The God
Jesus
A comprehensive examination of Trinitarianism
Chapter One
The God Of Jesus
Most Christians believe God is a Trinity. It is believed God is co-eternal, co-equal and con-substantial (of the same essence) Persons of Father, Son and Spirit. These three Persons are believed to be the same in every respect short of being each other. The Persons of the Trinity are not seen as being separate from each other but as indwelling each other and thus are a single Being called God.
In the following pages, I provide a systematic and comprehensive examination of this concept. The first twenty chapters will be devoted to discussion of the Father and the Son. Chapter Twenty-One will deal with the nature of the Holy Spirit and Chapter Twenty-Two will provide concluding remarks. All Scriptural quotations will be from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise indicated.
Let us begin our journey.
It is commonly believed the Son and Spirit of God is God in every way the Father is God short of being the Father. It is instructive, however, that the phrase “God the Son” or “God the Spirit” is not found in Scripture. We only see the phrase “God the Father” and other phraseology identifying the Father as the one and only God. Orthodox Christianity teaches Jesus is the incarnate Son of God. As such, Jesus is seen as God in the flesh. Jesus, however, clearly teaches the Father is the one and only God. Jesus tells us the Father is greater than He and is the source of His life. Jesus consistently relates to the Father as the only God.
John 5:43-44: I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?
In the Greek the phrase “only God” is “one and only God” and is so rendered in other English translations such as the New American Standard Version (NASV). Jesus clearly identifies His Father as being the "one and only God." There is absolutely nothing in this pronouncement by Jesus to give support to or provide creditability to the Trinitarian proposition that the one and only God includes the Son and Spirit in addition to the Father. John 17 shows Jesus speaking to the Father and expressing to the Father the understanding that the Father is the only true God.
John 17:3: Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
The context of John 17 shows Jesus is speaking to the Father and expressing to the Father His understanding that the Father is the only true God. Jesus sees Himself as being sent by the only true God who is the Father. There is no indication Jesus includes himself in the designation “only true God.” There is no indication Jesus considers Himself co-eternal, co-equal and con-substantial with the Father and, therefore, a distinction of the one and only true God. Jesus plainly said His Father is greater than He.
John 14:28: "You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I .
Here Jesus clearly teaches His Father is greater than He. This statement makes it evident Jesus, as the Son of the Father, is not co-equal with the Father as is taught within Trinitarianism. Some argue Jesus is seeing the Father as greater than He purely from a human perspective. It is believed John 14:28 refers to Jesus relating to the Father in what is believed to be His incarnated human state of being and not in his eternal state of being. It is believed Jesus made this statement within the context of His "incarnate identity," not His "eternal identity." Since it is presumed Jesus was both God and man, anything Jesus said during His ministry that appears to picture him as separate and subordinant to the Father is seen as Jesus speaking within the context of His humanity, not His Divinity.
Others believe all Scriptural statements that show the Father to be superior to the Son must be viewed as Jesus being eternally begotten by the Father within the relational structure of the Trinity where the Son relates to the Father as the source of His existence. The Son is seen as generated by the Father and yet ontologically one with the Father and the Spirit (equal in Being with the Father and Spirit). Even though the Son originates from the Father, He is seen as being equal with the Father in all things short of being the Father. The question to be asked is how one can be ontologically one with the source of ones existence? Should not the giver of life be greater than the recipient of such life. This issue will be discussed in depth in Chapter Eleven.
In John, chapters 14 through 16, Jesus begins an extensive discussion with His disciples by saying, “Trust in God, Trust also in me” (John 14:1). Jesus clearly distinguishes between Himself and God who He identifies as the Father throughout John 14-16. This discussion takes place shortly before His crucifixion where He reveals he will soon leave this world and go to the Father. It is in this context He says the Father is greater than He. Throughout these three chapters, Jesus shows how everything He does is from the Father and will continue to be from the Father after He ascends to the Father. Jesus’ entire discussion gives evidence to the Father being greater than He and superior to Him in all things. This includes the Father being ontologically superior to the Son by being the source of the Son's existence.
As already discussed, Jesus clearly identifies the Father as the one and only God. In saying the Father is greater than He, Jesus is essentially telling His disciples that although He is the unique Son of God, has been given great power and authority by His God and will be ascending to His God, He is not at the same ontological level (level of Being) as God.
If Jesus was at the same level of Being as the Father, He would have the same level of knowledge, understanding and wisdom as the Father. Yet, Jesus clearly shows this not to be the case when He shows that only the Father knows the time of His second coming.
