Does Jesus fit as a son-like avatar-emissary of God?

  • About this question

    Does Jesus fit as God’s special revelation to man-kind? That is to say, whether Jesus is actually an avatar/emissary/envoy from God or not, does Jesus at least fit as being God’s chosen representative (e.g. God incarnate)? Does Jesus resemble a Divine figure, along the lines of this story:

    Matthew 21:33-37 — [Jesus said] “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner [representing God] who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers [representing Jewish leaders] and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves [representing God’s prophets] to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son [representing Jesus] to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

       
    This might help answer:

“Yes, after all…

  • Jesus fits as being a perfect moral exemplar/light for us

    A man stands as Jesus kneels and washes his feet.

    Rather than being just another ordinary figure—someone like your next-door neighbor—Jesus stood out as a profound moral exemplar for humanity. He wasn’t simply a teacher or religious leader; he was a radiant moral beacon in his cultural context, embodying an ethic of love and compassion so radical it seemed to come from beyond this world.

    For some examples:

    • Jesus regularly emphasized a radical love and service toward others—so radical, in fact, that it remains striking even by today’s Western standards, which have already been deeply shaped by Christian values. This was even more revolutionary in his ancient cultural context.1
    • He treated the most despised, ignored, and downtrodden people as equals in ways that were virtually unheard of at the time, despite the social stigma it brought him.  

      For instance  

      • Jesus honored those whom Jewish society typically marginalized—women, Gentiles (like Romans), and Samaritans—in ways that were deeply countercultural.
      • He befriended the socially scorned, such as tax collectors and public sinners, embracing them with dignity and grace.2
      • He taught his followers to extend love especially to the weak and vulnerable: “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” (Luke 14:13).
    • While being mocked, tortured, and crucified by his enemies, he uttered the words, “Father, forgive them,” as he hung dying on the cross (Luke 23:34).
    • Despite being regarded as the Messiah—the rightful king—by his disciples, he humbled himself by washing their feet and instructing them to love others in the same way.
    • Those closest to him, including his apostles, genuinely believed Jesus never sinned—not even once. They believed he never lied, stole, lusted, or faltered morally in any way. Their conviction was so strong that they were willing to suffer and die for their belief that he was the unblemished “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Even Jesus’s own family came to this belief. Though initially skeptical, they later became his followers (Acts 1:13; 1 Corinthians 9:5). His brother James, who became a leader in the early church, was martyred for his unwavering conviction—a fact recorded by historians like Josephus and others).4

    This matters because, among all historical figures for whom we have substantial records, very few—if any—sound even remotely close to the idea of moral perfection. And yet, Jesus not only fit that profile in the eyes of his contemporaries, he did so while living in a culture rife with moral failure. That makes his moral standing all the more astonishing.

      • Mt 5:39-44 -- “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
      • N.T. Wright: “in particular, he ate and drank with all sorts and conditions of people, sometimes in an atmosphere of celebration. He at with ‘sinners,’ and kept company with people normally on or beyond the borders of respectable society - which of course, in his day and culture, meant not merely social respectability but religious uprightness, proper covenant behavior, loyalty to the traditions and hence to the aspirations of Israel. This caused regular offense to some of the pious, and we will consider in due course why this was so. For the moment we note that his table-fellowship was a sufficiently well-known and striking feature of his regularly style to be commented on, and for him to respond to such comment in various ways. It is, of course, possible in theory that this whole picture is pure fabrication…. But this can confidently be ruled out as highly improbable. (a) All our sources, however we analyze them, point back in this direction. (b) This activity carries the market of the appropriate similarities and dissimilarities of which we spoke earlier. Jesus’ actions make sense within his Jewish context, and within the socio-cultural world of Galilee in particular, and they make sense also as the precursor of some aspects of the early mission of the church. At the same time, these actions presented a challenge to certain aspects of the Jewish worldview, and were not imitated easily or readily by the church as a whole. (c) For what it is worth, almost all serious contemporary writers about Jesus would agree that something like this activity was indeed characteristic of him.” [Jesus and the Victory of God (Fortress, 1992), 149-150.]
    3. Jesus's apostles had spent more than enough time to catch Jesus in sin, if he were a sinner. And yet they continued to preach Jesus as sinless and Lord until their dying breath.
    4. Most non-Christian scholars believe that James, the brother of Jesus, died for his faith in Christ and His being God incarnate. This makes little sense unless James felt his brother's life was consistent with being who he claimed to be.

