Quick Facts Bible research image examining whether God ever declared Jesus to be God or instead repeatedly identified Him as His beloved Son. The study examines Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, John 10:36, John 17:3, John 20:17, Hebrews 1:8–9 and other key passages concerning the identity of God and Jesus Christ.
QUICK FACTS: DID GOD EVER SAY JESUS WAS GOD?
Or Did God Repeatedly Declare Jesus to Be His Son?
What Did God Say About Jesus — And What Did Jesus Say About Himself?
Research by Simon Brown
There may be no more important question for a Christian than this:
WHO IS GOD — AND WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?
Millions of Christians have been taught that Jesus is God.
Orthodox Trinitarian Christianity teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, while maintaining that these are not three Gods but three distinct persons sharing the one divine being.
Oneness or Modalist Christians approach the question differently, identifying Jesus with the one God in a way that does not maintain the same eternal distinction of three divine persons.
But rather than beginning with a creed, denomination, church council or theological system, I want to begin somewhere much simpler:
WHAT DID GOD HIMSELF SAY ABOUT JESUS?
Did God announce:
“This is God the Son”?
Did He say:
“This is another person within the one God”?
Did He say:
“This is Me”?
Or did God identify Jesus in another way?
Let's examine what Scripture actually records.
QUICK FACT 1 — GOD SAID: “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON”
Detailed Bible research infographic covering Quick Facts 1–10 from “Did God Ever Say Jesus Was God?” It examines Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, Matthew 12:18, John 10:36, John 17:3, Hebrews 1:8–9, John 20:17, Revelation 3:12, 1 Corinthians 8:6 and 1 Timothy 2:5. The study compares what God explicitly says about Jesus with what Jesus says about Himself and His Father. Research by Simon Brown.
At Jesus' baptism, a voice came from heaven:
MATTHEW 3:17
“This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Notice the relationship expressed in this statement.
The voice from heaven speaks about Jesus and calls Him:
“MY SON.”
There is the One speaking, and there is the Son about whom He speaks.
At the very least, this establishes a genuine distinction between the One speaking from heaven and Jesus.
And the title God gives Jesus is enormously important:
SON.
God does not say:
“This is Me.”
He says:
“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.”
QUICK FACT 2 — GOD SAID IT AGAIN AT THE TRANSFIGURATION
This was not an isolated statement.
At the Transfiguration, Peter, James and John saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah.
Then a voice came from the cloud:
MATTHEW 17:5
“This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”
Again:
“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.”
The One speaking is distinguished from the Son about whom He speaks.
Whatever theological conclusions Christians subsequently draw about Christ's nature, surely we should begin by allowing God's own recorded words to speak for themselves.
God identifies Jesus as:
HIS SON.
QUICK FACT 3 — GOD ALSO CALLS JESUS HIS SERVANT
Matthew applies Isaiah's prophecy to Jesus:
MATTHEW 12:18
“Behold, My servant whom I have chosen, My beloved with whom My soul is well pleased. I will put My Spirit upon Him…”
Look carefully at the language:
“MY SERVANT”
“WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN”
“I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM”
The passage distinguishes the One who chooses from the servant who is chosen.
For me, this contributes to a consistent biblical picture:
GOD WORKING THROUGH HIS CHOSEN MESSIAH.
QUICK FACT 4 — JESUS CALLED HIMSELF “THE SON OF GOD”
John 10 is frequently used in arguments that Jesus claimed to be God.
But we need to read Jesus' own response carefully.
Jesus said:
JOHN 10:36
“Do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
Look at the identities Jesus gives us.
There is:
THE FATHER
who sanctified and sent Jesus,
and there is:
JESUS
who says:
“I AM THE SON OF GOD.”
Notice something else.
Jesus does not say here:
“I AM GOD THE SON.”
The expression recorded in the passage is:
“I AM THE SON OF GOD.”
Those are not identical statements.
That distinction deserves serious examination.
QUICK FACT 5 — JESUS SAID THE FATHER SENT HIM
John 10:36 contains another important statement:
“…Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world…”
Jesus is:
THE ONE SENT.
The Father is:
THE ONE WHO SENT HIM.
This distinction occurs repeatedly throughout John's Gospel.
Jesus says in His prayer:
JOHN 17:3
“…Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
So we should ask:
WHO IS THE SENDER — AND WHO IS THE ONE SENT?
