Isn’t it interesting how one statement can be shocking and controversial in one setting and totally mundane in another? For example, if someone came into a room of NASCAR enthusiasts and said, “Racing is so boring to watch—all they do is take left turns over and over,” immediately all activity in the room would screech to a halt so that one could hear a pin drop as each person with blazing eyes fixed their best death stare on the intruder. However, if the same phrase were uttered in a room full of people who didn’t care for car racing, there might be a brief chuckle, but then life would go on. So it is with the phrase, “Jesus is God.” Among my own biblical, unitarian1 brothers and sisters, this statement is not only understood as false and pejorative, it may even trigger memories of ridicule and exclusion from mainstream Christians. Yet, in any other Christian context, trinitarian or modalist,2 the phrase, “Jesus is God,” is utterly mundane and doesn’t even warrant raising an eyebrow. Even so, there are at least two instances in the New Testament in which Jesus is called God.3 So, the question we need to ask is not, “Is Jesus God?” but, “What does the Bible mean when it says, Jesus is God?”4 But, before we look at the two places in the New Testament where Jesus is called God, it is necessary to build our understanding of a biblical notion called representational deity, in order to give us the required interpretive tools to understand what the Bible means when humans are called “Gods.”
The word “God” actually has quite a few meanings.5 However, when considering what the Bible means by calling Jesus God, we will limit ourselves to two: (1) God in the sense that the Father is called God in Scripture (2) God as a human representative who is called, “God,” because he functions as God to the people. Since everyone is already familiar with the Trinitarian understanding of Jesus being God, we will focus our time on the second proposition—the idea of representational deity—before approaching our two New Testament texts. Here are some helpful lexical entries on the word, “God,” which mention this representational sense:
2570: אֱלֹהִים n.m.pl. (f. 1 K 11:33; on number of occurrences of אֵל, אֱלוֹהַּ, אֱלֹהִים cf. also Nes:l. c,)
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Author: Sean Finnegan
Keywords: Homoousios, Homoiousian, Homoousion, homoiousios, Athanasius, Nicene Creed, Nicean Creed, Trinity, Deity of Jesus, Divinity of Jesus, Creed, Church Creeds, Nicea, Nicaea, Council of Nicaea, 325 AD, Council of Nicea, Arius, Arian, Arian heresy, Arian controversy, Arianism, Athanasian, Athanasian Creed, Logos, Word made flesh, Jesus is the Word, Tri-unity, Pre-existent word, Pre-existence, Pre-existent, Jesus is God, God the Son, Three in one, God in three persons, Deity of Christ, Doctrine of the Trinity, trinitarian, trinitarian doctrine, God manifest in the flesh, God manifestation, Word incarnate, Incarnate word, Incarnate, incarnation, consubstantial, cosubstantial, consubstantiality, christology, christological, Christological debate, debate trinity, trinity debate, trinitarian debate, monotheism, one god, three persons, god in the flesh
Bible reference(s): Genesis 1:26, Gen 3:22, Gen 11:7, Isaiah 9:6, Mar 2:7, John 1:1-3, John 1:14, John 1:18, John 5:18, John 8:24, John 8:28, John 8:58, John 10:30, John 10:33, John 20:28, Romans 9:5, Philippians 2:6-8, 2 Thessalonians 1:12, 1 Timothy 2:5, Titus 2:13, Heb 1:8, 2 Peter 1:1, 1 John 5:20
Source: “Explanations to Verses Commonly Used to Teach that Jesus Is God,” restitutio.org
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