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Is Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) Elohim (God)? This question has puzzled theologians and Scripture scholars for millennia. This article will attempt to definitively answer this doctrinal question through a comprehensive and logical examination of Scripture.

YESHUA (JESUS) IS THE SON OF GOD

Yeshua (Jesus) Himself confirms and Scripture repeatedly declares that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Son of God.

JOHN 9:35-37 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) … said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” And Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “You have both seen Him AND IT IS HE WHO IS TALKING WITH YOU.”

During the trial of Yeshua (Jesus), He was accused of being the divine Son of God, to which He replied that indeed He was.

LUKE 22:70 (NKJV):
Then they all said, “Are You then the Son of God?” So He said to them, “You RIGHTLY say that I am.”

DOES BEING THE SON OF GOD EQUATE TO BEING GOD?

This is the crux of the matter. Yeshua (Jesus) Himself and Scripture declare that He is the Son of God. Does being the Son of God mean that Yeshua (Jesus) is God?

Scripture declares that there are two beings, the Father and Son who are the Creators and are called God.

GENESIS 1:26 (NKJV):
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…”

God (Us-plural) created mankind in God’s (Our-plural) image and likeness.

ACTS 13:33 (NKJV):
God has fulfilled this for us THEIR children, in that He has raised up Yeshua (Jesus).

God has fulfilled this for us (Their-plural) children, not (His-singular) children.

PSALMS 40:17 (NKJV):
Yet YHWH (the Lord) thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God.

Yeshua (Jesus) is the prophesied deliverer AND God.

PROVERBS 8:22-31 (NKJV):
YHWH (the Lord) possessed Me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there ever was an earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him as a Master Craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and My delight was with the sons of men.

JOHN 1:1-3 (NKJV):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

JOHN 1:10 (NKJV):
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

EPHESIANS 3:9 (NKJV):
God who created all things through Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ).

COLOSSIANS 1:15-18 (NKJV):
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

The Word (Yeshua / Jesus) was with God (the Father) AND was God. All things were made through Yeshua (Jesus) and by Him. Yeshua (Jesus) was and is the Master Craftsman.

JOHN 20:28 (NKJV):
And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

After His resurrection, Yeshua (Jesus) is directly called “My God,” by the Apostle Thomas (John 20:28) and was not corrected or rebuked by Yeshua (Jesus) (John 20:28).

EVE WAS BEGOTTEN OF ADAM

GENESIS 2:21-23 (NKJV):
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

1 CORINTHIANS 11:7-12 (NKJV):
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.

Woman was begotten from man, to give glory to man, and to be one with man. Man and woman together comprise MANKIND.

YESHUA (JESUS) WAS BEGOTTEN OF GOD THE FATHER

JOHN 3:16 (NKJV):
“For God so loved the world that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

JOHN 16:28 (NKJV):
“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world.”

HEBREWS 1:5,8-9 (NKJV):
For to which of the angels (messengers) did He ever say:
“You are My Son, today I have begotten You?”…
But to the Son He says:
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever…
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You.”

God the Father begat His Son Yeshua (Jesus) out of Himself and calls His Son ‘God.’ Scripture is clear that Yeshua (Jesus) was NOT a created being, nor an angel, nor was He a man who was born into existence. Yeshua (Jesus) is a unique being, distinguished from all the created beings: the angels, messengers, and man in that He is the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON of God the Father (Psalm 2:7; John 1:14,18, 3:16,18; 1 John 4:9, 5:1).

Life reproduces after its own kind (Genesis 1:11-12,21,24-25). Man begets mankind. God the Father begat only one Son, Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ). Can any being beget a being not of his or her own kind? If Yeshua (Jesus) is truly begotten (taken from) and reproduced directly from God the Father, then He is the direct offspring and substance of God and is God. The Son of God was begotten from God the Father, to give glory to the Father, and to be one with the Father. The Father and Son are comprised of the same substance. The Father and Son together comprise the GOD-KIND.

YESHUA (JESUS) WAS NOT BORN INTO EXISTENCE AS OTHER MEN ARE

JOHN 8:58 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, BEFORE Abraham was, I AM.”

JOHN 17:5 (NKJV):
“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory that I had with You BEFORE the world was.”

Yeshua (Jesus) did not come into existence at birth as other men do. Yeshua (Jesus) was in paradise with the Father, was SENT to Earth, FROM heaven – by the Father, to be born, take on human flesh, live a righteous life, and be the perfect atonement sacrifice for the sins of mankind (John 5:30,36-37, 6:39,44,57, 8:16,18,29,42, 12:49, 17:21,25, 20:21).

