Is Jesus Less Than God?

Biblegems #240

Question: If Jesus is God in human form, why did Jesus say, "the Father is greater than I"?

This question touches on one of the most profound mysteries ever: the nature of God. Jesus spoke often on this subject, and of His own unique relationship to God. The quote above comes from the Gospel of John:

         John 14:28   You heard me say, “I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

Jesus frequently described His relationship with God as that of father and son, as he does in this verse. God, of course, is not a human father. So, while Jesus is the son of Mary biologically, He is the Son of God spiritually. That is, God—who is spirit—took on human form in the womb of the virgin, Mary. As the Scripture says:

         Luke 1:35   The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

Taking on a human body took nothing away from who God is as Spirit. He was not diminished in any way. He did not cease to be God in Spirit; rather He revealed Himself in human form while still maintaining His eternal nature. That’s why Jesus could accurately speak of Himself as the great “I Am”—Yahweh—who called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees and who gave Moses the Ten Commandments:

         John 8:58   “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

And yet, He could also refer to Himself in John 10:30 as a being separated from God by self-imposed physical limitations in His human form (“I” and “the Father”) — while still being perfectly united with God in the Spirit:

         John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”

Jesus’ self-description of His uninterrupted unity with God, while acknowledging the limitations that He willingly placed upon Himself as a human being, is what captured the apostle Paul with wonder and awe:

Phil. 2:5-8   Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

The ironic thing in all this is that the very same people who say things like, “Why doesn’t God reveal Himself in a tangible, human form to prove He is God,” are often the same people who ridicule the Good News that God has indeed done just that:

         Col. 1:19-20  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Wisdom Personified As feminine?

Biblegems #114

Question: In Proverbs 8, does “wisdom” refer to Christ and, if so, why do the first 3 verses refer to wisdom in the feminine?

The first question that needs to be addressed is: does Wisdom in Proverbs 8 refer to Christ? Matthew Henry, the renowned 18^th century Bible commentator, makes this statement in his opening remarks on Proverbs 8:

         “The Redeemer is the eternal Word and wisdom, the Logos. He is the Wisdom that speaks to the children of men in the former part of the chapter. All divine revelation passes through his hand, and centers in him; but of him as the personal Wisdom, the second person of the Godhead, in the judgment of many of the ancients, Solomon here speaks, verses 22-23.”[i]

As Matthew Henry notes, many of the ancient church fathers understood Wisdom, as it is personified in Proverbs 8, as representing Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. This is, of course, a matter of interpretation, not translation. It is based, however, in solid biblical precedent and sound principles of interpretation. Wisdom, in proverbs 8, is presented as eternal:

         Prov. 8:27          I was there when he set the heavens in place…

This eternal Wisdom demonstrates personality, showing love and other emotions:

         Prov. 8:17          I love those who love me…

Wisdom is described here as a craftsman involved in creation who  experiences delight and joy in the presence of God:

         Prov. 8:30-31 Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.

All of these attributes describe an eternal, personal Being who is identical with Jesus, the Word of God, the second person of the Trinity.

So then, the second question must also be answered: Why is Wisdom in Proverbs 8 described in feminine terms in the first three verses? Indeed, if Wisdom is feminine there, then Wisdom throughout chapter 8, in which Wisdom speaks in the first person, would also have to be understood in the feminine. How can this be?

The answer is grammatical, not interpretive. The word “wisdom” in Hebrew is a feminine word form. It does not mean that Wisdom, when used of a person, is feminine. We see a similar dynamic happen in the English language. We speak of a boat or ship in feminine terms—“she’s a beautiful ship”—even though sailing vessels have no gender. From a technical point of view then, the Hebrew word “wisdom” is feminine and is matched by the words “her” (v.1) and “she” (v.2) to complete the sentence in correct grammatical form. So it is the context, not the grammatical form, which determines if “Wisdom” personified is to be understood as masculine, feminine or neutral.

