Een persoonlijke overweging van Pairan

The word "God" is often used as though it were obviously a personal name. But when you look closely at language and Scripture, you see that the word can carry different functions: God as a designation or title for the one God, god as a general reference to a deity. Name, title, and designation are not the same, and that confusion lies at the root of much discussion.

God and god. On paper we distinguish with a capital letter: God for the one Creator, god for a deity in general. But when you speak the word aloud, you don't hear that capital letter — you only hear the sound. A capital letter makes no noise. So someone can hear the word "God" without automatically knowing whether the speaker means the Father, the one God, a title, or a general designation. Only context makes that clear.

The names of God. Scripture uses different names, titles, and designations: Elohim (God), El Shaddai (God Almighty), Adonai (Lord), and YHWH — the specific name by which God made Himself known in the Hebrew Scriptures. A name points to someone specifically. A title says something about authority or position. A designation tells you what or who someone is called. That distinction is exactly what is needed to properly ask the question about Jesus.

This same pattern appears outside the Bible too. In Arabic, Allah (الله) means "God" and refers to the one God; ilāh (إله) means "a god" and is general. Allah does not literally mean "the Father" — it is the Arabic name for the one God, used by Arabic-speaking Christians as well. It shows that a word can be a designation without automatically declaring the full identity of the one it refers to. And that is exactly where you arrive at Jesus.

And then Jesus. The question "Is Jesus God?" only becomes truly interesting once you ask what exactly is meant by it.

Do you mean: is Jesus the Father? No. Jesus speaks to the Father, prays to the Father, says the Father sent Him. After His resurrection He says: "I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God" (John 20:17). Jesus and the Father are not the same Person.

But that does not fully settle the question. Jesus is also not simply an ordinary human teacher. John (the theologian) writes: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was GOD" (John 1:1). What John means by this: even before the creation of the world, the Word already existed with GOD the Father — as a distinct person, set apart from Him — and at the same time that Word was god, in the sense this article already explained: not GOD the Father Himself, but of that very same divine nature and status. Distinction and unity at once; neither may crowd out the other. Later that Word became man: Jesus (John 1:14). After His resurrection, Thomas says to Jesus: "My Lord and my GOD!" (John 20:28) — the same Jesus who had just spoken of "My GOD and your GOD." One sentence must not push away all the others; it is about the whole.

Do you mean: is Jesus merely an ordinary man, without divine significance? That does not fit what the New Testament says about Him.

Do you mean: is Jesus designated in a special, divine way? Yes. And when "god" is used to designate divine status, power, or authority, Jesus can be called god in that sense — without that meaning He is a separate god alongside the Father, and without that meaning He is the Father. That is where the distinction lies.

The divine title and authority — received from the Father. Jesus carried a distinct divine title and authority, but He received it from the Father — He did not come to exalt Himself to power. He says Himself: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18), and that word "given" itself already points to the Father as the Source of His authority. That same Father gave Him authority to heal, forgive sins, and set people free — "that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins" (Mark 2:10) — and even judgment was given to Him: "And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man" (John 5:27). Yet Jesus also says: "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:30). In this the distinction becomes clear: the Father is the Source, the Son receives the authority, and the Son carries it out. This does not make Jesus an ordinary man — the Father gave Him a unique position, far above human authority, to heal, forgive, set free, judge, and make known the Kingdom. So the question is not only "what title does Jesus hold?" but also "from Whom did He receive that title?" — and Jesus keeps pointing back to the Father who sent Him.

Jesus — High Priest and King. Here the priesthood of Jesus comes into view as well. Scripture calls Jesus the great High Priest: "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God..." (Hebrews 4:14). Jesus is truly High Priest; His priesthood belongs to His unique mission from the Father. But when we speak of His second coming, we must be careful — Scripture does not literally say that Jesus will come "as a priest" at His return. At His return He is described above all as King and Judge: Revelation 19:11-16 describes Him as the One who comes with power and authority to judge and reign. Both truths stand side by side: Jesus is the High Priest sent by the Father, and He will return as the King and Judge appointed by God. That is not a contradiction — His priesthood describes His service and position; His return is described above all in terms of kingship, judgment, and victory.

The end: everything returned into the Father’s hands. The clearest text on this is 1 Corinthians 15:24-28. There Paul describes the end: Christ has put all enemies under His feet. Then comes the end. Then Christ hands over the Kingdom to God the Father. Finally the Son Himself will be subject to Him who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all. It is the same movement this whole article has already shown: the Father is the Source, He gives authority to the Son — and in the end the Son hands that authority back again. No rivalry, no kingdom of His own that He keeps for Himself. The Son reigns on the Father’s behalf, and when the work is finished, He lays everything back into His hands.

Why a servant, and not the Father Himself. Why did the Father send Jesus to defeat the greatest enemy, instead of doing it in a way everyone would instantly recognize as "God Himself"? Perhaps precisely to show what is possible through the one He chooses. No army, no throne, no visible divine show of force — but a carpenter, someone with no standing, a servant. If someone like that, equipped and sent by the Father, can defeat the greatest enemy, it shows: victory does not lie in power or position, but in whom the Father chooses and what He can do through them. God could have done it Himself. Instead, He chose to do it through a Son who served, obeyed, and made Himself small — so that the victory would not appear to come from God alone, but would become visible through a life like ours.