Matthew 24:36: No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Jesus plainly reveals it is the Father who has life within Himself (intrinsic life). It is from the Father Jesus receives His life. Jesus did not have intrinsic life. If Jesus was an incarnation of an indwelling distinction of the eternal God, He would not need for the Father to grant life to Him. He would have intrinsic life as the Father does. Yet Jesus says He receives His life from the Father.
John 5:26: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
Jesus reveals it is the Father alone who has immortal life in Himself and gives of this life to the Son. The context of John 5 shows it is eternal life being discussed. Although Jesus’ physical life comes from the Father as is true with all humans, Jesus is not talking about God granting Him His physical life in this passage. The context of John 5 is eternal life. If the Son (Jesus) is co-eternal with the Father He would have eternal life in Himself as does the Father and would not have to be granted such life by the Father. Jesus was given eternal life through resurrection from the dead as will be made clear as we progress with this discussion. Scripture consistently shows Jesus to relate to the Father as His God.
John 20:17: Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, `I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.''
In this statement made to Mary shortly after His resurrection, Jesus clearly identifies the Father as God and more specifically as His God. Some argue that when Jesus says “to My Father …and to My God,” He is simply recognizing the Father as a distinction of the Triune God. Since Jesus consistently speaks of God as His Father during His ministry, it is believed He is telling Mary He is ascending to the person of the Father who is God as one of three distinctions in a Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son and Spirit.
Some Trinitarian thinkers believe “Father” is being used in a two-fold way in this passage and throughout the New Testament (NT) Scriptures. It is believed “Father” is used to identify God as the Creator and Lord of all things and in some separate sense as the God and Father of Jesus. Therefore, when Jesus says to Mary He is ascending to His Father and God and her Father and God, it is believed He is telling Mary He is ascending to the Being she knows as the unbegotten, unoriginate source of all there is. On the other hand, Jesus is seen as ascending to the Being He knows as His God and Father within the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. This apparently was the position taken by fourth century theologians Athanasius and Gregory Nyssen relative to John 20:17.
The problem with this perspective is that Jesus made it clear during His ministry the Father is the one and only God (John 5:43-44 and 17:3) with no hint of He also being this God. Jesus’ statement to Mary is totally consistent with what He previously stated about the Father being the one and only God. Jesus provides no hint of God being a plurality of Father, Son and Spirit. In John 20:17 Jesus speaks of ascending to His Father and His God. If Jesus is God in all attributes that define God except that of being the person of the Father or the person of the Spirit, why does Jesus speak in terms of ascending to His God when He is the God He is ascending to? Why is the Father seen as the God of Jesus if Jesus is God in every way except that of being the Father? This issue is addressed in greater detail in Chapter Eleven where the concept of "eternal begettal" is discussed
Just before Jesus died on the cross He cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" This is another example of Jesus relating to God as His God. Trinitarians see this as Jesus relating to God strictly as an expression of his human nature. Yet if Jesus is an indwelling distinction of the one God who is Father, Son and Spirit, it appears He would have addressed the distinction called the Father rather than address God in making His plea. If Jesus is an indwelling distinction of God, by addressing God, Jesus is virtually addressing Himself. He is making a plea to Himself.
It is much more consistent with Jesus' own proclamations regarding who God is to conclude when Jesus addresses God with His plea, He is addressing His Father who, during His ministry, He identified as the one and only God.
Like Jesus, Apostle Paul identifies the Father as being the only God.
Romans 3:29-30: Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
Romans chapter three shows God facilitates salvation for both Jews and Gentiles through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The overall context of this chapter shows Paul using the word God as synonymous with the Father who he identifies as the only God. This one and only God is seen as justifying both Jews and Gentiles by faith in Jesus who this one and only God has presented as a sacrifice of atonement (verse 25). There is nothing in Paul’s dissertation to suggest he also sees Jesus as the only God.
A review of NT Scriptures reveals repeated references to God being the God and Father of Jesus. God is seen as the Father of Jesus and the God of Jesus. How then can Jesus be seen as being the same God He looks to as His God?
Romans 15:5-6: May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:31: The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever…
Ephesians 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:17: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
1 Peter 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
James 1:1: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.
Revelation 1:5b-6: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Trinitarians argue that when the writers of Biblical Scriptures use the phrase “God and Father,” they are referring only to the person of the Father in the Trinitarian relationship that is the one God who is Father, Son and Spirit. Therefore, when Jesus speaks of we serving his God and Father in Revelation chapter one, it is believed He is speaking of serving the person of the Father in the tri-union of Father, Son and Spirit which is God. This notion, however, is dispelled by Apostle Paul in His first letter to the Corinthian Christians where he addresses the issue of eating foods sacrificed to idols.
