Image: Jesus comforting Children by James Shepard on Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSimple answer<\/h2>\n
Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed or clarified the relationship between God and people. He condemned no one during his ministry (John 3:17).<\/p>\n
The change in the relationship was a further clarification of what God requires from people. It was a message of goodwill toward people and the Good News of forgiveness to all for the asking and rejection of bad conduct.<\/p>\n
He was different from the prophets of Israel from 400 years earlier in that he had divine powers that attested to his authority from God. The prophets had their own set of criteria for speaking for God and it didn\u2019t include divine powers. As he told John the Baptist in Matthew 11:5, \u201cThe blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy\u00a0are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did these things partly out of compassion, but not to cause belief other than to recognize the authority given to him by God.<\/p>\n
The simple thing that God requires of us was not complicated by Jesus and fell in line with the earlier prophets:<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,\u201d \u2013 Deuteronomy 10:12 (NASB)<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?\u201d \u2013 Micah 6:8 (NASB)<\/p>\n
\u201cLearn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.\u201d \u2013 Isaiah 1:17 (NASB)<\/p>\n
The complicated answer \u2013 a Jew<\/h2>\n
Jesus was a Jew. He came to the people who God had chosen as an example of how to live in ways that made them acceptable to God. Nearly everything Jesus said was said to Jews within the framework of Judaism.<\/p>\n
Jesus didn\u2019t hide from the rest of the world. He made excursions into lands that were not Jewish and talked to the people there. He was often amazed by their faith and said that some would sit at the table with him.<\/p>\n
A Roman soldier came in deep humility and requested that Jesus heal his servant. Jesus said, \u201cTruly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.\u201d Matthew 8:5-13 (NASB).<\/p>\n
A Phoenician woman came to Jesus in deep humility and requested he cast an impure spirit from her daughter. Jesus said to her, \u201cFor such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.\u201d \u2013\u00a0 Mark 7:24-30 (NIV)<\/p>\n
Jesus said, \u201cI say to you that many\u00a0will come from east and west, and\u00a0recline\u00a0at the table<\/em>\u00a0with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.\u201d \u2013 Matthew 8:11 (NASB)<\/p>\nThe Kingdom of Heaven is here now and forever. It\u2019s a spiritual kingdom of those who live the way Jesus showed us to live, that is to love others as he showed us.<\/p>\n
Rules of conduct<\/h2>\n
Fundamental rules of conduct were in place in the Laws of Noah and then the Ten Commandments. Most societies of the time had similar fundamental rules, and these are in the hearts of people. We know when we so something that hurts others.<\/p>\n
The rule of love was the capstone of these rules. If you act out of love toward others then you can\u2019t break one of these fundamental rules.<\/p>\n
If laws were going to be made to cover everything then the list would be endless. Love is the meaning of the law. Judaism is a religion richly steeped in tradition from their history. It included 613 laws and on top of that the Traditions of the Fathers. It is a way of life that is not placed on all people. \u201cThe Law\u201d was not given to non-Jews.<\/p>\n
Jesus said the law and the prophets were until John the Baptist. The new covenant (agreement and requirement) is love.<\/p>\n
Takeaway<\/h2>\n
Jesus is of God. By that I mean that his conduct and message exemplify God. He lived and died in a very corporeal sense, but his essence transcends the corporeal. He could be accurately thought of as a manifestation of God, a son of God, the presence of God in human form, a message of love from God, an incarnation of God, or any other way you want to put that is associated with God.<\/p>\n
________________________<\/p>\n
The standard of belief and conduct for Christianity is love. God is love. We\u2019re asked to be like God.<\/p>\n
________________________<\/p>\n
If you find these articles intriguing, please consider joining the mailing list.<\/p>\n
If I\u2019ve challenged your thinking, I\u2019ve done my job.<\/p>\n
___________________<\/p>\n
Our answer is God. God\u2019s answer is us. Together we make the world better.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Dorian<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Series: The Big Questions Was Jesus a man, a God, or something else? Simple answer Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed or clarified the relationship between God and people. He condemned no one during his ministry (John 3:17). The change in the relationship was a further clarification of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4612,"featured_media":1629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1251],"class_list":["post-1623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-who-was-jesus"],"yoast_head":"\n
Who Was Jesus?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Series: The Big Questions Was Jesus a man, a God, or something else? Simple answer Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed Jesus represents God.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Was Jesus?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Series: The Big Questions Was Jesus a man, a God, or something else? Simple answer Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed Jesus represents God.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New Generations Explore Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-09T21:15:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1453\/2023\/01\/JesusComfortingChildren_JamesShepard_Flickr_5264272224_11d846e3af_c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"557\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dorian Scott Cole\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dorian Scott Cole\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/\",\"name\":\"Who Was Jesus?