Is Jesus God?

I've come to the conclusion that statement doesn't mean anything. Why? People, all people, have some notion of 'God'. However, the word 'God' is generic. It basically means deity or a 'higher power' or 'the big guy in the sky' or 'the Other'. So we all have some notion of God. It is formed in many ways, whether a childhood steeped in religion or learning about God from The Simpsons (a spot on caricature of all the stereotypes we tend to hold about God).

So we hear "Jesus is God" or ask whether or not Jesus is God. And we come to this statement/question with all of our beliefs about who or what God is and we say 'No.' We reject the notion. And, in my opinion, rightfully so. Though not as you may think.

Is he divine?

Again, what do we mean by divine? What exactly do we come with to the word 'divine'?

But this is the wrong approach, just as it is the wrong approach to indoctrinate people in the Christian tradition into the Trinity. We have no framework within which to comprehend these doctrines. No, the reality is that to come to terms with what these doctrines mean we must learn them, over time, walking in them, experiencing life through the Christian tradition, following the traditions of the Church, the teachings of the Bible and, yes, doctrine.

But the Trinity is a hedge, the end of the dialectic if you wish, the final say on all the other varieties of Christian response throughout the ages that seek to answer the question: who was Jesus?

Got an answer? There's a doctrine for you somewhere in Christian history. Oneness Pentecostals? Try Modalism. Jesus is not God but is the highest among God's creation? Try Arianism. Take your pick.

The Trinity is, by and large, the end result of all of this. Is this the 'core' of the Christian message? Is this what Jesus came to teach? Of course not. It is a framework through which to understand what he did teach.

Without a framework, what is the standard by which we measure our comprehension of his message? Are we, i.e. Man, the measure? Do we alone determine the validity of his message? If not us, who?

So is Jesus God? I would say we come to know who God is by coming to know who Jesus is. If we go through, say, Islam, we come to understand God in a different way. If we come to know God through our own interpretation, we see God differently. This may be obvious. But it is a critical point. The way we come to understand God is a determining factor of not only how we understand God but how we behave in the world.

And this means everything.