17. Conclusion

I began this section with a question that has shaped Christianity for nearly two thousand years:

Who is Jesus?

I have now examined this question from many directions.

I have considered the passages traditionally used to support Jesus' deity.

I have examined Jesus' titles.

His miracles.

His authority.

His relationship to creation.

The praise and honor given to him.

The Gospel of John.

Paul.

Colossians.

Philippians.

Hebrews.

Revelation.

And throughout my New Testament Study Bible, I repeatedly asked the same question while reading each book:

Who does this book actually say Jesus is?

After considering the evidence cumulatively, my conclusion is:

Jesus is not God.

I believe Jesus is God's uniquely exalted human Son—the Messiah, Lord, King, Savior, mediator, High Priest, image and representative of God, head of the Church, appointed Judge, and the human being through whom God is reconciling and restoring the world.

That is an extraordinarily high view of Jesus.

But it is not the same thing as saying:

Jesus is God.

And I no longer believe Scripture requires—or ultimately permits—that conclusion.

1. I Think the Question Must Begin With God, Not With Jesus

One of the most important changes in the way I approached this question was very simple.

Instead of beginning with passages about Jesus and asking:

“Can this verse be interpreted to mean Jesus is God?”

I began one step earlier:

Who is God?

What does Scripture say is necessarily true of God?

God reveals Himself as eternal.

Immortal.

Invisible.

Spirit.

All-knowing.

Almighty.

Unchanging in His fundamental character.

Perfect.

Unable to be tempted by evil.

The ultimate source of life and authority.

The One who is worshiped.

The One whom His servants serve.

The One upon whom creation depends rather than One who depends upon another.

Jesus himself says:

“God is Spirit.” John 4:24

James says:

“God cannot be tempted by evil.” James 1:13

First John says:

“God... knows everything.” 1 John 3:20

Paul calls God:

“the eternal King, immortal, invisible.” 1 Timothy 1:17

And later describes Him as the One:

“who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.” 1 Timothy 6:16

These are not merely descriptions of what God happens to be doing at a particular moment.

They tell us something about what God is.

That gives us a standard against which any claim that Jesus is God should be tested.

2. Jesus Does Not Know Everything

One of the clearest differences concerns knowledge.

Jesus says:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Mark 13:32

The distinction is explicit.

The Father knows.

The Son does not.

Mark contains another striking example.

When a woman touches Jesus' clothing and is healed, Jesus asks:

“Who touched my clothes?” Mark 5:30

Mark then says Jesus:

“looked around to see who had done it.” Mark 5:32

The most natural reading is that Jesus is seeking information he does not presently possess.

That is perfectly understandable if Jesus is human.

But God knows all things.

This is therefore not merely the difference between a superior and subordinate role.

It concerns knowledge itself.

If the Son genuinely does not know something God knows, I find it extremely difficult to say that the Son is nevertheless the omniscient God.

3. Jesus Is Genuinely Tempted—God Cannot Be Tempted

James says:

“God cannot be tempted by evil.” James 1:13

Yet the Gospels repeatedly say Jesus was tempted.

Jesus is led into the wilderness and tempted by Satan.

Hebrews emphasizes that this temptation was genuine:

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.” Hebrews 4:15

I do not think temptation should be reduced to an empty performance.

If Jesus could not genuinely experience temptation, Hebrews' comparison with human experience would lose much of its force.

So Scripture gives us two statements:

God cannot be tempted by evil.

Jesus was genuinely tempted.

I believe both statements.

And precisely because I believe both, I do not think Jesus can be the God whom James says cannot be tempted.

4. Jesus Receives Authority—God Is the Source of Authority

Jesus says after his resurrection:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 28:18

That is one of the greatest claims of authority anywhere in Scripture.

But the sentence contains an equally important fact:

It was given to him.

The New Testament repeatedly uses this pattern.

God makes Jesus Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).

God exalts him (Philippians 2:9).

God gives him authority to judge.

God appoints him heir.

God places everything under his feet.

God gives him revelation (Revelation 1:1).

God seats him at His right hand.

This is not insignificant authority.

It is nearly unimaginable authority.

