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John 1:1–2
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”
Knowing Jesus—being in a personal relationship with Him that is characterized by trusting in Him alone for salvation and enjoying union and communion with Him—is eternal life (John 17:3). Such a relationship requires that we know truths about who Jesus is, and one of the most fundamental of these truths is that Jesus is the one true God, the great “I am” and Lord of Israel (John 8:58; see Ex. 3:14). We must say more, however, since one can believe that Jesus is God incarnate and yet not really know the one true God through Him. Groups such as the Mormons and Oneness Pentecostals say that Jesus is God in the flesh, but they have a very different understanding of who God is.
According to Scripture, God is one in essence and three in person. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are identical in terms of the divine nature and attributes. Nevertheless, the three persons are truly distinct, differing from one another not in terms of nature but in that each has a unique personal property that He does not share with the others. These real personal properties do not divide the essence or create three gods, but Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not hold these properties in common. The Father is eternally unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. A wealth of biblical reasoning gives us these truths, which we considered a few months back in our look at the Holy Trinity.
When we say that Jesus is God incarnate, we mean that Jesus is the person of the eternally begotten Son of God who has come in the flesh. John 1:1–18 tells us as much. We see in this important text God and His Word, or Logos, alongside one another in such a way that the Word is God and yet can be distinguished from God (vv. 1–2). The text unfolds this further by noting that the Word became incarnate, and that this Word is the only begotten Son of God; consequently, the God alongside whom the Word has always been is God the Father. All this is to say that the Son of God—and only the Son of God—became incarnate (v. 14).
Certainly, all three persons of the Trinity brought about the incarnation (Luke 1:35). But that work terminates on the Son alone. In other words, the common action of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to unite a human nature to the Son means that when all is said and done, only the Son possesses both a human nature and the divine nature.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
In-depth study of theological truths takes time and involves complexity, but it is worth it so that we can be clear on who God is and what He has done. We do not all have to be professional theologians, but without some attention to theological specifics, we will misunderstand who Jesus is and be unable to distinguish biblical truth from half-truths or outright falsehoods.
For further study
- Psalm 2:7
- Mark 1:9
- Hebrews 1:5
- 2 John 7
The bible in a year
- Job 25–26
- Acts 11