Jesus is not God. I’ve said this before but I think of necessity it needs to be said again (and again and again, as the need arises).
The term “Emmanuel” means “God with us”, not “This is God” or “I am God”. Jesus is called Emmanuel not because Jesus is God but because God was with Jesus and, in being with Jesus, was also with the people on Earth (as prophesied in the Old Testament). In other words, God was with the people through Jesus – not AS Jesus, but THROUGH Jesus.
In fact, God’s Spirit was powerfully with Jesus, more than with anyone who ever lived, but Jesus was God’s ONLY BEGOTTEN son (not only son, ONLY BEGOTTEN son) and therefore not God. This distinction of Jesus not being God is very important and does not in any way diminish Jesus’ role either in Heaven or on Earth. God, through his Spirit, was with Jesus while he was on Earth, just as God, through his Spirit, is with all genuine born-again believers. This is the very definition of grace. The Age of Grace is the age of “God with us”. Jesus Emmanuel, the Christ/Messiah, is “God with us” not because Jesus is God but because God’s Spirit was with Jesus and so, by extension, with humanity.
Today, we can be like Jesus (meaning, we can have God’s Spirit with us, and, by extension, with humanity) if we are born-again. Jesus showed us the way so that we could walk in it and show other people the way. As genuine followers of Jesus, we are lesser versions of God’s Emmanuel, but as long as God is with us through his Spirit, God is also with humanity. A day will come when the Age of Grace is over and all born-again believers will be gone from Earth. On that day, God will no longer be with humanity and humanity, as a result, will not be long for this Earth. May you not live to see that day.
Jesus and God are two very separate individuals. To make Jesus God is to belittle Jesus’ supreme achievement of living a sin-free life while on Earth, though tempted in every way that we’re tempted. The fact that Jesus was sin-free and lived his life sin-free is the very reason why he was found worthy to be the sacrifice for sin. You have to be quite an exemplary human (in fact, the best who ever lived) to be tempted but never fall, even temporarily. Jesus was such a human and therefore became the fitting “unblemished” sacrifice. If Jesus were God, it would have been no big deal for God to go through life sin-free – he can do anything he wants, he’s God. But for a human to do it – now, there’s an accomplishment that has not been seen either before or since Jesus.
Jesus was able to live his life sin-free not because he was God but because God was with him and Jesus always “did that which pleased the Father”. In this regard, God’s will and Jesus’ will were the same, which is what Jesus meant when he said in John’s gospel that he and the Father were one, or that if you’ve seen him, you’ve seen the Father. Because Jesus so nearly perfectly (nothing on Earth is perfect, but Jesus came as close as possible to perfection) – because Jesus so nearly perfectly AND OF HIS OWN FREE WILL did God’s will and aligned his will so closely to God’s (again, OF HIS OWN FREE WILL), he was as close as we’ll ever come to having God with us.
One of the main reasons for the confusion over Jesus being God is that Jesus spoke as God’s mouthpiece (his Word) without prefacing his statements with “Thus saith the Lord”. The Old Testament prophets did not have God with them all the time; he would visit them on occasion, and then they would report what he said. In doing the reporting, they would preface their statements with “Thus saith the Lord”, so the hearers would be able to distinguish between what the prophets were saying and what God was saying. Jesus didn’t have to do that because God was always with him; when he opened his mouth, God spoke directly through him at that very moment as the Word of God.
We need to be very, very careful not to fall into the trap of seeing Jesus as God. This notion of framing Jesus as God is not in scripture and was not in any way promoted by Jesus’ disciples or by Paul in his letters. Jesus said “I am in God and God is in me” as a way to illustrate the presence of God’s Spirit with him. Today, the definition of a Christian has devolved to being “one who believes that Jesus is God”. Only someone who is not born-again and does not know God or Jesus can come up with such an ascriptural and distorted definition based on a misreading and misinterpretation of scripture, and it needs to be refuted wherever and whenever it occurs.
Jesus is God’s only begotten son, God’s suffering servant, God’s Emmanuel, and God’s Messiah. He is also our teacher and (if we’re genuinely born-again) our friend. Today, Jesus sits at the right hand of God and is Lord over God’s creation. But Jesus is not now and never was God. Please remember that.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 
Goodmorning. I agree with most of what you said, but…there are many titles on earth that will help you & others to understand what I say next. If your an Earl, it means you have authority over a certain area, like a city. If you are a King, you have authority & power over the whole Kingdom. Now in Jesus’s case He is not the Highest God, our Heavenly Father, but He is a God, which is a title that means, Master of All things, & has power & authority over all on this earth. This is scriptural. Still I really enjoy your blogs & enthusiasm. Have a great day! 😊
LikeLike
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord….”
When Jesus referred to the scripture about being “gods”, he was referring to the supernatural power of “gods” (supernatural beings) that people acquire when God’s Spirit works through them. However, this is in no way demarcating Jesus as God. Jesus himself always referred to himself as “son of man”, which is another term for prophet. In the Old Testament, Jesus is also referred to as a prophet, as well as many other labels, including a servant who is “very high”.
There is only one God, and he is God, not Jesus. Confusing the scriptural reference about being “gods” with actually being God is comparing oranges to apples. Not the same thing.
You have a great day as well. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for replying back, but we will have to agree to disagree. The word God is a title that describes your power & Masterfullness over all. Yes Jesus on earth had to submit to our Heavenly Fathers will want & power, but He ascended to Heaven, & now because He passed the test beautifully, He has the power & authority given to Him, inside to use. He doesn’t have to go through our Heavenly Father anymore for it, only on earth do we do that. Now He sits on the right hand of God, meaning same level of authority & power. He earned it. So will you & I. I’m curious do you yet have a measure of Gods Power inside of you yet?
LikeLike
Jesus said: “The Father is greater than I”. Yes, Jesus sits at God’s right hand and has been given authority over God’s creation, but he is not God and is not equal to God. If he were equal to God, then there would be two Gods, which violates the first Commandment.
All born-again believers have a measure of God’s Spirit with them while they remain within God’s grace. That is the very definition of being born-again and being under God’s grace. The measure of God’s Spirit that is with me is in no way comparable to that which was with Jesus while he was on Earth, but some is better than none, and I thank God for whatever he chooses to give me.
LikeLike
Ok. 😊 but there is a power God gives us inside of our Spirit… A drop at a time, as having experience with it I can tell you it is extremely powerful. Thats why it has to be given a little at a time. It will literally kill you if you are given more than you can handle. I have to get back with you on where in the four Gospels, it says, that Jesus will Baptize you with the Holy Spirit,
& with Power. They are mentioned separately, because they are given at different times. Sooo my question to you is, have you received some of this Power yet? Clue: it feels like a hundred Bee’s are in your belly, very hummy, & vibraty 😊
LikeLike
Hi again, by the way, I found it. Its Luke 3 : 16. 😊
LikeLike
Hi, because of our conversation earlier, it helped me come up with a new subject for my blog. Many thanks! 😊
LikeLike
Well, I guess that explains why all the bees are disappearing — they’re in your belly. 😀
No, I don’t have any bees in my belly, just the occasional one in my bonnet.
LikeLike
You are funny! Great comment. But ok lets use the disciples, in the book of acts, they are transformed from disciples, to Apostles… How??? Now they could preach with great authority, heal, speak in a Holy language etc. What changed? Now on top of having the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, they were Baptized with Tongues of Fire…when God pours His Power into us, we will see a small flame, which looks kinda like a tongue. I look forward to you knowing exactly what I’m talking about. 😊
LikeLike
You are highly deceived. May God by the power of the Holy Spirit reveal to you the truth. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Jesus is God the Son, Jesus Christ is the Word, Jesus is God; there is no other way around that truth. Just because you claim that He is not does not change the truth that He is God. Do not rely on your own understanding; study the Word of God and be led by the Spirit of God. May God help you.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I know God and I know Jesus, and they are completely separate beings. They are not the same person. There is only one God, and that is the Father. The Father is not the Son (Jesus himself said “The Father is greater than I”). If you want to believe that Jesus and God are the same being, that’s your free will choice, but it’s the wrong one. It is you who are deceived.
LikeLike
You do know God & they are clearly two different beings. You are a good man, but you don’t understand yet, that the word God is a Title. It describes what kind of being they are. 😊
LikeLike
Unfortunately you are spouting heresy and therefore need to be corrected. You are saying that you do not believe in the trinity. The father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are multiple references to Jesus’ diety as part of the trinity. In the very beginning in Genesis, God said that we will make humans in “OUR” image referring to the trinity. Also Jesus publicly forgave someone of their sins which is only something that God has the right to do. He did this before his crucifixion which using your logic, he shouldn’t have had that authority until after he died. There are multiple other locations in just the New Testament where Jesus proclaims his diety and his disciples even call him God, but these are just a couple of references.
LikeLike
Jesus had God’s Spirit in him, just as born-again believers have God’s Spirit. In fact, that is how the Kingdom of God on Earth is formed — by the coming of God’s Spirit into people. Jesus said that if he is exorcising demons by the “finger of God”, then the Kingdom has come. And indeed it has. It’s been here now for nearly 2000 years. It was the great accomplishment of Jesus and fulfilled God’s promise to his people. As Jesus said, you will not see the Kingdom with your eyes, because the Kingdom is within you.
In John, in his final address to his disciples and his prayer to his Father, Jesus asks God to give his true believers the same relationship with him as he has with God — Jesus dwelling in God, God dwelling in Jesus, and both of them dwelling in true believers. It was the full presence of God’s Spirit with Jesus that enabled him to do what he did — teach with authority, perform miracles, and heal those who believed in him. God is one God (first Commandment), he is not “three in one”. The presence of God’s Spirit enabled Jesus just as it enables true believers to this day to know God (not just know about him) and to live with the same protections and guidance as Jesus did, one-on-one with God.
The “our” in Genesis is God and his angels.
Jesus is not, was not, and never will be God. He is Lord, not God. He is the Messiah, the ultimate sin sacrifice, our Savior, the “firstborn from the dead” (as Paul called him), the son of Mary, the “son of man” (or prophet, as Jesus called himself), and my best friend. I know him as a brother. I know beyond a doubt that Jesus is not God but that Jesus was given the full measure of God’s Spirit while on Earth, which enabled him to do what he did, as long as he continued to do “that which pleased the Father”. And as God vocalized on a few occasions for all to hear (and Jesus himself mentioned a few times), Jesus did indeed do that which pleased the Father.
It was Jesus’ full willing cooperation with God that enabled him do what he did while on Earth and to fulfill the role of Messiah. With the help of God’s Spirit, we, too, can follow in Jesus’ footsteps, not becoming Messiahs (there is no need for another one), but doing God’s will or “that which pleases the Father”. Doing God’s will is the only way we’ll be able to “endure to the end”, which Jesus set as a prerequisite for getting home.
Confusing Jesus as God comes from not knowing either, even though Jesus, by his sacrifice, has enabled both of them to be known intimately through spiritual rebirth. People need to spend less time trying to know about God and Jesus and more time getting to know them personally, and this can only happen if you’re genuinely born again. You don’t want to be one of those who, on Judgment Day, as you petition God with your long list of theological and pastoring accomplishments, gets told in sad response: “I never knew you.”
LikeLike
You seem very deceived. May God by the power of the Holy Spirit reveal to you the truth. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Jesus is God the Son, Jesus is Lord and Savior, Jesus is the Word, Jesus Christ is God; there is no other way around that truth. Just because you claim that He is not does not change the truth that Jesus is God. Do not rely on your own understanding, study the Word of God and be led by the Spirit of God. May God help you.
LikeLike