But it is still received authority.

God is the source.

Jesus is the recipient.

I therefore believe Jesus is the supreme ruler God has appointed over humanity and creation without being the God from whom that authority comes.

5. Jesus Repeatedly Expresses Dependence Upon God

This pattern is especially strong in John.

Jesus says:

“The Son can do nothing by himself.” John 5:19

And:

“By myself I can do nothing.” John 5:30

He says of his teaching:

“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.” John 7:16

He says:

“I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.” John 12:49

And:

“The Father living in me... is doing his work.” John 14:10

Jesus does extraordinary things.

But Jesus himself continually identifies the deeper source:

God.

God gives him the words.

God performs the works through him.

God sends him.

God teaches him.

God empowers him.

God glorifies him.

This same pattern appears in Acts:

“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him.” Acts 2:22

That sentence captures much of the New Testament picture for me:

God working through Jesus.

6. Jesus Grows, Learns, and Becomes Perfect

Luke says:

“Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52

Hebrews says something even more striking:

“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect...” Hebrews 5:8–9

Jesus: learned obedience.

And: was made perfect.

I want to let those words say exactly what they say.

Hebrews describes a real process through which Jesus learned obedience through suffering and was brought to perfection or completion. I do not think we need to weaken that language. But neither do I think we should make it say more than it says.

To say that Jesus was “made perfect” does not necessarily mean that he became absolutely complete in every conceivable sense, morally infallible, incapable of further growth, or perfect in the same way God is perfect.

Jesus could truly reach the perfection God intended for that stage of his calling while still remaining a genuine human being capable of further growth in wisdom, relationships, experience, and other dimensions of life.

That is development.

Growth. Learning. Transformation through suffering and obedience.

God, by contrast, does not need to be brought to completion. God does not learn obedience, mature through suffering, or grow toward perfection.

Jesus did.

This is one reason I believe Hebrews presents Jesus’ perfection as the completion of a genuinely human journey rather than as evidence that he was always the inherently perfect God. His perfection is real and glorious—but Scripture does not require us to turn it into the stronger claim that his humanity became static, morally impeccable, or incapable of further growth (Peterson; Ellingworth).

7. Jesus Has a God

Perhaps the simplest evidence is also among the most profound.

Jesus repeatedly speaks to and about someone else as:

God.

On the cross:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34

After the resurrection:

“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20:17

And Revelation still has the exalted Jesus speaking repeatedly of:

“my God.” Revelation 3:12

Paul likewise speaks of:

“the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 1:3

Peter uses the same language.

Jesus has a God.

He worships God.

He prays to God.

He obeys God.

He trusts God.

He lives for God.

I find that extraordinarily difficult to reconcile with the claim that Jesus himself is the God whom he worships.

God does not have a God.

Jesus does.

8. Jesus and God Have Distinguishable Wills

Gethsemane makes the relationship especially personal.

Jesus prays:

“Abba, Father... not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14:36

Jesus does not naturally desire the suffering immediately before him.

He nevertheless chooses God's will.

This is magnificent obedience.

But it also reveals two distinguishable wills:

what Jesus wills

and:

what God wills.

Traditional Christology later explained passages like this by teaching that Jesus possesses both a human will and a divine will (Third Council of Constantinople).

I understand why that distinction was developed.

But the passage itself does not say:

“My human will differs from my divine will.”

One person—Jesus—is praying to another person—his Father—and submits his will to God's.

I think the straightforward reading is exactly as beautiful as it sounds:

A human Son completely surrenders himself to his God.

9. Jesus Is a Man—And Scripture Explicitly Places Him Between God and Humanity

First Timothy gives one of the clearest summaries:

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”1 Timothy 2:5

The structure is difficult for me to improve upon.

One God.

Humanity.

And between them:

the man Christ Jesus.

Jesus mediates because he stands between God and us.

Acts likewise repeatedly calls Jesus a man whom God accredited, raised, exalted, and appointed.

Paul's letters repeatedly distinguish:

God our Father

from:

the Lord Jesus Christ.

This does not make Jesus ordinary.

