IF God is not flesh, how is Jesus God?

Theology
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Dallas Willard explains that Jesus is God

because he is the perfect human embodiment of God’s active, loving, and unbodily “effective will”. While God is spirit, Jesus reveals God by living in complete union with the Father, bringing the Kingdom of God into the physical world through his character, power, and actions.

  • God is Spirit/Effective Will: Willard defines God not as a flesh-and-blood body, but as an unbodily personal power whose kingdom is the “range of his effective will”.
  • Jesus as Revelation: Jesus did not establish his own kingdom but brought God’s kingdom to earth, demonstrating what it looks like when God reigns. He acted in perfect obedience, so that “when he acted God also acted”.
  • The Incarnation: Jesus was in the “likeness of sinful flesh” (human, natural body), yet fully divine, allowing him to defeat sin and show humanity what God is like.
  • Function over Substance: Jesus is God in action. He brought the kingdom to bear on sickness and evil by the “finger of God,” showing that God’s presence is seen in effective love, not just physical form.

Willard emphasizes that Jesus shows us how to live our lives as he would live ours, embodying the divine, conversational nature of God in our everyday, physical reality

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Correction the bible explains that Jesus is God.

Theologians merely provide their explanations as to why Jesus is God.

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There is no correction

And sense the Bible explains it where is it located in the Bible

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Hebrew1

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

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For Dallas Willard, Jesus being God means Jesus is the perfectly competent, living Lord of the universe who brings the active, ruling Kingdom of God into the present world. Jesus is not merely a historical figure, but the living, intelligent Creator and Savior to be trusted and obeyed in all aspects of life here and now.

Key Aspects of Jesus as God (Willard’s Perspective)

  • The Living Authority: Jesus is “true God from true God,” possessing all knowledge and control, making him the ultimate authority for life.
  • Present Kingdom Administrator: Jesus brings the Kingdom of God—where God’s will is done—into immediate availability, not just a future heaven.
  • The Subject of Faith: Faith is not just believing facts about Jesus, but placing trust in him as a person.
  • Our Teacher and Mentor: To believe Jesus is God is to be his student/apprentice, learning how to live as he would if he were in our place.
  • The Model of Character: Jesus reveals the loving, un-condemning character of God, which is available to transform human hearts, notes in (Looking Like Jesus).
  • The Source of Life Transformation: Following Jesus brings the “eternal kind of life” now, transforming us to act with love, peace, and truth.

As Willard often emphasized in resources like (Following Jesus and Living in the Kingdom), this isn’t just theological dogma; it’s a practical reality that shapes how one lives on a daily basis.

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I dont believe most people know how Jesus is God

Nor in what sense- I believed it from John 1:1

Question then was Adam and Eve God before the fall? If not why

What is the difference between Jesus and Adam?

I believe the answer is where they originated from

The first adam from the dust
The last Adam from God…

[1 Corinthians 15:45-48 KJV (King James

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

Lets look at the word for “the lord” kurios

748
Defined 1] he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has
power of deciding; master, lord
1a] the possessor and disposer of a thing
1a1] the owner; one who has control of the person, the master
1a2] in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor
1b]is a title of honour expressive of respect and reverence,
with which servants greet their master
1c]this title is given to: God, the Messiah
…
No adam was not God before the fall.. but had union
..

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Does Dallas Willard believe that the Bible teaches that God is Triune as one God in three Persons, including Jesus as one of the divine Persons, @Corlove13?

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I don’t think the poster in question should reflect Willard’s own beliefs about the Trinity. From everything I can see, Dallas Willard was a normal orthodox Trinitarian. Though he tended to stress the Trinity as Three bound in love (not at the exclusion of the Trinity’s homoousia, but as interwoven in it)–the intimate love of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. This language has its roots in classic Trinitarian thought (e.g. the Cappadocian Fathers and St. Augustine).

