“I Am Not Alone”
Chapter Eighteen – The Synoptic Gospels
The book of the generation [literally genesis/beginning] of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1)
With this verse begin the Synoptic Gospels, which are traditionally held to be three out of four of the writings from eyewitness accounts of the Lord Jesus’ time on earth.
Early in my writing ministry, I put together a collection of all the biblical purposes and reasons for being baptized into the name of Jesus Christ. It is still, I believe, a very pertinent study. You can find it in Appendix Four at the back of this book. The intent was to show just how firmly established in the Bible the practice of calling on Jesus’ name at the time of water baptism is. The point was that not only do we have biblical examples of baptism, but there are also several clearly stated purposes for being baptized “into Jesus Christ”; for example, “for remission of sins” (Luke 24:47, Acts 2:38, 10:43), or to be “buried with him by baptism into death” (Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12).
In contrast with these many Scriptures and examples, the Trinitarians have their one, sole verse referring to water baptism: Matthew 28:19. It doesn’t explain what the Trinitarians claim, nor did anyone in the Bible ever apply it to support the Trinitarian claim.
Such lack of biblical support is also true of the Oneness position that Jesus Christ is supposedly an incarnation of the very person of God the Father. It isn’t that they, like Trinitarians, don’t have a number of Matthew 28:19 type verses to turn to; rather, it’s that they have absolutely no Scriptures that simply explain or expound upon this belief, or any examples of an apostle preaching such a concept. The Oneness doctrine can only be taught the way the Trinity is: by quoting proof texts and claiming they really mean something they don’t actually say, all the while negating and neutralizing absolutely all the Scriptures that set out to describe the relationship of Jesus the Anointed One to His God and Father who anointed him.
This is absolutely not the case in connection with the true, biblical Son of God doctrine. Declaring and defending the Son of God doctrine over against the Oneness doctrine is very much like comparing baptism in Jesus’ name over against the Trinitarian use of the titles. To the contrary of Modalism, the Bible is brimming with example after example and explanation after explanation of the relationship, meaning and ramifications of the true Son of God’s relationship to his God and Father.
The three books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke contain a total of 76 passages that clearly, distinctly, and irrefutably describe Jesus the Anointed One as personally distinct from God. Those verses are listed at the end of this chapter for anyone who wishes to look them up. 1We won’t be quoting or covering all of them, just a significant amount suitable for this study.
We covered what the gospels say about the birth of Christ in Chapter Twelve, so we won’t discuss that again here. Suffice it to say that he was made and born of a woman of the offspring of David according to the flesh, and his birth (nativity, genealogy, and beginning) happened in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago according to all three of the Synoptic Gospel accounts.
Jesus’ Baptism and God’s Testimony Regarding Jesus (It is impossible for God to lie.)
16Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. 17Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16–17; also found in Mark 1:11 and Luke 3:22)
Here we have God’s explicit revelation and confession of who Jesus the Anointed is: he is God’s Son. He isn’t “God the Son,” and he isn’t “God incarnate.” He is God’s Son whom God is with. It is impossible for God to lie, but it is certainly possible for men to lie about what God said and meant by what He said! In saying this, the Bible used a Greek relative pronoun. In other words, this is another case where we have God as one “who” in clear distinction from His Son as another “who.” But this time it is God Himself making this proclamation. How many other messages did God audibly preach in the Bible? And yet still Onenessians and Trinitarians won’t hear!
So this distinction in “whos” is God-who-can’t-lie’s testimony of His Son. God had no reason not to be clear, open, and truthful here. Onenessianism treats God’s straightforward declaration as a lie that has to be interpreted and rephrased to mean what they want it to mean. That is because what God said here does not at all mean, “This is me, YHWH, robed in human flesh.” Are we to believe that God Himself was ashamed of the Oneness gospel? That’s ludicrous!
Furthermore, Jesus’ baptism isn’t the only place where God made this audible declaration.
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him” (Matthew 17:5; also Mark 9:7 and Luke 9:35).