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-09T21:15:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-09T21:15:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/9e546e30608d101d634b9b0a37805ea2\"},\"description\":\"Series: The Big Questions Was Jesus a man, a God, or something else? Simple answer Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed Jesus represents God.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Who Was Jesus?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/\",\"name\":\"New Generations Explore Faith\",\"description\":\"Finding a way forward in faith for new generations and leaders\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/9e546e30608d101d634b9b0a37805ea2\",\"name\":\"Dorian Scott Cole\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20728338f31762218ad2bfe3d7d2ce52?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20728338f31762218ad2bfe3d7d2ce52?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dorian Scott Cole\"},\"description\":\"Dorian Cole is a former pastor of a mainline denomination who currently is an author with an online publishing ministry. He develops courses for training or seminars. His publishing focus is new generations, and spirituality. With formal education and experience in several fields, including religion, technology, psychology, management, and movie production, he is cross-disciplinary in approach. He likes variety, creativity, and helping people develop. In course development, organizational settings, and writing, he uses social psychology to understand people, organizational problems, and helps them bring change. Attitude change is often essential. As a peacemaker, he tries to bring different parties together to work together to heal or resolve organizational and societal problems. He is ecumenical and works with other denominations in public efforts such as the Catholic Engaged Encounter, courses on understanding new generations, and is accepting of other religions. He has been happily married to his wife for so long he doesn\u2019t need to count the years, even though she says he does, and they boast three adult children and their grandchildren and many pets.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/dorianscottcole.com\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCol7YyxUOPVZRI5kg8LKY-w\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/author\/dcole\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who Was Jesus?","description":"Series: The Big Questions Was Jesus a man, a God, or something else? Simple answer Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed Jesus represents God.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who Was Jesus?","og_description":"Series: The Big Questions Was Jesus a man, a God, or something else? Simple answer Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed Jesus represents God.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/","og_site_name":"New Generations Explore Faith","article_published_time":"2023-01-09T21:15:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":557,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1453\/2023\/01\/JesusComfortingChildren_JamesShepard_Flickr_5264272224_11d846e3af_c.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dorian Scott Cole","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dorian Scott Cole","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/","name":"Who Was Jesus?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-01-09T21:15:31+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-09T21:15:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/9e546e30608d101d634b9b0a37805ea2"},"description":"Series: The Big Questions Was Jesus a man, a God, or something else? Simple answer Jesus was a man who represented God and brought a message that changed Jesus represents God.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/2023\/01\/who-was-jesus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who Was Jesus?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/","name":"New Generations Explore Faith","description":"Finding a way forward in faith for new generations and leaders","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/9e546e30608d101d634b9b0a37805ea2","name":"Dorian Scott Cole","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20728338f31762218ad2bfe3d7d2ce52?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20728338f31762218ad2bfe3d7d2ce52?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Dorian Scott Cole"},"description":"Dorian Cole is a former pastor of a mainline denomination who currently is an author with an online publishing ministry. He develops courses for training or seminars. His publishing focus is new generations, and spirituality. With formal education and experience in several fields, including religion, technology, psychology, management, and movie production, he is cross-disciplinary in approach. He likes variety, creativity, and helping people develop. In course development, organizational settings, and writing, he uses social psychology to understand people, organizational problems, and helps them bring change. Attitude change is often essential. As a peacemaker, he tries to bring different parties together to work together to heal or resolve organizational and societal problems. He is ecumenical and works with other denominations in public efforts such as the Catholic Engaged Encounter, courses on understanding new generations, and is accepting of other religions. He has been happily married to his wife for so long he doesn\u2019t need to count the years, even though she says he does, and they boast three adult children and their grandchildren and many pets.","sameAs":["https:\/\/dorianscottcole.com","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCol7YyxUOPVZRI5kg8LKY-w"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/author\/dcole\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newgenerationsexplorefaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1453\/2023\/01\/JesusComfortingChildren_JamesShepard_Flickr_5264272224_11d846e3af_c.jpg\")