No middle road!

It is a kind of hypocritical query for people to ask whether Jesus directly claimed to be God in the Bible. The point is that people who ask that question do not believe that the Bible is God's word from heaven. If it was mentioned there, their next claim would be that the Bible was corrupted. The fact is that the disciples called Him Lord and God after His resurrection and He did not refute it. All the letters of Paul and Peter are full of the deity of Jesus. I find it amusing that the apologetical wing of Christianity are trying hard to prove that He, at least indirectly, claimed to be divine through the gospels. Either the Bible is believed completely or not at all. People are believing in Jesus, not because He is a great moral teacher, but because they have come to believe that He is who the Bible claims Him to be. The largest religion in the world has adherents, not because they admire Jesus, but because they believe that He is indeed the way, the truth and the life. The Bible has became famous, not because people believe it is good though corrupted, but because it has truth that has captured the hearts of people. Either men are drawn to the light or they reject the light. There is no middle road. 

Now and not yet!

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, we see Jesus preaching and teaching the principles of the kingdom. From the time Jesus began His ministry (but before the cross), the Law was superceded by the Kingdom. The period of the Law was over and the period of the Kingdom was being ushered in. The vital thing to understand is that the age of grace had not yet arrived by then, because the kingdom was not yet rejected.  Only the cross could usher in the age of grace. The Jews were being offered the kingdom (whereas we are brought into it.) They had to take it by force (whereas we are safely inside it.)  The Jews rejected it the same way they rejected the Law. Now, in this time period called the age of grace, the church is being led into the spiritual realities of the Kingdom while the physical fullness is yet to come. It will return when the King returns. We are living in a time called 'NOW AND NOT YET'. Grace enables us to appropriate kingdom truths but we have to clearly see that even though the Kingdom is within us, we cannot enforce authority by ourselves. Everything has to be Spirit-led. This is where we have lot of confusion in the church today. Jesus Christ did not say in Matthew 28 - All authority is given to you. He said - All authority is given to Me, therefore go. We do not go and build our own kingdoms. We will miserably fail. He still holds the reins. We have to be led by the Spirit. We are building His kingdom. 

Disabled and doomed! not us but the devil

In Col 2:15, we read that Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and we are very excited, but most believers do not know much regarding what Jesus disarmed! We mostly relate that to the casting of demons in His Name. We think that is all to it. Please understand that the devil is not the reason why we are condemned to hell but we are judged for our own sin. We also know that the devil cannot just  kill anyone in any period of time or he would have destroyed all. We see that the devil is still tempting man to fall, the same way he tempted Adam at the beginning. So what exactly did Jesus disarm? Please understand that Jesus did not destroy the devil but disarmed him. Also, the effect of that disarming can be seen only in those who believe in Jesus. The defeat was complete but contained.
Well first of all, Jesus removed not only the fear of death but the sceptre of death from the lives of people who are saved. The devil did not rule over death but he came close to doing so, because he was the first to fall into it. He then wielded it as a tool to inject hopelessness and despair in the lives of people. He could spread the aroma of death and darkness. Jesus wrenched that tool away from him by paying the price for it. Secondly, Jesus cleansed the conscience and removed its guilt by the forgiveness of sins. The devil can try to make us carry false guilt but we are no more guilty. The devil cannot gloat over us anymore because we have boldness to ask and receive. Our conscience does not stand in the way. 
Thirdly, Jesus can invade his territory at any time. Actually, his boundary walls have been removed. There is no one he can claim as his. The church is called to pull people out of the fire. The gates of hell cannot prevail. All praises to His Name!