John 5:18

Ok, I haven't written here in a long, long time. Part of it is because I have been focusing on other duties, part of it is because we have a new baby and things are quite busy, and part of it is because I have this nagging need to post full-blown, final draft articles on this blog, which can be cumbersome and take time. The number of draft-form documents on this blog is large, and hopefully someday I will publish them. In the meantime, I felt it might be useful to just post some small blurbs.

Here are two from John 5.


This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (Joh 5:18)

Question: Why were the Jews seeking to kill Jesus?

The same reason they were trying to kill him a few chapters later when he said, "Before Abraham was born, I AM?" It wasn't because he claimed to be around a long time, or that he claimed some supernatural origin. It was precisely because they perceived Him as "making Himself equal with God [the Father]." Jesus never corrects them. John never comments to clarify. It is understood. The Jews understood what He was saying, and that is why they wanted to stone Him.


The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. (Joh 5:22-23)

Question: Is the Father promoting idolatry, here? How is it, then, that the Father would give all judgment to the Son for the purpose that all may honor the Son just as, according to, inasmuch as they honor the Father?

If you hold to a creaturely status for Jesus, you really are left with very little ground for distinguishing true honor and worship from idolatry.

The more I read the Scriptures, especially the New Testament, the more I see the Deity of Christ everywhere. The only reason you would systematically and continually reject it is because you have an overriding pre-conviction, such as the Unitarianism of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Read through the appendices in the back of the NWT. That is the basic reasoning behind all of these "scholarly-appearing" appendices relating to the Deity of Christ. In the end it is, "Jesus can't be Jehovah because the Father is Jehovah, and Jesus is clearly distinct from the Father."

The Trinity is the only doctrine which makes sense of all the Biblical data. It affirms monotheism, it affirms the constant references to the Deity of Christ, the casual and unqualified, manner in which New Testament writers refer to Jesus with Old Testament passages that are about Jehovah, the humanity of Jesus Christ, the unique union the Father and Son have, and the role-based subordination the Son has to the Father.