Jesus consistently identifies the Father as the One who sent Him.
QUICK FACT 6 — JESUS CALLED THE FATHER “THE ONLY TRUE GOD”
Now we come to one of the most important passages in my research.
Jesus lifted His eyes toward heaven and prayed to His Father.
He said:
JOHN 17:1–3
“Father… this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Look carefully at the identities in Jesus' prayer.
He addresses:
THE FATHER
and calls Him:
“THE ONLY TRUE GOD.”
Jesus then identifies Himself as:
“JESUS CHRIST WHOM YOU HAVE SENT.”
For me, John 17:3 is foundational.
The Father is identified as “the only true God,” while Jesus is identified as the Christ whom that God sent.
A Trinitarian will answer that John 17:3 can be reconciled with the Trinity because the Son shares the Father's divine nature and is included in the divine identity elsewhere in Scripture.
That interpretation deserves to be represented fairly.
But it does not remove the actual wording of Jesus' prayer.
Jesus addresses His Father as:
“YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD.”
So if another passage appears to call Jesus “God,” we must ask an important question:
IN WHAT SENSE IS THE WORD “GOD” BEING USED?
And that brings us directly to Hebrews 1:8.
QUICK FACT 7 — BUT DOESN'T GOD CALL JESUS “GOD” IN HEBREWS 1:8?
This is one of the most important Trinitarian objections to the argument presented in this study.
Hebrews 1:8 is commonly translated:
HEBREWS 1:8
“But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever…’”
At first sight, this certainly appears to have God addressing the Son as:
“O GOD.”
We should not hide this verse.
We should not pretend the Trinitarian argument does not exist.
And we should not simply declare the common translation false.
The Greek expression ὁ θεός — ho theos can function as a nominative used for direct address, and the traditional rendering “Your throne, O God” is grammatically legitimate and widely accepted. An alternative rendering along the lines of “God is your throne” has also been defended, though many interpreters consider the vocative reading more natural in context. (BibliaPlus)
But whichever translation we consider, we must not stop at verse 8.
READ THE VERY NEXT VERSE.
HEBREWS 1:9
“…therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions.”
Hebrews therefore presents us with something extremely important.
The Son who may be addressed as “O God” in verse 8 is immediately said to have:
“GOD, YOUR GOD.”
And this God:
ANOINTS HIM.
Hebrews 1:8–9 is quoting Psalm 45:6–7, where the same sequence appears: the royal figure is addressed with exalted language and then is said to have “God, your God” who anoints him. (Bible Gateway)
So the question is not merely:
DOES HEBREWS 1:8 CALL JESUS “GOD”?
The deeper question is:
IF JESUS IS CALLED “GOD” HERE, IN WHAT SENSE IS THAT TITLE BEING USED?
Because the very next verse says:
JESUS HAS A GOD.
This agrees with Jesus' own words:
JOHN 20:17
“…My God and your God.”
And the risen Jesus repeatedly says in Revelation 3:12:
“MY GOD.”
Therefore, even if we accept the traditional translation:
“YOUR THRONE, O GOD…”
that alone does not settle the larger question of whether Jesus is the same One whom Jesus Himself calls “the only true God” in John 17:3.
Hebrews 1:8 must be interpreted together with Hebrews 1:9.
I have examined the Greek, Psalm 45, the different translations and the Trinitarian argument much more fully in my separate investigation:
QUICK FACTS: DOES HEBREWS 1:8 REALLY CALL JESUS THE ONE TRUE GOD?
QUICK FACT 8 — JESUS SAID THE FATHER WAS HIS GOD
This is particularly significant after considering Hebrews 1:8–9.
After His resurrection, Jesus told Mary Magdalene:
JOHN 20:17
“I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”
Jesus has:
A FATHER
and Jesus says:
“MY GOD.”
This statement comes after His resurrection.
And similar language continues in Revelation.
REVELATION 3:12
The risen Jesus repeatedly refers to:
“MY GOD.”
So Christians should ask:
IF JESUS HAS A GOD, WHO IS THE GOD OF JESUS?
The biblical answer is:
THE FATHER.
QUICK FACT 9 — PAUL SAID: “ONE GOD, THE FATHER”
Paul writes:
1 CORINTHIANS 8:6
“Yet for us there is one God, the Father… and one Lord, Jesus Christ…”
Again we find two descriptions:
ONE GOD — THE FATHER
and:
ONE LORD — JESUS CHRIST
Trinitarian scholars commonly argue that Paul is reformulating the Jewish Shema in a way that includes Jesus within the divine identity.
