My wife says God is God and Jesus is not God, but the son of God. She disagrees or doesn’t understand three is one and one is three. She says on the cross Jesus cries out to God – “Father, forgive them.” Do Christians disagree or is she wrong, or misunderstood?

Those who believe that Jesus isn’t God refer only to when Jesus was on the earth in submission to the Father. However, He also existed before coming to the earth. The Bible clearly teaches, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” – John 1:1-3 & 14. Clearly, Jesus is His earthly name, but before that He was the “Word”. Jesus willingly came to the earth as a human being to represent the human race and paid the price for our sins on the cross. This is why he was called the “Son of Man”.
Concerning Jesus, the Bible also says, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” – Philippians 2:6-7. Therefore, He was God, but became a man and submitted Himself to the Father. This is where the name “Son of God” applies.
The scriptures teach that “God” is a unity of three persons. It’s easier to believe in one God, but the scriptures are our authority and they clearly teach God in three persons. One of the reasons we have a difficult time with this is because we think in terms of numbers while God thinks in terms of unity. For example, concerning marriage God says, “two will become one” – Genesis 2:24. It’s more difficult to understand three in one with our limited understanding. However, water comes in three forms – liquid, ice and steam. They are three, yet one! Therefore, Jesus is one of the three persons of the Godhead. He came to this earth as a man to redeem mankind and then returned to heaven again to be with the Father. As Jesus prayed, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” – John 17:5.