Category: Trinitarian Commentary

We’re going through the New Testament wanting to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. One great aspect of where we are now in the gospel of John is not only that we learn more about the Trinity, but Jesus comes to us on a practical level where throughout this, we will see what difference the Trinity makes in our day to day lives. One of the great dangers of our theology today is that we study the doctrines, but we don’t see the applicational basis of them. If we believe a doctrine, it should have some ramifications in our lives. We’ll see more of those in tonight’s passage, John 14:19-21.

¹⁹Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Last time, we spoke of the seeing described in the gospel in this portion and said that it does not refer to physical sight. This can also bring us back to John 1:18 when we read that no one has seen God. It would mean that no one has fully understood him, but the Son, who is in his bosom, does fully understand him and has made him known. The world will not see Christ any more in the physical sense, but yet in a play on words, John puts it in a spiritual sense. While he’s away, the disciples will not “see” him either, but they will know of his presence and work as they carry on the ministry he started.

Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias speaks of the verse “Because I live, you will also live” as a verse read to him when he was on a bed of suicide. He later found it on a tombstone of one of his relatives. Christ’s promise to his followers is that their life is based on him. This certainly has the resurrection in mind also as Christ is saying that because he is the one who conquers death, they too will conquer death. Christ is telling us something about who he is also in saying that our lives depend on him.

Verse 20 also speaks of the resurrection. The resurrection would be the seal on everything Jesus ever did and said. If he lies in the tomb, then his message was the message of a wicked blasphemer and we need not listen to him. If he rises from the dead, then that means God has given him his seal of approval. Consider again what a unique situation this is. Jesus is saying that his ministry would depend on his resurrection from the dead, a statement no one else made. This is why Paul can say that if Christ is not raised, we are still in our sins. (1 Cor. 15:19)

Finally, based on this, we ought to live as Christ has commanded us to. This does not mean that it earns us his love, but it shows that we have received it. Trusting in Christ as the one representing the new covenant enters one into the fellowship of the love of the Trinity. One is made a new creation and is a member of the family of God, not in the sense of course that one becomes a person of the Trinity, but one experiences the love of God that takes place in the Trinity. There’s an old Celtic tradition that says the Trinity was in a dance of love and man was created that he might join in the dance.

A question arises from one listening to Jesus’s message in that upper room. Tomorrow, we’ll look at it.

We’re going through the New Testament now and we’re trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Much of our time has been spent on the person of Jesus, which is understandable seeing as he is the centerpiece of the New Testament, yet tonight there’s going to be an emphasis on the person of the Spirit. Our text will be John 14:16-18.

¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

This can be seen as a Trinitarian passage with all three persons involved. The Son asks of the Father and the Father sends the Holy Spirit. (If you know to look for these, it can be enjoyable to go through the New Testament and realize when you’ve found such a passage.)

It could be that the word “another” refers to one of the same type. Of course, it could just be this is how John normally says another as he uses a different word for “another” only one time. However, if it means one of the same type, it could be an argument for the deity of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is seen as an advocate and this would be one before the Father. This is what we see going on in Romans 8:26-27 when as we pray, the Spirit himself intercedes with groans that we cannot express. C.S. Lewis spoke of the Trinity at work when someone prays. You have the person praying to the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. This is another case of the practical outworking of the doctrine of the Trinity. Prayer is a Trinitarian act.

This counselor will be with them forever. I don’t believe this is meant to get into the debate on eternal security which I don’t really touch here, but just to say the Holy Spirit will be with the church throughout the ages.

The Spirit is also called the Spirit of Truth. Truth plays a large part again in the gospel as the Father must be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24) Jesus has just told us that he is the Truth and now we are told tha tthe Spirit will be the Spirit of Truth. It is he who leads the apostles into all truth. 

The world does not see the Spirit. Of course, this does not refer to something physical as the Spirit is not physical and we cannot see the Spirit. What it means is that the world cannot recognize the work of the Spirit. When sanctification is going on in our lives, the world cannot recognize it. When miracles were taking place in the early church, the world could not recognize that either. Remember that Jesus was even accused of casting out devils by Beelzebub.