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No. Adam and Eve were not gods. They were merely a creation of God. Jesus was already here (in existence) when Adam and Eve sinned. The difference is one is Human, and one IS God.
Peter

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@TheologyNerd, well, that’s good that Dallas Willard was Trinitarian!

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Yes, but we are not humans on a spiritual journey, we are spirit beings on a human journey!

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No, we are not “spirit beings”. We are human beings being redeemed and healed from the Fall.

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I like that! Reminds me of a song…

Dallas Willard believed we are spiritual beings having a human experience, often framing it as being an “un-ceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe”. He emphasized that human bodies are designed for interaction with the spiritual realm, making spiritual life a present reality rather than just a future hop

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Let’s begin with what God is…
God isnt defined by attributes stacked like properties on a substance.
It begins with the simple, unanalyzable reality that God is spirit, whose essence is indentical with its act. The kingdom of God is the unrestricted range of that act. Where the Father wills, there the kingdom, and no spatial interval, temporal delay or creaturely resistance can frustrate it
This is the depiction of divine simplicity.
God is will in its pure, self-identical efficacy
Jesus does not import a second will into this reality. He lives the one will of the Father under the conditions of creaturely limitations. That is the precise meaning of hypostatic union. The eternal Logos, assumes a full human nature without confusion or change. The chalcedonian definition, it is the only coherent way to say that the same subject who says “I and the father are one” also says “not my will but yours be done”
See, this brings a lot of questions to our mind, but, (unlike miaphysite misinterpretation) the two wills remain distinct in their natural operation, they are one in their personal source and perfect harmony. When Jesus heals, forgives or commands the storm, the act is human, yet the divine. The finger of God casts out demons in Lk 11:20, is the finger of the MAN Jesus.
That is why incarnation is not an exception to divine transcendance but its highest expression. The Father is not diminshed by sending the Son; the Son is not dimished by becoming flesh. The act of assumption is itself an act of undivided Trinity. The Son’s obedience is not a secondary added to his divinity….Sin had made the human will a rivial, Jesus makes the human will the perfect instrument of the one kingdom..

The son’s assumption of a human nature does not add a new limitation to God, but it reveals that God’s freedom includes the capacity to be limited without ceasing to be God
Function is not opposed to substance; it is substance in act
Divine essence is known only thorugh its energies.
We do not first grasp God by defining an invisible ousia, and then asking how could it appear ina body..but rather, we meet the energies, and discover that they are not separable from the essence…

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So, you have no spirit? The man in the mirror is the real you?

I can’t agree with that.

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Thanks samual…Sounds deep..looks like I would have to read it over and over to see if I get it…and what I dont understand I’ll ask you to explain.

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Of course the man in the mirror is the real me. God created me with flesh and bones.

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God also created you with a spirit and a soul.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…./KJV

Our Spirit is the part of man that allows interaction with God, who is Spirit. (Job 32:8, John 4:24)

Our Soul is our Psyche, the seat of our personality, mind. will and emotions-the “self”. (1 Peter 2:11, Proverbs 4:23)

Our flesh and bone body is the physical, earthly tent that houses the spirit and soul (2 Corinthians 5:8, 2 Peter 1:14)

2 Corinthians 5:8

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord…./KJV

It’s easy to look in the mirror and say, see that’s me. I used to think like that myself. But a careful reading of the word of God shows us that we are inside the body. When we die is when our spirit & soul leave our body. I’m getting older so essentially, I’ve got an old rusty Nova, time for a trade in!

Look all those scriptures up Brother and see the truth and grow.

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I don’t really intend on getting into a debate over whether human beings are dichotomous or trichotomous.

The point is that my body is really me.

Otherwise the resurrection of the body is meaningless. I am not going to exist eternally as a disembodied ghost. My hope is that even as God raised Jesus from the dead, He will raise me up as well.

St. Paul was clear when he said that if the dead do not rise then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen then we are still lost in our sins, and we are the most pitiable of all people. Christianity is worthless without the resurrection. If death wins, then Christianity is a false religion.

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