Either Jesus is God or was human, not both?

Question

Christian answers to my last question seem to want things both ways.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20060907221909AAjMNXy

Either Jesus is a sinless incarnation of God or he is man. The idea of original sin makes any man (even if hypostatic God/man) have at least one sin. You can't have it both ways. If he is a man, he is to be admired but not worshipped. If he is God, he is to be worshipped but not considered a relevant example for our lives, having knowledge and abilities we don't to base action on. Can any theologically consistent position be produced to deny my claim (unlike in the first answers)?

Answer 1

Jesus was born as a human, and when he died he returned as a god.

Answer 2

As a disclaimer, I was Christian but am now studying to convert to Judaism and though I am not officially Jewish, I am definately more Jewish than anything else. I do not believe Jesus was either the Jewish messiah or G-d or any part of G-d.

Jews don't believe in original sin. We believe that humans are born with choice and the act of making a wrong choice is sin. That is the whole reason for the law of Moses, to let you know what is unclean so that you can avoid those actions and things and thereby lead a better life. The act of following the law is considered to be a continual act of worshipping G-d. But I am getting off track.

It sounds kind of illogical to say that you are born with sin before you can make a choice. So from that belief, you could say that Jesus was born without original sin according to the Jewish tradition that he would have been raised under.

Again, I disagree that Jesus was actually G-d, but if he was it would be entirely possible for him to be 100% man and 100% G-d. If you take original sin out of the equation, the reasoning is really quite simple. G-d cannot be anything less than G-d, there is no way to diminish His power because it is infinite. So if He were to take the form of a human, He would still be G-d, but now He would also be a man. Still the same all powerful diety, but now in a human package.

That's the best explaination I can give. For what it's worth, the belief that Jesus was 100% G-d and 100% man was not the reason I renounced Christianity so I believe my arguments to be unbiased.

Answer 3

First, consider God. God is infinite-- He is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and everywhere. These types of attributes are necessary God is going to be the God that Christians say he is. Also, these attributes are self-evident. Anything that it is infinite has to be so in order to exist. If I take anything finite or infinite and add it to infinity, I get infinity. If I multiply anything infinite or finite by infinity, I get infinity, if I subtract anything finite from infinity, I get infinity. Pretty much any operation I do to infinity will result either in "undefined" or infinity. If an operation results in itself, then it is self evident.

With that said, consider Jesus. Jesus was God. Jesus was man. God is infinite, and Jesus (the man Jesus) was finite in the sense he was human. So for God to take on a human form isn't really a stretch. An Infinite being taking on a finite being doesn't fundamentally alter the infinite being, because he is still infinite.

When God took on human flesh, he set aside aspects of his deity and took on humanity. It wasn't that Jesus didn't have access to his deity, which he did. It was that he chose to live as one of his creations, which would be a finite subset of his infinite self. This means Jesus could learn, feel, react, do, and be tempted as humans could be and yet maintain his deity. It seems paradoxical, but it is possible when you take into account his infinite attributes.

Jesus’ deity was one of the most hotly debated topics in the early church. In 325, the Council of Nicea affirmed the deity of Jesus with an overwhelming majority affirming Jesus’ deity. There were only 2 dissenters in a council of 318. The doctrine of Jesus’ humanity and deity was not one that the church made up, but one taught by the apostles and in the scriptures. It does boggle the mind, and isn't a doctrine that was come to because it made perfect sense, but rather it was a doctrine that was come to because it was what had been taught sense Jesus walked the earth.

Answer 4

Your question is based on the concept of "original sin' which is a belief that has no biblical foundation. The sins of the father cannot be applied to the son( Ezekiel 18-20). Jesus was and is the Son of God, as described by the Prophet Isaiah, Immanuel or God with us. He fits the Criteria set by the Prophets of the Old Testament. His time here on earth he assumed an earthly form so that he/God could better understand the problems of man. and in such became the perfect sacrifice and thereby fulfiling the law set to Moses in Sinai. His death and crucifiction are fully described by the Psamist in Psalms 22, 28 generations prior to his birth, some 800 years before Christ was born. In this he is "God made Flesh" or an Avatar of the LORD.
His Resurrection gives us hope in the eternity of the soul and a life everlasting. On earth Christ did not proclaim himself God, others did that for him. God proclaimed it at his Baptism saying " THIS IS MY SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED". He proclaims himself to be the Son of Man. In whom the Father has given authority over the judgement of Man. Both of these statements are true in the context by which they are given. On earth Jesus lived as man and his temptations were the same as ours. And by his example we know that we cannot be as faithful or as Good. Even at our best we cannot come to the feet of the Master. Which is why God gave us Grace and the Perfect Sacrifice of Jesus. And why the Bible is so troubling to us, for it is not our works by which we can attain favor with God. Only through the Sacrifice of Christ and the profound knowledge that his Grace is sufficient to sustain us before the Father.

Answer 5

All of your premises were clearly dealt with and completely explained about a thousand years ago, by some of the best scholars and theologians who ever lived.

Jesus needed to be both fully God and fully man in order to complete his mission. He was born exacly that way, he is still that way, and he will always be that way.

God arranged for his eternal son Jesus, to be born without sin by conceiving him in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was herself conceived without sin.

Jesus was born like us in all things except sin. He has a human body and a human soul, along with his eternal and pre-existing, personal divinity.

He lived his life and accomplished his mission using only those physical gifts and spiritual aids that are available to any one of us humans.

It was a lot like fighting someone "with one hand tied behind your back". Golfers understand it as "handicapping".

All of Jesus' miracles were accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. His apostles went on to do similar miracles and wonders by that same power.

The power of the Holy Spirit is behind every miracle, no matter who might be credited with the actual event.

For the complete theological details behind this explanation, see the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

For more, send me an email.

Answer 6

Jesus led a sinless life because God was always in him.

The Son of God refers to the Divine Human forum that God won through combats with the hells where Jesus was resisting temptation. Jesus succeeded at never sinning and making sin His own.

Men always sin and make sin their own and then have to repent for the remission of sins.

Answer 7

Dont listen to first few answers. Jesus is apart of the trinity the father the son (jesus) and the spirit. And they are god. That is why its such a BIG deal that god would come down and let his own life be taken to save ours. Nothing would have changed if it was just a man on the street dying on the cross.

Answer 8

Don't you think God could send His Son as man and not make sure He did not suffer the effects of original sin?

You are sadly mistaken. Jesus is God and man--and He humbled Himself by being born and infant for the purpose of giving us an example to follow.

Answer 9

Jesus Christ is the Son of God,whose name is Jehovah.Jesus was the first born of all Jehovah's creations and through Jesus all other things came into existence.(Col2:15)Jesus was the only begotten Son of God Amighty.To ransom mankind from enslavement to sin and death as a result of Adam and Eve's rebellion in the garden of Eden,Jehovah God transferred Jesus' life into the womb of Mary,and as a result Jesus came into the world as a perfect man.Who then offered up that perfect human life as a ransom sacrifice to buy back the gift of everlasting life,that Adam(also a perfect man) had lost for all of us.
Jesus is now back in heaven ruling as a mighty king of God's kingdom,and it will be Jesus who will take the lead in Jehovah's great war of Armageddon.

Answer 10

Jesus is who He say He is, just as you are who you say you are.
What other people think is irrelevant. He only wants to help you and you are so stubborn because it doesn't make sense to you. I'm sure most of the think you do don't make sense to Him. If you believe it is a win win situation. If there's no God you lose nothing If there's a God only believers win. It is your choice.
Peace.