The Spirit will also be in us, which is something staggering to think about. God was always seen as beyond man. We noted when we started this series that the average reader would have been stunned by John 1:14. The world of the divine and the world of the human did not interact this way. Now, God would not simply indwell a temple, but would rather indwell many temples, that is, the bodies of men. If you are a Christian, consider this for a moment. The third person of the Holy Trinity indwells you.

I hope you’re stunned by that.

Jesus also tells us he will not leave us as orphans but will come to us. One way to look at that is that Jesus’s presence is made known in the work of the Spirit, though this is certainly not to say that Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Some interpreters also think that this refers to the post-resurrection appearances. Of course, it could be both.

We shall continue with this tomorrow.

Hello everyone. We’re continuing our study of the Trinity. Right now, we’re in the gospel of John and Jesus is giving the upper room discourse there, probably the longest talk that there is in the gospel of John. Let’s continue going through here to see what clues we can get to the self-understanding of Christ. Our passage tonight is John 14:12-14.

¹²I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Anyone who has faith in Jesus. What’s Jesus talking about? Well faith in the biblical sense is not a blind leap as so many people think it is today. One thinks of Richard Dawkins constantly thinking of faith as believing something without evidence. Faith is actually trust in what has been shown to be reliable.

What kind of faith are you to have? Jesus has already told us in verse 1. Trust in God. Trust also in me. You are supposed to have the faith in Jesus that a Jew was supposed to have in God. Now either Jesus is deity, or the disciples should have taken him out and stoned him for blasphemy at that point. This is once again a time to stop and consider what Jesus really said.

Jesus also said we will do greater works than what he did. Jesus was the one who raised Lazarus from the grave. What’s he talking about? It’s easy for us to look at the raising of Lazarus as the greater works as we are caught up in the extraordinary, but there is a greater truth. Raising a man from the deadness of life is a miracle. Bringing a man back to righteousness with God who was dead in his sins is a greater one.

That is our ministry and it is done through Christ. We do nothing independently of him as we shall see later. We are acting as Christ’s agents, but we are doing a greater work than that of physical healing. We are bringing life to those dead in sins.

The last part is tied in with verse 13. Because Christ is going to the Father, we can do those greater works. Christ will be acting for us all in the presence of the Father and he will do anything that we ask in his name.

Whoa! Did Jesus just give us a blank check?

No. To ask in his name means to ask according to his authority. If it is the will of God, he will do it. The more we are in Christ, the more we will live according to the will of God and the more we will get our prayers answered I believe. By then, we’ve learned to submit ourselves to God and we are more pleased with whatever he does.

So no, this passage does not work for the health and wealth Word of Faith teachers. God is not giving us a blank check. After all, God would not answer a prayer yes that he cease to exist or that I be given permission to fornicate with a beautiful lady or something of that sort.

It’s a shame that in how we’ve seen this passage for ourselves, we haven’t seen what it says about Christ. Christ says that what we ask, he will do it. He will be in essence responding to our prayer. What ought that to tell us about him?

Tomorrow, we shall continue looking at these passages and seeing what other amazing truths Jesus is making.

 

Okay! I’m back! I look forward to writing again and I’m going to take a little break to write on some thoughts that came to me on the trip that I’d like to dig a little deeper into. The one I wish to write on tonight is a bumper stick I saw as I was driving. It just struck me immediately how odd it was because this driver wished to have one that simply said “Jesus Heals.”

Now I’m not a disbeliever in miracles. I do believe Jesus does heal. I don’t believe it’s miracles on demand however. Instead, it’s miracles based on the will of God. It’s not a guarantee, but if you ask, you really have nothing to lose. If God heals, we should be thankful. If he doesn’t, we should be thankful. I also think one of God’s ways of healing has been through giving us minds that we can treat many of the symptoms. I thank God he created a method whereby someone could perform scoleosis surgery so I can walk today. (Although I do have to wonder, and maybe I’ll look into this, about the first guy who was told, “Hey. We’d like to cut your back open and attach a steel rod to your spinal cord and sew you up again.”)

So it isn’t Jesus healing that strikes me as odd. It’s that someone chose to emphasize that out of all things. Why? Well consider someone driving down the road who is in perfect health and sees that and thinks something like “Good for Jesus and those people he heals. I just don’t need that stuff in my life at all. I take care of myself well and I’m a specimen of health.”

