Those who embrace the theoretical doctrine of the Trinity and the belief that Jesus is God incarnate, use the following verses to try to “prove” their theory by the bible. However, as you will see, these verses are actually taken out of context. Supposedly, since it says that Jesus and the Father are one, this means that Jesus was saying he was God.
They take this out of context: I and my Father are one. (Jn 10:30)
If you put this verse into its context you will see that Jesus is NOT saying that he and God are one, in the very same chapter. Just the verse before Jesus states:
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. (Jn 10:29)
He is saying God is greater than “all”, which includes Jesus himself. To reinforce this concept consider this verse:
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. (Jn 14:28)
If God is greater than Jesus, how could Jesus be God?
There is just no possible way! Then they use this passage also to try to put more weight to their theory:
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (Jn 14:7-9)
This is their idea, “when you are looking at me, you are actually looking at God, because I am God”. Here again they take the verses out of context. They completely ignore the very next verses that say:
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father IN me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth IN me, he doeth the works. (Jn 14:10)
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father IN me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (Jn 14:11)
Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (Jn 8:28)
Jesus is literally saying that it is God IN him, speaking through him, and he is not speaking his own words and even the works that he does it is God that does them through him. If Jesus were God, he wouldn’t have said this. It is God speaking and working IN Jesus and not Jesus himself. Therefore, Jesus is NOT God.
Then they will say that it is because “Jesus was fully God and fully man”. When he said things like this it was the man in him speaking or they also say that it is because Jesus was being humble. This takes a real stretch of imagination to invent an idea like this especially since there is no scripture in the bible to back up this theory.
And that’s all it really is, a theory since this cannot be clearly shown in Jesus’ words. Furthermore, something else they overlooked is the fact that if Jesus is God, because he says he and the Father are one, then he wanted all of his disciples to be God also, because in the famous prayer in John 17 he says this:
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (Jn 17:22)
And just as the Father was IN Jesus, he prayed that the Father would be IN them in the same way that he and his Father were one. So was he praying that all his disciples would be God?
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.(Jn 17:21)
The next verse would take this absurd concept even farther out:
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; (Jn 17:20)
This prayer isn’t only for his disciples, but for all of those who would believe in Jesus’ teachings in the future. This is supposed to apply to every person that has believed for the last two thousand years? We’re talking about literally millions of Gods here, not just a mere three-in-one God.
‘Good’ Master
What’s more is Jesus got upset when they called him “good”. Imagine what he would do if someone called him God! He said there was only “one” that was good and that is God. This has nothing to do with his humility. Contrary to what people believe about Jesus, he was a human being, just like all of the rest of us. He called himself the “son of man” for a reason. “Son of man” means exactly what it sounds like — a human man, son of a man — not a god-man. He was correcting the man for calling him “good”. Just imagine how Jesus would have reacted if they had called him God!
And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. (Mar 10:17-18)
(This passage is included in all three of the synoptic gospels.)
Conclusion:
This is how utterly insane and absurd this doctrine of the god-man Jesus is. So when he said I and my Father are one, it meant one in unity and purpose and teaching. When he said God was greater than him, he was showing that he was not equal with God.
When he said “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”, he was saying that what he was doing and saying was actually God doing and saying IN him and through him. He even says that the words he speaks are not his words, but the Father’s words.
Jesus didn’t do anything or say anything except what God taught him. Jesus would have been greatly angered and even offended if someone had called him God. There is nowhere in the bible that Jesus refers to himself or even insinuates that he is God.
None of the disciples or any of his followers, at that time, believed he was God and they totally rejected the idea of the god-man, the trinity and the virgin birth.
Next: Who Was Jesus Part 3 | Did God Lie?