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Religion

2009-11-01 15:55:00

Are the Three Persons in God equal?

Question: In the Bible: The Gospel of St. John (chapter 14, verse 28) quotes Jesus saying: “You have heard that I said to you: ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you.’ If you truly loved me, you would rejoice to have me go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” Doesn’t this statement somewhat contradict the belief in the Trinity that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, are co-equal?

Answer: The verse in question is part of the last week (beginning in John 12:1) of Jesus’ earthly life where He had entered Bethany on His way to Jerusalem. It is there John subtlety discloses this with the incident of Mary anointing Jesus feet with costly perfume and wipes them with her hair in preparation for His death (vs7). The crowd was growing because of the news which had spread about Lazarus being raised from the dead earlier in Chapter 11. At this point the Jews wanted to kill Jesus and Lazarus (12:9-10). Jesus then moves on with this swelling crowd leaving Bethany, going to Jerusalem where the Triumphal entry (Palm Sunday) parade takes place as Jesus rides into Jerusalem as a Triumphant warrior. John makes a comment about the disciples ignorance about many of the things that were about to happen and would not fully understand the events of Holy Week until after Jesus is resurrected (John 12:16). As Jesus and His disciples make their way through the week, He prepares His disciples for His crucifixion, death and resurrection through the teachings He makes in the rest of chapter 12. In that He also makes several outstanding statements about His relation to the Father and His being of the same essence as God (vss 26, 32, 34, 36, 44-50). His bold statements like, (45) “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me” makes it obviously clear about His identity. He was God who became flesh. In Chapter 13 we see Jesus “knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father…” (vs 1), celebrates the Passover which He institutes the Last Supper. Christ also teaches them not only about His death and resurrection in the instituting of the Supper, He also prepares them for their ministry and lives without His physical presence. Jesus teaches them about serving through washing their feet and also the cleansing He will provide them with through His death. Christ tips them off about His betrayal and John again throws us a hint of the ugliness of the moment when he comments in verse 30, “…it was dark.” Christ then speaks of His glorification (31-32), their remaining on earth and the importance of living His distinguishing trade mark of love toward one another (33-35) and foretells Peter’s denial (36-38). In chapter 14, Jesus fills a lot more in of the coming events for the disciples so He can bring comfort, strength and knowledge as they spread the message of good news in the years to come. Christ shares with them He is going to heaven before them (1-4) and how they can get there (5-6). Jesus then explains again more on His relationship to the Father and His relationship in essence (7-14) and then shares about the Holy Spirit’s role in comforting them and His connection to the Father (15-27). Having gone through chapters 13 and 14, we also see them overflowing with references to His unique oneness with the Father (Ch13:13,16,19,20,31, Ch 14:1,6,7,9-11,20,21,23,24,26) Jesus now brings them back to the touchy subject He started in verse 3 about His departure that they should be rejoicing over and not be sorrowful as He tells them in the first part of verse 28. He makes the statement, “I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” This statement many have taken out of context. For instance, 300 years after Jesus, a Bishop in the church by the name of Arius (318 BC) said Jesus was a created being, was not God and denied the Trinity. If you have a friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness, Unitarian, Unity, etc that is their belief that Jesus is not co-eternal and not the same substance of God. The church fought that teaching off by writing three Creeds, The Apostles (150), The Nicean (325) and the Athensian Creeds (362), each making it very clear with stronger statements that the Christian Church through scripture saw Jesus of the same substance and essence of God. That Jesus Christ is God. In the phrase in question “the Father is greater than I,” Christ is not speaking of the essence of His being, but referring to His incarnate state on earth. That during His earthly life He accepted the subordination (Hebrews 12:2) in order to fulfill His purpose of our redemption and eternal life (Philippians 2:5-11). But He was no less God. Jesus said He only could do what the Father does (John 5:19) and He affirmed “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) That is why our Triune God, [Father (Acts 2:24), Son (John 2:19) and Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11)] raised Jesus from the dead which has given us a sure salvation and eternal life. Because he provided for us with such a great eternal future, we can also trust Him for our present earthly lives. To see the essence of true greatness is having all the power at one’s disposal and yet putting it aside in humble submission to attain for the weak and incapable, freedom and relief, from the bondage we could never attain for ourselves. With a flood of gratitude to our Awesome God “who saved a wretch like me,” I write this, Pastor Dave.