I think the same could be said about Jesus blessing us financially. I do believe he owns the cattle on a thousand hills and can open up the floodgates of Heaven and bless us if he so desires. Again consider if someone saw a corresponding message and thought “I’m very well-off financially. If others are getting money, good for them. I just don’t need that stuff in my life.”

Health is good and being healthy is definitely a good way to be. However, you can be in perfect health, as Christ indicated on the Sermon on the Mount, and still be tossed into Hell. Being in perfect health does not mean that you are forgiven. 

The same goes with money. You can have money like Bill Gates or a rich CEO and still be lost. I must give a word of caution here. While I believe money is a tool that can be used for good or evil, it can be tempting in our day and age to see money as an indication that we are entirely self-sufficient and don’t need God. Possessing money is not the proble but rather, being possessed by it.

Let’s suppose instead that we had “Jesus Saves,” the usual thing people put on the back. Now some people I know are unaware of their state or dispute the claim or dispute the truthfulness of Christianity, but the message is one that does apply to everyone.

To some who did not think they really needed salvation, I would simply say “As you look back on your life, are you telling me you are pleased with everything you ever did? There’s not one thing you look back on and say “That was really stupid to have done that. I wish I hadn’t.” If you are, the second thing I am tempted to say is “Congrats.” The first I am tempted to say is “Liar.”

You see, health is something secondary. If we bring people to Jesus the healer and he heals them, but their souls are still sick, we really haven’t done much for them. Of course, if he heals them, he does have a good reason for it. However, if we bring them to Jesus the savior, and they get saved, then we have brought about much rejoicing in Heaven.

I’m sure this guy meant well with what he was doing, but as I thought about it, I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind that the real message could easily be lost. We can get so delighted in what we want God to do for us that we lose sight of what he wants to do for us.

Hello everyone. I’d like to start off tonight’s blog by thinking Kelp for his compliment. There are many things it’s easy to overlook because we don’t really think about what the Scripture is saying and I know I am missing things as I do these blogs. Don’t take any to be the final word but take them to be something to start you looking in the right direction.

Also, until Sunday night, this is it. I’m going to be out of town so there won’t be any new blogs. I invite you to check the old blogs I have and also go to the websites of friends and others in service on the side. There is always much to learn.

Now to get back to our study. For those who are just joining us, we’re in the gospel of John as we go through the New Testament and we’re trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Tonight we’ll be looking at John 14:8-10.

⁸Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

 ⁹Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

There is someone who has said that John 14:9 should be enough for us to convince us of the deity of Christ. We have to handle this one carefully however, as it’s a favorite of the modalists as well.  What exactly is going on in this passage?

Philip has asked Jesus to show him the Father. That’s all they want. After all, Jesus can get them to him so why not just show them the Father now?

But no one can see the Father. It can be known what he is like however. How does one know what the Father is like? They know by looking at the Son. The Son is the one who reveals the Father according to passages like John 1:18, as John repeatedly builds on themes that he’s established at the beginning. 

The main reason we know this isn’t a modalistic verse is through other verses. Jesus has repeatedly made distinctions between himself and the Father. If there is any way that the two are different, then they are not one and the same. The Trinitarian idea is that the Son is the one who is begotten and the Father is not begotten. The persons differ by relationship.

Jesus’s you is quite strong here for saying that what he has just stated should have been known. He tells them that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. The words he speaks are not his own. While some might think Jesus would say “They are from the Father”, Jesus instead points to the works that are being done. The gospel sees a strong connections between the words of God and the works of God. This fits with Jesus being the greatest work of God and the Word of God.

We will discuss more Sunday night. Pray for my safe travels while I’m away.

Hello everyone. Thanks to CV first off for his comment. I think it’s great if the church is doing something to remind us all that we are supposed to be servants of all. We are continuing our walk through the New Testament and looking for clues of the doctrine of the Trinity. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at a most hated verse of Scripture today if not the most hated verse and frankly, I think it is. That text will be John 14:6.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This is the verse Opran Winfrey and several others have a problem with. To Oprah, it’s incredible that the thing God cares about is that you call his Son Jesus. The problem is that if Christianity is true, then God has sent his Son, his only unique Son, to save people from their sins and if you deny that, then you are essentially telling God that you will go your own way and are denying his Son.