1 Corinthians 8:4-6: So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Apostle Paul emphatically writes there is no God but one and identifies this one God as the Father. It is instructive that he does not say there is one God the Father and the Son. He does not say there is one God who is Father, Son and Spirit. He does not say there is one God the Father and one God the Son. Paul never uses the phrase God the Son or God the Spirit. It is always God the Father.
Paul identifies Jesus Christ as Lord. Trinitarians argue that to say Jesus is Lord is to say Jesus is God because in the Old Testament (OT) “Lord” is used as a synonym for YHWH, the name by which the one God identifies Himself to
As will be seen as we proceed with this discussion, YHWH God is identified as Father in the OT. Nowhere is YHWH identified as being Father plus someone else. In the OT, the name YHWH is rendered LORD (all caps) in English. In addition, the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures often used the Hebrew Adonai as a synonym for YHWH which is translated into English as Lord (capitol L followed by lower case letters). The NT uses just one word for “lord,” the Greek kurios. The Greek kurios is used in association with the word God and the words Father and Jesus in a variety of ways in the NT. This requires strict attention to context in order to properly determine how kurios is being used. For example, in the following passages, kurios is used twice to identify the Father and once to identify Jesus.
Luke 10:21: At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord (kurios) of heaven and earth”
Acts 17:24: The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord (kurios) of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
Acts 2:36: Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord (kurios) and Christ.
Jesus identifies the Father as Lord of heaven and earth (Luke 10:21). Apostle Paul identifies God as Lord of heaven and earth (Acts 17:24). Since Jesus identifies the Father as Lord of heaven and earth, it is reasonable to conclude when Paul says God made the world and everything in it and is Lord of heaven and earth; it is the Father he is speaking of. Peter instructs that God made Jesus Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). Here we see God appointing Jesus as Lord. If God makes Jesus Lord, how can Jesus be the same Lord God is?
The Hebrew Scriptures clearly identify YHWH as the one and only God. YHWH is also called Adonai (Lord). Are Paul and the other NT authors, when speaking of Jesus as kurios, equating Him with the YHWH (LORD) and Adonai (Lord) of the OT? As will be seen in Chapter Three, the OT scriptures identify YHWH as Father. Nowhere do the OT Scriptures identify YHWH as Father plus someone else. In the NT, God is seen as Father in distinction from Jesus who is seen as Lord. Clear differentiation between God who is identified as Father and Jesus who is identified as Lord is seen throughout the NT. The Greek kurios is used as a designation for both the Father and the Son in Scripture. Both are seen as Lord. God the Father is the One and Only Most High LORD (YHWH) over all reality. Jesus, the Son of God, is YHWH's begotten, appointed and anointed Lord to facilitated YHWH's salvation. This will be made very plain as we proceed with our discussion.
Ephesians 4:4-6: There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Romans 16:25-27: Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him-- to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
To the Ephesians we see Paul speaking of the one Lord, who he identifies in 1 Corinthians 8:6 as Jesus Christ. As Paul did with the Corinthians, he identifies the one God as the Father. To the Romans Paul speaks of glorifying the eternal and only wise God through Jesus Christ. The eternal and only wise God is distinguished from Jesus. We know from the context of Paul’s writings that when he uses the word God he means the Father. When Paul says, “to the only wise God” he is identifying the Father as the one and only God.
We are to glorify the one and only God through Christ. Trinitarians see Paul saying we glorify God through God the Son in the Trinitarian union that is Father, Son and Spirit. Paul, however, never speaks of God the Son or God the Spirit. Paul consistently writes of the Father being the one and only God. As we move through this material, it will become evident the Son is the agent of the one God through whom we worship this one God. As God’s agent, the Son isn’t God any more than my son is me when he acts as my agent. It is through Christ that we can be reconciled to the one God who is the Father. The whole focus of Christ’s ministry was to bring us to God the Father which Scriptures show is the one and only God and also the God of Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
In this passage, Paul clearly states there is one God and Jesus is the mediator between this one God and man. Trinitarianism teaches God is a single Being with no separation of substance. God does not have parts. There is no separation in the Trinitarian God, only distinctions of Father, Son and Spirit. Since Paul consistently identifies God as Father in His writings, Trinitarians believe when Paul says there is one God, he is referring to the Father distinction in the single Being that is God. Jesus is seen as the Son distinction in the single Godhead. The Son is seen as working as mediator between the Father and man within the Trinitarian union of Father, Son and Spirit.
