Jesus is God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. As the only begotten Son of God, Jesus has the same essence and divine nature as God the Father.
Jesus’ human nature and his divine nature exist together, united but distinct, in one divine Person. He is True God and True Man.
Jesus is not just a good teacher. If Jesus is not God but He believes that He is, He must be insane. If He said the things that He did but does not believe that He is God, then Jesus is dishonest. Jesus can only be a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord.
Jesus may not have explicitly said that He is God or never made a direct command that He be worshipped, but his words and actions reveal that He is God. He even referred to himself with the divine name, “I AM”.
The Word of God has existed in Heaven forever. Jesus said that He came from the Father after being sent to do his will, and that He would also return to the Father.
Jesus spoke of being one with God the Father, claiming to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one could come to the Father except through Him.
In his public ministry, Jesus forgave sins, taught by his own authority, and performed many signs and wonders. These are things that only God could do.
By referring to Himself as a temple, Jesus indicated that He should be worshipped. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus’ followers understand and confess that He is God and they worship Him as the Lord.
The Catholic Church has always taught that Jesus is God and that God is completely revealed in Him. Catholics praise and worship God through, with, and in Jesus.
In 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea refuted the Arian heresy which denied that Jesus was God. Catholics still professes the Nicene Creed at Mass which affirms that Jesus is not made, but eternally begotten of God, and consubstantial with the Father.
Jesus is both God and the Son of God:
Belief in Jesus’ divinity is at the heart of Christianity:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be.
John 1: 1-3
Jesus is not a nice guy:
Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord:
Jesus knows exactly who He is:
In the famous hymn contained in the Letter to the Philippians a further development of this sapiential cycle sees Wisdom abase herself to then be exalted despite rejection. This is one of the most elevated texts in the whole of the New Testament. The vast majority of exegetes today agree that this passage reproduces an earlier composition than the text of the Letter to the Philippians. This is a very important fact because it means that Judaeo-Christianity, prior to St Paul, believed in Jesus’ divinity. In other words, faith in the divinity of Jesus was not a Hellenistic invention that emerged much later than Jesus’ earthly life, an invention which, forgetful of his humanity, would have divinized Him; we see in reality that early Judaeo-Christianity believed in the divinity of Jesus. Indeed, we can say that the Apostles themselves, at the important moments in the life of their Teacher, understood that He was the Son of God, as St Peter said in Caesarea Philippi: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.
Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 22 October 2008
Peter professed that Jesus is the Son of the Living God:
Jesus is revealed as the one God of Israel:
The Church has always taught that Jesus is God:
The first heresies denied not so much Christ’s divinity as his true humanity (Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on the true incarnation of God’s Son “come in the flesh”. But already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is “begotten, not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father”, and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God “came to be from things that were not” and that He was “from another substance” than that of the Father.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 465
Denying that Jesus is God is heresy:
The Creed states that the Father and the Son are equally God:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Seeing ourselves as God sees us:
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