That argument should not simply be ignored.
But neither should we ignore what Paul explicitly writes:
“ONE GOD, THE FATHER.”
and:
“ONE LORD, JESUS CHRIST.”
For me, this fits naturally with Jesus' own statement in John 17:3.
QUICK FACT 10 — PAUL DISTINGUISHES GOD FROM JESUS THE MEDIATOR
Paul writes:
1 TIMOTHY 2:5
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Again:
ONE GOD
and:
ONE MEDIATOR — CHRIST JESUS.
The sentence grammatically distinguishes God from the mediator whom Paul identifies as:
“THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.”
A Trinitarian can answer that Jesus mediates according to His humanity and that His role as mediator does not exclude His possessing a divine nature.
That is the theological response.
But the verse itself still distinguishes:
the one God
from:
the mediator, Christ Jesus.
How that distinction relates to Christ's nature is then the theological question that must be demonstrated from Scripture.
QUICK FACT 11 — GOD RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD
Detailed Bible research infographic covering Quick Facts 11–21 from “Did God Ever Say Jesus Was God?” It examines Acts 2:32, Philippians 2:9, Matthew 28:18, John 5:30, Matthew 26:39, Matthew 6:9, John 16:23, John 4:23 and John 5:23, before examining the Trinity, Oneness or Modalism, and whether God ever said “Jesus is Me.”
Peter preached:
ACTS 2:32
“This Jesus God raised up…”
Notice the two identities:
GOD
raised:
JESUS.
The New Testament repeatedly says that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Jesus did not cease to be God's Son at the resurrection.
Instead, God vindicated and raised His Son.
QUICK FACT 12 — GOD EXALTED JESUS
Peter continues:
ACTS 2:33
“Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God…”
And later:
ACTS 5:31
“God exalted Him at His right hand as Leader and Savior…”
Paul likewise writes:
PHILIPPIANS 2:9
“Therefore God also highly exalted Him…”
Look at the repeated pattern:
GOD RAISED JESUS.
GOD EXALTED JESUS.
JESUS IS AT GOD'S RIGHT HAND.
The God who exalts is distinguished from the Christ whom He exalts.
QUICK FACT 13 — JESUS SAID HIS AUTHORITY WAS GIVEN TO HIM
After His resurrection Jesus declared:
MATTHEW 28:18
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Jesus possesses extraordinary authority.
But notice the wording:
IT WAS GIVEN TO HIM.
That naturally raises the question:
WHO GAVE JESUS THIS AUTHORITY?
The New Testament consistently presents the Father as the source of Christ's authority.
This does not diminish Jesus.
It magnifies what God has accomplished through His Son.
QUICK FACT 14 — JESUS SAID HE COULD DO NOTHING “FROM HIMSELF”
Jesus said:
JOHN 5:19
“The Son can do nothing from Himself, unless He sees the Father doing something…”
And:
JOHN 5:30
“I can do nothing from Myself… I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Again Jesus distinguishes:
HIS WILL
from:
THE WILL OF THE ONE WHO SENT HIM.
Whatever position we ultimately reach concerning Christ's nature, these statements must be included in the evidence.
QUICK FACT 15 — JESUS PRAYED TO HIS FATHER
Jesus did not merely talk about the Father.
He prayed to Him.
MATTHEW 26:39
“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
And:
JOHN 17:1
“Father, the hour has come…”
Jesus' prayer reveals a relationship between:
THE SON WHO PRAYS
and:
THE FATHER TO WHOM HE PRAYS.
This is particularly important because Jesus also taught His disciples to pray to the Father.
QUICK FACT 16 — JESUS TAUGHT US TO PRAY TO THE FATHER
Jesus said:
MATTHEW 6:6
“Pray to your Father…”
Then He gave His model prayer:
MATTHEW 6:9
“Therefore pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven…’”
Jesus later said:
JOHN 16:23
“Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.”
The pattern is striking:
PRAY TO THE FATHER
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
IN JESUS' NAME
Jesus is absolutely central.
But the Father is the One Jesus explicitly teaches His followers to address.
