This article shows that the Father and the Son have been together for all eternity and always work together as one. Together, they share glory, created all things, own all things, judge all, are in believers, and work to save and protect believers.
It shows that the Son had equality with God prior to His birth, which means that He today again has equality with God. They receive equal honor. As every knee will bow to God, so every knee will bow to Jesus. He is God’s only Begotten Son, which means that He is God’s only true family. Only God knows Jesus and only Jesus knows God. These are profound statements of equality.
God and Jesus share the same name and titles. Jesus claimed the divine name “I AM.” He has many Divine Titles, such as King of kings and Lord of lords, Lord of the Sabbath, and Saviour.
Jesus also has many divine attributes. He is the Truth, eternal and omnipresent. All the fullness of Deity dwells in Him. He created all things and has all authority.
The Son has always existed.
“The Word,” who has been identified as “the only begotten from the Father,” the One we know as Jesus Christ, was with God “in the beginning” (John 1:1-2, 14). Presumably, the “beginning” is when “all things” were created. He is “the first and the last” (Rev 1:17). In other words, He has always existed.
Nevertheless, John 1:1-2 makes a distinction between God and “the Word.” In other words, God and “the Word” are two distinct Beings, meaning that the Son is not God.
Together, they created all things.
God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen 1:26). The “Us” and “Our” must refer to God and Jesus, for in John 1:3 we read, “All things came into being through Him (the “Word” = Jesus), and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being”. In other words, God created all things through His Son.
Together, they own all things.
Jesus said, “All things that the Father has are Mine” (John 16:15). And, in prayer, He said, “All things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine” (John 17:10).
Nevertheless, according to Hebrews 1:2, God appointed His Son as heir of all things and in Matthew 28:18 Jesus said that “all authority … in heaven and on earth” has been given to Him. In other words, the Son has all things because He received all things.
Together, they direct the angels.
“The Lord, the God … sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place” (Rev 22:6). But just ten verses later, Jesus says “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches” (Rev 22:16).
Similarly, Luke 12:8-9 refers to the “angels of God” but, in Matthew 13:41, Jesus said: “The Son of Man (Jesus Himself) will send forth His angels.”
They receive equal honor.
Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). Furthermore, with respect to when He will return to the Father, Jesus said:
“All will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
He who does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23).
That is a profound statement of equality.
They work together to redeem sinners.
Jesus said:
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life;
no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
But He also said:
“No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).
They working together for our salvation.
Both protect believers.
“My sheep hear My voice …
and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
My Father, who has given them to Me,
is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them
out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29).
Both live in believers.
Jesus said:
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;
and My Father will love him,
and We will come to him
and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).
They judge together.
“My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it,
but I and the Father who sent Me” (John 8:16).
Conclusion
God and Jesus are two distinct Beings. This has been shown by the article Jesus is not God. And the article “God is the Head of Christ” confirms that Jesus is subordinate to God. We also see this in some of the statements above, such as that God sent the Son and appointed Him as heir of all things (John 8:16; Heb 1:2).
But their unity or oneness, as evidenced above, puts the Son far above any created being.
The Bible sometimes refers to Jesus as theos (translated as “god” or as “God”) but the article – The Bible calls Jesus God – argues that this does not mean that Jesus is God, for the title theos is used for any supernatural being. Nevertheless, the unity of God and Jesus puts Jesus far above the general meaning of the word “god.” This unity implies that we should regard Jesus as equal to God.
Jesus has equality with God.
The Bible provides us with further evidence that Jesus had equality with God:
Jesus “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”
This refers to the time prior to His birth. See the article – Does Philippians 2 say that Jesus emptied Himself of equality with God? If He had equality with God prior to His birth, He today again has equality with God.
Every knee will bow to Jesus.
God identified Himself as the One speaking and says, “to Me every knee will bow” (Isa 45:23), but Paul wrote that to “Jesus every knee should bow” (Phil 2:10-11).
Only Begotten Son
Since He was “begotten,” He was not created. The article Only Begotten Son of God shows that this phrase means He is God’s only true family. The Bible consistently distinguishes between God and Jesus but God begets God.
Only God knows Jesus and only Jesus knows God.
“No one knows the Son except the Father;
nor does anyone know the Father except the Son”
(Matt 11:27; cf. Luke 10:22).
