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FAQ # 223
QUESTION 223 : If Jesus was God the Father,
why doesn’t he say so or why does he keep speaking of God in the third
person?
Mr. Arnold pretty much gave a suffice answer below.
Nevertheless, it was simply because it is a man who is the mediator between
you and God not another being. God became that man, “the man Christ Jesus:”
“One reason that Jesus so often spoke of God in the
third person is that he did not want to appear unto men as God, but he
wanted to appear as a man just like one of us, as we read in Philippians
2:5-8, NIV:
5. Your attitude should be
the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6. Who, being in very nature
God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7. but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8. And being found in appearance
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death
on a cross!
Jerry Hayes explains it this way:
Many times the question is
asked, "If Jesus was Father God why did he not just say so?"
The answer to this question is so completely summed up in Philippians
2:5-8. He was humble. He did not think it a good thing to flaunt his deity
before men. He did not choose to appear better than man, although he was
better than all men for he was the creator of all men. He choose, instead,
to have all men appear better than himself.
When Jesus spoke of the Father
it was always in a way that distanced his own identity from that of Father
God. This action was in keeping with his character of not appearing as
God, although he was. Concerning this very subject Jesus made the following
promise: "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the
time cometh, when I shall not more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall
shew you plainly of the Father: (John 16:25). Paul referred to this same
event of revelation when he wrote unto Timothy, "Which in his times
he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings,
and the Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light
which no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting.
Amen" (1 Timothy 6:15-16).
At the time of this great revelation
may we all bow low at his feet and whisper in hushed tones of adoration
the confession of Thomas, "The Lord of me and the God of me!"
But that still leaves the question: Why does the New
Testaments make a distinction at times? The answer to this goes back to
the dual nature of Jesus. In the capacity of being fully man, He was distinct
from God. Not just distinct from the Father but from being God at all.
This is why we can see references to the God of Jesus Christ (Matt. 27:46;
John 20:17; Eph. 1:17). This is obviously not the God of God. It is the
God of a man. Jesus is called a man over and over (Acts 2:22; 13:38; 1
Tim 2:5). As a man, there were things He did not know (Mark 13:32), there
were things He could not do (Mark 6:5), He could only be in one place
at one time (John 16:7), He could be tempted (Heb 4:15), He could thirst
(John 19:28), and He could die (John 19:33). So from this point of view
He was distinct from God, and could be spoken of that way. But from another
point of view He was fully God and could be called such (John 20:28; 1
Tim 3:16; 1 John 5:20). When we see a separate reference it is always
something like: "God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ."
What you never see is: "God the Father and God the Son." It
is always God and man, Spirit and flesh, God the Father and the Son of
God. As 1 Timothy 2:5 puts it, "For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
{Source:
William Arnold III}
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