The Nicene Creed states that Jesus is “consubstantial with the Father.” This means that Jesus is one in substance with the Father, having full possession of the one divine nature and thus equal to the Father.
But some quasi-Christian sects, such as Jehovah Witnesses, challenge this belief with a variety of bible passages.
The passages that we’re going to look at here have to do with the claim that Jesus denied his equality with the Father.
One such passage is John 14:28. Jesus says, “The Father is greater than I.” How can Jesus be equal to the Father, so it’s argued, when he explicitly says the Father is greater?
One answer is that Jesus attributes this lesser status to himself insofar as he is man, not God. St. Thomas Aquinas explains,
Thus when he says, the Father is greater than I, he does not mean I, as Son of God, but as Son of man, for in this way he is not only inferior to the Father and the Holy Spirit, but even to the angels: “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:9). Again, in some things he was subject to human beings, as his parents (Luke 2:51). Consequently, he is inferior to the Father because of his human nature, but equal because of his divine nature (Commentary on the Gospel of John 14.8).
We have to remember that on the traditional Christian view, Jesus, along with being fully God, is fully man, possessing a real human nature. As such, he can attribute to himself that which properly belongs to a human being. For example, he can truthfully say of himself that he was born, he grew in wisdom and knowledge, he wept, he laughed, he ate, he drank, he suffered, he died, etc.
Now, it’s a truth of human nature that a person’s body and soul, along with all their powers (vegetative, sensitive, and rational), depend upon God at every moment they exist. And since whatever depends upon another for its existence is inferior to that which it depends upon, it follows that God is greater than the human nature that a person possesses.
Jesus has a real human body and soul. As such, at every moment his body and soul exists, along with their powers, they depend upon God for their existence. This makes Jesus’ human body and soul inferior to God the Father.
Therefore, inasmuch as he is fully man—having a real human nature that’s dependent upon God at every moment it exists—Jesus can say that God the Father is greater than him. But inasmuch as he has the divine nature, he is equal to the Father (Phil. 2:6; John 5:8; John 1:1).
Aquinas gives us another way we can respond: the Father is greater than the Son “by the dignity of a grantor or source. . . a principle inasmuch as it is from the Father that the Son possesses that by which He is equal to the Father.” In other words, because of the order of relation that exists between the Father and the Son—the Son proceeds from the Father and not vice versa—Jesus can say that the Father is greater than he.
John 17:3 is another passage often cited in support of the claim that Jesus is not God. In his prayer to the Father, Jesus says, “And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” It would seem that since the Father is “the only true God,” Jesus couldn’t be God.
One problem with this objection is that it assumes there can be only one person in the Godhead. Of course, if we’re operating with such a view, then appealing to this passage would be logical.
But for Christians, there are three Persons in the Trinity, so the Father is the only true God, the Son is the only true God, and the Holy Spirit is the only true God.
The formulation that Jesus uses doesn’t exclude another from being the only true God. If Jesus had said, “only the Father is the true God,” then we would have to conclude Jesus is denying equality with the Father, since this statement would restrict the divine essence to the Father alone.
But Jesus doesn’t say that. His statement, “the Father is the only true God” doesn’t restrict the divine essence to the Father alone. The term “only” refers to God, who is absolutely unique, for besides him there is no other God (Isa. 44:6; cf. Isa. 43:10). And the Father is that God who is the only true God.
This allows for another to be the only true God along with the Father. And that is exactly what Christians believe: the Son, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is that God who is the only true God.
Since what Jesus says in John 17:3 is consistent with the belief that Jesus is God, it follows that this passage doesn’t falsify the belief that Jesus is equal to the Father.
We can show the previous point from the Jehovah Witnesses’ own New World Translation. For example, Jude 4 calls Jesus “our only Owner and Lord.” Must we conclude that the Father, or Jehovah, is not our “Owner and Lord” because the Bible says Jesus is “our only Owner and Lord”? If we were to follow the logic of this objection, we would have to say yes. But that’s absurd.
So, John 17:3 fails to prove that Jesus wasn’t equal to the Father.
A final bible passage that we’ll consider here is John 20:17, where Jesus tells Mary Magdalene:
Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
How could Jesus be God and at the same time call the Father God? That doesn’t seem to make sense.
Our first response is similar to the one we gave above when considering John 14:28: Jesus says this insofar as he is man. Aquinas writes,
When he adds “to my God and your God,” he is referring to his human nature. From this point of view God rules him; thus he says, my God, under whom I am a man (Commentary on the Gospel of John 20.3).
Recall above we said that Jesus could truthfully attribute to himself anything that belongs properly to human nature because he is fully human. Since acknowledging God and worshipping him belongs to the activity of a human, it follows that Jesus could acknowledge the Father as God and worship him.
So, John 20:17 fails as well in proving that Jesus wasn’t equal to the Father.
Other bible passages have been used to claim that Jesus wasn’t equal to the Father, and these we’ll consider some other time. But at least we know that the bible passages considered above don’t succeed in showing that Jesus denied his equality with the Father.
***This article was originally published by Catholic Answers Magazine Online on August 28, 2019.