It makes him the extraordinary human mediator through whom God reaches humanity and through whom humanity is brought back to God.

10. Jesus Is Mortal; God Is Inherently Immortal

Jesus truly dies.

That is central to the Gospel.

Paul, meanwhile, describes God as:

“immortal.” 1 Timothy 1:17

And:

“the one who alone is immortal.” 1 Timothy 6:16

Jesus is now immortal because God raised him from the dead.

Death no longer has dominion over him.

But that is different from being inherently incapable of death.

Jesus actually entered death.

God raised him.

Again the distinction is beautiful:

Jesus dies faithfully.

God raises him triumphantly.

11. Jesus Himself Affirms the One God of Israel

When asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus begins with Israel's confession:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Mark 12:29

A scribe responds:

“You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.” Mark 12:32

Jesus tells him he has answered wisely.

The scribe is standing directly in front of Jesus and talking to Jesus about God.

Jesus does not respond:

“Yes, and you must understand that I am another person within that one God.”

He affirms the man's confession.

John gives an equally striking statement when Jesus prays to the Father:

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

Jesus distinguishes:

the only true God

from:

Jesus Christ whom that God sent.

I think we should allow that distinction its full weight.

12. But What About the Passages That Seem to Say Jesus Is God?

There are real passages that appear, especially at first glance, to support Jesus' deity.

I do not think a responsible case can pretend otherwise.

John 1 is difficult.

Thomas says to Jesus:

“My Lord and my God!” John 20:28

Philippians 2 uses astonishing language about Christ.

Colossians connects him to all creation and says the fullness of deity dwells bodily in him.

Hebrews calls him the radiance of God's glory and exact representation of His nature.

Some New Testament passages may grammatically call Jesus theos, depending upon translation and punctuation.

Revelation gives Jesus titles also used of God.

Jesus receives worship or homage.

Old Testament passages originally involving Yahweh are sometimes applied to him.

These deserve serious treatment.

That is why I have examined them individually throughout this section and throughout my New Testament Study Bible.

But another principle must be applied equally:

The passages that appear incompatible with Jesus being God deserve the same seriousness.

We cannot use the difficult deity texts to erase Jesus' limited knowledge.

Or his temptation.

Or his growth.

Or his dependence.

Or his received authority.

Or his prayers.

Or his God.

Or his mortality.

Or his distinction from the one God.

The question cannot be:

Can I find some way to interpret each non-deity passage so that my prior belief in the Trinity remains possible?

The question must be:

What interpretation best accounts for all of the evidence together?

13. The Exalted Descriptions of Jesus Do Not Require Identity With God

One recurring pattern helped me enormously.

Jesus is God's image.

Colossians does not say:

Jesus is the invisible God.

It says:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God.” Colossians 1:15

An image reveals another.

Jesus reveals God perfectly.

That does not require that he be the God he reveals.

God's fullness dwells in Jesus.

Colossians says:

“in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Colossians 2:9

That is extraordinary.

But the language is still language of indwelling.

Jesus himself says:

“the Father living in me... is doing his work.” John 14:10

Paul even prays that Christians may:

“be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

Being completely filled with God does not make a person identical with God.

I believe Jesus is the supreme human example of that reality.

God acts through Jesus.

“Through” language does not make the person through whom God acts the ultimate source.

Resurrection comes “through a man” (1 Corinthians 15:21).

God reconciles the world through Christ.

God judges through Christ.

God speaks through Christ.

God performs miracles through Christ.

Jesus is God's supreme agent and mediator.

Jesus is Lord.

Absolutely.

But Acts says:

“God has made this Jesus... both Lord and Messiah.” Acts 2:36

His lordship is real.

Universal.

Glorious.

And bestowed by God.

14. Hebrews Convinced Me That Extremely High Christology Does Not Require Deity

Hebrews is especially important because it gives Jesus some of the highest language anywhere in Scripture.

Jesus is:

God's Son.

Heir of all things.

The radiance of God's glory.

The exact representation of God's being.

Exalted above angels.

Worshiped or bowed before by angels.

Crowned with glory and honor.

The great High Priest.

The pioneer of salvation.

Seated at God's right hand.

