Jesus: man or God?

Question

Christians, bear with me for a second. I know most of you believe Jesus was the only son of God, and that he ascended into heaven after resurrecting.
But just think, what if he was only a man, and Paul really did just want to make him seem a God to get his important message out there.

If he was a man, would Christianity be worse off, or better off?

If he was a man, would it give you hope that you could reach the level of peace and love that he did, by going his "way", walking his path?

"to all who believed him and accepted him [Jesus], he gave the right to become children of God" [John 1:12]

Maybe Jesus was a man, but an amazing mystical role model. One who enchoraged others to have the connection with God that he had. To be able to go in the wilderness and meditate for 40 days. Maybe he was just showing us the way to become "sons of God"

To me, being a daughter of God, would mean that I have connected with God so well, that God is part of me and I am part of God.

Read the bible a little differently. It seems to support my theory in several places. Paul seems to talk of him being God more than anyone.

Answer 1

You made entirely too much sense.

Good joRb!

Answer 2

Thank you for your interest in the truth! I will do my best to answer your questions. "If he was a man, would Christianity be worse off, or better off"? The Bible says He is God's only Son,
meaning male gender, so that's a done deal (John 3:16). For
better or for worse, He is a Man :)

"If he was a man, would it give you hope that you could reach the level of peace and love that he did, by going his "way", walking his path"? Regardless of His gender, which has already been addressed, His peace He leaves with us (John 14:27).

"To me, being a daughter of God, would mean that I have connected with God so well, that God is part of me and I am part of God". The only way to connect with God is through His Son Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Therefore, I would say that if you have accepted Jesus into your heart and are living and serving Him, then yes, you would have His peace and access to His blessings.

Does that help you understand better? If not, please ask more and I will try again :)

Answer 3

Paul is not the only one who claimed that Jesus was God in the Bible. All of the Apostles claimed that Jesus was God. Peter, Thomas, John, all of them believed that Jesus was God. If Jesus was only a man, then all of their beliefs about God were meaningless. They believed that they had eternal life with Jesus because of His death and resurrection, which were the true signs of Him being God. If Jesus was not God, then He would not have died and rose again on the third day. The Apostles believed that there was hope because of the resurrection. They believed that, on a day which is still to come, Jesus would return and judge the whole world for their sins, the living and the dead, would punish the unbelievers, but would create a new home for the believers to live under Him. If Jesus was not God, their hope in the resurrection was frivolous and false. If Jesus was only a man, then we have no hope in life. But because Jesus is God, as all of the Apostles and even the Old Testament prophets, if you read and understand Paul and the Apostles, believed, then there is hope for all who believe after them in the resurrection of the dead and the vindication (that means being set right with God) of believers on the Day of Judgment. By the way, your last statement "being a daughter of God would mean that I have connected with God so well that God is part of me and I am part of God" seems to reek of some kind of heresy, which sounds very similar to the Buddhist idea of Nirvana, where someone has reached the exact state of perfection. As a Christian, I cannot believe that I can ever reach perfection in this life because of Sin. So, to answer your question, it would destroy the faith of everyone who has believed since Jesus if you were to say that Jesus was just a man.

Answer 4

Imagine God is in a locked room. God can open the door from the far side, but we humans can't open it from our side. It's a very tough door, unbreakable; but people are desperate to get through.
Some are trying to pick the lock; some are knocking earnestly day and night; some are trying to kick the door in; others are going at it with battering rams; some are trying explosives; still others are trying to cut through with blowtorches; there are even a few who think that if they just concentrate hard enough on the door it will eventually open.
All these are the various religions of the world. Each has a way of trying to get to God. None are effective.
Then one day God decides to become a man, to come to this side of the door and open it. Only this God/Man can do it; only he has the key. There is no other way to open the door.
The question of other religions is this: Now that Jesus Christ has opened the door to God, who can go through?
The orthodox answer has been: Only Christians. If Christ opened the door it seems only natural that those who follow Christ are the only ones who can enter.
However, what if the door is simply open now to all? This does not negate the fact that only Christ could open the door, only the idea that only Christians can go through. That is to say NO ONE comes to the Father, except through Christ, because only he could open the door.
Why then be Christian? What becomes of evangelism? To answer that consider another image:
God is at the top of a mountain. Some people are struggling to free-climb up the mountain, relying on their own skill and determination. Others have ropes and grapples to help them along. A few have found some very rough trails. Some have even given up: "There's probably nothing at the top anyway." Some are even saying: "You're fools to be trying to get up the mountain; just stay here and be satisfied with life in the valley of the shadow of death!"
Then Christ comes along, and by the bloody sweat of his brow cuts a staircase into the side of the mountain--straight to the top.
"Here is the way, my beloved little ones," he says. "Stop your struggling and follow me."
Now there is a new way to the top. Evangelism is calling, both to the others on this mountain and to those still below in the valley, and saying: "Look, we've found a stairway to heaven. Come join us as we follow the One who leads the way!"
The stairway isn't the only way to the top, but its the best way, the only SURE way. Some who continue to climb MIGHT make it to the top, but some might lose the struggle.
This is certainly NOT the orthodox view, but it IS another way of looking at the issue which still makes Jesus unique, the only possible Savior, and Christianity to be the Way to the Father.
I hope this provides some food for thought.

Answer 5

Jesus was God in human form. He took human form to live as a man to experience and overcome the temptations and serve as an example for us in how to live our lives. He demonstrated a human could live a holy life and gave us a roadmap for doing so.