Again, God who cannot lie (i.e., Titus 1:2 and Hebrews 6:18) called Jesussomeone third person to Himself. He said this by referring to His Son with the personal pronoun “him,” [Gr. autoú] in contradistinction to Himself as “I.”This statement, out of the very mouth of God Himself, clearly and concisely refutes Onenessianism.
What arrogance Onenessians have, then, to think they know better than God Himself!
What reason would God have to lie or be at all misleading about this relationship, which He reiterated exactly as He had stated at Jesus’ baptism? We can think of none. So we have it out of the mouth of God at two different events as testified by three different writers! Why is this simple, profound truth so hard for so many professing Christians to accept? God had told King David that a son would proceed out of David’s bodily organs and would be God’s Son, and here that very same God is calling this offspring of David His “son in whom He is well pleased.” God agrees with Jesus that He is with and in Jesus, but apparently God Himself could not, would not, and did not bring Himself to agree with Onenessians that He is Jesus or that Jesus is He!
Recall also that Jesus said regarding God being “in” him:
21That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. 22The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; 23I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me. (John 17:21–23)
This is biblical oneness: whatever oneness Jesus shares with the Father is the very same oneness that we will share with the Father. This is not what Onenessians are implying when they proclaim their idea of Jesus’ “oneness” with the Father. This is the Bible interpreting the Bible, the clear passages interpreting the less clear verses. God is in Jesus, and Jesus is in God, in the same way in which God is in us and we in Him when he dwells in us and we walk in His ways and His will… just exactly as Jesus did! There is no biblically stated reason to believe that the Father meant or was referring to anything other than this unity of Him being “in” (as in dwelling in) the relative pronoun “who” of Jesus Christ. That is God’s publicly proclaimed testimony of Jesus, and the Bible says let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4)! It is a tragedy to our Christian faith that Trinitarian and Oneness philosophies have brought such complexity and confusion to these matters. But, glory to God for being so clear and articulate!
Jesus’ Temptation
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)
Just as we have a number of Scriptures that reiterate and strengthen baptism into the name of Jesus Christ, we also have other Scriptures that reiterate how Jesus Christ was tempted. To begin with, we know that he was neither God nor the person of God because of very clear passages such as this:
13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. (James 1:13–15)
When Trinitarians put forth their doctrine, they do so by redefining certain established biblical truths. For example, they redefine the lone God of the OT to be One God substance in three persons. Well, in order to make the temptation passages “fit” their doctrine, Onenessians likewise simply redefine both “self” and “temptation” to be something other than what the Bible describes. This is probably the most important place where Jesus’ “wolves in sheep’s clothing” analogy fits the Oneness doctrine of God “robing Himself in flesh.” If God merely robed Himself in flesh while Jesus remained 100% God, then it could only have been the person of God that was tempted when Jesus was tempted.
But James taught that the very person, the “himself” (Gr. “autós”), of God cannot be tempted, nor does He tempt anyone. Contrary to both the Trinity and Oneness doctrines, the Son of God was tempted as to his personal self, his “autós” ; thus, explicitly, “he himself” and not just his so-called human nature:
17Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:14–18)
The Greek “péponthen autós” [“he himself”] here explicitly states that he personally experienced temptation. This is speaking of his very person, not merely his “human nature.” (Keep in mind that no Scripture describes Jesus as distinct between a mythological “deific” nature in contrast to a “human” nature; such an idea is as artificial and man-made as the Trinity is). This Scripture totally refutes the false notion that Jesus was personally God but was only tempted as to his human nature. It absolutely proves that those who interpret other verses to mean Jesus was somehow God incarnate are absolutely mistaken. To the contrary, this passage explains in specific detail that Jesus was tempted in his very person, which would be utterly impossible if he were God. This is how Incarnationists make a sham of Jesus’ overcoming: by implying he was only tempted as to his human nature and not that he was tempted to the very core of his personal being, as the Bible clearly teaches!
