In last week’s Watchtower Wednesday on our Facebook page we asked, How can Jesus be 'with God' at the same time as being God? On their website the Watch Tower Society addresses this question:
'The statement “the Word was with God” indicates that two separate persons are discussed in the verse. It is not possible for the Word to be “with God” and at the same time be God Almighty. The context also confirms that the Word is not Almighty God. John 1:18 states that “no man has seen God at any time.” However, people did see the Word, Jesus, for John 1:14 states that “the Word became flesh and resided among us, and we had a view of his glory.”
There is so much wrong with the Watch Tower article it is difficult to know where to start. They present several ‘facts’ that are really doctrinal assertions. They say:
‘In the original-language text, the two occurrences of “God” (Greek, the·osʹ) at John 1:1 are grammatically different. In the first occurrence, the word “God” is preceded by the Greek definite article, while the article does not appear before the second occurrence.’
Thus they argue that the first ‘God’ is ‘big G’ Almighty God while the second is ‘little g’ ‘a god.’ So, they have two gods. However, in John 1:18 (NWT 2013) there is no definite article connected with the first theon translated ‘God’, but the second theos is followed by the definite article ‘the one’ and yet it is translated ‘god’. You can find a comprehensive treatment of these ‘facts’ on the Reachout website.
How can Jesus be 'with God' and be God?
It is well to remember that any explanation, or indeed symbol such as the one accompanying this article, falls woefully short of fully explaining God. We are, after all, talking about the Almighty and all we know of him we can only know through what he reveals of himself. This should engender in us an attitude of humility, wonder, and awe.
The Bible tells us that the fullest revelation of God is Jesus (Heb.1:1-5). Even then, attempts to make him fit into our fallen and limited minds as the Jehovah's Witnesses do, will always diminish him.
To be with someone while at the same time being the someone you are with does seem a contradictory statement. Remember, in last week’s post we saw that Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t ‘have an answer’ to these questions as so many think, they have a mindset. They look at the Bible through a doctrinal lens and we can help them see correctly by putting the correct lens up to their eyes, trusting in and bringing them to God’s written word, the Bible.
The key word in John 1:1 is logos, or Word. John is writing in and for a Greek speaking world informed by Greek thought and philosophy. How would he influence that world if not by speaking its language? The New Dictionary of Christian Theology tells us logos has a wide range of meanings, many of them familiar enough; significant utterance, spoken or written word, etc.
Philosophically, and long before the first century, it came to mean in Greek thought that which explains and governs everything, the organising principle, ‘the intelligence in man being a small-scale copy of this cosmic logos.’ (NDCT, p.339)
If we are to understand John’s meaning we need to understand ‘Word’ in its Greek context. To the Greek mind the ‘Word’ is a reference to the mind of Divinity, the sum of all God is. John picks up on this and uses it to mean more than writing, speech, or expression. Writing of the pre-eminence of Christ Paul agrees with John, ‘For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…’ (Col.1:19)
You can, as Jehovah’s Witnesses do, say Jesus is ‘God’s spokesperson,’ but this is to ignore the cultural context of John’s writing, his purpose in choosing to describe Jesus as ‘the Word.’ If there is any doubt about Christ’s role as the organising principle of all creation simply look at what John goes on to write:
‘All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life…’ (John 1:3,4)
John tells us a) ‘...without him was not anything made that was made,’ b) ‘In him was life…’ If Jesus is the first created being then his life would be contingent, as is my life, as is yours. John, however, makes clear Jesus has life in himself. See last weeks post for more on this.
John tells us he is the source of life and not dependent on any life source, he made everything. So it follows he is our source of life. Paul tells us the fullness of God dwells in him, and again agrees with John that Jesus created everything, even unpacking a list to make sure his readers understand he means everything (Col.1:15-20)
John’s message is that this organising and governing principle is no longer a mystery but embodied in a mortal man. Jesus told Philip, ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’ John `14:9) Jesus is not simply the eschatological ambassador for God but God present with us in the flesh, Immanuel (Mt.1:23)
With God
It is right to first be clear on how the Bible describes Jesus, and we have done that. When we read of the Word as being ‘with God,’ we take the obvious meaning of being near, or beside God, and that is not entirely wrong; but neither is it entirely right. John 1:1 gives us the building blocks of the doctrine of the Trinity and it is in that context we must understand John’s message. The one true God consists of more than one person, each is fully God, and they relate to each other within the godhead.
When we speak about ‘persons’ in relation to the Trinity – the person of the Father, the person of the Son, the person of the Spirit – we don’t mean it in the same way we speak of the human self. I cannot be with you and at the same time be you. We are discreet creations sharing the same human nature.
When we speak of the persons of the godhead we are referring to three persons sharing the same substance, each having fully the nature of God, yet there is one God. So, the Son is with the Father, but is also fully God; ‘the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ How else will you deal with what the New Testament consistently says bout Jesus without making Jesus less than the Bible says he is?
This is the question addressed by the early councils of the church. The earliest Christians didn’t seem to have this problem, but simply spoke of what they had seen and heard (1 John 1:1-4; 4:14; Jn.1:14) It is significant that church councils were convened to combat the growing questioning and denial of what those early Christians plainly said they saw and heard, indeed what he said about himself.
To be found in the company of those who, from the beginning, have denied the Saviour’s true nature is perilous. Christians must know him for who he is and share what we know. To reiterate what I said last week:
This is the most profound truth you will ever encounter; the person of Jesus, his identity, his role as creator and sustainer of all things ‘visible and invisible.’ Understand this and you begin to grasp the enormous significance of the Philippians text, ‘...though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.’ (Philip.2:6,7)
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