Who was Jesus?

[On My Way]

So I have a few questions,
I have been reading Lindabees and Aineo's exchange and it has brought up some questions that I have had but quit honestly afraid to pose here.

First let me state that most of you who know me , know that I do not have a strong understanding of the Bible when it comes to interpretation.

I have always felt that Jesus was acted through by God or the Holy Spirit rather than he was actually God. Is that wrong? because then it would be a Duality rather than a Trinity

Aineo had asked Linda to comment on John 17:3

3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

But I was wondering if John 17:4

I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do

also says that Jesus was seperate from God?

[Aineo]

In order to understand who Jesus is (not was), we have to understand what Jesus meant when He said:

Matthew 26:55-56
55 At that time Jesus said to the multitudes, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. 56 "But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled." Then all the disciples left Him and fled. NAS

John 5:46-47
46 "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. 47 "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" NAS

One of those prophets was Moses who wrote:

Deuteronomy 18:14-18

14 "For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. 16 This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, lest I die.' 17 "And the LORD said to me, 'They have spoken well. 18'I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. NAS

And what He told His disciples after His resurrection:

Luke 24:44-49

44 Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 "You are witnesses of these things. 49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." NAS

You can find a few of the prophesies fulfilled by the Lord on this thread: http://www.jesus-christ-forums.com/home/viewtopic.php?t=7710

So what we learn from the prophesies fulfilled by the Lord is He is a man appointed a prophet like Moses who was (is) God’s servant and anointed King, was born of a woman, forsaken by His brethren, an alien to His mother’s sons, would hang from a tree, and not suffer corruption in Sheol.

Also in order to understand who Jesus is we must approach the Scriptures from a Hebraic worldview since the foundation of Christianity is the apostles and the prophets all of whom were Jews. A little known teaching in Judaism is that God created the Torah before He created the heavens and the earth. There concept of “memra” or “logos” in Hebrew coincides with the Greek philosophical concept of “logos” developed by Heraclitus around 600 B.C., which is the logos is the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe. When we understand this Hebraic concept then we can understand that John 1:1 would be understood this way to 1st century Jews:
“In the beginning was the Torah, and the Torah was with God, and the Torah was God.” In other words the Lord is the personification or image of the invisible God’s plan for the salvation of mankind and was (is) the exact representation of God’s nature (wisdom).

Peter alludes to this in Acts 2 when he preached on the Day of Pentecost:

Acts 2:22-23

22 "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-- 23 this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. NAS

[On My Way]

Oops sorry about that.
I was thinking about titling this Who was Jesus on Earth kind of thing.

Dut 18:18'I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. NAS

So this may sound Juvenal but was all of this written in Jesus or did God send him the answers as needed. It really doesn't matter either way I was just curious.

Now if you would answer this in laymens terms for me

How do people feel that Jesus is God? if that makes sense. That is a concept that I do not fully understand, I can understand the Son aspect of it.

[Aineo]

So this may sound Juvenal but was all of this written in Jesus or did God send him the answers as needed. It really doesn't matter either way I was just curious.

Probably both, since we know that at the age of 12 Jesus astounded the teachers in the Temple with His understanding and questions (Luke 2:47) and that He did not begin His public ministry until after the Holy Spirit descended and remained on Him. We also know that the Lord spent a lot of time in prayer.

How do people feel that Jesus is God? if that makes sense. That is a concept that I do not fully understand, I can understand the Son aspect of it.

I believe Justin Martyr was the first Early Church Father to propose the deity of Jesus, however he taught God is two persons not three since he did not include the Holy Spirit in his Godhead. This subject was hotly debated until the Council of Nicea in 325 when the deity of Jesus was affirmed and defined by the men who controlled Christianity.

The big thing which happened was the Nicene Creed, but in this way: Most held out at first for a Scriptural language and expression to make clear against the Arians what the catholic doctrine had been, but as the discussions progressed it became evident that there was no Scriptural vocabulary which would correctly express the orthodox teaching. They lighted on a philosophical term, homoosios (same substance as) to express what they meant and what had always been the catholic teaching, but there was still needed a formula to summarize and convey their meaning.
http://www.hist.edu/325nice.html