This is what I believe
John 4
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit*of antichrist,
3 John 1
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist
I believe that Jesus Christ is come in fresh, the same flesh as you and me. I believe that he could and was tempted a we are and could sin because he had his own will, but he didn't, he denied Satan completely and obeyed the will of God.
If people say that Jesus isn't come in the exact same flesh as we did then we are making his life of none effect, because if we say that he couldn't sin then he wasn't overcoming Satan, because to overcome Satan is to deny him, and if he couldn't sin, then he wouldn't be denying Satan. God can't be tempted in any way, Jesus was. He isn't God.
I see that he was conceived by the holy spirit, so the spirit of God was always with him, it says in the Bible that Jesus grew strong in spirit as a child, I believe that when he was 30 he was ready to preach and he was anointed with power and strength from God of his spirit fully, so Jesus came with the fullness of God and was in his express image making him Immanuel (God with us) because people didn't see Jesus, his flesh was dead to him because he denied Satan completely, and you saw the spirit of God fully through him.
I believe that God sent Jesus because he could trust him, Jesus didn't have to come, but he was willing so he could be a witness of the truth and show us the way back to God through his life. He came into this sinful flesh to bring us the truth and show us the ways of God, to reconcile us back to God and to save us from sin. And as those of us who are his sheep, hear his voice, we then should then be ready to, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Baring our cross as he bore his.
How can Jesus ask us to follow him and to bare our cross if he didn't go through and feel everything we do. He had to be in the exact flesh as you and me, he had to feel and go through everything we do, if he wasn't able to sin, then he wasn't denying Satan and he didn't have a will, and he didn't overcome world, which completely contradicts the Bible.
It says he wanted to be like his brethren. So to be like his brethren was to be in flesh and blood as they were.
I don't believe that Jesus was God, but that he was anointed by God with power, as it says in the Bible. And that he is the son of the living God, and he is the Christ.
If Jesus was anointed of God, then he's not God but God was with him in full strength of the spirit.
Acts 10
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
By the way, I'm a woman
Hello Marhig. I have a couple items for consideration.
First, is to consider what the Jews of that time would understand by "Son of God." When Jesus did call himself the "Son of God" the reactions were "What need we any further witness?" (Luke 22:70) and "Therefore they sought again to take him" (John 10:36). The passage Christ quoted from the Psalms "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods ... I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High" identified him as the God Elohim doing the judging (the judge of the quick and the dead), not one of the gods being judged. I would also point to Hebrews where "Son of God" is used in another context,
Hebrews 7:1-4 KJV
(1) For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
(2) To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
(3) Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
(4) Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
... but look at the features that are attributed to one who is "made like unto the Son of God?" Without father, without mother... neither beginning of days, nor end of life? Don't be confused by the term "man" as this is not a term of limitation. When God appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, it says that he saw three men. Two of these men descended upon Sodom to visit Lot and are then identified as angels. The term "man" can simply mean "on in the form of a man." So if the Son of God has neither beginning nor end of days nor end of life, what does that imply about Jesus?
The second point is a continuation of something you said. You said that God sent Jesus because he could trust him. Now I cannot say if you are of a normal (what I consider normal) or a Calvinist persuasion, but have you ever considered the inherent danger in sending someone with free will to accomplish a task upon which depends the salvation of the human race, or at the very least your reputation to keep your word? If Jesus was not God himself, and if he had his own free will, then it was possible for him to fail to do that which God had promised through the prophets of old. It would have been possible for him to have succumbed to temptation. You may consider the odds low, but even low odds when compared to infinite disaster is a terrible thing to risk. If God loved us truly, would he take this type of risk?
Here are possible solutions for this perceived problem:
Choice A: Remove the element of free will from Jesus, either in part or in whole. However, then the problem arises that he isn't giving himself and then he wouldn't be a willing sacrifice. As such anyone or anything could have been the sacrifice. This starts to sound like a problem.
Choice B: Remove all risk from the equation. There's a saying that goes something like this, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." I propose that this is what actually happened. This also agrees with many, many passages of scripture, including this:
"In that day,
saith the LORD, .... and they shall look
upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him." (Zec 12:4-10 KJV)
There is also a third item, that of name and identification. If Jesus is not God, then it would be very confusing as to how come the scripture consistently assigns him the names and titles that are used for the identification of God alone. For example, Isaiah three times uses the phrase "first and the last" to identify the LORD God (Jehovah YHWH). You can see these in Isaiah 41:4, 41:6, and 48:12.
Isaiah 44:6 KJV
(6) Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts;
I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
I'll omit the others to save space here, but they speak just as strongly. That name and title belongs to the LORD God Jehovah alone, it is used for identification, there is no other God. Now when we read Revelation we also see that title used, not once, not twice, not even three times as in Isaiah, but four additional times (a total of seven times in the whole scripture, a very nice number.)
Revelation 1:11 "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last..."
Revelation 1:17-18 "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;..."
Revelation 2:8 "These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive"
Revelation 22:13 "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last"
What is the Jew who knows the Hebrew scripture supposed to think when he reads statements like these? If Jesus rose from the dead then he did not blaspheme when he made himself God, and he that rose from the dead declares himself as the "First and the Last, besides whom there is no other God." Besides that, unlike menservants of God or the angels, who protest when such an attempt is made, Jesus never once refused worship. Is it not written,
Matthew 4:10 KJV
(10) Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
John 9:37-39 KJV
(37) And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
(38)
And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
(39) And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
But what is the result when someone worships someone else?
Acts 10:25-26 KJV
(25) And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
(26)
But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
To summarize, please consider these:
1) What does "Son of God" mean within the context of scripture, as defined by scripture?
2) Consider the difficulties that a separate "free will" for the promised sinless Messiah (from the LORD God) would imply for the LORD God.
3) Consider that Jesus took upon himself the very names and titles used to identify the only LORD God.
4) Consider that Jesus allowed himself to be worshiped, which is an action in itself that is to be reserved only for God.
