Does John 17:3 prove that Jesus is NOT God?
By Peter Salemi
Many skeptics of the Bible claim that John 17:3 proves that Jesus did NOT believe he was God in the flesh. The Scripture says, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Jesus believed that the Father was the only true God and none else. Critics say here Jesus is disqualifying himself as very God. Is this true?
Other scriptures
Many take these little proof texts and lift them out of context and produce their own little idea babies that becomes their doctrine. There are no isolated doctrines in scripture. Every doctrine in scripture is supported by all scripture.
What about the same statement written by John about Jesus in 1 John 5:20 that says, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” The JFB Commentary makes it clear, “This Jesus Christ (the last-named Person) is the true God” (identifying Him thus with the Father in His attribute, ‘the only true God,’ John 17:3, primarily attributed to the Father).”
Barnes’s as well says, “...the following considerations seem to me to make it morally certain that by the phrase ‘this is the true God,’ etc., he did refer to the Lord Jesus Christ....the grammatical construction favors it. Christ is the immediate antecedent of the pronoun ‘this’ - houtos.” (emphasis added)
Here John is saying that Jesus is also the true God and eternal life. In fact other translations have, “This one is the true God, and the life eternal.” (Apostolic Bible Polyglot).
“and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (BBE; Darby; EMTV; ERV; ESV; GDBY NT; GSNT)
“and we are in hym that is true, through his sonne Iesus Christe. This same is very God, and eternall lyfe.” (Bishops; Geneva).
Is there a contradiction?
Jesus called himself that great “I AM” of the Old Testament (John 8:58; Ex 3:14).
He said “I and My Father are ONE” (John 10:30). This is the “Shema” of the New Testament, and the “The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (10:33). Jesus said he is one and the same as the Father.
Jesus said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9). Jesus was an exact copy of God the Father in nature and Kind-the God-Kind as Hebrews states, “Who [Christ] being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,” (1:3). The “express image of his person” means “The word used here - χαρακτὴρ charaktēr - likewise occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is that from which our word ‘character’ is derived. It properly means a ‘engraving-tool;’ and then something ‘engraved’ or ‘stamped’ – ‘a character’ - as a letter, mark, sign. The image stamped on coins, seals, wax, expresses the idea: and the sense here is, that if God be represented under the idea of a substance, or being, then Christ is the exact resemblance of that - as an image is of the stamp or die. The resemblance between a stamp and the figure which is impressed is exact; and so is the resemblance between the Redeemer and God; see Col 1:15. ‘Who is the image of the invisible God.”’ (Barnes Notes, emphasis added).
Jesus said he had the same glory as the Father, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17:5). And YHWH says, “…my glory will I not give to another,” (Isa 42:8).
Clearly Jesus is God-the one true God and so is the Father. So what did Jesus mean that the Father was the only true God? Was Jesus disqualifying himself?
The verses 1, 2, 4, and 5 of John 17, Jesus was claiming something for Himself that no one can claim except God. If, in verses 1, 2, 4 and 5, Jesus speaks of His divinity, then, He was not excluding Himself when speaking of the only true God in verse 3!
John 17:3 needs to be read in context to fully appreciate what Jesus was saying in that prayer. The contrast is not between the Father and the Son. In fact Jesus says that Eternal life comes from knowing the Father through the Son, “And this is LIFE ETERNAL, that they might know thee the only true God, AND Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Eternal life is knowledge of the Father through the Son. In fact, “For, first, the very juxtaposition of Jesus Christ here with the Father, and the knowledge of both being defined to be eternal life, is a proof by implication of the Godhead of the former. The knowledge of God and a creature [idols] could not be eternal life, and the juxtaposition of the two would be inconceivable.” (Alford NT, Emphasis his and mine).
Notice now the previous verses of that chapter, Jesus says, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
“As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” (vv.1-2). Jesus here is speaking on a global scale! That the heathen should come to the knowledge of the true God; and salvation is only by the Father through the Son and not by Idols-false Gods. THIS IS THE CONTEXT!
Also, the word “true” in Jesus statement is “alēthinos” (Strong’s’ #228) the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature on page 37 states that, “…of God in contrast to other gods, who are not real.” (Bauer, Walter; Arndt, William; Gingrich, F. Wilbur; Danker, Frederick). Thus, the context of John 17:3 is the “true contrasted with false” connotation.
So the contrast is not between the Father and the Son but between the Father and the world’s false gods and idols and this should not be seen as contradictory or inconsistent with the whole of the Bible which supports the fact Jesus Christ is God.
Notice this illustration:
If one says that the Gospels are the only true words of God does this exclude the Torah or the Psalms or other books in the Bible that claim to be the true words of God? Not at all! The whole Bible is made up of the Torah Psalms, Prophets Gospels etc.…
What I’m doing is contrasting Biblical gospels with fake fabricated gospels.
Likewise, stating that the Father is the only true God does not deny the Son as the only true God. Jesus’ statement contrasts the Father the only true God with fake gods of the world who are NOT THE FATHER!
Does the Father Exclude Himself?
The Father clearly recognizes the Son as God, “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.” (Heb 1:8); and Creator of the world, “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:” (v.10). Clearly showing that Jesus is YHWH “Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel… I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.” (Isa 45:11-12). Does this mean that the Father excludes himself as God? NO!
Neither Jesus, when he calls the Father the only true God does he exclude himself! Scriptures must be understood in totality. You cannot rip out one verse and read your own biased presupposition into it. The Father and the Son are both showing that they a part of the Same God family-the are both the same Kind, with the same attributes. The Bible clearly teaches there is one God. The oneness of God is a family, a KIND-THE GODKIND! This one God is the only true God-Father and the Son-Yahweh!
For Further Study read our booklet Who, What is God? Here: https://www.british-israel.ca/God.pdf
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