That’s gonna be a startling title for a lot of people. Needs to be said, just as bluntly: Jesus is Y
Yeah he’s the son of God.
Philippians 2.6-8 ISV 6 In God’s own form existed he,- and shared with God equality,
- deemed nothing needed grasping.
7 Instead, poured out in emptiness,- a servant’s form did he possess,
- a mortal man becoming.
- In human form he chose to be,
8 and lived in all humility,- death on a cross obeying.
John continues:
John 1.14-18 ISV 14 The Word became flesh and lived among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father’s uniquely existing Son, who is full of grace and truth.15 John told the truth about him when he cried out, “This is the person about whom I said, ‘The one who comes after me ranks higher than me, because he existed before me.’ ”16 We have all received one gracious gift after another from his abundance,17 because while the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus the Messiah.18 No one has ever seen God. The uniquely existing God, who is close to the Father’s side, has revealed him.
(Yes, the
Hence Jesus, who is God, knows precisely what God’s like. He was sent from God to explain God to us, as God’s revelation of himself. What we know about God must be filtered through Jesus. Like John said, only Jesus explains God. ’Cause he’s God.
Two persons. Both, the One God.
The idea Jesus is God bugs people. In the scriptures, we see many references to Jesus and God as separate-sounding individuals.
Yet there are plenty of passages which state, just as clearly, this fella named Jesus is God. Yeah, he’s not the same person as the Father. Yet somehow he and his Father are both God. How? Well, Christian beliefs about
John 1.1-5 ISV 1 In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He existed in the beginning with God.3 Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made.4 In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity.5 And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.
As I pointed out in
Colossians 1.15-20 ISV 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God,- the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by him all things in heaven and on earth were created,- things visible and invisible,
- whether they are kings, lords, rulers, or powers.
- All things have been created through him and for him.
17 He himself existed before anything else did,- and he holds all things together.
18 He is also the head of the body,- which is the church.
- He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
- so that he himself might have first place in everything.
19 For God was pleased to have- all of his divine essence inhabit him.
20 Through the Son, God also reconciled all things to himself,- whether things on earth or things in heaven,
- thereby making peace
- through the blood of his cross.
In verse 20, the original text doesn’t have “Son” and “God”; it’s all pronouns, and you can’t easily tell who the pronouns refer to. Christians debate all the time about how this is precisely to be interpreted. But he’s all the same being. The One God, incarnate in Christ Jesus.
Doing what only God can do.
Many have tried to manipulate the apostles’ words so they can argue Jesus is nothing more than a creation of God. A really significant creation of God; almost his vice-God. But not the God. A
From the very beginning, skeptics have claimed “coming first to all creation” means Jesus was the first thing God created, before everything else. “Let there be light”
It doesn’t make logical sense though: If God created everything through Jesus, this’d include time, which means we can’t say there’s such a thing as a point in time where Jesus didn’t yet exist. Time starts when it got created, and time didn’t get created without Jesus creating the universe. It’s the word of God who said, “Let there be light.”
There are also the popular myths Jesus never claimed to be Messiah, or divine, or from God, much less that he is God. Of course, those who claim such things have never cracked a bible, nor would they believe it if they had. True, we’ve no quotes where Jesus bluntly says, “Hey guys, guess who I am?”—’cause back then, it’d get him stoned to death as a madman. But y’might notice how he said various things which were awfully close to that. (And likewise came close to a stoning.)
John 10.24-38 ISV 24 So the Jewish leaders surrounded him and quizzed him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you’re the Messiah, tell us so plainly.”25 Jesus answered them, “I have told you, but you don’t believe it. The actions that I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf,26 but you don’t believe, because you don’t belong to my sheep.27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.28 I give them eternal life, they’ll never be lost, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.29 What my Father has given me is more important than anything, and no one can snatch it from the Father’s hand.30 I and the Father are one.”31 Again the Jewish leaders picked up stones to stone him to death.32 Jesus replied to them, “I’ve shown you many good actions from my Father. For which of them are you going to stone me?”33 The Jewish leaders answered him, “We are not going to stone you for a good action, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, are making yourself God!”34 Jesus replied to them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’?Ps 82.6 35 If he called those to whom a message from God came ‘gods’ (and the Scripture cannot be disregarded),36 how can you say to the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You’re blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I’m the Son of God’?37 If I’m not doing my Father’s actions, don’t believe me.38 But if I’m doing them, even though you don’t believe me, believe the actions, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
They still wanted to prosecute him for it,
Like Jesus said, if you’re not gonna believe him, believe the works. ’Cause Jesus regularly worked stuff only God can legitimately do. Like read hearts. Or forgive somebody’s sins which weren’t against him personally: Since he’s God, all sins are against him personally.
