Godhood

One of the most difficult subjects in Christian teaching is that which touches on the Godhood or Deity of Yehoshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) the only begotten Son of God. The problem seems so insolvable that Christians seem to have agreed to belong to different schools of thought on this contentious subject. Among the various schools of thought are those who outrightly deny the Godhood of the Son of God. Are they correct? Does the Bible contain any seeming contradictions that cause the disagreements? Yes, it does. But with insight into the scriptures these seeming contradictions can easily be thrashed out. 

The Son of God is called God in Psalm 45:6. Hebrews 1:8 clarifies this. Isaiah, one of the great prophets of God called the Son of God “Mighty God” (Isaiah. 9:6, emphases added throughout). John said He has been with God in the beginning and that He is God (John 1:1). Thomas, one of His disciples, called Him God (John 20:28). Thus, we have not less than three witnesses who testified to the fact that Jesus Christ is God. According to the biblical rule seen in Deut. 19:15 (Matt. 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Cor. 13:1), the testimony of two or three witnesses establishes the truth. So, we accept as true the writing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God. 

This article is written to help Christians and non-Christians clear their misconceptions about the Godhood of Yehoshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ). 

The seeming contradiction in the Bible about the Godhood of the Son of God lies in the passages which say that the only one God is the Father. Apostle Paul wrote, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist…” (1Cor.8:6). The commas used after “God” and “Father” make it clear that the one God is the Father. Here, the apostle Paul states that the one God according to the Shema Yisrael (Deut. 6:4) is the Father only. In many other passages, Paul reiterated the fact that the Father alone is the one God. See, for example, Eph. 4:6 and 1 Tim. 2:5. In Eph. 1:17, Paul drew the point home when he wrote that the Father is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The other apostles like Peter (1 Peter 1:3) and John (Rev. 1:6) affirmed the same thing that the Father is both the God and the Father of our Lord Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ). 

No one can fault this teaching of the apostles because the fact came from the very mouth of Jesus Christ Himself. On the cross, He called the Father “My God” (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). After His resurrection from the dead, He told Mary Magdalene that the Father is “my Father and your Father, …  my God and your God” (John 20:17). And after His ascension to heaven and His glorification by the Father, He sent messages through John to the seven churches in Asia minor. In His message to the church in Philadelphia, He made a very strong emphasis to the fact that the Father is His God. In Rev. 3:12, He used the words “My God” four times.  

Now the problem arises in the minds of many people as to why Jesus Christ should be regarded as God when God, the Father of all beings, is His God. If the Father is the ONE GOD, how can Yeshua be God? Does that not make Him the second God? As would be expected, many people have responded eisegetically to this seeming enigma. Some have said that the Son of God is the one and the same person as the Father. Others, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have bluntly denied the Godhood of Jesus Christ. But the truth is that a Christian who has been given insight into the Scriptures can reconcile the seeming contradictions.

Now, here is what I have gathered from my study of the scriptures: 

The Only Begotten Son of God

Yeshua HaMashiach is Son of God just as the angels and the first man, Adam are sons of God (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Luke 3:38). All of them derived their life or existence from God. There is, however, one difference between Jesus Christ and the others. He is the only one that is called the monogenes, a Greek word which means the “only generated” or “only begotten” Son of God. He is the only one who came out of God in a begettal process. God gave birth to Him. That is why He has been called the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14) or the only begotten Son (John 1:18; 3:16,18; Heb. 11:17; 1 John 4:9).

One of the natural laws of God is that every living thing will reproduce their own kind (Gen.1:11,12, 21,24,25). That is why animals give birth to animals, fishes reproduce fishes, birds reproduce birds, different kinds of trees reproduce their own kind, and humans give birth to humans. This law is an antitype of God and the one He gave birth to. Jesus Christ is God, or a God Being, or has the same God nature because the one who gave birth to Him is God. The nature and attributes of God were transferred to the Son through the begettal of the Son by the Father. Please compare John 3:6 where Jesus told Nicodemus that “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This is an affirmation of the rule that the begotten will inherit the nature of the begetter.

