The Bible Tells me so, Jesus has a God

To hear this post on the One God Report podcast, click here: https://anchor.fm/onegodreport-podcast/episodes/The-Bible-Tells-Me-So--Jesus-has-a-God-e10fqos

 

The Bible is clear that there is only one God. (Deuteronomy 6:4, 32:39, Mark 12:29, Isaiah 44:24, John 17:3. 1 Cor. 8:6, Gal. 4:6). The name of God in the Bible appears over 6800 times and is spelled with the four Hebrew consonants יהוה. Here is an example of what יהוה the God of the Bible says:

 

Deuteronomy 32:39 “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me.”

 

The Bible is also clear that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God. So, is the one God of the Bible, יהוה, who states that he alone is the only God – is He the Lord Jesus Christ’s God?

 

The only God, יהוה, must be, has to be, the Lord Jesus Christ’s God. So, the Lord Jesus Christ is not God.

 

Let me say that again.

There is only one God, יהוה.

The Lord Jesus Christ has a God.

The one God (יהוה) is the Lord Jesus Christ’s God.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ is not God, because the only God is the Lord Jesus Christ’s God.

 

If Jesus Christ was God, then there would be two God’s. Jesus, and the Lord Jesus Christ’s God.

 

But there are not two Gods.

 

I think most Christians understand that there is only one God. But it seems to me that fewer Christians know that Jesus Christ has a God. Today I shake my head to a certain degree in shame and frustration because during the decades that I was a Trinitarian, I don’t remember that I ever noticed in the Scriptures or considered that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God. But apparently I wasn’t alone because in the decades that I taught Bible to hundreds, over the years to thousands of college and seminary students, and preached in a church setting to many others, I don’t think anyone ever asked me “How can the Lord Jesus Christ have a God, if he is God?” 

 

I remember the first time I told my wife, “I worship the God of Jesus”, and she looked at me like I was, well, some kind of heretic. Then I showed her a few passages in the Bible that state specifically that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God.

 

I think Christians don’t notice that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God because they read Scripture with the presupposition that Jesus is God, and just skip over passages that don’t fit this presupposition.

 

But there is no place in the Bible that says “Jesus is God” or where Jesus said “I am God”. On the other hand, there are many passages in the Bible that state specifically that Jesus has a God. Again, there is no clear statement in the Bible that says Jesus is God. Rather, there are many clear statements that Jesus has a God.  Here are a few of those Scriptures:

 

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 1:3).

 

“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation…” (Ephesians 1:17).

 

When Jesus was on the cross, he said:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34).

 

After he was raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus told Mary Magdalene:

“…go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God'” (John 20:17).

 

Then after his glorification and ascension to heaven to the right hand of God, Jesus said to the church in Sardis:

 

“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God” (Revelation 3:2)

 

The to the church in Philadelphia, once again, the resurrected glorified Jesus in heaven said: “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name” (Revelation 3:12).

 

That’s four times in one verse that the glorified Jesus in heaven mentions “my God”.

 

The very first verse of the Book of Revelation mentions the God of Jesus Christ:

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.”

 

So does Revelation 1:6

“…and (Jesus) made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father...”

 

As mentioned above in read Ephesians 1:3 and 1:17, the Apostle Paul knew that Jesus has a God. Here are more statements from the Apostle Paul about the God of the Lord Jesus Christ:

 

“…that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6)

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort…” (2 Corinthians 1:3).

 

The Apostle Peter also knew that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God:

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Peter 1:3).  

 

In addition to explicit statements in the Bible that Jesus has a God, every single book of the New Testament differentiates between God and Jesus Christ (the Lord Messiah).

 

Here is Jesus in the Gospel of John:

“…you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God” (John 8:40).

 

“believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1).

 

The following statements by the Apostle Peter is typical of his clear understanding of the differentiation between God and Jesus. Peter declared on the Pentecost after Jesus was raised from the dead:

 

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst…

 

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:22, 36).

 

 

All of Paul’s 13 epistles start out with a differentiation between God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah): “Peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus the Messiah” (Romans 1:7, See also 1 Cor. 1:3, 2 Cor. 1:2, Gal. 1:3, Eph. 1:2, Philippians 1:2, Col. 1:2, 1 Thess. 1:1, 2 Thess. 1:2, 1 Tim. 1:2, 2 Tim. 1:2, Titus 1:4, Philemon 1:3). 

