Jesus declared His deity when He said, "I tell you the truth, . . . before Abraham was born, I am!" ( John 8:58 ). In Matthew 25:31-46 , Jesus taught that He will judge the world. This is an authority that only God can exercise. His enemies understood Him clearly because they called for His execution on charges of blasphemy. They said, "He claimed to be the Son of God" ( John 19:7 ). And when Jesus was required to state whether or not He was the Christ, He replied, "Yes, it is as you say. . . . But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" ( Matthew 26:64 ).
While we cannot grasp the mystery of the incarnation, the Scriptures require us to view Jesus Christ as God and man in one person. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus was not only a great prophet or a man gifted with supernatural powers. He was truly God and truly man. Writing to defend the deity of Jesus against Gnostic teaching that claimed that the divine presence had departed from Jesus' body before His death and crucifixion, the apostle John wrote:
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world (1 John 4:2-3).
Belief in Christ's deity offers great comfort to Christians. We read:
We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Only by being both God and man could Jesus suffer in our place and atone for our sins.