  • Jesus’s message fits as an all-important one from God

    If Jesus truly proclaimed a Divine message, then such a proclamation would constitute a message of unparalleled importance—one worthy of divine vindication, such as miraculous confirmation. In this light, Jesus’s Gospel message emerges not merely as the ethical teaching of a moral reformer, but as a theologically potent claim: a cosmic announcement concerning the fate of humanity and the redemptive intentions of God.

    Notably, Jesus proclaimed the Gospel. It says God’s righteous judgment is imminent—that evil, in all its forms, will be condemned and eradicated. Humanity, according to Jesus, stands collectively guilty: all are implicated in moral failure, whether through lying, injustice, pride, or indifference. Yet, this diagnosis is not presented in isolation. It is paired with a radical message of divine mercy: God offers forgiveness and transformation to those who repent and submit their lives to Him, specifically by acknowledging Jesus as Lord. Those who respond in this way are not only pardoned but are made new—cleansed, reoriented toward the good, and invited into eternal communion with God.

    Such a message is strikingly consonant with what we might expect from a genuine Divine communication: it addresses universal human concerns (guilt, justice, hope), centers on the moral character of God, and extends an invitation to personal and communal renewal. It is not trivial, parochial, or idiosyncratic—as one might expect from a self-proclaimed prophet or local religious innovator—but global in scope, transcendent in tone, and existentially weighty.

    This congruence between the content of Jesus’s message and what would plausibly characterize a communication from God strengthens the plausibility of Jesus’s unique status—what might be described in theological terms as a Divine avatar, or in Christian tradition, the incarnate Son of God. Were Jesus not to have proclaimed a message with this level of moral gravity and theological coherence, it would be difficult to maintain that he functioned in any meaningful sense as a unique Divine emissary. The profundity and coherence of his message thus serve as a kind of internal criterion—one necessary, if not sufficient, for any serious claim to divinely authorized identity.

  • Jesus is the famous centerpiece of human history

    It is difficult to overstate the unparalleled influence of Jesus of Nazareth on the course of human history. By virtually any measure—cultural, historical, philosophical, or religious—Jesus stands as the most consequential figure to have ever lived. The very calendar by which the modern world measures time is anchored to his birth, symbolizing not merely a chronological marker but a civilizational turning point.

    His influence spans a staggering range of domains: from religion (Christianity being the world’s largest religion) to the shaping of empires; from the flourishing of Western art, music, and literature to the emergence of hospitals, charitable institutions, and universities—many of which trace their origins directly to Christian foundations. Even modern notions of human dignity, altruism, and equality bear the imprint of his teachings. No other individual in recorded history comes close to this breadth and depth of cultural saturation..1

    This extraordinary influence is not theologically irrelevant. If God exists and possesses perfect foreknowledge, then it stands to reason that God would have known in advance the magnitude of Jesus’s impact on the world. Alternatively—or in addition—if Jesus’s influence is part of a divinely orchestrated plan, then God may have sovereignly ensured it. In either case, Jesus’s historically unique legacy becomes theologically significant: it marks him as someone whom God either uniquely chose or uniquely confirmed through providential action.

    Therefore, Jesus’s singular place in human history functions not merely as a sociological curiosity but as potential evidence of divine intention. It aligns coherently with the claim that Jesus was not just an influential man, but one uniquely endorsed by God—a chosen agent, or in Christian terms, the incarnate Logos through whom God revealed Himself to the world.