The resurrection: the proof that His will happens. Jesus was not killed because He healed people, because He fed people, or because He prayed for people — those were exactly the things people loved Him for. He was killed because He spoke the truth and resisted hypocrisy and religious and political power that set itself above the truth. At first glance that looks like a defeat — the servant permanently silenced. But it is precisely there that the Father shows: what He wills happens, even when the opposite seems true at first. He raised His Son from the dead. Jesus did not raise Himself — the Father did (Acts 2:24, Romans 6:4). Those who thought they could silence the truth by killing the servant discovered that death did not have the last word. It is the same lesson as with the carpenter who defeated the greatest enemy: not power defending itself, but obedience holding out to the end — and a Father who shows that His will, even through the deepest humiliation, always wins.

No earthly title. When you look at the life of Jesus, you see someone who did not come to flaunt an earthly title. No crown, no power, no position above people. He walked among ordinary people, ate with them, served them, wept with them, prayed, obeyed — and always pointed back to the Father. Perhaps we are too preoccupied with "what title does Jesus hold?", while Jesus brings us back to another question: "Who sent Me?"

He made the Father great. Jesus reveals and represents the Father in a unique, divine way — and precisely because He is so deeply humble before the Father, because He makes Himself small, God becomes visibly great in Him. The less He put Himself forward, the more the Father could be seen through Him. He did not need to make Himself great. He came not only to show us who He is, but to make us aware of who we already are: children of God. A human being can give themselves a title; when God lifts someone up, that exaltation comes from God. He made the Father great — and the Father exalted the Son.

This is how God has always worked: He used Moses, He used Abraham, and so many others — people who did not make themselves great, but served. Each prophet had his own mission, fitting his own time. In this time too, God has His plan ready: for this time, He has the lightbearers. These people claim no title. They serve. And just as He used people then, He still uses ordinary people today to help others. That is why it matters to understand the word priest not only as a title of status, but also as a picture of service to God — Jesus is the High Priest, yet He is at the same time the One who serves.

God does not care for titles and status — He wants a personal relationship with all of us. In His eyes there is no Christian, no Jew, no Muslim, no Hindu: we are all His beloved child. No priest is needed for that, and He asks for no perfection.

Misunderstood then and now. Even during His own life, Jesus was misunderstood. People expected an earthly king; when they wanted to make Him king, He withdrew. He did not come for a throne, but to make the Father known and to proclaim the truth. And yet, according to the biblical message, He will return in glory and power — so we distinguish between His first coming as a Servant and His return as King and Judge. That still happens today. Perhaps the right question is not "what title should Jesus have?" but "what are you doing with the truth He gives you?" — not "who stands above whom?" but "serve one another."

Do not blame faith itself. People use religion for power; people abuse faith to make money or to wage war. To me, the problem does not lie with faith itself — the problem is what the human heart does with it.

And I see something else too: people twist words to fulfill their own desires. When someone is doing the work of the Light, that person is sometimes the very one who gets accused — while all they are doing is what their heart asks of them.

Jesus Himself warned about this: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15). There are wolves in sheep's clothing among us — people who use the words of faith but do not live by them. Jesus also said: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father" (Matthew 7:21). It is not enough to speak His name. What matters is what you do.

No title, no status — a personal relationship. God does not care for titles and status. He asks for no church rank, no priest between you and Him, no perfect life before you are allowed to come to Him. He wants one thing: a personal relationship with each of us. In His eyes there is no Christian, no Jew, no Muslim, no Hindu — He sees no label, He sees His child. We are all His beloved children, needing no intermediary to come to Him. He does not ask for perfection. He asks for a heart that seeks.

No quarreling over titles. Let us not end this question with an argument. Let us not condemn one another over a different word, not stand against each other, but walk together as brothers and sisters. We so often see only the outside; the Father knows the heart. Jesus said: "The kingdom of God is in your midst" (Luke 17:21). The title is not what matters most. Not status. The heart.

Do not accuse too quickly. Be patient with the one who is still searching. We are not called to defeat one another, but to love one another. We may differ in words and traditions, but let those differences not turn us into enemies — for in the end we each see only a part; the Father sees the whole.

But the most important question is ultimately not what title we give Jesus. The most important question is: why was He sent? He was sent by the Father, came as a man among people, served, spoke truth, pointed to the Father, made the Father great — and showed that we may come to know God and live as His children.

The Father is the Father. The Son is the Son. The Son is not the Father. But the Son was sent by the Father to make the truth visible.

The deepest question is not: what title does He carry? But: who is He, really — and why was He sent?

Perhaps the answer is not meant to set us against each other, but to bring us closer together, closer to the Light. Not above one another. Not against one another. Beside one another — as children of the Father, as brothers and sisters, in love, in truth, in patience, in the Light.