Question:  Dear Greg,

            I believe that Jesus is NOT God.  Jesus is our Lord.  He is God’s son and he is our Savior!  I believe in the Holy trinity!  There are 3 bodies: Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

            Jesus is NOT God because:

1.      Exodus 20—God is a jealous God and we should have no other gods.  We are not to have any idols!  The Catholic Church prays to Mary, which, in my opinion, is an idol.  Our direct contact should be with God.

2.      When Jesus was baptized, he prayed.  The Holy spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove.  A voice from heaven said, “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you”.  God talks to Himself?  God was proud of His Son!

3.      Luke 9:34: “While Peter was still speaking, a shadow from a cloud passed over them.  From the cloud a voice spoke, “This is my chosen son, listen to what he says!”

4.      Luke 10:16: “My followers, whoever listens to you is listening to me. Anyone who says ‘no’ to me is really saying ‘no’ to the one who sent me.”  His Father, God, sent Him.

            I believe in God.  I believe in the 10 Commandments.  I believe in the apostles’ creed.  I believe in Jesus, as God’s son.

            God Bless.

            A Christian brother,

            Max

Answer:  Dear Max,

            You are not alone in your convictions about Jesus’ divinity—or lack thereof.  This is a debate that has gone on since the early centuries of the church, and continues today.  However, it should be noted that the Christian church has always believed, in spite of questions and controversy, that Jesus is God.

            Some thoughts for your consideration, since you asked.  One—it would be helpful if you read some Christian history.  I recommend three very readable books in this regard: 1) volumes one and two of  “The Story of Christianity” by Justo L. Gonzalez, published by Harper.  2) “What Christians Believe” by Johnson and Webber, published by Zondervan.

            Second, much of your question concerns the fact that Jesus is the Son of God—and the significance of that.  As the Son of God, the Word, Jesus has existed eternally.  He is the Eternal Son of God (see John 1:15-18).  Jesus is “the Alpha and the Omega…who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).

            Because there is only one God—still is, always was, and always will be (as you note in the Ten Commandments given in Exodus 20), when God came to save us, in the person of Jesus (see Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23), the Jews, (who were strict monotheists as per Exodus 20 and other passages, such as Deuteronomy 6:4) rejected him.  They sought to kill him, says John, because “not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

            Of course the Jews did reject him, and Jesus was crucified by the Romans, largely because he claimed to be God.  He told the Jews that if they killed him that he would resurrect his own body (John 2:18-22).  He did.  He rose from the grave because he was and is God.  He is risen, because he is God.

            It is true that Jesus, who was, in the flesh, very man and very God—God without limitation, while voluntarily accepting the limitation of the flesh so that he might die for our sins (see Philippians 2:5-11).  Jesus said that he was both one and the same as God (John 10:30) as well as saying that “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).

            So, it seems that this is a contradiction.  In one chapter of John, Jesus says that he and his Father are one, yet four chapters later he says that his Father is greater.  Humanly, it is a contradiction.  But God is not subject to our understanding of the universe.  God is beyond space and time, existing in eternity, while we are finite, mortal, limited to time and space.  God dwells in eternity.

            As God, Jesus, in the flesh, was both human and divine.  He had a human body, but continued to be the second Person of the Triune God.  As the Son of God, Jesus is not less, in essence, than his Father, but he is less in position.  For example, we are commanded to be baptized in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19).

            Several observations: 

1.      We are to be baptized in the name (notice, no “s”—the word is not plural, but singular) of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  So God is one (just as Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 6 insist) but while remaining one, God is also three—something that he (the Triune God) did not reveal to those under the old covenant.  God is God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit.

2.      When speaking of the three Persons of the Triune Godhead the Bible always speaks of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in that order—never in any other order.  So, the Son, while equal to the Father in essence, nature and character, is “second” to the Father in function, office, and position.

May God bless you, Max.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht