Is Jesus God?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2 ESV)

The Greek does not say “and was God” as rendered above by the ESV. It says “God was the word”.  A big difference.  The above ESV translation and other similar versions are unfortunate. John is not talking about Jesus being God. John is saying that God has communicated through his Word (logos - the word). This word was "toward" God (reveals what God is like).

“And the Word became flesh and tabernacles among us, and we gaze at His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

When God was ready to show what He would be like in a human form, His likeness (word) "became flesh" in the person of Jesus His Son. God showed us His “image” by revealing Himself through a Son, Jesus, who was both the Son of God and the Son of man and the "Savior of the world"...

“…he is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of every creature…And we have gazed upon him, and are testifying that the Father has dispatched the Son, the Savior of the world. Whoever should be avowing that Jesus is the Son of God, God is remaining in him, and he in God.” (Colossians 1:15; John 4:14-15)

God is Father and is Spirit.  We cannot see Spirit.  Jesus is the firstborn Son of God. He communicates to mankind what God is like and what we will be like after our resurrection when we too will be a new creation made in the image of God.  Here is the best English translation of John 1...

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was toward God, and God was the word. This was in the beginning toward God...And the Word became flesh and tabernacles among us, and we gaze at his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14 CLNT)

When all have been resurrected to immortality all will be a new creation, completed, like Jesus, in God's image...

“Thus also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is roused in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor; it is roused in glory. It is sown in infirmity; it is roused in power. It is sown a soulish body; it is roused a spiritual body. If there is a soulish body, there is a spiritual also. Thus it is written also, The first man, Adam, became a living soul: the last Adam a vivifying Spirit. But not first the spiritual, but the soulish, thereupon the spiritual. The first man was out of the earth, soilish; the second Man is the Lord out of heaven. Such as the soilish one is, such are those also who are soilish, and such as the Celestial One, such are those also who are celestials. And according as we wear the image of the soilish, we shall be wearing the image also of the Celestial” (1 Corinthians 15:42-49)

Jesus is the Son of God. The world will be saved when we all become like Jesus.

Our Image of God

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-4)

“I changed when my image of God changed” is a quote from an email I received this morning. It started me thinking some random thoughts. Many of us Christians are in dire need of a change in our image of God created by the institutions we have attended over the past 1700 years or so. For many their image of God is one of a vengeful, wrathful, mad God who is going to get even with all sinners who do not measure up to His standards of righteousness.

The email also said “we may not realize that we become like the God we adore”.

Look around and observe Christians and their attitude toward those whom they feel do not measure up to their doctrine and perceived standards of righteousness. Do they ignore them, criticize them behind their backs, get mad at them, condemn them, or avoid talking with them about their differences - even biblical differences?

I think the email was right and we become like our image of God. If we view God as a vengeful, wrathful, mad, fearful God who is just in punishing infidels to an endless torment in hell, well we become fearful, vengeful, wrathful and mad at anyone who disagrees with us. And the result of course is driving most people away from God.

However, if our image of God is the biblical image then we might just find ourselves loving one another and joyfully discussing our differences.  The result may be to "know God" better and actually draw sinners to Him rather than chase them away from Him…

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love… There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love...Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love…” (1 John 4:8, 18; 1 Corinthians 13:5-13)

The Second Man

"The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust…Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:37-49)

I love the Bible and what it says seems perfectly rational and reasonable to me. God created mankind and set in motion the plan for mankind to be made into the image of God and have dominion over the Universe. The "first man" was Adam - he failed.  Jesus is the "second man" and succeeded.  He is the prototype, and the Bible reveals to me that all mankind are to be made like Jesus…the "hope of glory" for all mankind…

"… Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

Satan would rob mankind of its greatest man...Christ Jesus…by making him God. Or worse…by making man himself God. Mankind is God's work in progress and Christ Jesus has triumphed to reveal God to the rest of us….not the religions of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, nor any of the others.  Jesus is the image of God. The rest of us are still of the first man mentioned above, all children of God waiting to be raised by Jesus into a spiritual body at his return. We will not be like God, we will be like Jesus, the image of God.

I did not learn this from attending church and I did not learn it from philosophers who abandon religion in favor of the reason and inspiration of educated men...I learned it from reading the Bible.

"Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule… God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until His task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns…now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is…for God rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Genesis 1:26; Philippians 1:6; 1 John 3:2; Colossians 1:13-15)

Would you save all your children if you could?

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.” (Genesis 1:7; 2:8)

There are certain things God does for mankind just because he wants to, creating Adam and putting him in a garden paradise was the first one of those things we are told about in Scripture.

“…seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat...by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.” (Joshua 6:4-7; Hebrews 11:30)

There are certain things that God will do for people only if they have the faith to do the things he says must be done, like blow trumpets and march around the walls of Jericho seven times to get it to fall down.

The critical question in regards to being RECONCILED TO GOD and SAVED from death, the consequences of sin, is simply…Does God reconcile and save people because he wants to, and without them doing anything to get it?

“…Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep…for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive…the last enemy that will be abolished is death…so that God may be all in all…Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ…God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation…He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-28; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

People, it is not what YOU DO, but what God HAS DONE in Christ Jesus that guarantees that mankind, ALL OF THEM, will be reconciled and saved at the close of the ages…Some come to know about it in this life and are full of joy and peace, and others, well you know…they join the various religious groups and do what they are told needs to be done to be saved. Nevertheless, the Scripture says about Christ Jesus…

“He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” (Colossians 1:18-22)

That is the Good News Gospel that I have been asked NOT to share by church leaders and self-proclaimed watchman, but anyone who is not sharing the above good news is simply watching over and participating in man-made religious doctrine , which is not the gospel of the “ecclesia” (church) at all – at least that’s my opinion after studying the Bible for 40 years…the gospel really is Good News For ALL, not just a few.