I would like to know if Jesus was God the Father or if he was only the (lower case) son of god.
The question restated is as follows: Is Jesus really Deity, or was he a created being like angels, man, and all creation? Jesus was and is Deity. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the godhead bodily according to Colossians 2:9. The relationship he sustained to the Father was so close that He could say when Phillip asked Him to show the Father, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works� sake” (John 14:9-11).
Jesus’ person, however, is not the Father, but that of the Son. He was born both of the Holy Spirit and the seed of woman, Mary. We read in Luke 1:35 the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” We refer to this infusion of deity into the seed of woman as the incarnation.
That Jesus is deity is seen throughout the New Testament. We read in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” These verse plainly declare the Deity of Jesus. Some say that this text does not indicate that. However, how could Jesus be both a created being and also be the one who made all things and that without whom nothing that was made could have been made? If Jesus were a created being then this passage states that He would have had to make Himself. Such would not be possible.
In John 8:58, 59, Jesus was discussing His authority to be speaking the things that He spoke with the Pharisees. He states that His authority was given by God and that Abraham rejoiced to see His day and was glad. The Pharisees asked Him how He could be older than Abraham. Jesus reply was as follows: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” This statement was a claim to be God–Jehovah/Yahweh–the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The very name “Jehovah/Yahweh” means in Hebrew, “I am.” This is what God declared to Moses upon Mount Horeb when Moses asked God’s name, “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14). The Pharisees recognized this and sought to stone Him for blasphemy. “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” If Jesus had been anything less than Deity, they would have been justified in doing so, but He WAS Deity and they were not justified in stoning God.
We read in Acts 20:28 that it was “God” that purchased the church with “His own” blood. Jesus’ blood was the blood that was shed on the cross (1 Peter 1:19). The inescapable conclusion is that Jesus is God–Deity.
It was also the understanding of the New Testament writers that Jesus, in His person, held the attributes of God, Lord, and Savior. In 2 Peter 1:1 we read in the King James version, “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Notice this phrase, “of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” The possessive pronoun “our” is misplaced in this version. The American Standard Version (1901) reads, “of our God and the Saviour Jesus Christ;” this however is still not satisfactory for the translators add the definite article “the” right before “savior” (this is why it is in italics). The correct reading should be, “of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” This indicates that Jesus is both God and Savior. In the Greek language (the language in which the New Testament was written) any time you have a definite article used before two nouns joined by the conjunction “kai,” those two nouns refer to the same thing or person. This is what we have here. The inescapable conclusion is that Jesus is both God and Savior. This construction is readily acknowledged when we talk about “the Lord and Savior” (such as in 2 Peter 1:11, 2:20, 3:2, and 3:18) but why not acknowledged when the writers say “God and Savior?” We also have this construction in other parts of the New Testament. In 2 Thessalonians 1:12 we have the same construction. We read there in the KJV and ASV, “our God and the Lord Jesus Christ,” but the definite article “the” is not before “Jesus Christ” in the Greek, but before “God” which should render the passage, “our God and Lord Jesus Christ” indicating that Jesus is God. Notice Titus 2:13, “the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Both KJV and ASV render the translation correct in this passage. The great God is the Savior Jesus Christ.
To answer your question: Is Jesus the same as God the Father? No. Is He God/Deity? Yes. Is He only a son of god? No. Is He the Son of God? Yes.