QUICK FACT 17 — TRUE WORSHIPPERS WORSHIP THE FATHER
Jesus told the Samaritan woman:
JOHN 4:23
“The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…”
Notice again:
THE FATHER.
This verse does not by itself answer every New Testament passage in which Jesus receives honour, homage or proskyneō.
But when Jesus explicitly discusses true worship, He identifies:
THE FATHER
as the One whom true worshippers worship.
That statement deserves to be taken seriously.
QUICK FACT 18 — DOES THIS MEAN JESUS SHOULD NOT BE HONOURED?
Absolutely not.
Jesus said:
JOHN 5:23
“…that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.”
Jesus is God's Messiah, His beloved Son, our Lord, Savior and appointed King.
God has highly exalted Him.
Paul writes:
PHILIPPIANS 2:9–11
that God highly exalted Jesus, bestowed upon Him the name above every name, and that every knee will bow and every tongue confess:
JESUS CHRIST IS LORD
But notice how the passage concludes:
“TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.”
Honouring Jesus does not require us to erase the distinction between Jesus and His God.
I believe we honour Jesus by believing what God says about His Son and what Jesus says about His Father.
QUICK FACT 19 — WHAT ABOUT THE TRINITY?
Here we must be accurate.
Orthodox Trinitarian Christianity does not teach that Jesus is the Father.
It teaches:
The Father is God.
The Son is God.
The Holy Spirit is God.
Yet:
The Father is not the Son.
The Son is not the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not the Father.
Trinitarians maintain that these are not three Gods but three distinct persons sharing the one undivided divine essence or being.
Therefore, simply proving that Jesus and the Father are distinct does not, by itself, disprove the Trinity.
Trinitarians already believe they are distinct persons.
The deeper question is:
DOES SCRIPTURE ACTUALLY IDENTIFY THE ONE GOD AS THREE COEQUAL, COETERNAL PERSONS?
Or does Scripture consistently present:
THE FATHER AS THE ONE GOD
and:
JESUS AS GOD'S SON, CHRIST, LORD AND MEDIATOR?
That is the question I believe Christians must test against the whole of Scripture.
QUICK FACT 20 — WHAT ABOUT ONENESS OR MODALISM?
This is a different question.
Oneness theology is not the same as orthodox Trinitarianism.
Some Oneness Christians identify Jesus with the Father in ways that Trinitarians themselves reject.
But the distinctions we have examined create serious difficulties for simply identifying Jesus as the same person as the Father.
Jesus says:
“My Father.”
Jesus prays to the Father.
The Father sends Jesus.
Jesus does the Father's will.
The Father raises Jesus.
The Father exalts Jesus.
Jesus calls the Father:
“MY GOD.”
And God calls Jesus:
“MY SON.”
Whatever else we conclude, the biblical Father and Son should not simply be collapsed into the same person.
QUICK FACT 21 — DID GOD EVER SAY: “JESUS IS ME”?
This brings us directly back to the question I first raised in my original research.
God repeatedly identifies Jesus as His Son, while the old article asked whether God ever actually said that He Himself was Jesus.
So let's ask the question carefully.
Where does God say:
“JESUS IS ME”?
Where does the Father say:
“I AM MY SON”?
Where does God say:
“MY SON AND I ARE THE SAME PERSON”?
Those statements are not what we find.
Instead, we repeatedly encounter:
MATTHEW 3:17
“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.”
And:
MATTHEW 17:5
“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON… LISTEN TO HIM.”
Therefore I believe our understanding of Jesus should begin with the identity that Scripture explicitly gives Him:
THE SON OF GOD.
QUICK FACT 22 — WHAT DID GOD SAY ABOUT HIMSELF?
Detailed Quick Facts Bible research image examining Isaiah 46:9 and John 17:3. God declares that He is God and there is no other, while Jesus prays to His Father and calls Him “the only true God,” distinguishing the Father from Jesus Christ whom He sent.
Through Isaiah, God declares:
ISAIAH 46:9
“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.”
And Jesus, praying to His Father, says:
JOHN 17:3
“…that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
For me, these statements fit together naturally.
There is:
THE ONE TRUE GOD — THE FATHER
and there is:
JESUS CHRIST — HIS SON WHOM HE SENT.
BUT WHAT ABOUT VERSES THAT APPEAR TO CALL JESUS “GOD”?
Hebrews 1:8 is not the only passage Christians debate.