What we have to ask of any other system is “Why should I believe that this is a valid way to God?” Do we want to base our view of who God is on our feelings alone? You may feel like you’re good enough so that God will accept you. Fine. Feel that way. The question is, do you want to risk eternity on that? Christianity makes a serious claim and serious claims don’t go away just because you don’t like them. 

Now someone may ask “What about those who never heard?” That’s another question for another blog, but if you’re reading this blog, you’re not one of those. Oprah Winfrey definitely isn’t one of those. I think one reason the Bible never gives a clear answer is because the Bible has plan A as being the Great Commission. There’s no plan B out there given. The Bible wants us to do plan A and not give any reason why we should NOT do plan A.

But there is also great Trinitarian truth in this passage based on what Athanasius said which led to a conversation I had with two Jehovah’s Witnesses that rang the doorbell of my apartment by surprise one day. They wanted to know what I believed and so I went through a long list and I don’t believe they really caught what I had to say.

I believe in truth.

I believe truth doesn’t change.

I believe in Jesus.

I believe Jesus is the truth.

I believe truth is eternal.

Therefore, I believe Jesus is eternal.

They never seemed to notice that last point. (It seems a tendency of Jehovah’s Witnesses to not realize what I mean by eternal.)

This is the way Athanasius argued where he said Jesus is the truth of the Father. If truth is eternal and unchanging and Jesus claims to be the truth, then it is valid to see him in that way. Truth exists in the person of Jesus. He is that good news of the Father and as long as Truth has existed, Jesus has existed, which means Jesus is eternal and if he is eternal and he is a person, then he is fully deity.

In our pluralistic culture, this verse is unpopular, but we need to stand beside it. More and more evangelicals are becoming pluralists and saying there is more than one way to God. There may be many ways to God, but there is only way he’s approved of. One will either arrive and receive judgment or receive blessing. He has shown the way. Let us walk in it.

We’re going through the New Testament trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. I know there is much being posted in the comments against it, but I do not answer all lest this simply turns into answering critics. Any critics wishing to face what I have said are free to go to theologyweb.com and debate me there. There is a link on the side. Tonight, we’re going to be continuing through the gospel of John. We’re only covering one verse tonight. It’s going to be John 14:1.

 ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.”

Let’s set the scene. Jesus has just had the Last Supper with his disciples and he has said that one of them would betray him, who we know to be Judas. Judas goes out and it is night the text tells us. It is more than the time of day but that darkness is rising up to take its stand against the light. The battle of good and evil is about to take place.

Jesus has also told the disciples about how they would fall away and Peter has said that he would be willing to die for Christ. Christ has told him instead that before the rooster crows, he will deny being a disciple.

Now in light of all that has happened, Jesus is telling them that they trust in God. Trust also in him.

Some of us can pass over those words without realizing what exactly is being said.

The Israelites had always been told to trust in God. God is their rock and their shield. He is their fortress. He is their strong tower. He is the one who will deliever. Do not put your trust in men but trust in the Lord instead. The Israelites were to have no foreign gods and they were not to depend on armies, or as the Psalmist said, horses and chariots.

Here Jesus is showing up and telling them that that trust that they give to God also goes to him. He says it so casually as well. It seems to flow perfectly and then we need to stop and look and realize what it is that he has said.

We proclaim Christ as savior, but do we really stop and consider what he said and trust him? Christ said to not worry about tomorrow. Do we trust him? Christ said that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. (Luke 12:32) Do we trust him? Christ pronounced to those he forgave that their sins were forgiven. Do we believe he has forgiven our sins?

If we are to take this verse as it is, then when Christ makes a promise, we should consider it as a promise of God, which it essentially is. Christ does not tell us to trust promises though. He tells us to trust in him, which is something quite different. The promises are reliable because of him. 

Once again, are we really stopping to look at what Jesus said about himself in even the simplest statements?

Hello everyone. We’re continuing going through the gospel of John and looking for clues to the Trinity and the self-understanding of Christ. Tonight, we’re going to be in John 13. I won’t be reading the passage tonight as it is somewhat lengthy and it’s a story that we should all know, that is, Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.