The ruler of the coming world.

That is astonishing.

Yet throughout the same book:

God appoints Jesus.

God works through him.

God anoints him.

God gives him his inheritance.

God perfects him through suffering.

God designates him High Priest.

God raises him.

God places him at His right hand.

And Hebrews says:

“God, your God, has set you above your companions.” Hebrews 1:9

Even at the height of Jesus' exaltation:

Jesus has a God.

The book therefore taught me something important:

The alternative to “Jesus is God” is not a low view of Jesus.

Scripture can exalt a human being far beyond anything modern Christians normally imagine possible without turning that human being into God Himself.

15. The Same Pattern Appears Again and Again Across the New Testament

When I reached the conclusions of individual New Testament books, the vocabulary varied, but the basic picture repeatedly returned.

Matthew presents Jesus as God's chosen and exalted human Messiah, Son, Lord, King, prophet, Savior, servant, and representative—raised and exalted by God and given universal authority.

Mark presents him as God's Messiah, Son of Man, Son, prophet, Lord, King, and uniquely authorized representative, while emphasizing that Jesus prays to God, submits to God, lacks knowledge God possesses, and calls Him “my God.”

John gives Jesus extraordinary glory, judgment, life-giving authority, and intimacy with the Father, yet repeatedly says Jesus receives his life, authority, words, works, and glory from God. John finally states his purpose:

“that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” John 20:31

Acts repeatedly calls Jesus a man, servant, prophet, Messiah, Lord, Savior, and appointed Judge whom God anoints, raises, makes Lord, and exalts.

Romans repeatedly gives the pattern:

from God, through Christ, to God.

Colossians gives Jesus perhaps the highest possible human exaltation: God's image, head of the Church, firstborn from the dead, preeminent ruler, filled bodily with divine fullness—yet God remains the One whose image Jesus is and the One who reconciles creation through him.

Hebrews presents the Son, King, High Priest, mediator, pioneer, and exalted ruler whom God appoints, perfects, anoints, and exalts.

First Timothy distinguishes:

the one God

from:

the man Christ Jesus, the mediator.

Again and again, the New Testament gives Jesus astonishing honor while preserving a distinction between:

God

and:

God's Son.

Eventually I stopped asking why Scripture did not speak in the categories I expected and started asking whether I should allow its own categories to govern my theology.

16. What About the Two-Natures Doctrine?

Classical Christianity answers many of these objections through the doctrine of the incarnation.

Jesus is one person possessing two complete natures (Council of Chalcedon; Ayres):

divine

and:

human.

According to his divine nature, Jesus is omniscient, immortal, untemptable, and fully God.

According to his human nature, he can lack knowledge, suffer, be tempted, grow, pray, obey, and die.

I understand how this model resolves many apparent contradictions.

But I ultimately do not find it convincing for one major reason:

Scripture never explains Jesus this way.

When Jesus does not know something, Scripture does not say:

his human nature does not know.

Jesus says:

the Son does not know.

When Jesus is tempted, the text does not tell us that one nature is genuinely tempted while another nature remains incapable of temptation.

Jesus is tempted.

When Jesus learns obedience:

Jesus learns.

When Jesus becomes perfect:

Jesus becomes perfect.

When Jesus dies:

Jesus dies.

When Jesus submits his will:

Jesus submits his will.

The two-natures framework developed within a Church that already confessed Christ’s deity and sought to articulate how the divine and profoundly human things said about Jesus could both be true of the one Christ (Council of Chalcedon; Ayres).

But if Jesus is not assumed to be God first, the tension largely disappears.

Jesus can lack knowledge because he is human.

He can be tempted because he is human.

He can grow because he is human.

He can learn because he is human.

He can receive authority because he is God's appointed Messiah.

He can worship God because God is actually his God.

He can die because he is mortal.

And God can raise him to immortality.

I find that reading much more straightforward.

17. Logic Matters

This is ultimately why I do not think the issue can be reduced to “mystery.”

Christian theology obviously contains mysteries.

Human understanding is limited.

God infinitely exceeds us.

But mystery and contradiction are not the same thing.

