The New Testament without Definitely Calling Jesus God
Who started to call Christ Jesus God?
The relevant New Testament passages are comparatively few. Bultmann observes that 'in describing Christ as " God " the New Testament still exercises great restraint '.Indeed, nowhere in the Gospels Christ Jesus introduced Himself as God of Israelites as well as mankind. However authors of the New Testament documents sometimes suggested that Christ Jesus is God.
http://onlytruegod.org/defense/v.taylor_theos.jchrist.htm
Do the Scriptures affirm the Deity of Jesus? Did Bible writers call Jesus "God" or claim that He possessed Deity? Please consider these basic passages about Christ as God in the flesh.
John 1:1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The "Word" refers to Jesus (v17), the only begotten of the Father who became flesh and dwelt among us (v14). This affirms that Jesus is a separate individual from the Father (He was with God), and yet He Himself possesses Deity (He was God). Note that the context affirms both Jesus' Deity and His humanity: God became flesh and dwelt among us.
Colossians 2:9
"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (NKJV, KJV, ASV). Or: "For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (NASB, RSV, NIV is similar).
"Fulness" (plerooma) means " ... that which is brought to fulness or completion ... sum total, fulness, even (super) abundance ... of something ... the full measure of deity ... Colossians 2:9" - Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich.
"Godhead" or "Deity" (theotes) means: " ... the state of being God, Godhead ..." - Grimm-Wilke-Thayer. Trench says the language here means Jesus "was, and is, absolute and perfect God" (quoted in Vine, Vol. I, pp. 328f).
So the passage says that, in Jesus dwelt bodily "the full measure of" "the state of being God."
Hebrews 1:3However, there are various efforts to study these expressions, taking into consideration the context from the Old Testament:
Jesus was "the express image of His [the Father's] person" (NKJV, KJV) or "the very image of his substance" (ASV), "the exact representation of His nature" (NASB), "the exact representation of his being" (NIV). The context describes Jesus as the Creator, far above the angels so that He deserves to be worshipped (as will be considered in more detail later.)
"Express image" (charachter) means "the exact expression ... of any person or thing, marked likeness, precise reproduction in every respect (cf. facsimile) ..." - Grimm-Wilke-Thayer (cf. Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich)....
This must mean that Jesus truly possessed Deity before He came to earth. V7 uses the same word to say that He took the form (morphe) of a servant. Was Jesus really a servant on earth? Of course He was (Matthew 20:28; John 13:1-6; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Acts 4:27,30 ASV). It follows that, before He came to earth, He really possessed the nature of God.
http://www.gospelway.com/god/deity-jesus-passages.php
DOES THE NEW TESTAMENT CALL JESUS GOD?To see how St. Paul took his position in this matter is also important, since St. Paul is regraded as the true builder of the religion today called Christianity.
RAYMOND E. BROWN, S.S.
In three clear instances and in five instances that have a certain probability Jesus is called God in the New Testament.
The most plausible explanation is that in the earliest stage of Christianity the Old Testament heritage dominated the use of the title "God"; hence, "God" was a title too narrow to be applied to Jesus. It referred strictly to the Father of Jesus, to the God to whom he prayed. Gradually, (in the 50's and 60's?) in the development of Christian thought "God" was understood to be a broader term. It was seen that God had revealed so much of Himself in Jesus that "God" had to be able to include both Father and Son.
http://www.ts.mu.edu/readers/content/pdf/26/26.4/26.4.1.pdf
Does Paul call Jesus “God” in Romans 9:5?
30 March 2011
By David Maas
There is only one passage in Paul's writings where he appears to explicitly call Jesus “God” or theos in Greek, Romans 9:5. Since the faith of Israel from which Christianity arose was firmly monotheistic, the scarcity of such statements in Paul's letters raises questions. Romans 9:5 is translated in the New International Version (NIV) as:
“Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, for ever praised! Amen.”...
Paul's purpose in Romans chapters 9 through 11 was not to expound on the nature of God or Christ. At issue was the present status of ethnic Israelites in light of God's covenant promises and the nation’s rejection of Jesus. Since God is now fulfilling His promises in Christ, and since most Jews repudiated Jesus as Messiah, had God's word failed (verse 6)?...
Additionally, in his letters Paul always maintained a distinction between God and Christ, and often referred to God as “the God and Father of Jesus” (Romans 15:6, 1 Corinthians 15:24, 2 Corinthians 1:3, 11:31, Ephesians 1:3, 5:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:3). On several occasions he identified the Father as alone “God” (1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:6, Philippians 4:20, 1 Thessalonians 3:11, 3:13)....
In summary, Romans 9:5 does not call Jesus “God.” Instead, it is a declaration of praise to God offered immediately before Paul's question, had the Word of God failed? It affirmed that Paul did not doubt even for an instance that God's word had not failed. His faith in God was absolute.Maybe or maybe not, St. Paul could not explicitly call Christ Jesus God, since it must have been very dangerous and too radical at the time.
http://www.gospeltoallnations.org/Is_Jesus_Called__God__in_Romans_9-5.htm
Conversely, if nobody thought that Christ Jesus might be God in the first century when documents to be included in the New Testament were being created and written, why would they rather try hard so much to disseminate the teaching of Christ or Christianity of the original version?
The degrees of passion, zeal, sacrifice, and efforts those Apostles and disciples showed and exerted in their mission as the first or early Christians cannot be explained if we judge that nobody saw God in Christ Jesus at the time.
However, they did not blindly and easily persuade other "Jews" to accept this notion that God is in Christ Jesus or Christ Jesus is just another form of God, since oppression and persecution to followers of Christ Jesus by the Roman and "Jewish" authorities were so cruel. So, in order to convert Judaists into Christians, St. Paul and other Apostles had to take a strategy to make them realize and discover by themselves through suggestions given by St. Paul and other Apostles that Christ Jesus is God. This realization must be spontaneously and voluntarily made.
Therefore, the New Testament does not have to necessarily and explicitly include a description that Christ Jesus is God.
In other world, only those who could discover that Christ Jesus is God by reading the New Testament could be Christians.
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Luk 5:1 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
Luk 5:2 And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
Luk 5:3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Luk 5:4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.