How Can Jesus Be God If He Is a Man?

Reflection

This is one of the most common questions a Muslim raises in dialogue with Christians, and it is a fair one. If Jesus ate, slept, wept and died, how can He also be God? The Christian answer is not that Jesus was a man who became God, or God pretending to be a man. It is the doctrine of the Incarnation: that the eternal Word, fully God, took on a full human nature without ceasing to be divine. The two natures, fully God and fully human, are united in one person. This clip, a debate between a Christian pastor and a Muslim, illustrates why the question matters and why the answer has been wrestled with for two thousand years. A helpful way to think about it: God is not one thing among many in the universe, a being alongside other beings. God is the source of all being. So the question is not 'how can a creature also be the Creator,' but 'could the Creator enter His own creation?' Christians say He did, in Jesus.

Questions to sit with

• If God is the source of all reality, is entering His own creation really a contradiction?
• What's the difference between Jesus being a man who became God and God who became man?
• If Jesus were only a moral teacher and nothing more, would His teachings about Himself make sense?

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