Frame it this way - you have an art farm and you want to teach the ants how live as long as possible and transcend when they die, but you're a human and can't communicate with the ants. So what you do is build an ant robot that you can plug into and see the world through the robots eyes. So you go into the ant world and teach them a blueprint for living that will lead to success and the only way you can prove your word is worth following is by demonstrating it and showing the ants firsthand.

So God becomes Jesus like we control a Sim. Why? To show us how to live so we can emulate Him as best as possible, and so as we experience temptation and pain we know God has also experienced it and how to overcome if we have the will to follow His proven word instead of trying to do things our own way.

There's a lot more to it than that, you can't separate Jesus from the word of God because He was the proof for the theory that was the God at the time. The theory being a monotheistic God worthy of worship. His worthiness comes not from Jesus perfectly follwing the ritualistic rules of religion and philopshy at that time, they come from the proposition that he was God in human form living as a man and experiencing firsthand what we go through (so he's not hyppocrtical and judgemental but instead empathetic like a parent who's been there and trying to teach a child a lesson that is beyond their total comprehension.).

If Jesus were just a prohpet then God would just be a dictator, someone who didn't appreciate what we as mere mortals or children have to deal with. He showed us the Truth in the word shall set you free, not the words. It's not about following religious words as rules it's about a personal spiritual relationship with God and faith that doing right by His declared and proven standards (by Jesus) even when you are being crucified will allow you to ascend to heaven, and be with God.

You might argue Ghandi did the same thing. Or even Buddha. The difference is in the viral aspect of religion and faith. The most evolved ideas and systems of belief include mechanisms for self-propogation. Christianity is perhaps the most evolved theistic religion because it not only propogates peace but also prosperity whereas others focus more on peace through equilibrium and balance. Christianity takes it a step further and culturally uses technology (mediums of communiction) to propogate that knowledge and (try) to teach the spiritual message as well as the word.

A man would just be someone else making another guess and his proof would only be as accurate as the the science and philosophy at the time. Jesus as God is a proposition that holds debatable truth for eternity, hence requiring faith.

Answer 6

Well, He's either who He claims to be or a liar- there's no in between. He can't be "an amazing mystical role model." That just doesn't work. I am a daughter of God but I cannot say stuff like, "The Father and I are one." I understand where you're going with this because it's really hard for people to rationalize that Jesus is THE Son of God with the whole virgin birth and stuff but you have to believe all of it or none of it. Luckily for us, it's all true.

Answer 7

If you were connected to God you would know this is wrong.

The Trinity though hard to grasp is the truth

Jesus was a man, God however in human form.
He did walk the earth in perfection, he was the only man to do so.
He died for our sins to pay a debt we could not pay.
Before him there was no going to heaven.
His death and resurrection is the core to us being saved.
Christianity would be less plausible if this were not true, not better.
He was showing us the way to become "sons of God" but he definitely wasn't JUST a man or JUST the son, keep reading daughter of God.

To be a part of God you must understand him as well. Read all of the Gospel of Matthew and John.

God Bless

Answer 8

If Jesus were a mere man could he rise from the dead and conquer sin and death? If Jesus were a only human, could he be the "lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" that John declared and the prophets foretold? If Jesus were a man, could He sit at the right hand of God and intercede for you and I?... No. Jesus is "Immanuel"... God come to earth in human form. Read the book of Hebrews and Colossians for starters. Why devote your life to a mere human... I'd rather serve the one whom Thomas called, "my Lord and my God." Peace...

Answer 9

If Jesus were just a man, then he could not have died for the sins of the world. He would have been dying for his own sins. There would be no mediator between sinful man and Holy God. There would be no hope of being filled with the spirit of God, nor any hope of eternal life. Think of the millions of repented lives no longer receiving the power to set them free.

If we just want to be one of those "enlightened" individuals who follow after some human teacher, then we have scores of those individuals, but Jesus was the only one who said I am the son of God.

Again, the world looks for signs, and mental consent. They say prove to me there is a God. In all reality, this is not primarily a matter of the head, it is a matter of the heart. As such it is not like logic that can be readily transferred between individuals. It is like love, that only each individual can experience for himself or herself. If you ever knew the love of God through Jesus Christ, this question would seem absolutely..... Peace.

Answer 10

If you look at Scripture it says that he is completely human, yet he is completely God. That's why he was able to be tempted by Satan in the desert, but since he was all God then he made Satan look like a fool for tempting him...God is already a part of you to an extent but when you accept Christ into your life then you wipe your heart clean of sin so Jesus can settle into your heart as His throne room.

Answer 11

In Hebrews 13:8 it tells us Jesus Christ has always been, from all of time past to all of time to come. and the most famous verse in all the bible John 3:16 For God [The Father} "SO" Loved the world that He gave [Jesus gave Himself] so IF we will Be-Live in Him we shoud not perish but have everlasting life, Hay Jesus HAS TO HAVE life in Himself to give it to anyone. In John 1 the first few verses we are told Jesus was the active member of The Godhead in on creation, in John 8:58 Jesus called Himself The I AM which is the same name in Exodus 3:14. which is the same member of the Godhead that walked with adam and eve in the cool of the morning, the one that wrote with His own finger the ten commandments [not suggestions] Yes HE IS GOD, find out more free bible lessons www.itiswritten.com bible questions www.bibleinfo.com talk to me also [e-mail] God bless