The first thing that makes Jesus Christ God is the fact that God gave birth to Him. The use of the word “God” in relation to Him simply means that He is a God Being, or that He has the same divine or “God” nature as the Father who gave birth to Him. But as said earlier, the Son derived His life or existence from the Father. The Son did not exist by Himself or of Himself. It is the Father who gave Him the life that He has. That is why the Father, forever, is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 20:17; Eph. 1:17; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 3:12). The Father is the only self-existed Being and He is the one who gave life to His Son and to others through His Son. 

Being the offspring of God, the type of life the Son of God inherited from the Father is the life that the Father possesses – a divine, eternal life. The fact that the Son of God is the direct offspring of the Father explains why the two of them are God Beings. The begettal of the Son by the Father does not deny or annul the Godhood of the Son of God. The Son is called God because He has the same divine nature as the Father (Phil. 2 :6). 

We need to understand that the Godhood which the Son of God inherited from His Father has not cancelled the fact that the Father remains the only self-existed Being. That is why the Father is the One God because it is from Him that all beings – the Son who was begotten of Him and all of creation – derived their existence. That is the reason Jesus Christ Himself called the Father the only true God (John 17:3). What Jesus Christ meant is that although He, Yeshua, is a God being by the fact that He was born by the Father, the Father from whom all life is derived is truly the one God. The Father is the only God. 

Some people have said that God cannot have a Son because He has no wife. This carnal thinking is borne out of ignorance of the infinite God. He is transcendent in power, wisdom and ability. What is impossible with men is possible with the Almighty God (Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37; 18:27). God does not need anyone else to bring His only begotten Son into existence out of Himself. God forever remains a mysterious God. The things He has revealed to us are even proving too enigmatic for our minds to comprehend. No one can fathom the inscrutable God.

The Son Is A Giver of Life

The second main thing that makes Yeshua HaMashiach God, like His Father, is because He is a giver of life (2 Cor. 3:6,17; 1 Cor. 15:45). God created all things through Him (John 1:3; Col. 1:16). He gave life to all that He created because He has in Himself the “source” or “fountain” of life. Prior to the creation of all things the Father had put in Him the divine ability to give life to all things from the “life” which is in Himself (John 5:26). God gave this divine attribute of Himself to the Son so that the Son can give life to others. This made it possible for the Son to give life to all the creation of God. Therefore, both the Father and the Son are sources of life. But this power which the Son has and which He used during the creation of the universe and all things in them was given Him by the Father (John 5:26).

The Son created all things in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible, including the angels. No one can justly deny the fact that the Son is God to all the things that were created by Him. It should therefore not pose any surprise that God commanded His angels to worship the Son who created them (Heb. 1:6). He is their creator. Therefore, it is not idolatry if He is worshipped and honoured like the Father.

It should be understood that the Father gave two key things to His Son. First, He gave Him life, not through creation like mankind and the angels, but by bringing Him out of Himself thereby making the Son the only one that has His nature of Godhood. That makes the Son the second God being like Yahweh, the Father. The second thing He gave the Son is to “have life in Himself” just like the Father. In other words, He made His Son to be a co-giver of life. However, the ability to create things does not confer on the Son equality with the Father because the life and divine power which the Son has were given Him by the Father. The one who gave the Son life is the God of the Son and unquestionably superior to His Son (John 14:28; 1 Cor. 11:3). 

Apart from the passages which expressly refer to the Son of God as God, there are some others which implicitly say He is God. A few examples are given here: 

• God, the Father, Himself, ordered His angels to worship the Son (Heb. 1:6). This is a veiled testimony by God Himself that His only begotten Son is also God. God will never order His creation to worship anyone who is a creature (Exodus. 34:14; Rom.1:25; Col. 2:18; Rev. 22:8,9). The command would have made God guilty of sanctioning idolatry if His Son were not God. Evidently, God would not have given this order if the Son were a created being. But the truth is that the Son is a God Being like the Father.

