclaims, "I am bread of life" no less than three times (6:35, 38, 51); however, the majority of the people who hear it, rather than partake of Him as they had His physical bread, desert Jesus. It seems only natural that the man who could satisfy over five thousand people's hunger with practically nothing could also, just as easily, satisfy an innumerable amount of people's spiritual hunger but this what not the thinking nor reaction of the crowd. In similar fashion, Jesus often used a common physical object to teach an uncommon spiritual truth only to be rejected even after performing miracles, which backed up the very words that He spoke.

Secondly, in John 11:25-26, Jesus reassuringly comforts a grieving Martha and Mary by saying, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Again, this statement, which clearly resonates with a claim of deity, could be made by anyone with a voice and mind to speak it; however, the proof or substantiation of such a claim as this lies within the actions of the individual who is asserting them. Once more the context is of the utmost importance.

John chapter eleven chronicles the death and resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus Christ. It should be noted that up to this point there has been no specific teaching or example of resurrection recorded anywhere in John's gospel, which becomes important when considering that Jesus is about to reveal another aspect of His character as the Son of God. Everyone involved in this situation, save Jesus, was thinking, so to speak, one dimensionally-as can be seen by their reactions to Lazarus' death. Jesus was about to show the world that He not only had power over physical illness, nature, and matter-as seen in previous miracles-but that He also had power over death itself. Again, Jesus, the mater-teacher, was taking advantage of the situation to expand His follower's knowledge of just who He was and what He was capable of doing.

Perhaps another reason why Jesus displayed His power over death here was to reinforce the teaching that He did in the previous chapter when stating, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…I lay down my life-only to take it up again" (10:11, 17). Twice in John chapter ten Jesus identifies Himself as the "good shepherd" (10:11, 14), and in addition to this there are no less than five references made by Jesus saying that the duty and responsibility of a "good shepherd" is to lay down His life for His sheep (10:11, 15, 17, 18, 18). However, Jesus does not stop at just laying down His life but also teaches, rather explicitly, that He has the power to take it back up again (10:17, 18); therefore, only using different words but speaking of the same message, Jesus proclaims "I am the resurrection and the life." And when Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave He placed unmistakable evidence before those who witnessed it that He was in fact the divine Son of God.

No one else-not king, dictator, scientist, educator, or military leader-has made a greater contribution to world history than Jesus has. At least twelve billion people have come and gone on this planet, but today, almost two thousand years after His death, no one has come close to replicating His unique place in history and no one can come close to equaling His influence on mankind. Dr. LaHaye puts it this way:

"There just is no merely human explanation why a simple, though brilliant man-a man who should have been forgotten long ago by the entire world-would still be the most loved and respected person who ever lived, two thousand years after His death. Human explanations alone cannot account for the astonishing grip He still holds over this planet. No, only one fact explains the uniqueness of Jesus Christ: Jesus truly was the divine Son of God who came in human flesh, just as He claimed. You see, assigning humanity alone to Jesus is just not good enough. To accomplish what He did in both His life and teachings requires both God and man, working together in one person. That person is Jesus of Nazareth."

Therefore, from the miracles performed, fulfilled prophecies, and character proclaimed by Jesus Christ it can be seen that He truly was and is both God and man.