In that culture, washing feet was the lowliest of tasks that could be done, and yet an important one. In an age without tennis shoes, a person’s feet would often be quite dirty by the time they arrived at the house of their guest and so in order to avoid getting the floor dirty and for some sake of hygiene, they would wash feet. For those of us who do not understand OT purity laws, keep this idea in mind. While you may not follow purity laws, if you have carpet, would you want someone with dirty feet and not wearing proper footwear to be walking on your carpet?

Thus, Jesus knows that his time is almost nigh and he knows that Judas is going to betray him. He gets up then and takes off his outer garment and wraps it around himself and then proceeds to go and wash the feet of his disciples. It was when he comes to Peter that he faces some opposition.

Peter will not let Christ do such a lowly job and Christ says that if he does not wash Peter’s feet, Peter has no part in him. Peter needed to learn to submit his pride and be prepared to learn what servitude really meant. It was beyond class distinctions of the time. If Peter did not allow Jesus to wash his feet, then he would be in the same position as the Pharisees and thinking that he was above the world of the lowly, the world that Jesus would be calling them to.

Of course, Peter does eventually consent and allows Jesus to wash his feet. Jesus then asks them if they understand what he has just done for them. He is their Lord and teacher. They do rightfully recognize that. If he, being so much greater than he, will wash their feet, ought they not to wash one another’s feet?

Now a question arises. We have Communion or the Eucharist on a regular basis in church. Why? Because Jesus told us to. Why don’t we have foot-washing ceremonies as well?

There would be nothing wrong with that if we so desired. However, when Jesus instituted Communion, he did so with specific signs and those were the signs to be used just as a lamb was to be what was used at Passover.

Jesus is not doing the same thing here. In our culture, we would take this to mean “There should be no task that a Christian is above doing in the service of another.” The Christian should be one who lives a life of service regardless if its footwashing or something else.

What does this tell us about Jesus? It tells us a point that function is not tied up with ontology, that is, one’s being. Now in some cases, I think it is. I think men are to function as men and because they are men, they cannot give birth, for instance. There are some things women can do that men cannot. I like the way Peter Kreeft puts it. Men are superior to women at being men. Women are superior to men at being women.

Why bring this up? Because many anti-Trinitarian errors fall here where they look at function and derive an ontology from that. If that is always the case, then this passage would prove that Jesus is lower than his disciples, when we know he isn’t. Jesus, however, being greater than all, gives us an example, an example that is far more beautiful when one sees him as he really is.

Are we going to follow it?

Hello everyone. I’ve had a busy day today. I spoke at a conference earlier today that required that I get up at 5:30 AM and I am exhausted as a result. However, it was a good conference and I did speak on an enjoyable topic and due to some shameless promoting of my blog there, there could be some new readers tonight so welcome aboard. If you are new from there or anywhere else, we’ve been going through the New Testament trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

We’ve been in the gospel of John and a couple of nights ago, I did a blog on John 12:41. A friend suggested Charles Taze Russell’s work on that verse. I asked for him to send it and he sent me a PDF copy. Tonight, I will be looking over that material.

Russell grants that John 12:41 does refer to Isaiah 6:1. What is his reply in response to this? His response is that the text says Adonai, which it does, however, let’s do a search for where Adonai comes up. As I go through I have the NWT and I see that in most places, it translates this as “Jehovah.” Here are some highlights.

In Genesis 20, Abimelech has God (And God will be Adonai unless stated otherwise) appear to him in a dream and Abimelech responds to which we are told “The true God said to him in the dream” to which we say either Adonai is the true God, or else Adonai is a false god and the JWs are polytheists. (Based on their translation of John 1:1, I’d say they are.)

Exodus 4 has Moses addressing the one speaking to him as Adonai, but in Exodus 3, we saw that that speaker took the divine name on himself.

Deuteronomy 3:24 has Moses speaking of the God who is incomparable to anyone else. This same one is called “Adonai.”

Psalm 68:19 says that blessing be to God, the true God of our salvation. Is YHWH then not the true God of salvation? This is continued in verse 20 as well.

Psalm 86:12 has the Psalmist speaking of “God, my God.”

Isaiah 25:8 speaks of God wiping the tears from their faces. Who does that in Revelation 21?

Isaiah 28:16 has God laying a cornerstone. If Russell wishes us to think Adonai is always Jesus, then is he saying that Jesus is laying himself? A unitarian could have a hard time with this. A Trinitarian doesn’t.