 

We can note that in pretty much all of the statements about the God of Jesus, God is also known as “the Father”. Many Christians seem to think the phrase “God the Father” or “God our Father” appears in the Bible to differentiate one person of God from another person of God.  As if the title “God the Father” differentiates between a God who is the Father, and another God or person who is not the Father, such as God the Son, or God the Spirit, or perhaps God the Trinity.

 

But this is not what “God the Father” means. Rather, “the Father” is a title for all of God, not just one person of a multi-person God. God is our Father. That God is called humankind’s Father is an essential feature of the Bible. Based on Old Testament revelation, God is the Father the people of Israel’s Father. The people of Israel are God’s firstborn son:

Exodus 4:22, “You shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my firstborn son.”

Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Moses declares of יהוה in Deut. 32:6, “…is this how you repay יהוה? He is your father, who made you his!”

Isaiah states clearly, 

“You are our Father..., you, O Yahweh יהוה are our Father…” (Isa. 63:16).

Malachi 2:10 states: “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?” 

 

So יהוה is the Father. There is no other God besides him.

 

By the way, there seems to be a recent trend among Christians, both among scholars and lay people alike, to make the claim that “Jesus is Yahweh”. Beyond the absurdity of claiming that Yahweh was a man who was born in Bethlehem and put to death around the age of 33, claiming that “Jesus is Yahweh” creates another exegetical problem, because in the Old Testament Yahweh is the Father.

To claim that “Jesus is Yahweh” is to claim that Jesus is the Father, a good modalist or one-ness claim, but heresy to the Trinitarian. Tell these people that when the say that Jesus is Yahweh they are saying that Jesus is the Father, and then they will have to come up with another lie to cover their previous lie.

 

What has happened is that Gentile “Christian” philosophers took the Hebraic concept of the one God as Father and perverted it into a pagan idol that needs to be propped up with lie after lie.

 

To claim that “God the Father” is just one member of a tri-personal godhead means that God the Father is not the supreme God. The Trinity would be the greatest or the supreme God. To make  יהוה our God and Father only one member of a multi-person godhead means that there is another god besides the Father.

 

But having another God besides the Fatherיהוה  breaks the first and greatest commandment (Deut. 6:4, Exo. 20:2-3, Mark 12:29-30).

 

Now back to the real reason why the Bible presents יהוה as the Father. The title “Father” describes the relationship between יהוה and His people, not to differentiate one member of a godhead from a different member who is also God.

 

In the Bible, the Father is the one God, and the one God is the Father. His name is יהוה, and one of his title’s (He has other titles, too) is Father. There is no other God besides him. That the one God is the Father is consistently expressed in the New Testament. Jesus speaks of “your Father who is in heaven” and instructs his disciples to pray: “Our Father in heaven…”  Near the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus declared that the only true God is the Father (John 17:1-3) and that the Father, the one true God, is his God (John 20:17).  Paul tells us that the one God is the Father (1 Cor. 8:6, Eph. 4:6).

 

In fact, both Jesus, and the believer in God through Messiah Jesus, can call out to God, saying: “Abba, Father.”

 

When Jesus was in Gethsemane, he prayed, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me…” (Mark 14:36).

 

Likewise, the Apostle Paul says that we as believers, in the same spirit as Jesus, call out “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:6).

 

The spirit of Jesus Christ in us does not make us call out “Trinity, Trinity”. Nor did Jesus Christ teach us to pray: “Our Trinity which are in heaven”.

 

To the biblical mind, God, God entire, is Jesus’s and our Father in a metaphorical, not in a metaphysical sense, because of God’s role as the giver of life, and because of all that is encapsulated in the father-child relationship: things like relationship, intimacy, concern, discipline, care, protection, representation (man represents God, being in God’s image), and not the least of which, inheritance. The children inherit the father’s property. God, the Father, promises to give the earth to the meek, the sons and daughters of God (Matthew 5:5, 9).

