Ted's Response:

You may or may not have heard of Ron Wyatt and the discoveries he claimed to have made underneath Golgotha (where Jesus was crucified). Here are two web pages describing this:

http://www.detailshere.com/arkofthecovenant.htm
(The explanation starts about a third of the way down the page, beginning with "This is the most fascinating real life 'Indiana Jones' tale of all....")

http://www.anchorstone.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=30
(There is an interesting 4½-minute video of Ron Wyatt, following the eighth paragraph on the page, or else click here to view it.)

All of this indicates, to me, that Jesus would have been as much Deity (not just divine) as He was human. Even without this alleged archaeological finding, I always have believed that the male (Y) chromosome given to Jesus was by God, the Father. I can draw no other conclusion than that this made Jesus as much God as human. Perhaps the pre-incarnate Spirit of Jesus was in that Y chromosome.

Furthermore, I do not see, nor do I believe, that the sacrifice (via crucifixion) of a mere man could have atoned for the virtually infinite sins of mankind. I can see no other possibility than that the sacrifice of an infinite God Himself would have been necessary and sufficient to pay the price of the transgressions of humankind, throughout the millennia of human existence.

According to Philippians 2:7, Jesus "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." Thus, He took a "step down" from His position as the everlasting God (John 1:1) and allowed the human element, including a human brain, to be incorporated within a human body. As such, during Jesus' lifetime on earth, the Father would have been "greater" in position than Jesus.

During His life here, Jesus voluntarily (but temporarily) had set aside His omniscient knowledge, because such an infinite amount of information simply would not have "fit" into a finite, human brain. Any supernatural knowledge that Jesus received would have been given to Him via the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). These gifts are available to all believers, although perhaps Jesus might have been the only human to be able to receive all of them at once—not infinite knowledge, but as much supernatural knowledge as He wished to receive, though only a finite amount, since He possessed a limited human brain.

Also, the fleshly body of Jesus exerted some influence upon Him, just as anyone else's body does; and His human brain had the option of making choices, as any human's brain does. Being human, He would have gotten fatigued, would have experienced pain, and would have had the capacity of expressing self-will, just as we do. What human being would want to experience pain, particularly the excruciating pain of a severe flogging or of being nailed to a cross? Thus, the human part of Jesus would have wished for "the cup to pass" from Him; yet the God part would know that this could not be possible if He were to fulfill the Father's perfect will.

Frankly, I could believe that it took God's infinite, supernatural Y-chromosome to offset or "trump" Jesus' 23 finite, natural human chromosomes, the latter which allowed Jesus to be tempted in all ways. The God aspect of Jesus enabled Him not only to be sinless and obedient to the Father, 100% of the time, but also to agree to accept a virtually infinite punishment—the taste of death by God Himself—which was predestined for Him to receive on behalf of mankind from before the creation of the world (Revelation 13:8).

Jesus' "I Am" statements (Matthew 14:27, John 8:58, and John 13:19), in the Greek, convince me that He claimed to be God. Additionally, there are numerous other cases, included in my Was Jesus God? commentary, where Jesus claimed to be God AND where others understood that he was claiming to be God.