Jesus said, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). "If you knew Me you would know my Father also" (John 8:19).
How could Jesus be God?
The early Christian church formulated a doctrine, overwhelmingly supported by scripture, to help us understand who Jesus is. The doctrine is that there is only ONE GOD in essence, but THREE DISTINCT AND RELATED PERSONS IN A STATE OF UNITY: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Just as humans are composed of body, mind, and spirit, so God is Father, Son, and Spirit.
There is an experience common to Christians which, when coupled with scripture verses, help us understand. When we make a decision to become a Christian, we pray for Jesus to take over our lives and set us free from our sins. If we pray this in sincerity, God's Holy Spirit plants a tiny seed of faith within us which opens a prayer channel that we may pray to the Father as Jesus did. We become a spiritual baby who can understand spiritual things (John 3:3-8).
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives IN him and he IN God (I John 4:12-15). The power of the Almighty God himself has come to dwell within that person--the resurrection power which raised Jesus from the dead.
When I invited Jesus into my heart, I invited the Son of God to live IN me. His Spirit--the Holy Spirit--was responsible for the miraculous change in my life. The Bible says that the Father lives in me, Jesus lives in me, and His Spirit lives in me: "In Christ you too are filled with the Godhead--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (Col.2:10 Amp.V) The warm tingling feeling I received that day is "the anointing from the Holy One" (I John 2:20 NIV).
Jesus is the key to open the door of our hearts to allow the kingdom of God to enter. When all hearts in all the earth are unlocked, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will have set up His kingdom on earth. Isaiah predicted 500 years before Jesus' birth that the baby to be born of a virgin would be called Immanuel (Isa.7:14), the "Mighty GOD, Everlasting FATHER, Prince of Peace" (Isa.9:6).
No longer on a cross, His Spirit lives in the hearts of Christians--our "Immanuel, God with us" (Matt.1:23).
Jesus Christ is the God with us, a member of the triune Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is God!
© 1999, Doreen Palmer