EQUALITY WITH GOD

Equality with God

Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus was equal to God:

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

He was in the form of God before His incarnation, but humbled Himself to become a bondservant in the likeness of men. This agrees with Jesus’ statement in John 17

5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

How could Jesus have been a thought in the mind of God, as Oneness doctrine claims, if He already had glory with the Father before the world was? This passage clearly states that Jesus had prior glory before His incarnation and before creation. John 1 adds a piece to the picture:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Don’t lose sight of our previous look at John 1. Verse 10 goes on to tell us that the world was made through Christ, He came into the world He created and it did not know Him. Some claim that verse 1 does not accurately reflect the deity of Christ. This is one of those passages that the church is accused of altering in 325 AD. To validate the accuracy of this verse, we should go to the writings of the church before this time period.
Historic Christianity:

Clement of Alexandria wrote about this very passage in 190 AD:

“When [John] says: 'What was from the beginning [1 John 1:1],' he touches upon the generation without beginning of the Son, who is co-equal with the Father. 'Was,' therefore, is indicative of an eternity without a beginning, just as the Word Himself, that is the Son, being one with the Father in regard to equality of substance, is eternal and uncreated. That the word always existed is signified by the saying: 'In the beginning was the Word' [John 1:1].”

Clement’s interpretation of John 1:1 is consistent with the Trinity view and it was written at least 135 years before the Council of Nicaea. Clement also is not alone in this belief. Theophilus wrote in AD 160:

For the divine writing itself teaches us that Adam said that he had heard the voice but what else is this voice but the word of God, who is also his Son.

We can see that historic Christianity agrees with our modern interpretation of scripture. They testify to the deity of Christ. He was the Word of God, the Word was God, and the He eternally existed together with God. Jesus is equal with God. This is verified in scripture and by the testimonies of those who received the scriptures directly from the apostles.
Is Jesus Jehovah?

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is given attributes that the LORD (Jehovah) of the Old Testament identified for Himself. God stated that He would judge the world in the Old Testament, the New Testament states that, “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). With the scores of other examples, I have chosen to use the biblical reference to the First and the Last. Look at Isaiah 44

6 " Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.

The LORD (Jehovah) and his Redeemer, the LORD (Jehovah) declared Himself to be the first and the last while affirming that there was no other God. Note that Jehovah identifies Himself as the LORD, the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the LORD of hosts. He identifies both the King and the Redeemer are called Jehovah while affirming that He is one God and there is no other. This is not a contradiction unless you remove the eternal Son from the picture. As we get into the next section, we will see that God identifies Himself in the plural while affirming His singularity throughout the Old Testament. What I want to establish here is that the LORD identifies Himself as the First and the Last. Whenever you see LORD (all caps), it represents the name Jehovah. Now let’s look at some passages in the New Testament.

Revelation 1
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

The Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End is identified specifically as God. The Almighty is also a reference identified with God in the Old Testament. Later in Revelation, God again identifies Himself as the First and the Last two more times. Revelation 21

6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
7 "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

Revelation 22
13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

Now lets jump back to Revelation chapter 1.

Revelation 1
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
18 "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Did Jehovah die? Absolutely yes. The Bible says in Acts 20:28,

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

God purchased us with His own blood. That is why the LORD can say that He will raise up the LORD to redeem Israel. Look at Jeremiah 23

5 " Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Compare this to Revelation 22

16 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."

Only Jesus can be the root of David or the One from which David was created and the Offspring of David – the One that comes from the lineage of David. The New Testament identifies this as Jesus Christ and the Old Testament identifies Him as the LORD (Jehovah).
Fully God, Fully Man

Another area of attack is comes from those who claim that Jesus could not be fully God and fully man. The Bible is very clear on this as we saw earlier in 1 Corinthians 15. By man (Adam) came sin and death and by Man (Jesus Christ) came redemption and the resurrection of the dead. The first man was of the earth, the second was the Lord from heaven. The Bible also warns us not to draw our doctrine from deceit, philosophy or traditions of men, but from scripture which confirms that the Man Jesus was fully God. Look at Colossians 2:

8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

In Jesus Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Not spiritually only, but bodily as well. Jesus did not put off His deity to become just a man, but ‘in Him dwells ALL the FULLNESS of the Godhead’. Religious philosophy and tradition based on the world will deny this truth. However, we don’t judge God based on human intellect or understanding, but based on what God reveals about Himself in scripture. Jesus was fully God and fully man. Look at 1 Timothy 2

5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

Just a few verses later in chapter 3, the Bible states:

16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

Jesus is first called the man who is the mediator between God and men and then He is called God who was manifested in the flesh. Jesus humbled Himself and veiled His deity, but He never quit being God. The early church also believed and taught this. We who believe this doctrine of Jesus Christ can be confident in scripture and our understanding because it is unchanged from the times of the apostles. Ignatius, who was taught by the apostle John who wrote the gospel of John and three epistles in the scripture testified of Jesus being fully God and fully man. He stated:

We have also as a Physician the Lord our God Jesus the Christ the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin. For ‘the Word was made flesh.' Being incorporeal, He was in the body; being impassible, He was in a passible body; being immortal, He was in a mortal body; being life, He became subject to corruption, that He might free our souls from death and corruption, and heal them, and might restore them to health, when they were diseased with ungodliness and wicked lusts.

He believe that Jesus lived in the corruptible flesh while maintaining His immortal deity. In his letter to the Ephesian church, Ignatius wrote, “God Himself appeared in the form of a man, for the renewal of eternal life”. Many others confirm Ignatius’ belief. This was the position of the early church long before 325 AD. Melito of Sardis wrote:

Being God and likewise perfect man, he gave positive indications of his two natures: of his deity, by the miracles during the three years following after his baptism… he concealed the signs of his deity, although he was the true God existing before the ages".

Clement of Alexandria wrote a similar exhortation when teaching unbelievers about Jesus Christ. Clement wrote:

This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man, He alone being both, both God and man.

We can see that without a doubt, the early church understood and taught that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. He lived a perfect life for the purpose of revealing God, fulfilling the law and becoming a sacrifice for our sins.