Are God and Jesus the same person?
This is one of the most important questions in all of Christian theology, and the answer requires a careful distinction: Jesus is fully God, but He is not the same Person as God the Father. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons who share one divine nature — one God.
The Eternal Word: Distinct Yet Divine
The opening of John's Gospel lays the foundation. F. B. Hole explains the careful precision of John 1:1–4:
F. B. Hole1. "In the beginning was the Word." He did not begin to be in the beginning, but He was, i.e., He existed in the beginning. The Word has eternal existence. 2. "The Word was with God," and if with then He must be distinguished as having a Personality of His own. The Word has distinct Personality. 3. "The Word was God." Though distinct as to His Person yet none the less God. The Word has essential Deity. 4. "The same was in the beginning with God." He is not, therefore, merely a manifestation of the Deity in time. The Word has eternal Personality.
Notice the logic: He was with God — so He is a distinct Person; and He was God — so He is not a lesser being. Both truths hold simultaneously.
Three Persons, One God
H. J. Vine states the matter plainly:
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. … 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.
Morrish's Bible Dictionary gives a concise summary under Trinity:
Morrish's Bible DictionaryA word only used to convey the thought of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead. This was revealed at the baptism of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit descended 'like a dove' and abode upon Him; and God the Father declared "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." … Many passages prove that the Lord Jesus is God: one will suffice: "… in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." 1 John 5:20. … Yet there is but one God.
Distinct in Person, One in Being
A Bible reading on John 1 published in An Outline of Sound Words draws the distinction with particular clarity:
The second phrase, "The Word was with God," reveals that the Word is distinct in Person, and involves the truth of the Trinity, which comes fully to light in Jesus. There is no such idea as His having a separate existence, for the unity of the Godhead is constantly affirmed along with the distinct personality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To fully safeguard the divine glory of the Son, the Spirit of God adds, "The Word was God." … Although distinct in Person from the Father and the Spirit, the Word was God. … Some have asserted that Jesus became a distinct Person, but Scripture asserts that He was eternally distinct in Personality.
"I and My Father Are One"
J. N. Darby traces the evidence throughout both Testaments, showing that Christ is identified with Jehovah and yet stands in a personal relationship to the Father:
J. N. Darby"The Word was with God, and was God." This is in every way a striking passage: when every thing began, He was — that is, had no beginning, was God, as indeed it must be, yet was a distinct personality; He was with God, and always such, was so in the beginning, that He created everything.
On how the Son, while subject to the Father as a man, remains equal to Him in nature:
That as Son He has taken a place subject to the Father as man, every Christian believes … for He is a man for ever, in that sense a servant, but He who is the servant can say, I and my Father are one, and I am in the Father, and he who has seen Him has seen the Father also.
God Manifest in the Flesh
J. G. Bellett shows that John's epistles demand the confession that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" — and the very wording reveals His deity:
J. G. BellettThe confession, therefore, which is demanded by them is this — that it was God who was manifested, or who came in the flesh. For in these epistles, as we have now seen, "Jesus Christ" is God. … The soul that abides not in this doctrine "has not God," but he who abides in it "has both the Father and the Son."
The very adjunct, "come in the flesh," throws strongly forward the deity of Christ; because if He were a man, or anything short of what He is, it would be no such wonder that He should come in the flesh.
Equal in Nature, Subordinate in Mission
What about passages where Jesus says "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28)? F. B. Hole explains:
F. B. HoleWe distinguish, therefore, between what the Lord Jesus was and is essentially — equal with God, and what He became relatively — subordinate to the Father's will.
The incarnate Son, therefore, became subject to the Father, moving and acting in reference to Him instead of acting on His own initiative. … All these and similar scriptures refer to the position which the Son took up in relation to the Father when He assumed manhood.
God and Jesus are not the same Person, but Jesus is fully and truly God. The Father and the Son are distinct Persons — the Son was eternally "with God" — yet the Son "was God." They are one in nature, one in being, one in glory, but distinct in Person. This is the heart of the Trinity: one God existing in three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
When Jesus said "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30), He was declaring unity of nature — not that He and the Father are the same individual. And when He said "He that has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), He was revealing that the Father is perfectly made known in the Son. The Son came forth from the Father to make Him known, and in seeing Christ we see what God truly is — because Christ is God, the eternal Word who became flesh.