"Jesus (peace be upon him) never explicitly said, ‘I am God, worship me,' and that's a critical point. In your own Bible, he speaks as a servant of God, not as God Himself. He says, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone' (Mark 10:18), and ‘The Father is greater than I' (John 14:28). If he were God, why not declare it plainly? The absence of such a clear statement shows he was a prophet, not divine. In Islam, the Qur'an confirms this: ‘The Messiah said, "O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord"' (Surah Al-Ma'idah, 5:72). He pointed to Allah, not himself.
Tawhid—Allah's oneness—fits this perfectly. Jesus (peace be upon him) taught monotheism, like all prophets before him, not a Trinity invented later. The Qur'an warns, ‘They have disbelieved who say, "Allah is the Messiah"' (Surah Al-Ma'idah, 5:17). His miracles, his prayers—all show he was a human messenger, not God. The lack of ‘I am God, worship me' in his words is evidence he never claimed divinity—later followers added that. Islam restores his true role: a servant of the One God, Allah."
This assumes Jesus had to use modern, Western phrasing to make a divine claim. In first-century Jewish context, He didn't need to say those exact English words; His actions and statements in their historical and linguistic setting unmistakably proclaimed His divinity.
Let's look closely.
In John 8:58,Jesus says: "Before Abraham was born, I AM."
His audience knew exactly what He meant — He was invoking God's divine name revealed in Exodus 3:14 "I AM WHO I AM." The Jews understood this as a direct claim to deity and tried to stone Him for blasphemy (John 8:59).
In John 10:30,Jesus declares, "I and the Father are one."
Again, the response is immediate — the Jews pick up stones, saying, "You, a mere man, claim to be God" (John 10:33). His meaning was clear to them even if it may not be to modern readers.
In John 20:28,the Apostle Thomas directly calls the risen Jesus, "My Lord and my God!"
And notice — Jesus does not correct him. Instead, He affirms Thomas's faith.
Jesus accepted worship repeatedly — from the disciples in Matthew 14:33,the blind man in John 9:38,and the women after the resurrection in Matthew 28:9. Yet Scripture is clear that worship belongs to God alone (Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 42:8). If Jesus were not divine, accepting worship would be blasphemy.
As for verses like "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) or "Why do you call me good?" (Mark 10:18), these show Jesus speaking from His human nature, in humility as the incarnate Son. Christians believe, as Philippians 2:6-8 explains, that He "humbled Himself" and took the form of a servant — not because He was less than God, but because He chose to enter human experience.
In John 5:23,Jesus explicitly says the Father wants everyone to honour the Son just as they honour the Father — something that would be idolatrous if Jesus were not divine.
So, while Jesus never said in those exact English words, "I am God, worship me," He said and did everything that meant exactly that to His first-century Jewish audience — and they understood Him perfectly.
The Qur'an (Surah 5:72) denies His divinity, but the New Testament, written within the lifetime of His eyewitnesses, consistently affirms it. To the opening words — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh" (John 1:1, 14) — the message is clear: Jesus didn't merely point to God; He revealed Him.