The apostle Paul picks up on this personification of Wisdom as fully represented in Jesus Christ:

         1 Cor. 1:30 It is because of him [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Because we who believe are in Christ, and Christ is in us, Jesus “has become for us wisdom form God.” What a wonderful gift!

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[i] A Commentary On The Whole Bible, Vol.3, Matthew Henry. in loc.

Jesus: Lower Than Angels?

Biblegems #113

Question: According to Hebrews 2:9, Jesus was made "lower than the angels.” If Jesus is God, how could any part of the Godhead ever be lower than the angels?

The passage in Hebrews reads:

         Heb. 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

This is one of those beautifully transparent places in the Bible where God unveils some of the mystery of His nature. Notice how the verse says that Jesus was “made” a little lower than the angels. The implication is that He was once higher than the angels. The Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity—that He was and is God. Here are a few passages demonstrating this:

         Jesus is God, the Creator:

         John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

         Jesus is God along with the Father:

John 10:30 I and the Father are one.

         John 14:9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  

What is so clearly apparent is that within the very nature of God Himself there is diversity. He is three persons in one God.¹  And within that relationship there is a hierarchy. Each person of the Trinity exercises roles and responsibilities in relation to the other. The Holy Spirit directs people to Jesus. Jesus directs people to the Father. The Father sends the Son and the Holy Spirit to do His will.

         John 15:26 When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

So when the Scripture says Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, the reference is to an agreement between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that God should enter into the human race as a man. To accomplish this, the second person of the Trinity would be “made like us in every way” (Heb. 2:17). In fact, God the Son…

         Phil. 2:6-7 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

God is not divided into “parts.” He is three persons in one Being. He chose, for our sake and for His glory, to become Immanuel (God with us), the Word made flesh (Jn. 1:1), without ever ceasing to exist as God in Spirit. This in no way diminished His greatness, but demonstrates that our God is greater than the human mind can even begin to grasp.

         Ps. 71:19 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, you who have done great things. Who, O God, is like you?

^1. See Biblegems #111, “Is Jesus God?” And Biblegems #88, “Jesus, The Firstborn”.

Is Jesus God

Biblegems #111

Question: It is clear that Jesus was equal in position to God—but chose to be the lesser. Where do we get the concept that Jesus is God, in the personal sense? They rightly seem to be two different personal entities: What passages show that God and Jesus are “the same?”

This is a great question that gets at the very nature of the Trinity. At issue are two aspects of Jesus’ relationship to God: His personhood, and His nature.

God Is One

One of the most fundamental teachings of Scripture is that God is One:

         Deut. 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

         Rom. 3:30 …there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

Jesus Is God

Even though God is one, the Gospel of John opens with a declaration that Jesus is God:

         John 1:1, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Beauty of this passage is that Jesus, the Word, is declared to be God, and yet He is also declared to be with God.

In Revelation 1:8 and 21:6 God the Father calls Himself “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end;” yet in Revelation 22:13 Jesus says of Himself that He is the “Alpha and the Omega, the First and the last the Beginning and the End.” In other words, He is God.

Three Persons—One God

The Bible teaches that God the Father, God the Spirit and God the Son are each distinct personalities within the one God. Consider the following passage:

         Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30). Here Jesus identifies Himself as God, but also as a distinct person (“I”) in relation to “the Father.” Jesus not only saw no contradiction here, but He emphasized the truth that God by His very nature is a plurality of persons. In His nature, Jesus is one with God. This is precisely what Paul teaches in Philippians:

         Phil. 2:5-7 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Notice that Jesus is described here as being one with God in His “nature,” while on the other hand He is described as acting as an individual person who “made himself nothing.”

God is a communal being. He has conversation, love and fellowship within Himself. We see this in action in passages like…

         Gen. 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…

         Who is God speaking to? God the Father is conversing with the other two persons of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit and the Son—who share His very nature as God.

God is unique. He is complete in Himself. There is one God, who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 5:48, Matthew 28:19).