There are other verses—such as John 20:28, Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1—that Trinitarians understand as identifying Jesus as God.
Those passages deserve careful examination individually.
We should not build our faith by ignoring difficult verses from either side.
Neither should we take one disputed translation or grammatical construction and allow it to erase dozens of explicit statements identifying:
the Father as Jesus' God,
and:
Jesus as God's Son.
The correct method is to examine all the evidence.
That is what I have tried to do throughout my research.
THE QUESTION EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD ASK
I do not want anyone to accept this conclusion merely because:
SIMON BROWN SAYS IT.
Nor should somebody believe the Trinity merely because their church says it.
Nor should somebody reject the Trinity merely because another teacher tells them to.
OPEN YOUR BIBLE.
Read God's words.
Read Jesus' words.
And ask:
WHO DID GOD SAY JESUS WAS?
WHO DID JESUS SAY HIS FATHER WAS?
WHO DID JESUS CALL “THE ONLY TRUE GOD”?
WHO DID JESUS CALL “MY GOD”?
WHO SENT JESUS?
WHO RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD?
WHO EXALTED JESUS?
WHO GAVE JESUS HIS AUTHORITY?
WHO DID JESUS PRAY TO?
AND WHO DID GOD CALL “MY BELOVED SON”?
For me, the cumulative biblical picture is clear:
THE FATHER IS THE ONE TRUE GOD.
JESUS IS HIS SON, HIS CHRIST, HIS CHOSEN AND EXALTED LORD AND MESSIAH.
And this brings us to something particularly beautiful.
We don't have to invent a confession concerning Jesus.
Scripture already gives us one.
WHO DID JESUS SAY HE WAS?
Jesus said:
JOHN 10:36
“I AM THE SON OF GOD.”
And when Peter confessed Jesus' identity, he said:
MATTHEW 16:16
“YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.”
And John's Gospel tells us why it was written:
JOHN 20:31
“…that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
That is an extraordinary statement.
John tells us what he wants his readers to believe about Jesus:
JESUS IS THE CHRIST.
JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.
For me, that confession is enough.
It does not diminish Jesus.
It does not dishonour Him.
It does not make Him insignificant.
God has made Him Lord and Christ.
God raised Him from the dead.
God exalted Him.
God placed Him at His right hand.
God gave Him authority.
And God commanded us:
“LISTEN TO HIM.”
So I believe the safest place for every Christian to stand is exactly where Scripture stands.
Not beyond Jesus' words.
Not beyond God's declaration.
But upon the confession Scripture itself gives us:
JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.
Research by Simon Brown
wwwrealdiscoveriesorg-simon.blogspot.com
John 1:1
- John 1:1 — Does "The Word Was God" Mean Jesus Is Almighty God?
- IS THE WORD JESUS IN JOHN 1:1?
- What Is the Truth About John 1:1 to 5?
- WHY John 1:1 is not about Jesus!
Hebrews 1:10 – Did God Really Say to the Son, “You Laid the Foundation of the Earth”?
- WHO IS THE ONE TRUE GOD? New video!
- The Greatest Commandment Ever Given — Who Is the One True God?
- Mark 12:29 — Why Did Jesus Quote the Shema?
- Deuteronomy 6:4 — The Shema: "Hear, O Israel, Yahweh Our God Is One"
- John 10:30 — What Did Jesus Mean by "I and the Father Are One"?
- John 8:58 — What Did Jesus Mean by "Before Abraham Was, I Am"?
- John 20:28 — Did Thomas Really Call Jesus Almighty God?
- John 14:9 — "He Who Has Seen Me Has Seen the Father" Explained
- John 17:3 — Jesus Confirmed That the Father Alone Is the Only True God
- John 17:5 — Did Jesus Exist with the Father Before the World Began?
- 2 Peter 1:1 — Another Trinitarian Misunderstanding?
- Colossians 1:15–17 — Does "Firstborn of All Creation" Mean Jesus Was Created?
- Hebrews 1:2 — Did God Create the Universe or the Ages Through His Son?
- Who Is the Alpha and the Omega?
- Did the Doctrine of the Trinity Originate with Jesus Christ and His Apostles?
- Is Jesus God, or the Son of God? What Does the Whole Bible Teach?
- Scriptures Proving Yahweh: The One True God of Israel Is the Creator Alone.
- John 6:38 — How Did Jesus Come Down From Heaven?