 

In the Bible, God is the Father, and the Father is God. There is no “God the Son” in the Bible. God is not a son. Let’s be reasonable. If God is a Son, why don’t we call out in prayer: “Son, Son!”

 

The word “God”, Theos in Greek, occurs over 1300 times in the New Testament. Over 1300 times. Even Trinitarian scholars acknowledge that the title “God, Theos” in the New Testament never means the Trinity. So according to Trinitarian scholars the God of the Bible is a Trinity, but the word “God” in the Bible never means the Trinity. Here is what you believe if you believe the God of the Bible is a Trinity. “The God of the Bible is a Trinity, but God in the Bible is never a Trinity”.

 

Trinitarian scholars go digging and clawing to suggest a few times of 1300 where “God, Theos” may refer to Jesus, but the arguments are weak, and it’s only their desperation to find some reference to Jesus as God. Those few times where Trinitarian scholars suggest the word “God” refers to Jesus are much better understood differently. See for instance podcast #9 on Thomas’ famous declaration “My Lord and my God”.

 

So to whom does the title “God” refer to in the New Testament over 1300 times? Yes, the Father. Trinitarian scholars acknowledge that “God, Theos” in the New Testament, over 1300 times, is the Father. So יהוה in the Old Testament is the Father, and this same Father is “God” in the New Testament.

 

As I mentioned, I don’t think most people who believe in the deity of Christ are aware that the Bible states clearly that Jesus has as a God. If Jesus is God like Trinitarianism says, it would not be expected that so often and so clearly the Bible states that Jesus has a God.

 

So, if and when Trinitarians learn that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God, some qualifying or secondary explanation must be given.

 

I’ve run across two different explanations by Trinitarians as to why Jesus has a God. The two explanations are very different from each other, and actually contradict each other, which should also be a red flag that something is wrong.  The first explanation seems to be more of a “man on the street” explanation, whereas the second seems to be more of a scholarly attempt to explain how and why the Lord Jesus Christ has a God.

 

1) Only the human Jesus has a God.

The dual-natured Jesus is kind of the trump card used to explain any contradictions that come up when Jesus doesn’t appear to be God. Ironically, it is the belief that Jesus has two natures, both a divine and human nature, that causes the contradiction in the first place. There would be no contradiction if we would simply accept and understand that Jesus the Messiah is a real human being, a real human person. 

 

So a “dual-natured Jesus” causes the problem, but for a deity of Christ believer, solves the problem! 

 

But the Bible never says anything about a difference between a "human Jesus and a divine Jesus", or about Jesus have both a divine and human nature. To propose a human Jesus distinct from a divine Jesus is to propose a kind of schizophrenic, double-minded Jesus who sly and tricky. If we were to ask the dual-natured Jesus: Do you have a God?  The divine Jesus laughs, “No, Silly, I am God”. But ask the human Jesus and he says “Ah, yes, I do have a God”. So the dual-natured Jesus both has and doesn’t have a God at the same time.

 

But the Bible is clear that there was no deceit or guile in Jesus’ mouth (1 Peter 2:22). To propose a dual-natured Jesus involves non-biblical philosophical speculation which in the end makes Jesus into a kind of clever, two-faced liar.

 

But it looks to me like, at least in this case, most of the scholarly world does not play the dual-natured Jesus trump card to attempt to explain how it could be that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God. Maybe because the scholars realize that a dual Jesus, one Jesus who has a God and one Jesus who doesn’t have a God, makes Jesus into a double-minded, schizophrenic liar.

So it looks to me like the preferred option for the scholarly world is a different explanation, that:

2) Within the “economy of the Trinity…God the Son calls God the Father ‘my God’”. But like the first explanation, neither is this biblical. Find a phrase like “economy of the Trinity” in the Bible, or any kind of description of one member of the "Trinity godhead" to another. Everywhere in the Bible, the man, the Lord Jesus Christ relates to his God as his Father. Even the 12 year-old boy Jesus related to God as his Father.

 

This suggestion also proposes that the Lord Jesus Christ’s God is different than our God.  Listen to one academic institution’s effort to explain that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God. 

