Question: I applaud your efforts to share what you feel is the truth to fellow Bible readers and would ask your assistance with some questions I’ve been presented with.

All questions address the idea of a Trinity. For example:

  1. Why is Jesus called the "firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1:15, Revelation 3:14) if God had no being, or not created?
  2. Why did Jesus say he did not come of his "own initiative" but was "sent forth"? (John 8:42). I mean, who sent him if he is God – himself?
  3. Why did Jesus not know the "day and hour" of the Great Tribulation, or judgment day, but his father, God did. In other words, doesn’t God Almighty know everything? If Jesus is God, wouldn’t he know everything also? (Matthew 24:36).

Niki

Answer: Dear Niki,

  1. Colossians 1:15 – This passage does not say that Jesus is a created creature, or that he was created first. It does not imply that Jesus is the eldest son in God’s family of many children. Firstborn means "first in rank" – for example King David was called the "firstborn" of his family (Psalms 89:27) yet when God inspired Samuel to choose him as King he is not described as the oldest son of Jesse. Christ is the first in rank because he is the Creator. He is un-created – that makes him first in rank, over those who are created. Creation did not produce Christ – he produced creation.

    2. Jesus could not be Michael, or any other angel, because Jesus created the angels (Colossians 1:16). The angels worship Jesus (Hebrews 1:6).

    Revelation 3:14 does not prove that Christ is created – the word "arche" in Greek, translated "beginning" could also mean "ruler" or "first cause". Jesus is also called the Alpha and Omega in Revelation, a figure of speech to mean that he is all in all – that he was before us and will be after us. He lives in eternity past, present and future.

  2. The fact that John 8:42 speaks of the Father sending Jesus does not disprove that Jesus was God in the flesh. If you examine other questions and answers we have posted on this topic (see categories "Trinity" and "Jesus") you will see that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three co-essential persons of the Godhead, who eternally exist as one God yet as three distinctive persons. To speak of one person of the Godhead does not disprove the existence of the others (many passages in Old and New Testament do so), nor does it disprove the unity of the Godhead, or the fact that God is one (Deuteronomy 6).
  3. Jesus Christ was and is unique. He is a paradox. While God is not a man, yet Jesus was a man. The incarnation of Christ (see Matthew 1 – Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us – see John 1, see Philippians 2, etc.) teaches that God, without ceasing to be God, took human nature, not by mixing human nature and divinity, but by uniting them in one – in a unique way that only God could do, a way that was only done once, and never will occur again, for Christ died for us all, once and for all (Hebrews 9).

Therefore, Jesus was tempted – yet God, as God, cannot be tempted. Therefore it was the man Jesus (he is called, and called himself, both Son of God and son of man) who was tempted. In the person of Jesus, God voluntarily laid aside or veiled some of his divinity so that he might be human, so that he might know what it is like to be human, and so that he might save and redeem us.

God is not a man (Numbers 23:19). Jesus is a man (1 Timothy 2:5), yet Jesus is also God (John 20:28). God knows all things (Isaiah 41:22-23). Jesus did not know the day of his return (Matthew 24:36, about which you ask), yet Jesus did know all things (John 16:30).

God is eternal (Psalm 90:2). Jesus was born (Matthew and Luke), yet Jesus had always existed (John 8:58). God cannot die (1 Timothy 1:17). Jesus did die (Philippians 2:8), yet no one could take Jesus’ life from him (John 10:28). Jesus told the Jews that they could kill him but that he would resurrect himself! (John 2:19-22). God never changes (Psalms 102:26-27). The young man Jesus grew and learned (Luke 2:52), yet Jesus never changes (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus was fully human and fully divine – 100% God and 100% human. That is the testimony of the Bible.

There are many others who share the same kind of questions you have,

Having accepted that the Bible does not teach that God eternally exists as one God – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct yet co-essential persons.

May God be with you and bless you, Niki.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht