If you hang around people who claim to be Christians long enough, you’ll hear competing claims about who Jesus really is. Some will say, “Of course He’s God.” Others will insist He’s a created agent of God, an exalted being through whom God works, but not God Himself. I’ve had plenty of people tell me, “I’m a Christian, I love Jesus, I just think you’re wrong about His deity.”
As a cold‑case detective, I don’t have the luxury of fuzzy categories. Either a suspect was in the car or not in the car. Either a defendant is the killer or not the killer. When I turned that same approach toward the question of Jesus’ identity, I tried something simple: limit the “case file” to just three New Testament chapters and ask, “What do these actually say?”
Those three chapters are John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1. I sometimes call them the “three chapter ones” that settle the question. If you lost the rest of the New Testament and only had these three chapters, what conclusion would you reasonably reach about Jesus? If you lost the rest of the New Testament and only had these three chapters, what conclusion would you reasonably reach about Jesus? Share on X
When I was first writing wide‑margin Bibles for my grandkids—three verses a day, jotting notes that I hope they’ll read when they’re thirteen—I had to decide what to emphasize. Identity issues were at the top of the list, and few identity questions are more important than this one: Is Jesus really God? These three chapters became non‑negotiables.
In John 1, you meet “the Word”. John doesn’t present the Word as a high‑ranking creature; he presents Him as eternal, existing “in the beginning” before any created thing. The Word is “with God” and yet “was God.” He is clearly distinct from the Father and yet shares the very identity of God. Through Him “all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.” That line alone drops Him squarely in the Creator category, not the created category.
In Colossians 1, Paul picks up the same thread but in the form of what many scholars regard as an early Christian hymn. This is worship language, not dry theology. Jesus is called “the image of the invisible God”—not a vague likeness, but the one who makes the unseen God visible. He’s called “the firstborn of all creation,” a phrase some people seize on to argue He’s a created being. But the very next line explains what Paul means: “For by Him all things were created… all things were created through Him and for Him.” The “firstborn” language here is status and supremacy, not “first thing made.” The One through whom all things are created cannot belong to the “made” side of the ledger.
Paul goes further: “In Him all things hold together.” Jesus doesn’t just flip the lights on and walk away; He sustains creation. Then Paul says that in Jesus “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” and that through Him God reconciles all things by the blood of His cross. That’s not how the Bible ever talks about a mere prophet. That’s how it talks about God acting to save.
Then you move to Hebrews 1, a chapter drenched in Old Testament quotations. The writer starts by contrasting the old pattern—God speaking “in many times and in many ways” through the prophets—with the new pattern: “in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.” The Son isn’t just another messenger; He’s the final, climactic revelation.
The Son is described as the one through whom God created the world, the radiance of God’s glory, and “the exact imprint of His nature.” He “upholds the universe by the word of His power.” After making purification for sins, He sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, a position of divine authority. The Father addresses Him as “O God”, speaks of His eternal throne, and commands the angels to worship Him. Angels are powerful, but even they are put in the worshiper category while Jesus is in the worshiped category.
So step back and treat this like a case file. Across these three independent sources—John, Paul, and the author of Hebrews—you see the same profile emerge:
- Jesus is eternal, not finite.
- Jesus is Creator, not part of creation.
- Jesus is Sustainer, not sustained.
- Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature, not a distant echo.
- Jesus is worthy of worship, not merely a worshiper.
- Jesus is the one who saves and reconciles, not just points to someone else who does.
You can divide all reality into pairs: Creator vs. created, eternal vs. temporal, sustainer vs. sustained, worshiped vs. worshiper, Savior vs. saved. In every one of those splits, the three chapter ones put Jesus on God’s side of the line.
That’s why the earliest Christians sang about Him as they did in Colossians 1, confessed Him as they did in the creeds, and were willing to lay down their lives rather than deny His deity. They weren’t worshiping a mere agent; they were worshiping God in the flesh.
To learn more about the strength of the case for Jesus’ deity from these three chapters in the New Testament, listen to our podcast:
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For more information about the impact Jesus and His followers had on science, read Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World That Rejects the Bible. This unique and innovative book makes a case for the historicity and Deity of Jesus from history alone, without relying on the New Testament manuscripts. It contains over 400 illustrations and is accompanied by a ten-session Person of Interest DVD Set (and Investigator’s Guide) to help individuals or small groups examine the evidence and make the case.
