Jesus Is God, but He Is Not the Father

Let me put two truths side by side tonight, and I want you to hold them both, because the Book holds them both. Jesus is fully God. And Jesus is not the Father. Now the Oneness position can hold the first, but it cannot hold the second, and Scripture will not let you drop either one. Watch this.

A mediator stands between two parties

Start with what Christ came to do:

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God…” (1 Peter 3:18, KJV)

Read it again: that He might bring us to God. Now think, child of God, that takes two: the One who brings, and the God we are brought to. If Jesus were the Father, the verse would collapse into nonsense: the Father bringing us to the Father. And Paul says it flat out: “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). A mediator stands between two parties. That is a real distinction between Persons, not one Person playing two parts.

Truly man and truly God

Somebody will say to you, “But the Bible calls Jesus a man, so how can He be God?” And there is the whole error in one sentence, child of God. They think that if Jesus is a man, He cannot be God. But Scripture says He is both, fully man and fully God, and there is no contradiction in it at all.

Hear it plainly: the eternal Son of God truly became man without ceasing to be God. His humanity was added to His divine Person; His deity was never taken away. So when the Bible calls Jesus a man (John 8:40; 1 Timothy 2:5), it does not disprove His deity: it confirms the incarnation. That is the miracle!

Fully God: make no mistake

And do not think for a moment that being man, or being distinct from the Father, means He is any less than God. Hear it:

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9, KJV)

All the fullness of the Godhead: bodily, in Jesus! “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). He said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), and “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), and His enemies took up stones, because they knew He was making Himself God (John 10:33). He forgave sins, which only God can do (Mark 2:5–12). And doubting Thomas fell before Him and said, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28), and the Lord received it. So He is God, all right. But He is God the Son.

“But God is not a man”

And when they throw Numbers 23:19 at you, “God is not a man, that he should lie”, read what it actually says. That verse is about God not lying like men lie; it is about His truthfulness, not about whether He can take on flesh. Same with Hosea 11:9, “I am God, and not man”: it contrasts God’s holy mercy with human sinfulness. Neither one says God cannot become flesh, and John 1:14 says He did: “the Word was made flesh.”

The distinction is older than Bethlehem

And this is not something that started at the manger. Before there was a world, the Word was already there, and already distinct:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, KJV)

To be with God is to be distinct from the God you are with. And the Son Himself spoke of “the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). Then hear the Father (the Father!) speak to the Son and call Him God: “Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8). And that Son “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3), and child of God, no man sits at his own right hand.

So here is the whole gospel in order: the Father sent the Son; the Son shed His blood for our sins; and through the risen Son we are brought to the Father. Truly man and truly God, fully God and not the Father: exactly what Oneness cannot hold together, and exactly what the blood-bought child of God believes. So hold both truths, and worship Him for both. Glory to God.

Related Teaching

• Jesus Is Not God the Father Incarnate
• “My Father Is Greater Than I”
• Scripture Supports the Doctrine of the Trinity
• How Jesus Identified Himself