If Jesus is Adonai, then is he sending himself in Isaiah 48:16? Once again, a Trinitarian can say one person who is fully God is sending another who is. What will the unitarian say?

Isaiah 61:1. Was the Spirit of Adonai on Jesus when he read this in Luke 4?

In Jeremiah 32:17, God makes the Heavens and the Earth by his power and his outstretched arm. (The arm is something Russell makes quite a mention of in earlier pages.)

Ezekiel 14:11 has God saying he will be the God of Israel.

Ezekiel 16:59 sees God as the one who made the covenant with Israel.

Ezekiel 20:5 has God choosing Israel and saying that he is Jehovah their God.

In 20:40, God says the entire house of Israel will serve him in the land.

24:14 has Adonai and YHWH both saying the same thing. The speaker starts as YHWH and closes identifying himself as Adonai.

26:14 has a similar situation. “I YHWH have spoken” says Adonai.

34:31 has Adonai saying “I am your God.”

In Daniel 9:3, Adonai is referred to as “Jehovah the true God.” See verse 4 for continuation of this. Verse 15 has him as the God of Israel who brought them out of Egypt.

In Amos 3:7, the prophets are seen as his servants.

Amos 6:8 has God swearing by himself. Compare to Hebrews 6:13.

Never mind all the times that Adonai is referred to as sovereign and all the times he is prayed to….

Also, every single time Adonai showed up, it was translated as “Jehovah.” Apparently, the NWT translators didn’t see a major difference.

Do we have a problem if Russell is right and this is the Son in Isaiah 6? Not at all, for the Son is seen as Jehovah in verse 5. Russell’s resposne? That the messenger of the covenant might well be saluted with the praise of the Father. That’s not what Isaiah says however! Isaiah says that he has seen Jehovah.

It seems Russell did this without considering who Adonai is in Scripture. I recommend anyone just go to an online concordance like blueletterbible.com and looking up Adonai and see what you find as well.

Russell’s response seems to simply boil down to a distinction without any real substance to it. Why should I deny what I see in the text in favor of the theory of Russell? I see no reason.

We’re going to be continuing tonight our look at the gospel of John. We’ve been going through the Bible trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity and right now, we’re a little past the middle of John. A lot of our looking has been at the self-understanding of Christ as well as the way those around him saw him, pro and con. Our text tonight will be John 12:44-50.

 ⁴⁴Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. ⁴⁵When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. ⁴⁶I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

 ⁴⁷“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. ⁴⁸There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. ⁴⁹For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. ⁵⁰I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

Jesus is saying some extraordinary things. First off, to believe in Jesus is to believe in the one who sent him. After all, if you believe in Jesus, you believe in what he claims about the Father in that the Father sent him into the world. To affirm the former is to affirm the latter. On the other hand, if you disbelieve, then you deny that the Father sent Jesus into the world. If you do that and the Father did send Jesus into the world, then you are denying the great truth of the Father.

Jesus says the same thing about seeing, which he will later say to an apostle and so I will save that discussion for when we get to that point.

Jesus then says why he came into the world. He came so that no one who believes in him will stay in darkness. I’ve been debating with this point on someone today who says we should just teach the good news like Jesus did. There was no bad news. There is bad news however. We are in darkness without Jesus. The good news is that he came to redeem us from that.

But what about Jesus not judging? Did he not say that he judges the world in John 5? Jesus is here speaking about the person who does not believe. As we saw in John 3:18, they are condemned already. He does point them to the one who whill judge them then, the Father. Jesus does say however that his words will condemn that person on that day. They will be the means by which the Father condemns them.

Notice this at the end however. The Father tells the Son what to say! Doesn’t that prove the Son is an inferior being and thus disprove the Trinity?

Again, how?

Would it be better for the Son to say “I say what I want! The Father has nothing going on with me!”

No. They speak together. The Son and the Father share a unity in this action. The Son speaks in obedience to the Father. It doesn’t go against the Trinity but rather for it as it shows the unity that they share. This is just another case of bringing up an argument based on function and seeing that it therefore equals a different ontology.

Now it could be that the Son and the Father are ontologically distinct for argument’s sake. (They’re not of course.) That, however, won’t be shown by looking at their functions alone. You have to look at their nature.