The Trinitarian position is that when NT authors use the word God and Jesus in the same sentence, they are referring to the Father as a distinction of the one God and to Jesus as another distinction of the one God. The Father and the Son are seen within a Trinitarian relationship of Father Son and Spirit. This position, however, is not substantiated by the Scriptures. The Scriptures consistently teach there is one God who is the Father. Nowhere does Jesus or the Apostles teach the one God is the Father plus others.
In this passage Paul contrasts the one God with the man Jesus. There is no hint here of Jesus also being the one God. Secondly, Paul consistently identifies the one God as Father and never as Father and Son or Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus consistently identifies God as the Father and only as the Father. The Scriptures consistently speak of the Son of God and the Spirit of God. The Scriptures never speak of the Father of God. If God is a single Being in three distinctions of Father, Son and Spirit, you would expect to see references to the Father of God as you commonly see references to the Son and Spirit of God. Since no such references exist, it gives evidence to the Father and only the Father being God with everything else being of and from the Father including the Son and the Spirit.
Let’s take a closer look at the Acts 17 passage cited above. Paul addresses the Athenians and identifies to them the one and only true God who is maker of heaven and earth and the one responsible for their being alive. Paul concludes his remarks by saying the following:
Acts 17:31: For he (God) has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.
God, as creator and sustainer, is contrasted with the one He raised from the dead. God is seen as appointing Jesus as the man through whom He will judge the world. As you proceed through this material, you will see that God the Father is Supreme Judge and Savior and Jesus is given these designations only as the appointed facilitator of God’s judgement and salvation. In leading up to his statement about there being one God and Jesus being the one mediator between God and man, Paul speaks of God as Savior who wants all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). The context of this passage shows the Savior Paul is referring to is the Father. We know it is the Father who sent Christ to save the world (John 3:16-17). Jesus is the facilitator of the Father's will to provide salvation for mankind. This doesn’t make Jesus, as facilitator of the Father's will, any more equal with the Father than my son carrying out my will makes my son equal with me.
In addition to the already quoted Scriptures that show the Father to be the God of Jesus, other Scriptures clearly show that God the Father, as the Most High Supreme LORD (YHWH) of all reality, is our God and Father as well while Jesus is our lord as YHWH's anointed savior to the world.
Galatians 1:3-5: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Philippians 4:19-20: And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever Amen.
1 Thessalonians 1:3: We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 3:11,13: Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. Verse 13, May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
In these passages, there clearly is separation of Being indicated between God the Father and the Son. Trinitarianism teaches God the Father and Christ the Lord are a single entity called God and have no separation of Being in their co-eternal, co-equal and con-substantial state. Any perceived separation in Being is seen to be a consequence of the Son’s “incarnation” as the Christ and not a separation in ontological Being with the Father and Spirit. Many Scriptures make this conclusion highly problematical. Here are just a few.
Revelation 1:5b-6: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Revelation 7:10: And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
Revelation 12:10b: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his
Revelation 20:6b: but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Acts 7:55-56: But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
Colossians 3:1: Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
All these Scriptures show separation between God and Christ after Christ has ascended to the Father and has been granted great, authority and power as the glorified Son of God who facilitated the Father’s salvation for the human race.
When NT writers refer to God and Christ in the same sentence, God is seen as a separate entity from Christ. In Revelation 1:5b-6, God is seen as the God of Jesus. In Revelation 7:10b, we find the Lamb (Christ) seen as separate from God who sits on the throne. In Revelation 12:10b The Son is referred to as God’s Christ which means the anointed of God. In reference to the thousand year reign, God is shown as distinct from Christ. Stephen sees Jesus standing next to God. Paul writes of Jesus seated at the right hand of God. Jesus speaks of Himself being at the right hand of the Mighty One (Matthew 26:63). There is not a hint in any of this that the Son, in His glorified state, is ontologically one with God.
We have seen that Jesus and Paul teach the Father is the one and only God. Therefore, when John, Stephen and Paul speak of God in the above passages, they are speaking of the Father. They are seeing the Father and the Son as separate Beings and not distinctions of the single Being God. When John, Stephen and Paul use the term God in these passages, they understand God as a single, undifferentiated Being who is the Father and only the Father. In Revelation 3:21, we read that Jesus and His Father have a separate throne which gives further evidence to their separateness of Being.
Revelation 3:21: To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
It is instructive that nowhere in Scripture will you find the phrase God the Son. Jesus is consistently seen as the Son of God the Father and clearly identifies himself as such throughout his ministry. While the word God is associated with the Father in most of the New Testament, there are Scriptures where the word God is associated with Jesus. I address these passages later in this book when I discuss how the words for God are used in the Scriptures. During His ministry, Jesus never used the word God to identify Himself. He only used the word God in association with the Father. One of many examples of this is found in Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman where God is identified as the Father.