“He [Jesus] relates to God as Father differently than we do…Jesus’ sonship and relationship with God is categorically different than us having a God…Jesus “has a God” relative to being within the Godhead versus us having a God being outside of the Godhead” (A Synopsis of the Deity of Messiah, p. 19).

 

This suggestion that Jesus’s God is different from our God, rather than solving a problem, creates more contradiction with the Bible. Jesus said that his God was the apostle’s God (John 20:17) and that the apostles were his brothers. Paul says that Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers.

 

And, this “economic Trinity” explanation seems to ignore the fact that both Jesus Christ’s God and our God in the Bible are identified. We have the same God as the Lord Jesus Christ: the Father. Many, many times the Bible says that our God is the Father (Rom. 1:7, etc.). Our God is the Father. Jesus’s God is the Father. What would ever cause one to think that our God is a different God from Jesus’s God? Only man’s clever speculation that enables him to deny the true God.

 

And once again, this supposedly clever theological speculation now has two God’s. Jesus’s God, who is different from our God. Seems to me that what we have here is one lie attempting to cover up for another lie. Two Gods.  Two Father’s? One Father who is Jesus’s Father and another Father who is our Father?

 

Judge for yourself if you think these diety of Christ explanations as to why Jesus has a God are good and biblical. To me, these secondary explanations are dissatisfying, leading to nothing but biblical and philosophical dead ends that contradict the clear teaching of Scripture. And these attempted explanations are “necessary” only because the Lord Jesus Christ having a God doesn’t fit Trinitarian or deity of Christ presuppositions. Without the presuppositions, there is no need for these lousy, unbiblical speculations, dead-end lies.

 

At least these Trinitarian qualifications recognize that only the Father is Jesus Christ’s God. Good for them. That is right. The Father is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is the same, the Father. “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 1:7, 1 Cor. 8:6, Gal. 4:4, etc.).

 

But from the Trinitarian or deity of Christ view, why would only the Father be Jesus Christ’s God? Why wouldn’t the Trinity be the human Jesus’s God? Or, why wouldn’t God the Son be the human Jesus’s God? Now, there is no “God the Son” in the Bible (I know, most Christians are surprised by that). But if God were a Son, then why is not God the Son the God of the human Jesus?

 

Aren’t “God the Son” and “God the Spirit”, God enough to be the human Jesus’s God?  Was not the “God Jesus” the God of the human Jesus? Shouldn’t Jesus’s God be Jesus, since Jesus is God?  Trinitarianism begins to sound like that Sicilian whom you should never get into a battle of wits with when death is on the line.

 

The fact is that the New Testament over and over again states clearly that the Lord Jesus Christ has a God, the Father. Jesus Christ says specifically that his God and our God is the Father (John 20:17).

 

"Every reasonable and honest person knows that if you have a God, as Jesus does, and identify who that God is, as Jesus does, then you are making a clear statement that you yourself are not God."

 

To wrap up this episode. Jesus has a God, the Bible tells me so. The New Testament never speaks of a triune God or of God the Son. In the New Testament there is only one God, who is also known as the Father, the God of Jesus Christ.

 

“but for us there is one God, the Father” (1 Cor. 8:6).

“one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:6).

 

The Bible tells us that the only God, יהוה, is the Father.  יהוה is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. יהוה is our God and Father.

 

So let me ask you the same question I asked my wife a few years ago. Do you worship the God of Jesus Christ? “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23).

Additional resources:

Articles

Jesus Christ’s God in the Scriptures (Trinity Delusion)

God’s God in Trinitarianism (Trinity Delusion)

Is Jesus God if He Has a God? (Kermit Zarley)

 

Video
The God of Jesus (Kegan Chandler)

Denying the Father, Jesus Christ’s God (Trinity Delusion)

God, God and God’s God: The Absurdity of the Trinity (Trinity Delusion)

Jesus Christ has a God (Dustin Smith)

Jesus Christ’s God, the Only God there Is (Trinity Delusion)

 

Podcasts

Jesus has a God, the Bible Tells Me So (One God Report Podcast)
The God of Jesus from Epistolary Greetings, Part 1, Biblical Unitarian Podcast

In the New Testament, Jesus has a God (who is also ours), Trinities Podcast

Jesus Has a God, Biblical Unitarian Podcast