WAS JESUS A LESSER GOD?

If Jesus was God, what kind of God was he? Was he equal to the Father, or some sort of junior God, possessing the attributes of deity and yet somehow failing to match the total sketch that the Old Testament provides of the divine?
That question comes out of another passage that I pointed out to Carson. "Jesus said in John 14:28, 'The Father is greater than I'
Some people look at this and conclude that Jesus must have been a lesser God. Are they right?" I asked.
Carson sighed. "My father was a preacher," he replied, "and a dictum in our home when I was growing up was, 'A text without a context becomes a pretext for a proof text.' It's very important to see this passage in its context.
The disciples are moaning because Jesus has said he's going away.
Jesus says, 'If you loved me, you'd be glad for my sake when I say I'm going away, because the Father is greater than I' That is to say, Jesus is returning to the glory that is properly his, so if they really know who he is and really love him properly, they'll be glad that he's going back to the realm where he really is greater. Jesus says in John 17:5, 'Glorify me with the glory that I had with the Father before the world began'-that is, 'the Father is greater than I'
"When you use a category like 'greater,' it doesn't have to mean ontologically greater. If I say, for example, that the president of the United States is greater than I, I'm not saying he's an ontologically superior being. He's greater in military capability, political prowess, and public acclaim, but he's not more of a man than I am. He's a human being and I'm a human being.
So when Jesus says, 'The Father is greater than I,' one must look at the context and ask if Jesus is saying, 'The Father is greater than I because he's God and I'm not.' Frankly, that would be a pretty ridiculous thing to say. Suppose I got up on some podium to preach and said, 'I solemnly declare to you that God is greater than I am.' That would be a rather useless observation.
"The comparison is only meaningful if they're already on the same plane and there's some delimitation going on. Jesus is in the limitations of the incarnation-he's going to the cross; he's going to die-but he's about to return to the Father and to the glory he had with the Father before the world began.
He's saying, 'You guys are moaning for my sake; you ought to be glad because I'm going home.' It's in that sense that 'the Father is greater than I"'
"So," I said, "this isn't an implicit denial of his deity." "No,"
he concluded, "it's really not. The context makes that clear."

- Taken from an interview with Donald A. Carson, Ph.D., written in the book "The Case for Christ", by Lee Strobel