Are God and Jesus the same person?
Two different questions hide inside this one: is Jesus God, and is Jesus the same Person as the Father? Writers in this collection answer yes to the first and no to the second — and they treat the difference between those two answers as the difference between the Christian faith and a counterfeit of it.
The Word was God
The opening line of John's Gospel is where commentators start. One writer points out that the verse says two things at once, and that both must stand:
J. N. Darby"The Word was with God, and was God." This is in every way a striking passage: when everything began, He was — that is, He had no beginning, He was God, as indeed it must be, and yet He was a distinct personality; He was with God, and always was, and was so in the beginning, so that He created everything. Later we find the Word made flesh.
Distinct, because one sends and one is sent
If Father and Son were merely two names for one Person, the language of the Gospels would collapse. The same writer traces the point through a chain of statements that only make sense if a real Someone speaks and acts:
J. N. Darby"The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." He did not send an idea. There was a living Person there who said He was sent. And He was not sent only when He was in this world, for He says: "I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father." "Glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed." Here we have a Person, an "I" who has an intention, a purpose, and comes to fulfil it.
One God, not three
Distinct Persons could sound like three Gods. Commentators reject that flatly, and anchor the point in the words spoken at baptism:
H J VineThe Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; yet there are not three Gods, but one God, "God is one" (Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 2:5). "Baptism is to the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," we are told in Matthew 28:19. This indicates for us the trinity of Persons in the Godhead, all of whom share in that supreme glory.
This was not a new idea invented in the New Testament. One writer notes that the Old Testament already carried the seed of it:
C E StuartThough there is but one God (Deut. 6:4), and no other (Isa. 43:10), there are distinct Persons in the Godhead. This truth was not unknown in the Old Testament, where we read (Gen. 19:24), "Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven." It was only taught as doctrine in the New Testament after the Incarnation.
"The Father is greater than I"
People often set two of Jesus' sayings against each other: He claims oneness with the Father, yet also says the Father is greater. One writer resolves this by watching how Jesus speaks in each place:
H J VineIt is plainly evident that Jesus must have been speaking as a Man when He said, "My Father is greater than I." This explains to us how He stood in relation to His Father as "the Son of the Father," for when He spoke of Himself as the Son, one with the Father, He did not then say "My Father," but speaking as God the Son He told those who listened, "I and the Father are one." So there is no contradiction between John 14:28 and 10:30. Each Scripture glows with divine beauty, one revealing Him to us as Man and the other as God.
Not three masks of one Person
The idea that Father, Son and Spirit are three roles played by a single Person is answered sharply, and again by the evidence of the Gospel scenes themselves:
William KellyHe who allows no more in the Godhead than three aspects of one Person is not a Christian, but a deceiver and an antichrist. He does not confess the fully revealed and true God — not the Godhead merely in three characters but in Three Persons; and so distinct that the Father could send the Son (1 John 4:14), and the Holy Spirit descend on that Son in the presence of the Father and in the consciousness of the Son (Mark 1:10-11).
Thomas, and the test of worship
The strongest practical proof offered is what Jesus allowed to be said to Him. When Thomas called Him "My Lord and my God," the response settles the matter:
F. B. HoleDeniers of our Lord's deity have tried to avoid the force of this by treating it as a mere exclamation, addressed to no one in particular, but the record clearly states that the words were said to the Lord... And what is more significant still, the Lord replied, "Thomas... you have believed." Beyond all question, then, He treated Thomas' joyful exclamation as faith laying hold of FACT... When John fell down before a holy angel as about to worship him, the instant reply was, "You must not do that!" Instead of rebuking Thomas, Jesus approved of his confession and called it faith.
Summary
- Was. Before anything began, the Word already was — no beginning, no creation, God Himself.
- With. The same verse that says He was God says He was with God: same nature, distinct Person.
- Sent. A Father who sends and a Son who says "I came" cannot be one Person wearing two names.
- One. Father, Son and Spirit are each God, yet there is one God — not three Gods, and not three masks.
- Worshipped. Jesus accepted "My Lord and my God" and called it faith — the honour no creature may take.