Part II
We will close this study on the Trinity with a few comments on John 17v3, where Christ calls the Father “the only true God”, this will also help to explain such Scriptures as Gal 3v20, Eph 4v6, 1Tim 1v17, 2v5. In John 13v3, Jesus is not denying His deity, for many Scriptures clearly state that Christ is God, the context of John 17v3 shows why the Lord prayed in this way.
1) Jesus is praying as our Mediator and Redeemer
Christ in praying to the Father calls Himself “thy Son,” He was praying as the incarnate Son who became a servant for the work of redemption. This is why the Father is not only called “the only true God,” but also “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2Cor 11v31, Eph 1v3, 1Pet 1v3, John 17v3, 20v17. Christ is our Lord and God, yet in His work as mediator and redeemer, God the Father is His God. However, in the opening words of this prayer Christ claimed again a unique Sonship, which Christ's enemies and the apostle John knew was a claim to absolute deity. John 5v17,18, 10v30-33. Christ's claim to be the Son of God was a claim to coequal deity with the Father.
2) Jesusis praying as the God who emptied Himself to become the Messiah
Jesus is speaking as the Messiah, He calls Himself, “Jesus Messiah whom Thou hast sent,” He was speaking as the Messiah of the Israelites, and as the Saviour of the world. We read in Phil 2v5-11 of the humiliation and emptying of God the Word for the work of redemption; and in John 17v5, Christ refers to the glory which He shared with the father before the world was, and he prays for it to be restored to Him again. Christ uses the striking words, “glorify me WITH THINE OWN SELF with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” The Messiah that was promised to the Israelites was very definitely stated to be God. e.g. Isaiah 7v14, 9v6, Micah 5v2, etc. The Messiah was “the Lord our righteousness.” Jer 23v5,6 with Isaiah 43v11, Hos 13v4.
3) Jesus affirms His Oneness with the Father
When Jesus said to the Jews in John 10v30, “I and my Father are one,” they took up stones to stone Him, “because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”When Jesus said in John 10v38, “the Father is in me, and I in Him,” the Jews again tried to capture Him and kill Him; they well understood it as a clear claim to coequal deity with the Father. See John 17v21. In John 17v3,21, Jesus said that eternal life is found in knowing both the Father and Son, and prays that believers “may be one in us.” We rejoice that we are accepted in the beloved, and are one in the Father and the Son. Jesus is no less God because the Father is called “the only true God,” in John 17v3, than the Father is not God, because Jesus is called “the only Potentate,” in 1Tim 6v15, and “the true God,” in 1John 5v20; and “the true Lord,” in Mal 3v1; and “the one Lord,” in1Cor 8v6. When Jesus said the Father is “the only true God,” He is speaking as a man, and as Mediator and Redeemer, He is certainly not excluding Himself from deity. “The only true God,” is applied to God the Father, in contrast, not with the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but with the false gods and idols of the heathen. Jesus is one with the Father; in the Son dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, and he who has seen Jesus has seen the Father. John 14v7-14, Col 2v9,10.
NB: Textual note on “vios,” “Son,” in John 1v18: Burgon, follows the vast majority of manuscripts and a majority of Church Fathers, and says that “vios,” “Son;” is the correct text, and rejects the reading “only begotten God,” and says that it is an alteration introduced into the text by the Gnostic Valentinus, and his followers, whose strange teaching denied that “the Word” is the Son of God. (The Gnostic Valentinus lived about 150 AD, when Gnosticism was at its height.) Arius also used the reading, “Theos,” “God,” in John 1v18, for His arguments against the eternal pre-existence of Christ, maintaining that the Son if begotten by God, must have had a beginning, and there must have been a time when He was not. Arius, strangely, believed in the deity of Christ and yet not of His eternal pre-existence, he stated, “The Son….has existed before time and before ages, as Perfect God, only begotten and unchangeable; and that He existed not before He was begotten or created.” Valentinus and Arius are about the worst people to follow for textual purity. The solid evidence against the reading “only begotten God,” and its association with heretics cannot be ignored, and must be rejected.
The Diety Of The Lord Jesus
Part I
Yahweh Shalom.
