I don't believe Jesus is God.
I believe that the best way to learn the truth about Jesus is to examine what he said about himself.
Jesus said at
John 6:38- “I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me.” Now to me, that statement is a bit puzzling if Jesus were God. Jesus said he did not come down from heaven to do his
own will. He said that he came to do the will of the One who sent him. If Jesus is God, who sent him down from heaven? And why did Jesus yield to the will of that person?
He made a similar statement in the next chapter, at
John 7:16 Jesus said: "What I teach is not mine, but belongs to him that sent me." So did Jesus teach his own ideas? Doesn't seem so, he said that his teachings belong to the One who sent him. I have to wonder: ‘Who sent Jesus? And who gave him the truths he taught?’ Wouldn’t that One be greater than Jesus? After all, the sender is superior to the one who is sent.
Consider, too, Jesus’ words at
John 14:28: “You heard that I said to you, I am going away and I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going my way to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.” Based on that verse, how would you say Jesus viewed himself in relation to the Father? Jesus viewed God as his superior. Another example, notice what Jesus told his disciples as recorded at
Matthew 28:18. That verse says: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth.” So did Jesus say that he always had all authority? God has always had all authority. So why did Jesus say all authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to him when the True God has always had all authority in heaven and on Earth? Since people say Jesus is God but the scriptures show that Jesus was given more authority who gave him more authority? God, but people say Jesus is God.
Here’s something else to consider: We’ve read that Jesus spoke of God as his heavenly Father. And when Jesus was baptized, a voice from heaven referred to Jesus as His Son. In fact, Jesus specifically called himself God’s Son. Now, if you wanted to teach me that two people are equal, what sort of family relationship might you use to illustrate the point? Two brothers? Perhaps identical twins? But Jesus referred to God as the
Father and to himself as the
Son. So, what message do you suppose Jesus is conveying? It seems to me Jesus is describing one individual as being older and as having more authority than the other.
Think about this: If person came up with such a fitting illustration of equality, that of brothers or twins. If Jesus really were God, don’t you think that Jesus, as the Great Teacher, would have thought of the same comparison—or an even clearer example of equality if that was what Jesus was teaching? But, instead, he used the terms “Father” and “Son” to describe his relationship with God, not one of equality.
If Jesus truly is God, wouldn’t you expect that Jesus’ disciples would have plainly said so?
Yet, nowhere in the Scriptures do we read of their teaching that. On the contrary, notice what one of Jesus’ early followers, the apostle Paul, wrote. At
Philippians 2:9, he describes what God did after Jesus’ death and resurrection: “God exalted him [Jesus] to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every other name.” According to this verse, what did God do for Jesus? Doesn't the scriptures say God exalted him to a superior position?
But if Jesus were equal to God before he died and God later exalted him to a higher position, wouldn’t that put Jesus above God? How could anyone be superior to God?