      • Jaroslav Pelikan (History professor at Yale): “Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of super magnet, to pull up out of that history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left?” [Jesus through the Centuries (Yale, 1985) 1. ]
      • Thomas Schultz: “No one recognized religious leader not Moses, Paul, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius etc. has ever claimed to be God; that is, with the exception of Jesus Christ. Christ is the only religious leader who has ever claimed to be deity and the only individual ever who has convinced a great portion of the world that He is God.” [The Doctrine of the Person of Christ with an Emphasis upon the Hypostatic Union (DTS dissertation, 1962), 209.]
      • William Robertson: “If one takes a historically objective approach to the question, it is found that even secular history affirms that Jesus lived on earth and that he was worshiped as God. He founded a church which has worshiped Him for 1,900 years. He changed the course of the world's history.” [Our Lord (Eerdmans, 1937), 29.]
      • E.P. Sanders (Jewish NT scholar, professor at Duke): “On a spring morning in about the year 30 C.E., three men were executed by the Roman authorities in Judea. Two were ‘brigands’… the third was executed as another type of political criminal. He had not robbed, pillaged, murdered, or even stored arms. He was convicted, however, of having claimed to be ‘king of the Jews’―a political title. Those who looked on… doubtless thought that… the world would little note what happened that spring morning… it turned out, of course, that the third man, Jesus of Nazareth, would become one of the most important figures in human history.” [The Historical Figure of Jesus (Penguin Books, 1995) 1.]
      • James Kennedy & Jerry Newcombe: “Despite its humble origins, the Church has made more changes on earth for the good than any other movement of force in history. To get an overview of some of the positive contributions Christianity has made through the centuries, here are a few highlights: • Hospitals, which essentially began during the Middle Ages. • Universities, which also began during the Middle Ages. In addition, most of the world's greatest universities were started by Christians for Christian purposes. • Literacy and education of the masses. • Representative government, particularly as it has been seen in the American experiment. • The separation of political powers. • Civil liberties. • The abolition of slavery, both in antiquity and in modern times. • Modern science. • The discovery of the New World by Columbus. • Benevolence and charity; the Good Samaritan ethic. • Higher standards of justice. • The elevation of the common man. • The high regard for human life. • The civilizing of many barbarian and primitive cultures. • The codifying and setting to writing of many of the world's languages. • The greater development of art and music. • The inspiration for the greatest works of art.” [What if Jesus Had Never Been Born (Thomas Nelson, 1994), 3-4.]

  • Jesus’ message is the most beloved/spread

    Among all religious or philosophical proclamations in history, the message of Jesus of Nazareth stands as the most widely embraced and disseminated across time and geography. The Gospel—that salvation and reconciliation with God are available through Christ—has achieved a global scope unmatched by any comparable message. Moreover, this message has not merely traveled widely; it has also penetrated deeply. It has shaped hearts, communities, and entire civilizations. It has endured persecution, imperial appropriation, ideological resistance, and internal schisms—yet still remains a living, transformative force in the lives of billions. This level of cultural and spiritual saturation is historically singular.

    • The message of Jesus has reached every nation on Earth. Christianity, rooted in Jesus’s Gospel, is represented in every country, making it the most geographically widespread faith tradition in human history.
    • The Gospel has entered even the most remote and inaccessible regions. From dense urban centers to isolated rural villages, the message of Christ has been translated into thousands of languages and carried to the farthest corners of the globe.
    • The teachings of Jesus have influenced more hearts and lives than any other moral or religious message. No other individual or ideology has commanded such global allegiance, across such vast historical and cultural boundaries.

    Such widespread and enduring success plausibly supports the claim that Jesus was not simply a religious innovator, but a uniquely divinely appointed figure. The fact that Jesus’s message has flourished far beyond what might be expected from a humble, crucified teacher in first-century Palestine lends weight to the hypothesis that it did not spread by human effort alone. God might reasonably be expected to ensure that the message was unnaturally successful (even if naturally spread),1 because God has at least some intention for humans to know it.

    1. One can understandably ask why God would not employ more supernatural means to deliver His message, such as loudly proclaming it from the sky every few days, in every persons own language. That is not the subject of this page, however. Suffice it to say, God has reasons for wanting to empower humans with spreading His message, to give us honor and responsibility. As long as it is reasonably possible that God would want to do this, it would be surprising if the message delegated to His servants would utterly fail. By contrast, the remarkable success fits better on the hypothesis that God is behind it.

  • Jesus's life plot-twists history into the best story

    The described life of Jesus dovetails with Judaism in a shockingly story-like way. For example, Jesus's life turns the formative events in Jewish history (i.e. the major formation events of Israel) into brilliant foreshadowing.