We will close this study on the Trinity with a few comments on John 17v3, where Christ calls the Father “the only true God”, this will also help to explain such Scriptures as Gal 3v20, Eph 4v6, 1Tim 1v17, 2v5. In John 13v3, Jesus is not denying His deity, for many Scriptures clearly state that Christ is God, the context of John 17v3 shows why the Lord prayed in this way.
1) Jesus is praying as our Mediator and Redeemer
Christ in praying to the Father calls Himself “thy Son,” He was praying as the incarnate Son who became a servant for the work of redemption. This is why the Father is not only called “the only true God,” but also “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2Cor 11v31, Eph 1v3, 1Pet 1v3, John 17v3, 20v17. Christ is our Lord and God, yet in His work as mediator and redeemer, God the Father is His God. However, in the opening words of this prayer Christ claimed again a unique Sonship, which Christ's enemies and the apostle John knew was a claim to absolute deity. John 5v17,18, 10v30-33. Christ's claim to be the Son of God was a claim to coequal deity with the Father.
2) Jesusis praying as the God who emptied Himself to become the Messiah
Jesus is speaking as the Messiah, He calls Himself, “Jesus Messiah whom Thou hast sent,” He was speaking as the Messiah of the Israelites, and as the Saviour of the world. We read in Phil 2v5-11 of the humiliation and emptying of God the Word for the work of redemption; and in John 17v5, Christ refers to the glory which He shared with the father before the world was, and he prays for it to be restored to Him again. Christ uses the striking words, “glorify me WITH THINE OWN SELF with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” The Messiah that was promised to the Israelites was very definitely stated to be God. e.g. Isaiah 7v14, 9v6, Micah 5v2, etc. The Messiah was “the Lord our righteousness.” Jer 23v5,6 with Isaiah 43v11, Hos 13v4.
3) Jesus affirms His Oneness with the Father
When Jesus said to the Jews in John 10v30, “I and my Father are one,” they took up stones to stone Him, “because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”When Jesus said in John 10v38, “the Father is in me, and I in Him,” the Jews again tried to capture Him and kill Him; they well understood it as a clear claim to coequal deity with the Father. See John 17v21. In John 17v3,21, Jesus said that eternal life is found in knowing both the Father and Son, and prays that believers “may be one in us.” We rejoice that we are accepted in the beloved, and are one in the Father and the Son. Jesus is no less God because the Father is called “the only true God,” in John 17v3, than the Father is not God, because Jesus is called “the only Potentate,” in 1Tim 6v15, and “the true God,” in 1John 5v20; and “the true Lord,” in Mal 3v1; and “the one Lord,” in1Cor 8v6. When Jesus said the Father is “the only true God,” He is speaking as a man, and as Mediator and Redeemer, He is certainly not excluding Himself from deity. “The only true God,” is applied to God the Father, in contrast, not with the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but with the false gods and idols of the heathen. Jesus is one with the Father; in the Son dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, and he who has seen Jesus has seen the Father. John 14v7-14, Col 2v9,10.
NB: Textual note on “vios,” “Son,” in John 1v18: Burgon, follows the vast majority of manuscripts and a majority of Church Fathers, and says that “vios,” “Son;” is the correct text, and rejects the reading “only begotten God,” and says that it is an alteration introduced into the text by the Gnostic Valentinus, and his followers, whose strange teaching denied that “the Word” is the Son of God. (The Gnostic Valentinus lived about 150 AD, when Gnosticism was at its height.) Arius also used the reading, “Theos,” “God,” in John 1v18, for His arguments against the eternal pre-existence of Christ, maintaining that the Son if begotten by God, must have had a beginning, and there must have been a time when He was not. Arius, strangely, believed in the deity of Christ and yet not of His eternal pre-existence, he stated, “The Son….has existed before time and before ages, as Perfect God, only begotten and unchangeable; and that He existed not before He was begotten or created.” Valentinus and Arius are about the worst people to follow for textual purity. The solid evidence against the reading “only begotten God,” and its association with heretics cannot be ignored, and must be rejected.
The Diety Of The Lord Jesus
Part I
Yahweh Shalom.
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