Buddha means enlightened person.
The person who is awakened about life and death is Buddha.
In other religions, people believe in and practice religious sec leader’s teachings so that they hope to be saved.
In this reason, there is no changes of status between leader and believers.
But in Buddhism, the final goal is to attain the Buddha even if we believe in and practice the Buddha Dharma.
So, the difference is just the time gap of enlightenment.
There is no difference after enlightenment between Buddha and laypeople.
In other words, the word of Buddhism contains not only Buddha’s teachings but also the teachings to become Buddha.