Jesus Is Not Really Equal With The Father?

Introduction

The scriptures teach us that Jesus is “equal to God”, is “God”, that he and the Father “are one” [Joh 5:18; 10:30-33; Php 2:6]. But what does this really mean?

What I would like to demonstrate in this post is that (contrary to what is popularly taught and used to measure whether one is a heretic or not) the doctrine of the Scriptures that Jesus is equal to God does not mean that the Father and son are equal in knowledge and power and authority, etc.

Even the very scriptures that state Jesus’ equality or oneness with God, when studied without imposing an interpretation on them, and ignoring their narratives and contexts, do not suggest such a doctrine.

For example, you may note that it was the Jews who first stated that Jesus was “making himself equal with God” and this was simply because Jesus called God his Father.

For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. [Joh 5:18]

Now, if the Jews derived this conclusion from Jesus’ words, it means that Jesus’ equality with God is not a mystery that cannot be understood by ordinary people.

Who do you follow: the crowd or the Truth whether or not it is popular? The apostles and Scriptures or creeds and dogmas?

In any case, below are facts that demonstrate that neither Jesus Christ, nor the apostles and scriptures teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is equal to God the Father in all things. And this has always been so from before creation when he was in glory to his time on earth in human form and from his resurrection and restoration to glory and in the age to come.

“My God”—God Is God To Jesus

The Lord Jesus called God his Father and God
While in human form before his death [Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34] and
After his resurrection and glorification [Joh 20:17] and ascension to heaven [Rev 3:2,12].

If the Father is God to Jesus, even after his restoration to glory, it means that the Father has always been God and will always be God to him. You may note that nowhere is Jesus called the Father’s God.

The Holy Spirit

Although the Holy Spirit belongs to Christ, it belongs first and primarily to the Father [Joh 16:13-15]
The Father is the one who anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power [Act 10:38]
It is from the Father that the Lord Jesus received the Holy Spirit which he poured out on the church [Act 2:33]

With regards to the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son are not exactly equal.

Blasphemy against Jesus and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit do not carry the same weight, i.e., they don’t have the same consequence. Blasphemy against Jesus can, and will be, forgiven. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. [Mat 12:31-32; Mar 3:28-30; Luk 12:10]
Now, since the Holy Spirit is really the Father’s, blasphemy against the Spirit is blasphemy against the Father. Therefore, we can see that blasphemy against the Father is more serious than blasphemy against the Son

Since blasphemy against the Father and blasphemy against the Son, Jesus Christ, don’t carry the same weight of consequence, Jesus Christ is not really equal to God.

Wisdom And Knowledge

The Lord Jesus Christ learned everything he knows from the Father [Joh 5:21]—
(While he was on earth and before)All his miracles, signs and wonders, even
(Now after his resurrection and restoration to glory) How to raise the dead, i.e., how he is going to raise all the dead. Please take note that Jesus said that the Father will “show him even greater things than these” [Joh 5:20]
Jesus did not know the day of his coming, but God the Father does [Mat 24:36]

Clearly, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are not exactly equal in wisdom and knowledge and Jesus still has things to learn from the Father [Joh 5:20]!

Creation

The creation of the world was not Jesus’ idea but the Father’s idea [Rev 4:11]
Although Jesus created the world [Joh 1:3; Heb 1:2-3], he did it in service to the Father [Eph 3:9] and obedience to his command.

The creation, therefore, belongs to the Father more than it belongs to Jesus Christ. The Father’s will and authority with regard to creation supersedes that of Christ.

Also, since no servant is greater than his master [Joh 13:16], and Jesus served God in creating the world, Jesus is clearly not as great as the Father.

This has always and will always hold true.

Jesus Prays To The Father

The Lord Jesus Christ while on earth prayed to the Father [Heb 5:7] and, now that he is in heaven, still intercedes before the Father [Joh 17:13; Rom 8:34; 1Ti 2:5; Heb 7:25; 1Jo 2:1], in other words, the Lord Jesus Christ, even now in heaven and glorified, still prays to the Father.

If he prays to the Father and not the other way around, then it is quite evident that Jesus is not equal to the Father in greatness.

Power And Authority And Greatness

Since,

…without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater [Heb 7:7]

and, also, since

No one hopes for what he already has [Rom 8:24-25],

Meaning that the Father cannot be giving Jesus what he already had or has, the facts below mean that the Father is greater than the Son, that this has always been so from before creation and will forever be so.

