Jesus did everything He did as God, or else He doesn’t save

If we don’t get Jesus right, then we don’t get the gospel right, and we don’t get Christianity right.

That’s why a serious error that can be heard in some popular churches is not something Christians can agree to disagree on; it’s faith-departing heresy.

Several prominent figures in the Word of Faith movement, such as Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and Creflo Dollar, have taught that Jesus was not God on earth, or that we can be a god in the same way that Jesus was.

More recently, something that Bethel’s Bill Johnson has written and preached is more subtle. As you can see in this video, even though he would affirm Jesus was God on earth, Johnson has taught that Jesus did not do His miracles AS God, but “as a man in right relationship with God.”

Johnson’s stated reasoning for this is not because the text teaches it, but the idea that we can do any miracle Jesus did because we're also in right relationship with God.

Also recently, Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris taught that Jesus “completely laid down His divinity” while on earth.

This post won’t get into the full debate over what Philippians 2:7 means when it says Jesus emptied Himself — short version, that simply means He humbled Himself — but rather the belief that even if Jesus remained fully God, He didn’t do what He did AS God.

Let’s examine that claim in the gospels:

Jesus’ miracles based on His deity

1. There were multiple times when Jesus cast out demons that the demon would identify who Jesus was. “I know who You are — the Holy One of God!” a demon said in Luke 4:34. When He cast out the legion of demons in Matthew 8, they said, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?”

Jesus’ authority over demons is established by who He is, by who they knew Him as before they were cast out of heaven — God the Son.

While He ordered the demons to be silent — because Jesus alone determines how His identity is revealed — He did not correct them in basing their obedience on that unique identity.

But if you’d rather not take the word of demons, OK, there’s more:

2. When Jesus calmed the storm, His disciples responded, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” The miracle happened because of who Jesus is. He was God in the boat, the sovereign Creator and Lord of all matter and energy, and that's why, just like the demons, the wind and sea obeyed Him. Every atom in the universe must instantly obey Him. No other man has ever wielded that magnitude of power.

But if you’d rather not take the word of men, OK, there’s more:

3. The paralytic lowered through the roof. Jesus healed Him to prove that He has the authority to forgive sins, which the Pharisees rightly said only God can do. There’s no way around this one; this healing was explicitly about Jesus’ unique identity and authority — “that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.”

4. The pronouns associated with two healings in Matthew ascribe the miraculous ability to Jesus Himself. A leper says to Him in 8:2, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean” (the Lord does not correct him). When Jesus healed two blind men in chapter 9, He asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (verse 28).

5. John 2:11 says Jesus turning water into wine was a manifestation of His glory, which John describes in the first chapter as “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.”

6. Not to mention the transfiguration, in which Jesus unveils that divine glory.

7. And not to mention that He never sinned, an achievement still standing alone in human history.

These miracles happened because Jesus is God.

Answering proof texts

Those who believe otherwise may quote Jesus in John 14:12 — “he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do ...”

The Greek word for “greater” can mean in quantity and extent, and obviously the church has fulfilled that over 2,000 years to the ends of the earth. It also can mean better, more wonderful; after Christ ascended, we were given the fully revealed gospel, the message of the finished work of the cross, the witness of the resurrection, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the complete Scriptures. Since then, our ministry of reaping the global harvest of souls has been greater than any temporal miracle Jesus ever did.

They may cite verses like John 5:19 (“Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do”), 5:30 (“I can of Myself do nothing”), 8:28 (“I do nothing of Myself”) and 14:10 (“I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works”). They also could point out that Jesus did what He did in the power of the Holy Spirit, as per Acts 10:38 — “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

All of those verses are still true if the ministry of Jesus was Trinitarian.

Jesus did nothing on His own; it was all three Persons of the Godhead in co-operation. Everything Jesus did was not of Himself alone, but the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.

Does Jesus’ statement that he drove out demons “by the Spirit of God” (Matthew 12:28) contradict Him saying the Father does the works, or leave Jesus’ divine identity and power out of the equation? Not at all. A verse mentioning just one of the Persons doesn’t nullify the others.

Look at the greatest work of the Trinity during Jesus’ time on earth: His resurrection.

Who raised Jesus from the dead? Galatians 1:1 says the Father. Romans 8:11 says the Holy Spirit. And in John 2:19 and 10:18, Jesus said He would do it Himself.

A man who merely lives in right relationship with God cannot raise himself from the dead.

Salvation is at stake

That’s why this is so important. We’re saved by Jesus’ death and resurrection, as well as His perfect righteousness imputed to us; those were things He did, and only He can do, AS God. A man acting merely in right relationship with God cannot be a perfect, acceptable sacrifice, cannot make propitiation for our sins, and therefore cannot save us.

Jesus must be God to save us, AND He must save us AS God, as well as man. His omnipotent divinity is essential to everything He did, all His life.

Therefore, a Jesus who did what he did “as a man in right relationship with God” is another Jesus, one who can’t save a soul.

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I also recommend this excellent article, which adds that Jesus cited His works as proof of who He is.