20- Christ's Relation with the Father

With Respect to His Relation with the Father

The relation of the Son with the Father proves the Son's Divinity. The major part of this relation is given by declarations from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In some of these declarations, the Jews wanted to kill Him. We will now discuss the most important characteristics of the relation of the Father with the Son.

(1) If the Son is the Logos of God, this undoubtedly implies the Son's Divinity, because God and His Logos are one Entity and also it is said that Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God (I Col. 1:23,24).

(2) The Lord Jesus Christ said: "I and My Father are One" (Jn. 10:30), and the Jews understood the seriousness of this declaration from the point of view of His Divinity, so they took up stones to stone Him. When He asked them why they wanted to stone Him, they replied: "For blasphemy and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God' (Jn. 10:31-33). The Lord Jesus repeated the fact that He and the Father are One in His long soliloquy with the Father in which He said to the Father about His disciples: "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are" (Jn. 17:1 1), and repeated the phrase: "that they may be one just as We are One" (Jn. 17:22), that is, that they may be one Church, of one mind, just as We are one Divinity and one Nature.

 

St-Takla.org Icon of the Face of Jesus Christ. صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: أيقونة وجه السيد المسيح.

(3) The Lord Jesus Christ also said: "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me" (Jn. 14: 10), and repeated this expression once more: "believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves" (Jn. 14:11). The Lord means the works that reveal His Divinity such as the works of creating. He repeated the same relation in His soliloquy with the Father, saying: "You, Father, are in Me, and I in You" (Jn. 17:2 1). The Father in Him means that the Godhead dwells in Him, that is, the unity of Divinity with Humanity is in Him. The best explanation of this point are the words of St. Paul the Apostle about the Lord Jesus Christ: "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:8,9). The in dwelling of the Godhead in Christ is the in dwelling of the Person of the Father in Him, like the in dwelling of light in the sun or the in dwelling of heat in fire or the in dwelling of thought in the mind, on condition that it is understood that both objects are one entity.

(4) The Lord Jesus Christ also said of His strong relation with the Father, in His soliloquy with Him: "And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine" (Jn. 17: 10), and also in chapter 16, verse 15: "All things that the Father has are Mine. " This declaration can never come from a human being because it means entire equality with God the Father. That was the reason for which the Jews wanted to stone Him, because He made Himself equal with God (Jn. 5:18). St. Paul the Apostle says that Christ, "being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God' (Phil. 2:6), which means that He acted as equal with the Father, not considering it robbery, because He is so.

(5) The Lord Jesus Christ also said that He does the works of the Father, and we have discussed this issue before here on st-takla.org in other pages. He said to the Jews: "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me, but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him" (Jn. 10:37,38); "Therefore they sought again to seize Him" (Jn. 10:39). The fact that Christ does the works of the Father proves His Divinity. That was why the Jews wanted to kill Him. When Christ said: "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working" (Jn. 5:17), the Jews considered His words a declaration that He is equal with the Father. That is why, immediately after this verse, it was said: "Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him" (Jn. 5:18). The Lord explained this point in detail when He said: "For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will" (Jn.5:21).

(6) The Lord also said: "That all should honour the Son just as they honour the Father" (Jn. 5:23). No human being can dare say these words. The fact that Christ makes Himself equal in honour with the Father is proof of His Divinity.

(7) The Lord also said: "You believe in God, believe also in Me" (Jn. 14: 1). The fact that people should believe in Christ as they believe in the Father indicates that He is equal with the Father, and thus is proof of His Divinity.

(8) The Lord said: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn. 14:9). He reproached Philip for saying: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us" (Jn. 14:8), by replying: "Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father, so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" (Jn. 14:8-10) And the Lord said to His disciples: "If you had known Me, you would have known my Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him" (Jn. 14:7). Indeed we see the Father in the Person of His Son because He is the express image of the Person of the Father and the brightness of His glory (Heb. 1:3).

(9) There is another relation of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father which proves His Divinity, that is, His sitting down at the right hand of the Father on high.