A Closer Look At Christianity

Is Jesus the Same as God?

In John 10:30 Jesus said,“I and my Father are one.” This verse, according to Christians, shows God and Jesus Christ to be same. On the other hand, we read in John 20:17,“Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

Here Jesus stated that there was a distinction between him and God. In other words that Jesus himself had a God. Also, Matthew 27:46 “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ” Here Jesus Christ cried in loud voice calling for his God.

These are two different and opposite ways Jesus relates himself to God. The first one, he and God are one, and the second, he refers to a higher authority than him which is God. Now assuming that both are correct statements then we have a contradiction. If, for example, Jesus Christ was God himself as in John 10:30 then it would be more appropriate for him to say***“...and to myself, and your God.”*** in John 20:17, or***“Myself, Myself, why hast thou forsaken me?”*** in Matthew 27:46. If, on the other hand, one of them is wrong and the other is correct then we have to discard the one we believe to be incorrect! Since God does not make mistakes then we no longer believe the Bible is the word of God (because we believe there is a contradiction of God’s words in the Bible).

A third possibility is that we have to look at how we can interpret the words of Jesus in those verses. As far as John 20:17 and Matthew 27:46 it is very clear Jesus had a God whom he prayed to and Whom had a higher authority than his own. We can back this up with other verses from the Bible that say,“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” (John 5:30). Also Jesus said,“...for my Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). If Jesus and God were the same then he would not have said what he said in the above verses.

Now, the only verse that can be interpreted is John 10:30. It is the only one that does not render itself clear. The only way John 10:30 could be interpreted such that it does not contradict all the other verses is by saying that Jesus meant he and God had something in common.

To find out what the common grounds were, we have to look at the context in which this verse came:

John 10:27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

John 10:28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

John 10:29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

John 10:30I and my Father are one.

As can be seen from John 10:28 and John 10:29 Jesus was telling the Jews that he and God share something in common, and it was: no one can pluck the faithful from either of their hands. This was the common factor

between Jesus and God in this case, and not that Jesus was himself God, or that they were exactly the same.

Let us go on to see what Jesus says in John 10:

John 10:31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him .

John 10:32Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

John 10:33The 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.

John 10:34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

John 10:35If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

John 10:36Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

John 10:37If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

John 10:38But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

John 10:39Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,

John 10:40And went away again beyond Jordan…

In John 10:31 we see that the Jews misunderstood what Jesus had meant by***“I and my Father are one.”*** (John 10:30). And in John 10:33 they accused him of blasphemy. Now, had Jesus been God, or had he and God been one in a literal sense then he wouldn’t have hesitated to clarify the matter at that point. Jesus at that point said,“Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” What he was trying to say was that if the Jews called***“I and my Father are one”*** blasphemy then they should call what was written in their law***“Ye are gods”*** blasphemy too.

The reasoning behind this is***“Ye are gods”*** does not mean that you, the Jews, are Gods, it is rather an expression. It just means that you are godly people. The same applies to***“I and my Father are one.”*** It does not mean that Jesus is God or that he and God are the same literally. It’s just an expression. (The same goes for calling himself***“the Son of God.”*** This statement should not be taken literally either).

The Holy Quran says,

“...Nothing whatsoever (is there) like the like of Him, and He (alone) is All-Hearing and All-Seeing” (Ch 42: Vr 11).

Nothing at all is like God, not Moses, not Jesus, not Muhammad, and certainly nothing of His creation.