• The kingdom of heaven is also known as the Kingdom of God. It is also called “The Kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph. 5:5). Apostle John called it “the kingdom of our Lord [God] and of His Christ” (Rev. 11:15). See also Rev. 21:22-22:5. Add to these texts the statement made by Jesus Christ in Rev. 3:12. There, He promised all who overcome all trials and tribulations that He will write on them (i) the name of God, (ii) His own new name, and (iii) the New Jerusalem. This means that two of them will be the co-owners and co-rulers of the eternal kingdom. Obviously, someone who is not God cannot be co-ruler with God, the Father, in an eternal kingdom called the kingdom of God. 
• In the gospels, we find many passages where the Son of God was worshipped. And in Revelation are found records of worship of “the one who sits on the throne” [God] and “the Lamb” [the Son of God] by angels and men. See, for example, Rev. 4:8-11; 5:8-14; 7:9-12. If the Messiah were no more than a human being as supposed by the Jews and some Christian groups today, our Lord Jesus Christ would have rejected the worship the same way Barnabas and Paul (Acts 14:10-18) and an angel (Rev. 22:8,9) refused to be worshipped. He is the one who created the men and the angels on the authority of His God and Father. It was therefore not idolatry if they worship Him the same way they worship the Supreme One who alone has the titles of the Almighty, God of gods, Most High [God], the Majesty in heaven, the Omnipotent, et alia. 

Are the Father and the Son Coequal? 

Does the fact that the Son of God is God like the Father make Him coequal with the Father?  Many theologians have written so many fantastic things on the coequality of the Son and the Holy Spirit with the Father. And since the fourth or fifth centuries when a pseudepigraphon known as the Athanasian Creed was smuggled into Christian teaching, so many weird theories have emerged in support of the creedal position. I consider it unnecessary to dissipate time and effort on the numerous conjectured theories of religious voyagers who, according to Apostle Peter, have twisted many scriptures because they are ignorant and are not sure of what they believe (2 Peter 3:16). I have chosen to reason from the Scriptures.

In the light of the Scriptures we say that the Godhood of the Son of God does not make Him coequal with God, the Father. A few points should be noted:

• He is called the Son of God, the same way Adam (Luke 3:38) and angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; Gen 6:2,4) are sons of God. All of them are called sons because they derived their existence from God. No one can be coequal with the Father who is the only self-existed being.  
• God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; John 20:17; Eph. 1:3,17; Rev. 3:12). No one is coequal with his God who brought him into existence. 
• Jesus Christ said, “my Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). In affirming this, Apostle Paul wrote, “God is Supreme over Christ” (1 Cor. 11:3, GNB).  In 1 Cor. 15: 27-28, the Apostle Paul wrote that Christ is subordinate to God. The supremacy of the Father over His only begotten Son is not in any way qualified in the Bible. 

Philippians 2:6 Misunderstood  

Does Philippians 2:6 say that the Son of God is coequal with God? Well, many versions of the English Bible say, in this verse, that the Son is indeed coequal with God. But all the translators who interpret the verse this way failed to follow the rules of biblical interpretation and so make the verse contradict the words that came from the lips of Jesus Christ when He said, “the Father is greater than I”

The Greek word translated “robbery” in the KJV is harpagmos. It is used only here in Phil. 2:6 and it a noun derived from the Greek verb harpazo which is used in 13 places in the Bible (Matt. 11:12; 13:19; John 6:15; 10:12; 10:28; 10:29; Acts 8:39; 23:10; 2 Cor. 12:2; 12:4; 1 Thes. 4:17; Jude 1:23; Rev. 12:5). In all the 13 places, the idea of holding on to something one already possessed is totally absent. The word carries the idea of snatching someone or something by force; something one does not have in one’s possession; robbery through the use of some force. The noun harpagmos does not connote a different action from the verb harpazo from which it is formed. What Paul meant in that verse is that Christ never attempted to become equal with God even though He has the same God nature as the Father. 

The truth is that Apostle Paul who told the Corinthians that God is supreme over Christ (1 Cor. 11:3) and the Ephesians that God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:17) would have contradicted himself and his Lord by telling the Philippians that Christ is coequal with God. What he wrote to the Philippians is that Christ’s possession of Godhood like His God and Father did not make Him think of wanting to become equal with God. This verse is rendered in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) thus: “Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be possessed by force.” The Good News Bible, using Today’s English Version, 1976 Edition, renders the verse thus: “He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should TRY TO BECOME equal with God” (bold emphasis mine). Making an attempt to become equal with someone simply means one is not equal with that person.

