John 1:1-3 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God..."

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being" (John 1:1-3).

Question:

I grew up thinking of Jesus as the son of God; not God himself. The church I go to believes that Jesus is God, based partly on the above scripture as well as the scripture which says I and the Father are one, etc. I'm not sure what Unity teaches on this matter. 

Comment:

I would say that Unity's understanding agrees with both you and your church—and differs from both you and your church. To discuss whether or not Jesus is God assumes that there is anything—anything at all—that is “not God.” There isn't. Among the qualities that define the Power we call God are the “three Os”: omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence. That means that God is all power, all knowing, everywhere present. There can't be a place where God ends and Jesus begins.   So is Jesus God? Yes—and so are we all. Everything is God. Every form of life is God in expression. And those of us who have grown and evolved to a point of spiritual awareness are God in a unique and creative way. We are created "in the image and likeness of God." And since God is a formless, imageless energy that creates, we must be the same. We are creative expressions of God through the Christ Presence of God that is our true spiritual identity. Jesus was able to understand, express and demonstrate that Christ Presence so completely that he became the Christ in full expression—he became Jesus Christ. He calls us to do the same—to discover and release our own Christ Presence so that we can join him in creating—as God—the new dimension of consciousness that Jesus calls 'the kingdom of heaven.'   As to this wonderful opening of the Gospel of John, it perfectly expresses this spiritual truth. "The Word" is not Jesus. "The Word" is the Christ—the creative power of God that is eternally created by its divine Source and finds expression as the spiritual beings that we truly are. The Christ is the creative power, and it is through the Christ that all things are made. So we have God as Source—or Divine Mind, if you like—continually creating the Divine Idea that is the Christ. And the Christ has the creative power to bring more of the Allness of God into tangible expression according to the beliefs we hold and the choices we make. And Jesus Christ, as the tangible expression of our own possibility, challenging us not to simply believe in him, but to use his example as an encouragement to do what he did—heal, prosper, transform and love. It's important to note that when he sent his disciples out on their own, he didn't instruct them to tell people about what he (Jesus) was doing. He told them to go and do it themselves. He tells us the same.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed