4. Diagram Comparing Jesus and Christians

The diagram below shows that Jesus and believers are, or ultimately will be, alike in many profound ways while retaining distinct roles. Jesus is Savior, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. Scripture also states that God saved Jesus from death (Hebrews 5:7): Jesus needed a Savior too, namely, God Himself. The comparison below identifies 40 significant ways Scripture places Jesus and Christians in parallel or describes realities they share, or ultimately will share. Therefore, I believe these parallels provide further biblical evidence that Christians will truly be like Christ and that Jesus is not God.

Only Jesus

1. Only Jesus has the unique role as Chief Shepherd, Redeemer, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the First and the last, and Savior of the world.

2. Jesus, as the world’s great high priest and mediator, learned obedience through suffering, was made perfect, and ultimately offered himself to God “without blemish” through the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 5:8–9; 9:14). Through Jesus, God reconciles humanity to Himself (Romans 5:15–17; 1 Timothy 2:5). See my three-part series regarding Jesus' own moral development and atonement, starting with this article, for the full biblical explanation: 12. Was Jesus Morally Perfect from Birth? Part 1: The Biblical Case for Moral Development.

Jesus and Christians

1. Jesus is a human being with a body, not merely a spirit (Luke 24:38-43), and is a human (Acts 2:22, John 8:40) like Christians.

2. Jesus was tempted (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13, Hebrews 2:17-18) as Christians are.

3. Jesus does not know everything. For example, he does not know when he is coming back (Matthew 24:36). Christians also do not know everything.

4. Jesus includes himself among those who worship God (John 4:21-24), together with all who worship the God of the Bible.

5. Jesus changed. He learned obedience through what he suffered and was made perfect (Hebrews 5:8-9). He increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52). This is also true of Christians, who likewise need to grow toward maturity and perfection.

6. Jesus serves God as high priest (Hebrews 2:17), just as Christians serve God.

7. Jesus, like Christians, was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and did his works because God was with him (Luke 4:18-19, Acts 10:38-43).

8. Jesus can do nothing of his own accord but needs the Father (John 5:19), and the Father who dwells in Jesus does Jesus’ works (John 14:10-11). Christians likewise depend upon God.

9. Jesus, like all Christians, is a created being. For example, he is the “beginning of God’s creation” (Revelation 3:14). The most straightforward possible meaning is that Jesus belongs to the creation of which he is called the beginning. He is also the “firstborn” of all creation (Colossians 1:15). While this could and has been interpreted differently, one meaning is that Jesus is literally the firstborn of God’s creation and that he had a beginning.

10. Jesus fears God like Christians, as he is anointed with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:1-5).

11. Jesus’s Savior is God. He depended upon God to deliver him from death (Hebrews 5:7), and God is the Savior of all people (1 Timothy 4:10). God used Jesus to save Christians, but their ultimate source of salvation is God.

12. Jesus, like Christians, has a God – God the Father, and this God is the same God that his followers have (John 20:17, Ephesians 4:4-6, Matthew 27:46, Revelation 3:12, Revelation 1:5-6, Micah 5:4, John 17:3, John 5:44-45).

13. Jesus calls his God the “only God” (John 17:3, John 5:44). Jesus is never called the “only God”.

14. Jesus is the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and is visible. Ordinarily, an image is distinguished from the one whose image it is. While believers are not yet fully conformed to Christ, all believers will be conformed to his image.

15. Jesus’ will is distinct from the Father’s will (Luke 22:42), and nothing in Scripture states, most notably Jesus himself, that Jesus has two wills, one human and one divine. Christians also have wills distinct from the Father.

16. Christ has an inheritance, and Christians are co-heirs with him (Romans 8:17). If Christ is God Himself, what exactly does it mean for believers to inherit with him?

17. The Father is greater than Jesus (John 14:28) and all Christians.

18. Jesus belongs to God (1 Corinthians 3:23) along with all other Christians and everything.

19. Jesus and Christians both participate in judgment (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).

20. Jesus received life from the Father (John 5:26), just as Christians ultimately receive their life from God.

21. Scripture presents Jesus bodily located in particular places, just as Christians are. He is not presented as omnipresent.

22. Both Jesus and Christians are needed and necessary for God’s kingdom to come on earth. We work together as a body with Christ as our head.

23. Christians will be like Jesus: “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2-3) – explained in detail above.

24. Jesus and Christians will reign together (Revelation 20:4, 6; Revelation 22:5).

25. Jesus and Christians are both priests (Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 7:24-27; Revelation 20:6).

26. Jesus and Christians are children of God (Matthew 3:17; Romans 8:16-17).

27. Jesus and Christians will share the same glory (2 Thessalonians 2:14).

28. Jesus and Christians are one: one Body together to glorify God (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). All parts need each other. To follow that analogy, would not the head (Christ) also need his body? Therefore, Christ and believers need each other.

29. Both Christians and Jesus are resurrected (2 Corinthians 4:14).

30. Both Christians and Jesus do amazing works. Jesus even said that his followers would do greater works than him (John 14:12), showing that miraculous works do not uniquely distinguish Jesus from his followers.

31. Jesus was filled with God’s Spirit, and Christians likewise receive the Holy Spirit and are called to be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19; compare Colossians 2:9-10).

32. Jesus and Christians both have a close and personal relationship with God. Jesus prays that believers may share in his unity with the Father (John 17:20-23).

33. Jesus and Christians will have the same maturity, reaching “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

34. Jesus and Christians have the same source: God (Hebrews 2:10-11).

35. Jesus was made perfect, and Christians are likewise being brought to perfection/maturity (Hebrews 5:9; James 1:4).

36. Christians will be made like Christ (1 John 3:2-3), and believers are even said to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

37. Jesus and Christians will both sit on the same throne. Jesus says, “I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Revelation 3:21).

38. Jesus and Christians both have genuinely human histories involving moral development. I believe Jesus’ earlier human history included real sin. Scripture says that Jesus learned obedience through suffering, was made perfect, and ultimately offered himself to God “without blemish” through the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 5:8–9; 9:14). Scripture does not require us to turn these statements into the stronger claim that Jesus became metaphysically incapable of making a wrong choice. See this two-part series for the full biblical explanation, starting with this article: 12. Jesus’ Moral Development: What Does It Mean That He Was “Made Perfect”?

39. Jesus and Christians are siblings; he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11-12).

40. Jesus and Christians share the same God and Father. Jesus says, “my Father and your Father, my God and your God” (John 20:17).

Only Christians

1. Christians are subordinate to Christ in role. Christians serve Christ as their Lord and King.

2. Jesus saved all Christians.

Taken together, these comparisons present an extraordinary biblical picture: Jesus has unique roles that no Christian has—Savior, Messiah, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and head of the body—yet in his nature, dependence upon God, relationship to God, inheritance, humanity, transformation, resurrection, glory, and ultimate destiny, Scripture repeatedly places him alongside those he saves. Christians will truly become like Christ. This cumulative picture is extremely difficult to reconcile with the claim that Jesus is God Himself.