God gave Jesus His divine nature which he had before creation and after his resurrection from the dead.
It is by the Father’s will and choice that Jesus has the same divinenature as God for it was God who chose to have all His fulness dwell in Christ [Col 1:19; 2:9-10]. This means that Jesus could have had a lower nature than God if the Father so chose. Definitely, therefore, Christ is not exactly equal to the Father.
The Father gave Jesus Christ his name [Joh 17:11-12]; it was the Father who exalted Jesus Christ to the highest place and gave him a name above all names [Php 2:5-8]
The Father gave the Church to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church, Jesus’ people and disciples, were given to him by the Father and they belonged first to the Father before belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ [Joh 17:6,9]
It is the Father that gave the Lord Jesus Christ authority over all things [Mat 11:27; Luk 10:22; Joh 17:2]. This covers the period of creation into the coming age.
The Father is greater than Jesus in power. The Lord Jesus Christ said “…my Father is greater than I” [Joh 14:28]. This (as we see in Joh 10:28-29, where the greatness of the Father means that He is more powerful than all)means that the Father is superior to Christ in power.
The Father was not and is not subject to the Lord Jesus Christ [1Co 15:27]. The Lord Jesus Christ is, however, subject to the Father for “the head of Christ is God” [1Co 11:3]

Jesus’ Equality With God

Our Lord Jesus Christ is equal to the Father

In glory and nature.
Nature and glory is what distinguishes one creature (or being) from another in the order of heaven. Just as what makes man superior to animals is that he was made in God’s image and likeness.
Jesus had the same nature and glory with God before his humanity [Joh 17:5; Php 2:5-6ff] and after—not during.
Nevertheless, Jesus is not really equal to the Father because it was the Father who gave him His glory [Joh 17:24] and divine nature [Col 1:19; 2:9-10].
In the authority conferred by his sitting on the right hand of God.
Being the King’s right hand means that one has been granted or given authority by the King to exercise the thrones authority. This then makes one in a practical sense equal to the King. Nevertheless, this does not make the right hand equal or, least of all, superior to the King as he only has the authority to exercise the power of the throne but the throne does not belong to him.
Joseph was described as equal to Pharaoh [Gen 44:18], and he really was, but the throne belonged to Pharaoh [Gen 41:40ff].
Joseph was given Pharaoh’s signet ring [Gen 41:42]. This means that Joseph had full authority to act in Pharaoh’s name
Like Pharaoh did to Joseph, king Artaxerxes gave his signet ring to Haman [Est 3:10] and, later, Mordecai [Est 8:2], and so they could issue decrees in the king’s name and act with his full authority but they were not the king themselves [Est 3:12; 8:8,10]. The king could, however, at any time, withdraw the privilege from them especially if they did not do with his authority what was acceptable to him. He did this to Haman [Est 8:2].

The Son At God’s Right Hand

It was by the Father’s will and invitation that Jesus took his sit at the Father’s right hand [Psa 110:1].
Though, like Joseph to Pharaoh [Gen 44:18 cf., Gen 41:40], like Haman and, after him, Mordecai to Artaxerxes, being God’s right hand makes him practically equal to God, God is still greater than him [Joh 14:28].
If Jesus’ humanity was the reason for the Father’s superior greatness, then Jesus, while human, shouldn’t have been greater than Jacob [Joh 4:12] and Abraham [Joh 8:53ff]
No servant is greater than his master [Joh 13:16]. Since Jesus, before he became human, was sent by the Father [Joh 3:34; 4:34; 5:23,36-37; 16:28] from heaven [Joh 3:31; 6:32-35,38,50-51,58], which is why he in fact became human, then even before his humanity, while in glory, Jesus was not equal to, much less, greater than the Father in greatness.
The fact that Jesus is seated at the Father’s Right Hand confers practical equality with God on Christ for it means that he has been given the authority to exercise the power of God’s Throne. Nevertheless, the Throne does not belong to him but to God the Father.
This is just as with Joseph who was practically equal to Pharaoh [Gen 44:18] because Pharaoh had given him full authority over his palace and the land of Egypt, but not ownership of Pharaoh’s throne [Gen 41:40]
There is a distinction often missed between the Throne of God and the Throne of Christ [Rev 3:21; 12:5], they are not the same. (Nevertheless, all thrones, as all things belong to God.)
Now, the Father has not given our Lord Jesus Christ the honour of seating at His Right Hand forever, but only until all the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ have been made a footstool for him [Psa 110:1]. After the end, after the last enemy death has been destroyed, the Lord Jesus Christ will step down from the right hand of the Father and will be made subject to the Father [1Co 15:22-28].

So, even now resurrected and restored to the glory he had before creation [Joh 17:5] the fact that Jesus is at God’s right hand means that he is not exactly equal to God for, with regards to His Throne, God is superior to him.

Also, in the age to come, in “eternity”, Jesus will be subject to God. Most certainly, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are not exactly equal in power and authority.

Conclusion

But for the fact that a very few scriptures are interpreted out of context to mean what they don’t remotely mean, and their false interpretations made to overshadow plain Truths and, the scriptures forced to conform to these false interpretations; And for the fact that these misinterpretations are forced on us and reinforced through many generations teaching the same lie as the truth to which all interpretations must conform and not, even suggestively, violate—even the most inattentive of the students of the Scriptures would have easily recognized the error of taking Jesus’ equality with the Father to mean equality in all things.