ONE GOD UNITED, ONE UNITED GOD

A dilemma for some believers who do not accept Yeshua (Jesus) as being God, or divine, is that they believe that there is one God and therefore ONLY one being who can be called God. If God the Father and Yeshua (Jesus) are both God, then there are two Gods, they reason. There are other people who believe that Yeshua (Jesus) and the Father are the same person. A literal reading of the following verses is how some people reason that there is only one being who is God:

MARK 12:32; ROMANS 3:30; 1 CORINTHIANS 8:6; 1 TIMOTHY 2:5; JAMES 2:19 (NKJV):
… there is one God …

1 CORINTHIANS 8:4 (NKJV):
… there is no other God but one.

How should believers view the seeming contradiction that there are two beings called God, the Father and Yeshua (Jesus) the Son, yet Scripture declares that there is one God?

There is more than one definition for the word ‘one.’

1. A single individual, being, object, thing, or item rather than two or more.

2. Existing, acting, or considered as a single unit, entity, or individual. Of the same or having a single kind, nature, or condition. United as one. (We belong to one team. We are of one resolve).

In light of all Scripture, believers should accept definition number two as applicable when Scripture refers to God as ‘one God’ and that ‘God is one.’

JOHN 14:9-11 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.”

Scripture is speaking poetically and allegorically when it declares that there is one God. God, Father and Son, are united as one. Yeshua (Jesus) allegorically declares that He and the Father are one, yet they are two distinct individual beings.

JOHN 10:30 (NKJV):
“I and My Father are one.”

JOHN 17:20-23 (NKJV):
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

‘I,’ and ‘My Father,’ indicate two separate individuals being united as one in ‘Us’ and ‘We.’ The United States is one country, yet there are fifty individual states within this one country. A man and woman are two distinct separate individuals, yet when married as husband and wife they are to be considered one flesh (Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:8). God is one family and one kingdom comprised of two individuals.

IS YESHUA (JESUS) GOOD?

MATTHEW 19:17; MARK 10:18; LUKE 18:19 (NKJV):
So He [Yeshua (Jesus)] said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God…”

Some may be confused by Yeshua’s (Jesus’) question, asking, “Why do you call Me good?” and statement saying, “No one is good but One, that is, God.” It may initially sound as if Yeshua (Jesus) were being extremely humble by saying that He is not good, only God is good, and He is not God.

A young man asked Yeshua (Jesus), “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:16; Mark 10:17; Mark 18:18)?” Yeshua (Jesus) responded with a rhetorical question, “Why do you call Me good?” to the young man with great possessions. The purpose of this question posed to the young man was to test his faith, to see if He knew who Yeshua (Jesus) was, to see if he knew Yeshua (Jesus) was God.

Yeshua (Jesus) then said, “No one is good but One, that is, God…”
Yeshua (Jesus) did not say that He was not good or that He was not God.
Yeshua (Jesus) and the Father are One, are united as One God (John 10:30).

YESHUA (JESUS) DECLARED THAT HE IS THE GOOD SHEPHERD

JOHN 10:11-13 (NKJV):
“I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. THE GOOD SHEPHERD gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

JOHN 10:14-18 (NKJV):
I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

Yeshua (Jesus) knew no sin and gave His life to pay for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Yeshua (Jesus) lived a perfect sinless life. He is good.

The totality of Scripture declares that Yeshua (Jesus) was Creator and God, who was with God (the Father) (John 1:1-3), existing in glory with Him before the world was (John 17:5). The Father is greater than the Son in regards to authority, glory, and the throne of heaven (Matthew 28:18; John 10:29, 14:28). It is not for believers to reason away, reinterpret, or retranslate Scripture to make Scripture fit in with their worldview of God existing as one being in the Father, therefore excluding the Son as God, -or- of God as an all-in-one-being in which the Father and Son are one, not two, distinct beings, or a trinity of three co-equal beings.

God is one united Father and Son, one united family, and one united kingdom. God is comprised of two individuals, the Father and Son. The Father is God and Yeshua (Jesus) the Son is God. The Father and Son are indivisible, united as one in family, kingdom, and purpose.

COLOSSIANS 2:2-3 (NKJV):
The knowledge of the mystery of God, BOTH of the Father and of Messiah (Christ), in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

BOTH God the Father and the Son of God Yeshua (Jesus), are God.