Jesus wasn’t just a kind humanitarian. He was God in the flesh. Declaring that truth offends an unwilling hearer and those who have a compromised understanding of Jesus. We have nothing to offer if our message does not include both an understanding and a demonstration of that truth. No other message of salvation carries such weight. All other options are false no matter how well-crafted the argument for their acceptance is stated.

We don’t hear much about the truth of Christ’s deity in the current preaching of the Gospel. It doesn’t sound very inclusive to non-believers and compromised believers who want a wide, not narrow way, to salvation.

The religious leaders in Jerusalem were looking for a reason to kill Jesus. When He claimed He was the Son of God it was too much for them. Their rejection of Jesus as God was challenged by the Lord, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name” (John 10:25).

Those who rejected Jesus’ deity picked up stones in an attempt to kill Him. Jesus said to His attackers, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” (vs. 32).

It wasn’t because of the miracles Jesus did that was the cause of His death sentence. It was the Lord declaring He was God that caused their reaction, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.” (vs. 33).

When we reveal that Jesus is God and that He is the only way to the Father, it will be an affront to those who do not know Him and those who preach a wide way to God. If we are going to lead people to the Father, it will require that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, be understood as the only one capable of doing that leading.

In John’s letters, he wrote a very clear message about Jesus as God, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life” (I John 5:20). 

That truth is still offensive today when a wide and godless representation of salvation is presented and is more acceptable to easily offended ears. We need to move past that offense and its implications to preach a true Gospel, something only God can accomplish.