In the previous passage, James described what it means, biblically, to be tempted. Applying this to Jesus clearly shows how repulsed Onenessians and Trinitarians actually are by Scripture. James said, “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.” That is Scripture, penned by James. Nowhere does the Bible say that Jesus was only tempted in his impersonal human nature while remaining personally God as to his deific nature. That is how both Onenessians and Trinitarians reinterpret the Bible to make it fit their theories, rather than allowing their minds to conform to what it says.
Typically, Onenessians will say that Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. If they truly believe so, we need to ask, was the “man” part of Jesus also God? If not, then why are they so adamantly against the Scriptural teaching we uphold; namely, that Christ, personally, was only a man? We further need to ask, if he was (as in Onenessianism) inseparably both man and God at the same time, in what way could or did he stop being God long enough to be tempted in all points as a man, since God cannot be tempted? In order to “change natures,” did he do something like the equivalent of jumping into a proverbial phone booth like Superman? Or perhaps he wiggled his nose like Samantha in the TV show Bewitched?
This is a legitimate question because Onenessians do say things like this:
…Whenever Jesus speaks in Scripture we must determine whether He is speaking as man or as God… Sometimes it is easy to get confused when the Bible describes Jesus in these two different roles, especially when it describes Him acting in both roles in the same story. For example He could sleep one minute and calm the storm the next minute. He could speak as a man one moment and then as God the next moment. David Bernard, The Oneness of God, 87–88.
The initial false dilemma with such a position is that Jesus said he was given such authority; which is not the same as it being inherent to his person as Onenessians teach. The major problem with the above Oneness opinion is that it contradicts what the Bible explicitly teaches. The Bible doesn’t teach that Jesus was only tempted as far as his human nature goes. It explicitly teaches that “he himself” was tempted:
…he also himself… he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers… in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:14–18)
“He himself” was made like his brother, just as “he himself” was tempted. The Bible doesn’t separate Jesus into dual natures, or any kind of “roles” for that matter! This shows how clearly the Onenessians must add to and take away from what the Bible clearly teaches in order to support and defend their beliefs regarding Jesus.
The Oneness position obviously teaches another doctrine and another Christ in a way that we are not supposed to do! No human has the authority to add teachings to the Bible! The crux of the matter is that everything Jesus said or did, he said or did as a man who was fully authorized by, and yet remained in submission to, God. As we’ve seen, Jesus reiterated this truth repeatedly!
The Onenessian response is that this dual nature thing is a mystery and that is why it isn’t spelled out in the Bible. Well, if it is a “mystery” religion, then how is their mystery any different than the mystery of the Trinity? For when Trinitarians can’t explain how three persons can be one God, they just claim it is a mystery no one can understand. The reason the Bible doesn’t explain how Jesus can change back and forth from man to God at will is the same reason the Bible doesn’t explain how God can be three persons and yet still be one God. It is because that isn’t what the Bible means, and too many people don’t sufficiently believe the Bible when it does say and explain what it means! That is the real problem with both the Oneness and the Trinity doctrines.
For more evidence of this, let’s consider what Oneness preacher Anthony Mangun said about Jesus, which starkly reveals his actual view of Christ. As you read his view and consider what the Scriptures say about Jesus’ very real temptations, ask yourself if this Jesus that Mangun is talking about could ever have been sincerely tempted in all things the way you and I are truly tempted, as the Bible clearly states. In this passage, Mangun is comparing his view of Jesus to that of Dan Brown’s in The Da Vinci Code.
They called him a man because he was flesh and blood, but he was housing the Father Almighty God… I’m going to tell you Mr. Da Vinci Code, he never married… He had enough pressure on him being God, he didn’t need to be married. Can you imagine [him] coming home and sitting down… Mary [speaking to Jesus]: ‘Why you ten minutes late? Where’ve you been today? Who you been talking to? What you getting me for Christmas? I didn’t approve that new bass boat!’ He had enough pressure on him without being married… But can you imagine the pressure on her? ‘Hey, God, what’s happening today? What went on over the other side of the world today?’ He never had a child in spite of what Dan Brown has written; blasphemous!… He never had a child. He was the absolutely almighty God, born without sin. Anthony Mangun, The Dual Natures of Christ, Disc 5, “Jesus the Man,” track 8 at 0:00–1:55.
