The God
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 substance) 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 being a single entity called God.
In the following pages I provide a systematic and comprehensive examination of this concept. The first sixteen Chapters will be devoted to discussion of the Father and the Son. Midway through Chapter seventeen and into Chapter eighteen I deal with the nature of the Holy Spirit. Chapter eighteen will also provide a summary. All Scriptural quotations will be from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise indicated. Let us begin our journey.
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. Jesus clearly teaches the Father is the one and only true God who is greater than He and the source of His life. Jesus consistently relates to the Father as His God. Nowhere in Scripture do we find Jesus teaching He also is the one and only true God. Nor do the Scriptures teach the Spirit is 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. Jesus clearly identifies His Father as being the one and only 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 in distinction from 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 or dimension 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. For Jesus to say His Father is greater than He from a purely human perspective is superfluous as it is a given God the Father is greater than any human.
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 and has been given great power and authority by this God and will be going to His Father God, He is not at the same ontological level (level of Being) as His Father God.
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 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 proceed with this discussion.
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 dimension 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.
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). 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 too is God? Why is the Father seen as the God of Jesus if Jesus is equal with the Father in every way except that of being the Father? I will discuss John 20:17 in more detail in Chapter twelve.
Like Jesus, Apostle Paul identifies the Father as being the only God as well.
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 3 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 New Testament (NT) Scriptures reveals repeated references to God being the God and Father of Jesus.
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 2:31: 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 as Lord 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.
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, therefore, the God of Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Paul clearly states there is one God and Jesus is the mediator between this one God and man. Since Paul consistently identifies God as Father in His writings, Trinitarians believe this passage is saying there is one God the Father and one mediator between God the Father and man and this mediator is God the Son working within the Trinitarian union of Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus is seen as being both God and man in His glorified state.
This approach is problematic for several reasons. 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 Trinitarian position is that when NT authors use the word God they mean the Father and therefore passages contrasting God and Jesus are only contrasting the Father and the Son 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 do Jesus or the Apostles teach the one God is the Father plus others.
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 17:24: 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 Savior Paul is referring to is the Father as we know it is the Father who sent Christ to save the world (John 3:16-17). This doesn’t make Jesus, as facilitator of God’s will, any more equal with God 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 the Father is our God in distinction from Jesus being our Lord.
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 4:20: 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 1:11,13: Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 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, it is the Father and only the Father who is referred to as God while Jesus is identified as Lord. Trinitarianism teaches Father and Lord are a single entity called God and have no separation of Being. Many Scriptures make this concept highly problematical. Here are just a few.
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 12:10: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.
Revelation 20:6: 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.
When NT writers refer to God and Christ in the same sentence, God is seen as the Father in distinction from Christ who is seen as Lord, the Son of the Father, the Lamb or other such designations. In Revelation 7:10, we find the Lamb (Christ) seen as separate from the Father who sits on the throne. In Revelation 12:10 The Son is referred to as God’s Christ which means the anointed of the Father to whom has been given power and authority by the Father. In reference to the thousand year reign, God is shown as distinct from Christ. Stephen sees Jesus standing next to the Father. Paul writes of Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father.
In view of what Jesus and Paul teach about the Father being the one and only God, there is every reason to believe when John, Stephen and Paul write of God in distinction from Christ, they are using the word God to mean the Father as the one and only God and not a distinction in a Trinitarian union of Father, Son and Spirit which collectively is God. The language in the passages under consideration shows the Father and Christ to be separate Beings and not distinctions of a single Being called 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 material 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.
Here Jesus speaks of worshiping the Father in spirit and truth and then goes on to identify the Father as God in saying God is spirit and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and truth. Jesus gives no hint to the Samaritan women He was addressing that He also is God. Instead, He clearly identifies Himself to her as the Messiah (John 4:25-26) which is to identify Himself as the anointed of God.
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 and is God as the Father is God. These two passages from 1 Corinthians clearly show everything is subject to the one and only Supreme God and this everything includes Jesus. God, who is identified throughout Scripture as the Father, is seen as over all things including Jesus. Jesus is seen as subordinate to the Father which is to say He is subordinate to God.
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 subordinate to the Father. While it may be possibly 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 82:18: 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 God 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 5:7: 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 subordinate to God, it should be obvious the Son of God is not God as the Father is God. Jesus is not 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 3:13: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.
In addition to Paul, other New Testament writers, when speaking of God and Jesus in the same context, also see Jesus as subordinate to God and don’t see Jesus as being the God He is subordinate too.
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 John is speaking of the Father as God in distinction from the man Jesus, the Father’s Son. There is no reason to believe John sees Jesus as equal to God and therefore God as the Father is God.
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.
I titled this book The God OF Jesus because Jesus plainly taught the one and only true God is the Father and it is the Father who is His God. Apostles Paul and John, along with the other authors of the New Testament, teach the same thing. Trinitarianism teaches God is Father Son and Spirit and therefore Jesus is God as the Father and the Spirit is God. Beginning in chapter two, we will continue to comprehensively examine the dynamics of this issue and carefully examine what the Scriptures teach as to the nature of the Father, Son and Spirit.