Pancho Frijoles
Active Member
I may be not understanding your point here, synergy.Jesus also referred to God the Father as "our Father". So there are inconsistencies there between "my" and "our" that cannot be fully explained by what you just wrote.
Jesus explained that His God is our God and His Father is our Father (John 20:17) . So I don't detect the inconsistency.
Nevertheless, you have in front of you an explicit statement in that "the Word was God" in John 1:1.
(John 1:1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So, how does your statement "Jesus Christ is not God" align with the fact that "the Word was God"?
By asking myself these two questions:
- Why did this evangelist write that, when in the rest of his gospel he constantly presents Jesus as claiming having been Sent by his Father, who He calls "the Only and True God"?
- Why only this evangelist does that, and not the other three who wrote their gospels long before him?
So, let's see what the evangelist had in mind and what the evangelist tell us Jesus proclaimed:
- “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life. (John 5:24)
- The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63)
- Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)
- He who is of God hears God’s words. Therefore, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” (John 8:47)
- Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death. (John 8:51)
John was talking to an audience of Greek-Roman culture, acquainted with the concept of Logos. His gospel is highly theological, in contrast with the older synoptics. John wants to emphasize that Jesus represents the eternal Word of God, and the fact that we are saved if we follow that word, because following the Word is following God Himself.
Such Word is called God in John 1:1, because God has always spoken. God is a talking God. There is no point in "time" in which God didn't have a Word to say. Word is inherent to God.
Such Word of God abides in Jesus, manifests in Jesus, with such salvific power, that it is as if it had "incarnated" in the flesh of Jesus.
In fact, the evangelist used a similar metaphor, as the Word abiding within us: You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe the One He has sent. (John 5:38)
There is a beautiful analogy about the sun and his rays that explain this relationship, but since it pertains to the Baha'i Scriptures, I will not mention them in this thread.
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