Do Jews and Christians worship the same God?

Then the apostle, as before remarked, characterizes the liar as he who denies, not that there is a Christ, or that He is to come, but that JESUS is the Christ. And he is the antichrist that denies the Father and the Son; i.e., the whole truth of Christianity; for no man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. But — and the warning is most solemn — "whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also." (vv. 22, 23.) God — God the Father — therefore cannot be known apart from the Son, apart from the truth of what He is in His own essential dignity, apart from the truth of His person, as Jesus Christ come in the flesh. (1 John 5:2-3; 2 John 7-9.) All the refinements of Deism are therefore but infidel speculations; for the profession of believing in God apart from Christ is tantamount to the rejection of the true God, inasmuch as it is only in Christ that He has been revealed, or can be known.

God assumes here, in a peculiar way, the character of a Saviour-God with regard to the world: a principle of great importance in all that concerns our conversation in the world and our intercourse with men. We represent in our religious character a God of love. This was not the case in Judaism. He was indeed the same God; but there He took the character of a Lawgiver. All were indeed to come to His temple according to the declaration of the prophets, and His temple was open to them; but He did not characterise Himself as a Saviour-God for all. In Titus we find the same expression.

Moreover, another point of importance is here brought into prominence. It was the God of the Old Testament who has exalted Jesus, He is the God of the Old and the God of the New. Revealed as Almighty to Abraham, He is preached now as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This we need to affirm, for there have arisen those who deny that the God of the Gospel is the Jehovah of the ancient covenants; they would destroy the value of the prophetic word, and the unity of the Scriptures.

There is another point indicated here by the apostle that ought to be noticed. People might pretend by giving God in a vague way the name of Father, that they possessed Him without the true possession of the Son, Jesus Christ. This cannot be. He who has not the Son has not the Father. It is by Him that the Father is revealed, in Him that the Father is known.

"They said to Him then, Where is Thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye know neither Me nor My Father. If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also" (verse 19).162 Such ignorance of the only true God and of Jesus Whom He sent is death, eternal death; and the more solemn, because it was said not to the heathen, but to Jews who had the oracles of God. These things they were saying because they knew not the Father nor the Son; as the hour would come when they would think to render God service by killing Christ's disciples. Their sayings and doings betrayed their state of utter alienation from and ignorance of the Father. All that followed of persecution and hatred, whether for Christ or for the Church, was but the consequence. "These words He spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour was not yet come" (verse 20)163. Their malice was as manifest as it was deadly; and it was against the Father as much as the Son.

In warning the babes against the many antichrists, the apostle writes, "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father … If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father; and this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life" (1 John 2:23-25). Any who deny that Jesus is the Son of God are not of God; they cannot have the Father without the Son. The Jews denied that Jesus was the Christ; the antichristian form of evil is the denial of the Father and the Son.

In this chapter the Lord says, "Salvation is of the Jews" - amongst them the true God was known; there was no true knowledge of God save among the Jews. Wherever God put His name, there was the place of worship. Now Christ declares, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." It can only be in His name. Paul says, to the Athenians, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." Only those who know God can worship. This chapter takes the place of worship away from amongst the Jews, and it supposes accomplished redemption. I get into the place of perfect acceptance through the work of Jesus Christ, and there I can worship; none can worship unless in this place of divine favour; if I can sing in the sense of the acceptance of Christ, I cannot be out of tune.

How astonishing, but yet enlightening for her soul, to learn that God was about to introduce something entirely new. Even Jerusalem, which the Lord still acknowledged as having His Father's House, would be set aside, but not in favour of any other earthly centre. The Jewish system had been set up by God, and many had worshipped God there in obedience to His commandment, and as seeking His glory; but the Samaritan worship was in ignorance of the true God. Although Jerusalem would be set aside for the time being, this would not be until the salvation of God had come in the Person of His Son, who, after the flesh, was a Jew.

It is therefore more particularly in the scriptures of the New Testament that we have the Father's name set out and made known, the Lord Jesus declaring it either in person or by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It is the Father's word then that is most manifestly and immediately given us there. And what a mighty change, my brethren, this was! — that He who remains still, as He always is, God, the only true God — that He who had been revealed to the sons of Israel as Jehovah, and even before their immediate parents, to those that are called "the fathers" (to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) as the Almighty, — that He was now making Himself known in the intimate name and relationship of Father. But we must remember that there is something more than this.

On the subject of the Antichrist, the apostle adds in verse 22, "that he denieth that Jesus is the Christ … denieth the Father and the Son." These are two aspects of apostasy in which we see Antichrist; first, uniting with Jewish unbelief, secondly, rejecting Christianity. The word gives the Antichrist an essentially religious character; the testimony of the prophets agrees with the New Testament on this point. It is also important to note this word in verse 23, "Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father," for many who reject Christ pretend not to reject the Father.