I do not need to understand everything about God before I can recognize that:

knowing something

and:

not knowing that same thing

are opposite descriptions.

Likewise:

being incapable of temptation

and:

being genuinely tempted

cannot normally be true of the same being in the same sense at the same time.

I understand that the doctrine of two natures introduces the phrase:

“not in the same sense.”

That is precisely how traditional theology seeks to avoid contradiction.

But because I do not find Scripture itself making that distinction when describing these experiences, I do not think I am required to adopt it.

God does not contradict Himself.

And truth does not require us to abandon reason.

So if one interpretation of a passage identifying Jesus with God generates repeated tension with what Scripture explicitly says God is and what Scripture explicitly says Jesus experiences, I believe we should at least seriously consider whether those supposed deity passages have been misunderstood.

18. Who, Then, Is Jesus?

Rejecting Jesus' deity creates an obvious question.

If Jesus is not God:

Who is he?

My answer after this study is not small.

Jesus is:

the Christ—the Messiah.

The Son of God.

The Son of Man.

God's uniquely chosen and beloved human Son.

Lord.

King.

Savior.

Prophet.

Servant.

Apostle.

Great High Priest.

Mediator between God and humanity.

The image of the invisible God.

The supreme representative of God.

The one in whom God's fullness dwells bodily.

The head of the Church.

The firstborn from the dead.

The pioneer of humanity's salvation.

The appointed Judge.

The ruler of the coming world.

The one seated at God's right hand.

The human being through whom God reconciles creation to Himself.

Jesus does not need to be God for any of those things to be true.

Indeed, I increasingly believe they make more sense when he is allowed to be what Scripture repeatedly calls him:

God's Son.

19. Saying Jesus Is Not God Does Not Diminish Him

For much of my life, I would have assumed that denying Jesus' deity necessarily lowered Jesus.

I now think that assumption reflects how little we appreciate what God can do in and through a human being.

What if God's purpose was not to become a human being so that humanity could look at an exception to humanity?

What if God's purpose was to raise a human Son to unimaginable glory, and then transform the rest of humanity to be like him?

Jesus is the human being who surrendered himself to God.

Learned obedience.

Was perfected through suffering.

Loved.

Served.

Suffered.

Gave his life.

Was raised from the dead.

Received immortality.

Was exalted above every earthly ruler.

Was seated at God's right hand.

Was given authority over heaven and earth.

And became the human being through whom God will bring creation into reconciliation and life.

That does not sound like a small Jesus.

It sounds like the most exalted human being who has ever lived.

But none of this requires deity.

20. His Humanity Is Part of the Good News

Hebrews says Jesus is able to help us because he shared our condition.

He suffered.

He was tempted.

He learned obedience.

He became perfect.

He became our High Priest.

If Jesus' experience of humanity was ultimately insulated by an omniscient, omnipotent, untemptable divine nature, I find it harder—not easier—to understand how his life functions as the genuine human pattern Scripture presents.

But if Jesus is truly human, his call:

“Follow me”

takes on extraordinary meaning.

We are not merely being asked to admire God doing what only God could ever do.

We are being invited to follow a human being who trusted God completely.

Who learned obedience.

Who surrendered himself.

Who became holy.

Who loved courageously.

Who suffered faithfully.

And whom God glorified.

Jesus becomes not evidence of how different God is from us, but the supreme revelation of what a human being completely united with God can become.

21. Jesus’ Humanity Was Genuinely Developmental

The three-part study of Jesus’ moral development strengthens this picture even further.

If Jesus is genuinely human, then his humanity is not merely a human body surrounding an eternally perfect divine person. Scripture presents someone who genuinely grew, learned, suffered, struggled, obeyed, and was made perfect.

I have argued that this development included genuine moral development.

Jesus had a history involving sin.

But sin did not define the person he ultimately became.

God did not leave him there.

Jesus learned obedience.

He overcame sin.

He was made perfect forever.

Scripture could ultimately say of him:

“In him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5

And as the Great High Priest, Jesus offered himself without blemish to God.

Jesus ultimately fulfills the role of Great High Priest once for all. Having been taught, tested, and perfected through suffering, he offers himself to God for the sins of the world.