This is an amazing statement of equality.
The Father shows the Son all things.
“The Father loves the Son,
and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing”
(John 5:19-20).
Conclusion
God is not comparable to anything we know. We do not understand God, but perhaps an analogy will explain the equality of God and Jesus better. A human son is subordinate to his father, but equal to his father when compared to the beasts of the field. Jesus is subordinate to God but equal to God from the perspective of finite created beings. In other words, although Jesus is distinct from God, we must honor Him equal to God.
Jesus has Divine Titles and Attributes.
Many titles that belong to God only, are also applied to Jesus.
I AM
Moses asked God:
“If I come to the people of Israel and say to them,
‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’
and they ask me, ‘What is His Name?’
what shall I say to them?”
God responded, “I AM WHO I AM …. Say this to the people of Israel, I AM has sent me to you … The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My Name for ever” (Exo 3:15-18). Here, God, in giving His name, gives the essential meaning of Yahweh; the One who exists without cause, but who is the Cause of everything else.
In John 8:21-59, Jesus repeatedly claims the divine name “I AM” for Himself. He said, for instance:
“You will die in your sins;
for if you do not believe that I AM” (John 8:24)
“Most assuredly, I say to you,
before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:24, 58).
Jesus, by referring to Himself with this sacred name, claimed to be the God of the Old Testament; the Jehovah of Exodus 3:14. This the Jews understood, for they wanted to stone Him for blasphemy (cf. John 5:18, 8:59, 10:30-36).
King of kings and Lord of lords
The One “whom no man has seen or can see” is called “King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim 6:14-16). Jesus is similarly called “Lord of lords and King of kings” (Rev 17:14, cf. 19:16).
Lord of the Sabbath
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God” (Exo 20:10). But Jesus is “the Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).
Saviour
“The Lord” said, “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me” (Isa 43:11). God is also the Savior in Psalms 106:21; Isaiah 43:3; 45:21-23; 44:6 and I Timothy 2:3; cf. 1 Tim 4:10.)
But the New Testament describes Jesus as the “source of eternal salvation” (Heb 5:9), being “able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him” (Heb 7:25) for He “came into the world to save sinners” (I Tim 1:15). He is “our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us” (Titus 2:13-14; cf. 2 Peter 1:1). Jesus is also referred to as Savior in Luke 2:11; John 4:42; Acts 4:12; I John 4:14 and many others.
Jesus is the Truth.
Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” In Jesus Christ alone “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3).
Jesus is eternal.
“The LORD” (Yahweh) said:
“Before Me there was no God formed
and there will be none after Me” (Isa 43:10).
“I am the first and I am the last,
and there is no God besides Me”
(Isa 44:6; cf. Isa 48:12).
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End … the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8; cf. 21:6).
This means that God is eternal; “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psa 90:2). The same applies to Jesus Christ:
Micah 5:2 speaks about the coming Christ, whose “goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2).
John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word”. Since He was “in the beginning”, there was no time when He was not.
In Revelation, Jesus Christ says of Himself, “I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Rev 1:17-18). In the last chapter, He says, “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last” (Rev 22:13).
Christ is eternal as the Father is eternal.
Jesus is omnipresent.
“Where two or three have gathered together in My name,
I am there in their midst” (Matt 18:20)
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age”
(Matt 28:20)
The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking … for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you” (Acts 18:9-10)
All the fullness of Deity dwells in Christ.
“It was the Father’s good pleasure
for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Col 1:19).
“All the fullness of Deity
dwells in Christ in bodily form” (Col 2:9).
Jesus created all things.
A separate article shows that God created all things, but God created all things through His Son. The Son even created time. There was no time that He did not exist.
Jesus has all authority.
Jesus claimed, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18). This same authority was given to the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13–14 (see also Matthew 26:64). By implication, God gave Him this authority, just like “it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Col 1:19). These things show Christ’s subordination to God, but also His equality to God.
Conclusion
Previous articles concluded that Jesus is not God and that Jesus is subordinate to God. However, their oneness puts the Son far above created beings; on equal footing with God from the perspective of finite created beings. We must honor Him as we honor God. To further explain the notion that Jesus is not God, but has equality with God, the reader is advised to read Jesus in Philippians 2.
-
Other Articles