Mark 2.2-12 ISV 2 Such a large crowd gathered that there wasn’t room for them, even in front of the door. Jesus was speaking his message to them3 when some people came and brought him a paralyzed man being carried by four men.4 Since they couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof over the place where he was. They dug through it and let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.5 When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”6 Now some scribes were sitting there, arguing among themselves,7 “Why does this man talk this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”8 At once, Jesus knew in his spirit what they were saying to themselves. “Why are you arguing about such things among yourselves?” he asked them.9 “Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” Then he told the paralyzed man,11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!”12 So the man got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of all of them.- As a result, all of the people were amazed and began to glorify God as they kept on saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Or accept people’s worship, as he did with a man whom he cured of blindness.
John 9.35-39 ISV 35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out. So when he found him, he asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”36 He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”37 Jesus told him, “You have seen him. He is the person who is talking with you.”38 He said, “Lord, I do believe,” and worshipped him.39 Then Jesus said, “I have come into this world to judge it, so that those who are blind may see and so that those who see may become blind.”
Or grant his followers miraculous power,
Acts 3.6-8 ISV 6 However, Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold, but I’ll give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth, walk!”7 Then Peter took hold of his right hand and began to help him up. Immediately his feet and ankles became strong,8 and he sprang to his feet, stood up, and began to walk. Then he went with them into the Temple, walking, jumping, and praising God.
Most of Jesus’s stranger teachings—like eating his flesh and drinking his blood,
Those who insist it can’t be true.
Some of ’em figure it’d be completely beneath God to become human. What about all the Old Testament verses which state God’s not a man,
Of course this attitude comes from basing one’s theology
If you wanna imagine God didn’t really become human, you’re gonna have to chuck the scriptures, ’cause that’s what they describe.
And revelation, testimony, and time have borne out Jesus is legit.
A madman’s ravings quickly fall apart under minor scrutiny. Jesus’s teachings still hold up—which means either he’s the luckiest loon in the cosmos, and every Christian since has been somehow hallucinating in sync… and what’re the odds? Or, more likely, God did become human. And started something big.
God is Jesus.
If Jesus is God, the inverse is automatically true: God is Jesus.
If you thought people struggle with the Jesus-is-God idea, you’re gonna find even devout Christians balking at this one. Most of us are used to thinking of Jesus as only part of God; as a third, not the whole. (Yeah, I know that’s not how trinity works. But your average Christian still thinks of the trinity like three leaves on a shamrock.)
These very same Christians don’t struggle at all with the idea God’s the Father of Jesus. Tell them, “God’s the Father,” and they’ll easily respond, “Of course God’s our Father.” They won’t reply—as they will with “God is Jesus”—“Waitaminnit; Father is only one person of the trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together are God; the Father by himself isn’t God.” They’ll immediately recognize any form of “God isn’t the Father,” is heresy.
Well, the same’s true of the Son. And the Holy Spirit.
And we need to wrap our brain round the idea God is Jesus. Y
Ergo that God, the God, the God of the Old Testament, is Jesus.
Too many Christians split the bible between Old Testament and New Testament, and figure the
Not only are they the same God, but Jesus is the L
When Christians imagine Jesus and God as two separate entities, they’re making the mistake of not taking Jesus seriously when he said, “I and the Father are one.”
God, through Jesus’s lens.
Christians love Jesus. (Heck, even pagans love Jesus. They get him wrong all the time, but what little they know, they love.) But our relationship with the God of the Old Testament needs work. We don’t love him like we love Jesus… yet he is Jesus.
Some Christians love the
But once we realize the
Well, we oughta see him the very same way we see Jesus. He’s joyful. Peaceful. Loves his people. Extremely patient. Kind. Good. Faithful and forgiving. Gentle, or “slow to anger,” as he put it.
All the loving, friendly, neighborly aspects of Jesus apply to God, whether we’re reading the Old Testament or New. Not because Jesus got those traits from God: Because God is Jesus. He doesn’t just think and behave and love like Jesus; he’s Jesus.
That’s the way we Christians are meant to look at God. We’re not meant to look at him any other way. We’re not to read any other motives into God’s actions, than those consistent with
Yet we do, ’cause we don’t realize this.
We Christians don’t always realize what Jesus came to earth to do. Some of us figure it was just to get us saved: Die on the cross, knock out sin and death, get us to heaven. But Jesus came to reveal who God is; “he explains God.”
So if we ever figure Jesus acts one way, and the Father another; if we ever imagine the Old Testament God did things one way, but Jesus got him to change his mind; whenever we think the Father’s raging and wrathful, but Jesus placates him: We’ve set the trinity against himself. We’ve gone astray. Pull it back in. Don’t interpret God out of the context of Jesus. God is Jesus.
What does Jesus do? Then that’s what God does. And that’s how we Christians are meant to interpret the scriptures, Old Testament and New.
