Islamic Articles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islamic Media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islamic Research

 

5. No one is greater than God and no one can direct Him…but Jesus acknowledged someone greater than Himself whose will was distinct from his own

Paul Derengowski, ThM

Perhaps the clearest indication we have that Jesus and God are not equal, and therefore not one and the same, come again from the mouth of Jesus himself who said in St. John 14:28, "My Father is greater than I."  When someone referred to himself as good master in Matt 19:17, Jesus responded, "Why callest thou me good?  There is none good but one, that is God…"  Furthermore, Jesus drew clear distinctions between himself and God when he said, "I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself but He sent me."  St. John 8:42.  Jesus gave clear evidence of his subordination to God, rather than his equality with God, when he said in Luke 22:42, "not my will but thine be done" and in St. John 5:30, "I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which has sent me."  That Jesus would admit that he did not come into the world on his own initiative but was directed to do so, that he would acknowledge another being as greater than himself, and that he would negate his own will in deference to affirming the will of another, give clear proof that Jesus is not the Supreme One and therefore Jesus is not God.

What the Muslim believes here to be perhaps the clearest examples of biblical evidence refuting Jesus' deity is really only a rehash of the same lack of observation as seen earlier.  In John 14:28 Jesus is not making a comment in reference to his essence, but his present status as a human being.  Otherwise, once again, one would not see multiple references throughout John's Gospel alluding to the fact that Jesus was God (1:1; 20:28).

When we turn to Matthew 19:17 (cf. Mk. 10:18), there is no denial that Jesus is not God.  Instead, we have just the opposite.  Jesus is responding to a man who was trying to earn his way into heaven via his works (much like the Muslim is today).  At the start of the discourse the man calls Jesus a "Good Teacher," which given the context is a flippant compliment.  Yet, Jesus is a good teacher, but he is much more than that, as both Matthew and Mark record long before this event takes place. He is Immanuel, or "God with us" (Matt. 1:23); he is the "Son of Man" capable of forgiving sin, which only God can do (Matt. 9:6 cf. Mk. 2:7); he is Yahweh Elohim or the Lord God of the Old Testament, as see in the John the Baptist accounts as the forerunner in the wilderness predicted by Isaiah the prophet (Matt. 3:1-3; Mk. 1:1-4).  Therefore, when we get to Matthew 19:17 and Mark 10:18, and Jesus asks the man, "Why do you call me good?  No one is good except God alone," he's not denying that he is not God.  He's trying to get the man to see that if he's going to call Jesus a "Good Teacher," and ask him about heavenly qualifications, then he must recognize that Jesus is God as well.

In John 8:42, we once again have a statement that promotes Jesus' deity; it doesn't deny.  For the context of Jesus actually begins clear back in verse 12, where Jesus is countering the accusations of a group of Pharisees that Jesus' source of authority is in himself.  Jesus tells them that not only does he bear witness of himself, but that so does the Father.  Then he startles the Pharisaical crowd with a statement regarding his deity, as well as his upcoming crucifixion, when he says, "When you lift up the Son of Man, they you will know that I am…" (v. 28).  He continues with more revelatory statements regarding his deity by asserting that he is the truth that sets people free (v. 32 cf. v. 36), which later on he even makes more explicit (Jn. 14:6).  By the time one gets to the proof text that Muslims use to discount Jesus as God, it is quite clear that with all the preceding testimony that verse 42 is not speaking about discounting his deity, but is actually only another in a long list of statements confirming it.  Jesus proceeded from the Father, as only God could do, for as Jesus tells them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me."  Why?  Because not only was Jesus God, the Son, but only God the Son could proceed forth from the Father, who is also God.  In other words, the reason that the Jews could not have God as their Father, or even know or recognize Him, was simply because they rejected the Son, who was not only "the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Heb. 1:3), but as John recorded earlier in his Gospel, Jesus "has explained Him" (1:18).

Luke 22:42 tells reports Jesus as saying, during an agonizing period in the Garden of Gethsemane and just prior to Jesus' crucifixion, "Father, if Thou are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done."  Despite the claim to the contrary, Jesus is not denouncing his deity. He, amid his personal torment over the thought of bearing the weight of the world's sin, is communing with the Father if there be a possibility of redeeming mankind a different way.  Since there was no other way, Jesus finds himself in compliance with the Father's will and shortly thereafter is found hanging on the cross paying humanity's sin debt, which only God could have done given the infinite perfection of the sacrifice required to do it.

Finally, in John 5:30, Jesus is expressing his utter dependence upon God, both in word and will, during his human existence upon earth.  What is curious is that the Muslim would keep coming back to John, particularly chapter five, since John wrote his Gospel to refute notions that Jesus wasn't God, and chapter five is a hallmark example of Jesus' deity, since even the Jews took him to be making himself equal with God (v. 18), which is why they wanted him killed.

NEXT: Conclusion