So you see, in the Onenessian view, Jesus personally is thoroughly and inseparably God incarnate. He “has” flesh, but that is only an impersonal temple that his deific person “dwells in.” The “human” part of Jesus, in the Oneness view, is not really 100% human, because he has no human personality; that part of him is all God. This is how the Oneness doctrine makes a sham out of Jesus’ true overcoming of sin, just as Trinitarianism makes a sham out of the Shema, the biblical statement that God is indivisibly one.
Now let’s get back to discussing what the Bible teaches about lusts and see if the Onenessian view of Jesus fits the Bible or not.
The Bible says that Jesus was tempted, and in order to be tempted, as James 1:14 states, he had to have “lusts” that could even be tempted in the first place! Only a human could have these kinds of “lusts” (or desires) that “every man” is tempted by. God cannot be tempted; so then, to believe that Jesus could in any way be tempted by sin is to declare absolutely that Jesus is not personally God. With God there is no variableness or shadow of turning; you can’t temporarily suspend God’s repugnance to the evil fruit that sin produces. So in order to claim that Jesus is an incarnation of God, it would first be necessary to redefine the person of God as someone who has lusts that could even be tempted, all of which is totally contrary to Scripture.
As we’ve said, some try to redefine Jesus’ humanity by saying he was only tempted in his impersonal “human nature.” This claim redefines Jesus in a way contrary to how he was described in the Bible. Some say that he was only tempted externally by the devil, but not internally; yet that would be to redefine temptation. Biblically, as we’ve read above, temptation is something that appeals to a human individual’s internal (that is, personal) lusts. Without redefining God, Christ, and temptation, there is no way around Jesus having been a man. As such, he could not have been God because he was truly tempted.
The Bible gives us yet another very clear, “it is written again” type passage that should silence anyone who presumes that Jesus was God incarnate. It says this:
15For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
This is what makes all those other excuses invalid. They go against what the Bible definitively describes in detail about Jesus’ temptations: he was tempted in every way, the same way we are. That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? Most of all, it is clearly descriptive and definitive! All Christians know very well what it is like for us to be tempted. It isn’t all external. It isn’t all just some outward appeal. Somehow temptation has a way of sneaking right into the very core of our being and catching us unawares. In fact, real temptation has a way of making us feel as if the sin we want to commit is actually part of who we are! The Bible says Jesus was tempted like that, because he was tempted in all points like we are yet without sin. Anyone who is honest about his temptations will have to agree, because such is common to all mankind.
One of humanity’s biggest temptations is the temptation to believe that God doesn’t exist, isn’t around, or simply doesn’t care about our humble situation in the first place. This being the case, how many of us experience temptation while fully aware that we are God incarnate, as in the Oneness view about Jesus? If Jesus was God and was personally tempted like us in all things, how was he tempted not to believe in Himself (God)? How many of us are tempted to believe we don’t exist? Furthermore, how many of us are tempted to believe we personally don’t exist, all the while knowing full well that we are God incarnate? You see, saying that Jesus was tempted in all points like we are yet without sin quite simply destroys the theory that Jesus was “Almighty God incarnate.” If Jesus was God who cannot be tempted by sin, then he absolutely could not have been tempted in all points the way we are tempted because these are mutually exclusive ideas. That is why James 1:13–15 is an “it is written again” Scripture that destroys any and all “incarnation of God” theories for those whose faith “comes by hearing the word of God.”
Let us remember that no Scripture exists that described Jesus’ temptation in any terms other than that he was personally tempted. If the word of God had said or explained that Jesus was “tempted as to his human nature but not as to his deific nature,” then that position would be called scriptural. It is not in the Scriptures, and that is what makes it extrabiblical, unbiblical and therefore man-made.