That makes Jesus neither less human nor less worthy.

It makes him both more genuinely human and more amazing.

Jesus does not merely reveal what God is like.

He also reveals what God can make of a human being.

A man can grow.

A man can learn obedience.

A man can overcome sin.

A human being can grow in holiness and be brought by God to perfection.

And that perfected man can then give himself so completely to God and to others that God makes him the Savior, Great High Priest, Lord, and King through whom the world is restored.

That is an extraordinarily high view of Jesus.

Jesus is not God.

And Jesus is worthy.

22. The Final Question Is Not Which Interpretation Is Traditional

I know the conclusion of this article is outside orthodox Christianity.

I do not treat that lightly.

Christians older and more educated than I am have defended Jesus’ deity for centuries.

There are difficult passages that deserve serious engagement.

I have tried throughout this study not to reject a traditional interpretation merely because it is traditional.

Nor do I want to accept an unconventional interpretation merely because it is unconventional.

Neither tradition nor novelty determines truth.

The question is:

What interpretation best accounts for everything Scripture says?

Can a theology explain the passages traditionally used for Jesus’ deity?

It must.

But it must also explain:

Jesus not knowing.

Jesus being tempted.

Jesus growing.

Jesus learning obedience.

Jesus becoming perfect.

Jesus receiving authority.

Jesus depending upon God.

Jesus praying to God.

Jesus submitting his will to God.

Jesus dying.

Jesus being raised by God.

Jesus sitting at God’s right hand.

Jesus calling the Father “the only true God.”

Jesus calling the Father “my God.”

Jesus being explicitly called:

“the man Christ Jesus.”

And, I would now add, given my three-part series regarding Jesus' moral perfection, it must account seriously for the biblical picture of Jesus’ genuine moral development: his learning obedience, being made perfect, being described as holy, and serving as the Great High Priest who offers himself once for all for the sins of the people.

I do not believe the latter set of passages should be subordinated simply because Christianity eventually made Jesus’ deity doctrinally essential.

Evidence on both sides must be allowed to speak with their full force.

After trying to account for them together, I believe the non-deity interpretation explains the whole pattern much more coherently.

Final Conclusion

So:

Is Jesus God?

After studying this question throughout the New Testament, I do not believe he is.

God is the One Jesus reveals.

The One who sent him.

The One who empowered him.

The One whose words he spoke.

The One whose works he performed.

The One he prayed to.

The One he obeyed.

The One he worshiped.

The One who taught and perfected him.

The One who raised him.

The One who exalted him.

The One who gave him authority.

The One who placed everything under his feet.

And the One Jesus himself calls:

“my God.”

Jesus is not that God.

He is God’s Son.

God’s Messiah.

God’s Lord and King over humanity.

God’s image.

God’s mediator.

God’s appointed Savior.

God’s Great High Priest.

God’s supreme human representative.

And through this extraordinary human Son, God is accomplishing something magnificent:

the reconciliation and restoration of the world.

I therefore no longer think Jesus must be God in order to be everything Scripture says he is.

Quite the opposite.

I believe allowing Jesus to be fully and genuinely human makes the biblical picture more coherent—and makes his story even more remarkable.

He is not merely human while simultaneously somehow being the eternal, flawless God.

He genuinely lived a human life.

He grew.

He learned.

He struggled.

He suffered.

He overcame.

He was perfected.

Scripture ultimately describes him as holy.

He gave himself for others.

And God raised him, exalted him, and entrusted the Kingdom to him.

God is God.

Jesus is God’s Son.

And the greatness of Jesus does not depend upon confusing the Son with the God who loved him, taught him, perfected him, raised him, exalted him, and gave him the Kingdom.

Jesus’ greatness is precisely that, as a human Son, he gave himself completely to God.

And God has exalted him above all.

At this point, I believe the major pieces of Jesus’ identity have come into focus.

He is not God.

He is genuinely human.

He is the Messiah, Son, Lord, King, Savior, mediator, Great High Priest, image of God, and appointed ruler through whom God is restoring creation.

This is the Jesus I want to follow.