John 4:23-24: Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
Jesus speaks of worshiping the Father in spirit and truth. He identifies the Father as God. Jesus gives no hint to the Samaritan women that He also is this God. Instead, He clearly identifies Himself to her as the Messiah (John 4:25-26) which is to identify Himself as the anointed of the God He was speaking of.
Within the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus is seen as co-equal with the Father. Trinitarianism sees no subordination between the “Persons” of the Trinity. Yet Apostle Paul clearly writes of Jesus being subject to God and of God being all in all.
1 Corinthians 11:3: Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
1 Corinthians 15:27-28: For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Paul makes it perfectly clear that when God says He has put everything under Christ it does not include Himself, God. This statement alone should put to rest the idea that Christ is equal with the Father in every respect short of being the Father. These two passages from 1 Corinthians clearly show everything is subject to the one and only Supreme God and this everything includes the Son. God, who is identified throughout Scripture as the Father, is seen as over all things including Jesus. Jesus is seen as subordinant to the Father which is to say He is subordinant to God. The very language of 1 Corinthians 11:3 and 15:27-28 shows God to be supreme, superior and above all things including His Son Jesus. Fourth century Trinitarian theologian Gregory Nazianzen wrote that “to subordinate any of the three Divine Persons is to overthrow the Trinity." I submit that Apostle Paul overthrows the Trinity.
Trinitarians argue that while the Son is God in every respect short of being the Person of the Father, He willingly submits to the Father and in this manner is seen as subordinant to the Father. While it may be possible to be equal to someone and voluntarily be in submission to them, God is seen as the head over Christ and Christ is seen as subject to Him so that God is all in all. This is not language that speaks of The Son voluntarily subjecting Himself to God the Father while remaining in every respect equal to the Father short of being the Father. The Father is seen in Scripture as YHWH the Most High God. As Most High God, the Father doesn’t have any equal.
Psalms 83:18: Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD (YHWH), that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
It should be evident when Scriptural writers speak of the Father and Jesus in the same context; they are not speaking of co-equal persons who are both the one and only Most High God. At one point during His ministry, Jesus was dealing with an evil spirit who cried out in the following manner:
Mark 5:7b: What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!
The evil spirit understood Jesus to be the Son of the Most High God and not the Most High God. The evil spirit even asks Jesus to swear by God showing this spirit understood God is a separate Being from Jesus.
Jesus is identified throughout Scripture as the Son of God and not as God. Luke records it was the power of the Most High that would overshadow Mary resulting in her becoming pregnant with Jesus. The result would be that the one to be born would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus is the Son of God because the Most High God facilitated His birth through Mary and not because He pre-existed as a co-eternal, co-equal and con-substantial distinction of the Most High God. There is only one Most High God and that God is the God of Jesus.
Jesus made it clear that a servant and messenger are not greater than the one who sends him. Scripture makes it clear Jesus was sent by God the Father as His servant. When we consider Jesus’ status as a servant of God along with what Paul said about God being the head of Christ and Christ being subordinant to God, it should be obvious the Son and the Father are not equally the Most High God.
John 13:16: I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Matthew 12:18: Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
Acts 3:13a: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.
In addition to Paul writing of the Son's subordination to God, Apostle John, when speaking of God and the Son in the same context, also sees the Son as subordinant to God and doesn't see the Son as being the God He is subordinant to.
1 John 1:5-7: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him (God) yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
It is clear from the context of this passage that it is God who is light and is in the light. God, who is light, facilitated the conception of His Son Jesus through whom God's light was expressed in bringing salvation to the world. Jesus is not intrinsically this light but the agent of this light through whom this light became manifested.
1 John 5:20: We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him (God) who is true. And we are in him (God) who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He (God the Father) is the true God and eternal life.
By saying “in his Son Jesus Christ,” John identifies the true God as the Father. This is the same John who quotes Jesus in John 17:3 and 5:44 as saying the Father is the only true God and the one and only God. Some Trinitarians believe the phrase; “He is the true God and eternal life” refers to the Son. A review of the scholarly research on this passage reveals almost unanimous consensus that John’s reference to the true God is a reference to the Father. Therefore, John is consistent in seeing the Father as the one and only true God. 1 John 5:20 is a powerful statement about who God is versus who Christ is and has great significance relative to how we understand the first chapter of John’s Gospel which will be addressed in a later Chapter.
In the next Chapter we will examine what the Hebrew Scriptures teach as to who God is.