We aren’t by any means saying that Jesus was a sinner. If you will notice, both James 1 and Hebrews 4 differentiate temptation and lust from the act of sin and its resultant death. “Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death” (James 1:13–15). So we see how James described lust as having to conceive and bear sin. This description makes lust itself like a womb, and sin an act that comes forth from that womb; thus “lust” is not the same as “sin,” any more so than every young maiden who has a womb is by that fact pregnant. On the other hand, because every maiden has a womb, that gives them the capacity to bear children. It is in that manner, James tells us, that we, by our lusts, have the capacity to sin; so also Christ, who was tempted in all things like you and me. I heard one pastor explain it like this: “Just because you can’t keep the birds from flying overhead, doesn’t mean you have to let them nest in your hair. Likewise, just because you have lusts, doesn’t mean you have to give in to them and act on them.” Putting this last analogy in more biblical terms, the Scriptures say this:
16Don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. 18Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness. (Romans 6:16–18)
This is why Jesus is called God’s servant. He alone out of all mankind truly served God in the kind of obedience described here throughout his entire life.
The Bible clearly defines sin as transgression of the law. Sin isn’t a “nature.” Rather, sin is something we either commit or omit. It is doing something we shouldn’t have done or not doing something we should have done in order to be obedient to the law of God. This is what James described in saying that sin is what is brought forth, as in the act of delivery, out of our lusts, because we acted upon them.
When the Bible says Jesus was tempted and yet without sin, it is simply saying that he never submitted his bodily members (heart, mind, body, or soul) to commit sin. When the devil tempted him, he stayed obedient to God. There is simply no Scripture that teaches that Jesus was made of a different form of humanity than the rest of us. Rather, it clearly teaches that he was made like us in all things. To say that Jesus was not a sinner means nothing more than to say he never committed sin.
Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)
This verse plainly tells us that sin is something we commit. It is only in pagan philosophy that our physical flesh is sinful in “nature” (namely, that sin is somehow in the makeup of physical substance). When God created mankind, he saw that it was very good. In Ezekiel 18, God spoke very clearly to the Israelites, renouncing what is known today as the doctrine of “Original Sin,” which is the idea that our flesh itself is sinful. That idea is not true, and God expressed His repugnance at the very idea. God’s view is that we each commit sin and thus become corrupted.
Paul wrote that “death passed upon all men…” (Romans 5:12). That is what we “inherited” from our original parents, Adam and Eve, according to God’s warning (Genesis 2:17). Those who believe otherwise have been spoiled by the philosophy of later Philosopher-Christians like Augustine, who, after the Gnostics, was the first to interpret Paul in such a philosophical way. For our purposes, we just need to reiterate the Scripture that says Jesus was tempted in all points like us, without sinning. This is one of the strongest points in counteracting the false notion that Jesus was God incarnate as a human. His very temptations prove that theory false. The Scripture stands: God cannot be tempted by sin or evil. No Scripture teaches that Jesus was only tempted as to his impersonal human nature; rather, it says he was tempted in all points just like you and me are tempted. He just never yielded to temptation. This is precisely what makes Jesus so worthy of his honor and position, and why God made him “Lord and Christ.”
Jesus Was Given Authority
6“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” (then he said to the paralytic), “Get up, and take up your mat, and go up to your house.” 7He arose and departed to his house. 8But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9:6–8)
Here is a perfect example of why we need to interpret the acts and sayings of Jesus through the foundation of the Messiah as an OT concept (see Section Three). Jesus, ever so clearly, defined his authority for us: it was bestowed upon him as “the son of man,” which explicitly refers to the fact that he is a true human being. Another clear indication was the response of the crowd. They recognized that this authority had been expressly “given… to men.” We’ve reiterated over and over that Jesus testified: “ All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18). In Matthew 11:27, Jesus also said, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father.” Conversely, nowhere does Jesus ever claim inherent power, authority, or ability. Rather, he is consistently adamant “that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father taught me, I speak these things” (John 8:28).
