THE SON OF GOD
John 5
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”
For many of us, the issue of the deity of Jesus is settled. This is the most major plank on the platform of Christian belief and we do not question it. However, this has to be a raging issue for the early Christians, especially those who came from the Jewish tradition. After all, one key tenet of the Jewish Law is that they serve only one God.
Christian theology takes the cue from both the Old and New Testaments; the One God of the Old Testament, and the identity of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. The explanation of Jesus in John 5 is an important basis for our insistence that there is indeed only One God; yet the One God exists as the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. There is complete unity under the headship of the Father and all 3 are to be accorded the same honour. While Jesus claims equal standing with the Father, there is never any suggestion that there is more than One God. God is always a unity.
This is so revolutionary and unexpected that it is difficult to imagine it coming from the minds of the Apostles.
But what does it mean for us? To hear and believe is not about the words but the person. The deity of Jesus is not a theological concept that we acknowledge, but a man whom we must honour and obey as much as we ought to honour and obey God himself. Any less is unacceptable.
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.”