Thanks to the work of Ahmed Deedat and other Muslim apologists, there are many verses isolated from the Gospels readily used by Muslims to argue that Jesus explicitly denied divine status. We will address John (below) as this will lead to a resolution of all of them.
[Joh 14:28 LSB] “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
An appropriate question that Muslims often ask is, "How can Jesus be God if the Father is greater than he is?"
The question is easy to answer with an illustration. When I consider myself compared to the president of the United States, I would not hesitate to say that the president is greater than I. He is in charge of the entire nation and is one of the most powerful men in the world, whereas I am just a normal citizen. So the president is greater than I, far greater; but we are both equally human.
In his essence, the president is just a human being, as am I, and in that sense we are equal. So when I say, "The president is greater than I", I am referring to his office, not his essence. In office, he is greater than I; in essence, we are equal.
Similarly, when Jesus says, "The Father is greater than I", that does not mean Jesus is not God. The Father has a different role, a higher office than Jesus, but that does not mean the Father is greater in essence. They are both equal in essence. They are both God.
A proper understanding of the doctrine of Yeshua’s deity resolves many of the Islamic arguments. That Yeshua hungered and thirsted does not challenge Yeshua’s Deity, because Christians believe in the hypostatic union - that Yeshua has a Divine nature and a human nature, which means He really was a human and he really did hunger and thirst. Afterall, He was named Immanuel - God with us.
[Php 2:5-11 LSB] Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Yeshua, [6] who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. [8] Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore, God also highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Yeshua EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and that EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS that Yeshua Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.
For the same reason, God really could be a prophet. Since God can come into the world according to the Judeo-Christian teachings, He can take a human nature and be both God and man. There is nothing mutually exclusive about His humanity and His Deity.
Yeshua limited Himself voluntarily, becoming a real man, so that as a man he could atone for the sins of man. He lived the life that we were meant to live (sinless) so that He could die the death that we deserved.
For that reason, He was a real human. Yeshua was born. He could grow in wisdom and in stature. He was dependent on the Father, and as such He could pray to the Father. This is not "God praying to Himself", as some allege, because the Son is not the Father. There are two persons here, two selves. They are two persons/offices yet one Being... God.
This fact is not just found in John’s gospel but in all the Gospels which teach that Yeshua is God. Though there are some verses in the Gospels that might appear to challenge Yeshua’s Deity, understanding them in their proper context and understanding the Christian doctrine of Yeshua’s Deity resolves all of them.
Even Ehrman, the skeptical scholar most favored among Muslims, has now changed his mind and says: "The idea that Jesus is God is not an invention of modern times, of course. As I will show in my discussion, it was the view of the very earliest Christians soon after Jesus’s death."
The very first Christians believed Yeshua was God. We can see this in their creeds which were in place before the New Testament was even compiled. The very earliest first century Christian records are all unanimous: The best explanation for this immediate belief that Yeshua is God, as the evidence shows, is that Yeshua Himself claimed to be God and IS God!
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