All that is left for us to do then is to believe Jesus at his word. People contrarily believe that the traditions of men explain what he was about better than he. We choose to believe Jesus’ clear words.
Jesus was God’s Servant
In Matthew 12 we come to another testimony from the Father through a prophecy given to Isaiah:
Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations. (Matthew 12:18)
Here Matthew quoted a prophecy that helps us understand how the disciples interpreted and understood who Jesus was. Clearly God did not have it stated anywhere in the Bible that His servant would be God Himself. Accordingly, in no way did the disciples believe that this servant was an incarnation of the very God who originally uttered these words.
Peter’s Confession: “You are the Anointed One, the Son of the Living God”!
16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:16–17)
We must keep in mind that our writer, Matthew, would have derived the meaning of the Messiah as God’s Son from the descriptions given in the OT Scriptures that we covered in Chapter Six. In particular, the designation refers to the oath from God that David’s offspring would be God’s Son.
We saw earlier, in Matthew 3:17, that God had testified that Jesus was His Son. The fact is that God wasn’t the only one to make this confession, nor was Peter. We have it from many witnesses in addition to God and the Apostle Peter…
Jesus— 35“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of God?’ 36He answered, ‘Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?’ 37Jesus said to him, ‘You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you’” (John 9:35–37).
The angel Gabriel— 32“‘He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.’ 34Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?’ 35The angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God’ ” (Luke 1:32–35).
The devil— “The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread’” (Matthew 4:3).
The demons— “Behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God?’” (Matthew 8:29, also Luke 4:41).
The Jews, including the High Priest— 70“They all said, ‘Are you then the Son of God?’ He said to them, ‘You say it, because I am.’ 71They said, ‘Why do we need any more witness? For we ourselves have heard from his own mouth!’” (Matthew 26:63–65; Mark 14:61 and Luke 22:70–71). Also: “The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God’” (John 19:7).
The Centurion— “And the centurion who was standing over-against him, having seen that, having so cried out, he yielded the spirit, said, ‘Truly this man was Son of God’” (Mark 15:39, YLT).
John the Baptist— “I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:34)
Nathanael— “Nathanael answered him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!’” (John 1:49)
The Disciples— “Those who were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, ‘You are truly the Son of God!’” (Matthew 14:33)
Mark— “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1)
John the Beloved— “But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)
The Ethiopian— “Then Philip said, ’If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” (Acts 8:37, NKJV)
The Apostle Paul— “Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God.” (Acts 9:20)
Alongside all these consistent testimonies of believers and non-believers alike, there is no such list of anyone claiming or believing that Jesus was an incarnation of the very person of the Father, or that God would be a son to Himself.
Furthermore, there is no Scripture teaching that the phrase the “Son of God” means the unbiblical “God the Son.” Such an idea would never have entered the minds of any of the saints in this list. To confess Jesus as “truly” the Son of God is a biblical, right, and proper confession.
Not My Will But Thine Be Done
41He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed, 42saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:41–42)
This confession is similar in strength to the truth that Jesus was truly tempted. In this passage Jesus affirmed his very real and personal separation and distinction from the Father: his will. His will, what he personally desired, was radically at odds with the Father’s will. We don’t find Jesus getting down on his knees and praying, “Hello Father, it’s me: you. If my spirit is willing, I could remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not as my impersonal flesh wills, but as my Spirit which is God the Father wills.” Is it really not obvious what a mess and mockery the Oneness position makes out of Jesus’ prayer?
We don’t find any such description or language anywhere in the Bible that would affirm the Oneness position. But here we have Jesus, as consistently as ever, speaking of the Father in the second person as “you” and of himself in the first person as “me.” How could words get any plainer?
This was the very defining moment of Jesus’ life. This is where he fulfilled what God had prophesied through Isaiah that God would do with and through him. That is, he was 3“a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease… he was despised and we didn’t respect him. 4Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities… and by his wounds we are healed… 10Yet it pleased YHWH to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin…” (Isaiah 43:3–5, 10).
It was always God’s plan that His Son would die a horrible death to make reconciliation for the sins of His people.