Apostle Paul never at any time taught anyone in any of his epistles that our Lord Jesus Christ was coequal with the Father. In Phil. 2:6, Paul was simply saying that Christ never gave thought to the idea of wanting to become equal with God, despite His having the same divine nature as the Father. Our Lord is never forgetful of the fundamental fact that the Father is His God.

Conclusion  

Jesus Christ, like Adam and angels, is called the Son of God because His existence is derived from God. God, the Father, is the only one who did not derive His existence from any other being. That is why He is the only true God. 

God has life in Himself. In other words, He is the source or fountain of life. He gives life to others from that fountain and that is what makes Him God. 

In His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, God gave or granted His only begotten Son to also have life in Himself (John 5:26). This means that the Son of God, like God, is also a fountain of life. It is from this fountain that the Son of God gave life to all creation when God created all things through Him. The ability to give life to others is one factor that makes Jesus Christ God like His God and Father.

We must never lose sight of the fact that the life which the Son has in Himself, out of which He gives life to others, was given or granted Him by God, His Father. We know therefore that God is the Principal giver of life while His Son is the one through whom God gives life to all other beings. The Son got His own existence directly from God, but all other beings got their existence from God through the Son. 

The fact that the Son of God is a giver of Life (John 5:26; 2 Cor. 3:6,17; 1 Cor. 15:45; Heb. 1:2; Col. 1:15-17) is the second reason that makes Him God like His God and Father. But inasmuch as He derived His own life or existence from God is the reason the Father is the only true God, the one and only God (John 17:3; 1Cor. 8:6). That is also the basic reason He is not coequal with the Father. All beings derive their existence from God who is also the Father of all beings. Evidently, therefore, the Godhood of the Son does not annul the fact that there is one God and this one God is the Father (1 Cor. 8:6). The one who is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” is the one God.  

With insight into the scriptures, we cannot deny the Godhood of the Son of God, although His Godhood is derived from, subordinate to, and subsumed in the Godhood of His Father. He has never been coequal with His God and Father. 

All the people who say that He cannot be God because God is His God as well as those who say that He is coequal with God lack insight into the scriptures. The same goes for those who say that the Father and the Son are one and the same person. There are strong biblical rebuttals of these fictitious doctrines. 

The Bible has not taught that the Godhood of the Son automatically makes Him the Almighty or Omnipotent. There are certain things which the Father has kept as His supreme prerogative (Matt. 20:23: John 5:19,30; Acts 1:7; Mark 13:32). 

The scriptures which call the Christ God can neither be controverted nor be ignored. The Son of God, Yeshua HaMashiach, although is Son like Adam and the angels in the sense that He derived His life or existence from God, the Father, He, unlike Adam and the angels is God by nature. He inherited the God nature from the Father who begot Him before the beginning of things. 

The Godhood of the Son of God does not negate the fact that the Father is the one God, the Supreme God (John 17:3; 1Cor. 8:6). The Father is the only one who did not derive His existence from any other being, but all beings, including our Lord Jesus Christ, derived their life or existence from Him. The fact that the Father is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 20:17; Eph. 1:3,17; Rev. 3:12) makes the Father the one God, the Most High God. Only the Father is the One God of Christians (1 Cor. 8:6).  Finally, the fact that the apostles called Jesus Christ “a man” (Acts 2:22) or “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5) does not in any way deny Christ’s Godhood. When Jesus Christ was on the earth, He was a complete human being (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14-18), His Godhood having been pulled off Him by the Father and given a human body so that He could offer His blood as sacrifice for the sins of humanity (Heb. 7:27; 9:11; 10:14). The apostles referred to Christ as “man” because He was a perfect human being when He came to the earth to offer His blood as a sin offering to God on behalf of humankind. I hope we should no longer have any confusion as to why the Bible called the Father and His only begotten Son the two God Beings (Ps.45:6-7; John 1:1) and yet refer to the Father as the only God. The Godhood of the Son neither make Him and the Father one and the same person nor make the two of them coequal. The fact that the Son derived His existence from His Father makes His Godhood subordinate to that of the Father. His Godhood is also derived from and subsumed in the Godhood of the Father. Clearly, the Divinity of the Son of God has not obliterated the fact that the Father is the one God, the only true God.