    For example:

    • Jesus is plausibly the greatest conceivable protagonist (inside/outside of fiction).1
    • Jesus enacts the greatest act of love/greatness known to man (inside/outside of fiction).2
    • Jesus's incarnation-atonement is the greatest reversal of evil (inside/outside of fiction).
    • Jesus's conversion of Paul turns Christianity's greatest persecutor into its greatest promulgator.
    • Jesus is a "type" of Israel (e.g. Jesus recapitulates and foreshadows Israel's journey, but succeeds where it failed). See below for how Jesus ingeniously fits Jewish symbols/prefigurings.
    1. The greateness of a protagonist is captured in part by the protagonists virtues, abilities, and accomplishments. Jesus has the greatest possible virtue (omnibenevolence), the greatest possible power and ability (omnipotence), and performs the greatest possible accomplishment, namely the greatest act of love. See below.
    2. As an act of love to save you and me, Jesus sacrifices all his rights as the maximally-worthy, all-powerful, all-knowing God of the universe, and if that's not enough, went to die an excruciating death on the cross to save his murderers as they tease Him (God of the universe) and spit in His face.

  • Jesus fits Messianic (King & Savior) prophecies

    The described life of Jesus brilliantly fulfills very specific Old Testament prophecies that no human is likely to accidentally fulfill.

    See:

    This is relevant because the long awaited Jewish messiah (king & savior) was expected to be a unique avatar-envoy of God; it was part of the job description.

  • Jesus ingeniously fits Jewish symbols/prefigurings

    The described life of Jesus brilliantly parallels a mountain of very specific, central, and formative events in Jewish history in an ingenious storytelling way that that no human is likely to accidentally fit (e.g. arguably plot-twisting history into a remarkable/best story).

    A full page will analyze several examples, including:

    This is relevant because such a fit is characteristic of ingenious designed storytelling, which in turn is evidence of a God’s orchestrating Jewish history around Jesus Christ—a feature that fits like a glove with the hypothesis that Jesus is God’s special revelation to mankind.

  • Jesus believed/claimed he was Divine in some sense

    Jesus stands with hands raised holding up the planet earth.

    Throughout Jesus's ministry, we see clear indications that Jesus considered himself to be Divine. More than that, in several locations he essentially claimed to be God.

    A full page will cover these points:

    • Jesus believed he was God incarnate(!).
    • Jesus believed he was religiously special (e.g. that he could modify the law).
    • Jesus claimed to be the divine Son of Man.
    • Jesus said “I am the Son of God.”
    • Jesus called Israel’s God “Abba.”
    • Jesus claimed to forgive sins.
    • Jesus taught people to pray to him.
    • Jesus taught “serve me as Lord.”
    • Jesus accepted worship.
    • Jesus taught he would judge as God.
    • Jesus claimed to be the good shepherd.
    • Jesus's close friends and family were convinced he was Divine.
      • E.g. The apostles were convinced.
      • E.g. Jesus's family (notably James) was convinced.
      • E.g. Paul was convinced (who was closely associated with James, Peter, and the apostles).

    This matters because, if Jesus both claimed to be God incarnate and fits the bill, then naturally Jesus appeared to be sinless and to stand out in a way overall that is relevant to being a son-like avatar-emissary of God.

  • Jesus fits as a miracle-worker

    Jesus was regarded by his contemporaries as being a prophet who regularly performed miracles (e.g. healed the sick, raised the dead, calmed storms, walked on water etc.).1 This is relevant because ultimately all such miracles are done through God's omnipotent supernatural power, and the freedom with which Jesus did these miracles (as opposed to other prophets) suggests a particularly close connection with God—one that fits like a glove with the hypothesis that Jesus is a special son-like avatar-emissary of God.

      • Ben Witherington: “Most scholars are willing to say that Jesus performed deeds that were viewed as miracles in his day.”, [New Testament History: A Narrative Account (Baker Books, 2001), 120.]
      • Luke Timothy Johnson: Even the most critical historian can confidently assert that a Jew named Jesus worked as a teacher and wonder-worker in Palestine during the reign of Tiberius, was executed by crucifixion under the prefect Pontius Pilate and continued to have followers after his death. [The Real Jesus (Harper, 1996), 123.]