The Parables of Jesus
Teaching by parables was one of Jesus’ favorite methods. In one instance he said he wouldn’t even teach non-believers without using parables. Of the many parables of Jesus, not one teaches in any way that Jesus is an incarnation of God the Father. The majority of the parables don’t even address the relationship of Jesus with God the Father. Those parables that do refer to God and Jesus teach quite plainly that Jesus is not the Father. Here they are:
The Parable of the Marriage— “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son…” (Matthew 22:2)
The Parable of the Ten Talents— 14“For it is like a man, going into another country, who called his own servants, and entrusted his goods to them. 15To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his own ability… 31But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats… 34Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” (Matthew 25:14–15,31–34)
The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen— 33“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard… leased it out to farmers, and went into another country… 34When the season for the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit. 35The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another… 37But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and seize his inheritance.’ 39So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?” (Matthew 21:33–40)
The Parable of the Shepherd— 11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees… 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; 15even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.. 17Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. 18No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.” (John 10:11–18)
The Parable of the Unjust Judge— 18“He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up, 2saying, ‘There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man’… 6The Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. 7Won’t God avenge hischosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? 8I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’” (Luke 18:1–8)
In all of the above parables, Jesus presented himself as personally distinct from the Father. Jesus offered no parable in which he presented himself as an incarnation of his Father. Perhaps the following parable is the clearest of them all.
The Parable of the True Vine and the Farmer—“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, He takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit… I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:1–5)
Secular scientists have categorized all life forms in relation to the following hierarchy moving from the top down: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. You and I are of the animal kingdom, the chordate (backbone) phylum, the mammal class, the primate order, the mankind family, the genus Homo, and the species sapiens. In Jesus’ analogy, Jesus isn’t even in the same kingdom as God the Father. “Kingdom” is the top level of hierarchies of life forms, but Jesus is not there with God, let alone is he the same species or anything in-between. Remember that it was God Himself who authorized man to name all living things.
According to the biblical doctrine of Christ, Jesus was made like us, his brothers, “in all things.” This analogy of Jesus’ fully reiterates and supports this truth. But Jesus takes it to yet another level. According to Jesus, in this analogy, he is the very same organism as those of us who are “in him.”
This analogy teaches us that Jesus submitted to the Father, partly as an example to us. It teaches how essential it is that we bear the spiritual fruits of righteousness, and act so as to be pleasing to the Father in the same way as he was and did. This analogy gives us great hope, promise, and direction for our lives. It even addresses God’s purpose in creating us: so that we can bear fruit. This analogy, as consistently as anything else in Jesus’ teachings or the Synoptic Gospels in general, very clearly and soundly repudiates Modalism and supports, defends, and describes the “true Son of God” doctrine.
In each of the Synoptic Gospels, we find Jesus presented as personally distinct from the Father. This is true in each and every case and context where the gospels are clearly trying to explain things to us.
Notes:
1The following verses are the places where Jesus is clearly and irrefutably held in personal distinction from God the Father in the Synoptic Gospels:
Matthew 2:15; 3:16, 17; 7:21; 9:6–8; 10:32, 33; 11:25, 27; 12:18, 32, 50; 14:33; 15:13; 16:15–16, 17, 27; 17:5; 18:10, 11–14, 19, 35; 19:4; 20:23; 22:43–44; 23:9–10; 24:34–36; 25:34; 26:29, 39, 42, 53; 27:46, 54;
Mark 1:1, 11–12; 8:38; 9:7, 37; 10:27(w/Jn 5); 12:35–36; 13:32; 14:36, 61–62; 15:34; 16:19;
Luke 1:31–32, 35; 2:22, 26, 27–30, 40, 49, 52; 3:21–22; 4:18, 41; 6:12; 7:15–16; 9:20–22, 26, 35–36, 47–48; 10:16, 21, 22; 12:8–10; 18:19; 20:41–42; 22:29, 41–42, 69; 23:34, 46; 24:19, 49.
