“I and the Father Are One”
Jesus made the following statements, found in the Gospel of John: “I and the Father are one,” and “he who has seen me has seen the Father.” Does this mean that Jesus is the same person as His Father? A careful examination of these verses in their scriptural context will make it possible to understand what Jesus meant when making these claims.
Jesus said at John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.”
Jesus went on to explain what He meant by this statement at John 10:38: “. . .that you may know and understand that the Father is in me (in union with me), and I in the Father (in union with the Father).”
This is a similar explanation that Jesus gave to Phillip at John 14:8-10:
“8 Phillip said to Him, ‘Lord show us the Father and it is enough for us.’ 9 Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Phillip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, show us the Father? 10 Do you not believe that I am in (in union with) the Father and the Father is in (in union with) me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me (who dwells in me) does His works.'”
It is clear from the above passages and Jesus’ own words, that the Father was in Him (in union with Him) and that God the Father actually dwelt or was abiding in His Son. In this way, Jesus was one with His Father! Not that someone actually saw God the Father in His heavenly glory or that Jesus was God the Father. What they saw was the only begotten Son, who was the exact likeness, image, or representation of His Father. The following verses verify this fact.
Philippians 2:5-6 states: “5 Have this mind (attitude) among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though He was in the form of God; (though the divine nature was His from the beginning, possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God, who, though from the beginning had the nature of God) did not count (consider) equality with God a thing to be grasped (He did not see, in the rank of Godhead, a prize to be coveted).”
Colossians 1:15 states: “He is the image of the invisible God, (the visible expression of, the exact likeness of the unseen God, the true likeness of the God we cannot see) the first-born of all creation.”
2 Corinthians 4:4 states: “For the god of this world has blinded the unbeliever’s minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), who is the image and likeness of God.”
Hebrews 1:2-3 states: “2 But in these last days He (the Father) has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. 3 He reflects the very glory of God (the radiance of His glory) and bears the very stamp of His nature (the exact representation of His nature). . .”
Jesus Christ (the only begotten Son) is the exact image, representation, likeness, or stamp of His Father. In Him dwelt all of the divine nature and attributes of His Father. In this way, Jesus could say to His disciples that by seeing Him, they had seen the Father. Christ (the Son) was the visible expression of God the Father on earth. To say that people actually saw God the Father in His glory, would be a direct contradiction of Holy Scripture. The Apostle Paul confirms this fact, that no man has seen God the Father at any time.
1 Timothy 6:15-16 states: “15 . . . He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”
The Apostle John also confirms this fact.
John 1:18 states: “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God (the only begotten Son) who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him (declared Him, interpreted Him, has made Him known).”
1 John 4:12 states: “No one has beheld God at any time. . .”
Jesus also stated that no man had seen the Father:
John 5:37: “And the Father who sent me has Himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen.”
John 6:46: “Not that anyone has seen the Father except Him (Christ) who is from God; He has seen the Father.”
God the Father (Yahweh) declared at Exodus 33:20:
Exodus 33:20: “But, He (Yahweh) said, ‘you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.'”
While no one has ever seen God the Father, we as humans have seen Jesus Christ, the exact image of the Father. The only begotten Son of God was sent to earth to reveal or explain His Father to us. By having His Father dwell in Him and being one with His Father, Jesus could say to Phillip, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
In attempting to understand this super natural phenomenon, many theologians have declared it a “mystery” and something that is beyond our human comprehension and ability to understand. In order to begin to understand this phenomenon, we must recognize that we are crossing over into a different realm or dimension, the spirit realm. The Bible makes it clear that God the Father is a Spirit, not a substance or something we can identify within our material or physical world. The claim that “God is a substance” is not found in Holy Scripture. This concept infiltrated the church during the later second century. Although some of these theologians may have been well meaning in their attempt to define God, they were not inspired by the Holy Spirit. The use of the term, “substance,” in defining God came from human intellect, not from Holy Scripture.
God is a Spirit
The Bible clearly states that God is a Spirit!
Jesus said at John 4:24: “God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth (reality).”
God the Father, as a Spirit, does not have the physical restrictions or boundaries that we are subject to in our material or physical world. As Almighty God, He can inhabit or dwell in someone, in this case His only begotten Son.
The Apostle Paul makes this plain for us at Colossians 1:19:
“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness (the divine nature in all its fullness, the full nature of God, the complete being of God, God wanted all of Himself to be in His Son) to dwell in Him (Christ).”
From this passage of scripture, it is plain that all of the divine nature, the full nature of God, or all of God Himself dwelt in his Son. It does not say that God the Father was the Son, but rather God the Father (as Spirit) dwelt in His Son! Another scriptural way of saying this is that God the Father chose to manifest or reveal Himself through or in the Person of His Son. The scriptures tell us that the majesty and glory of God was manifest in the Person or face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6 states: “For God Who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts so as (to beam forth) the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God (as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed) in the face (Person, or features) of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).” Amplified Bible (See also John 1:14 & 1 John 1:1-2)
The Orthodox Study Bible states: “While human beings are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26), the incarnate Son is Himself the exact image of the Father (Colossians 1:15). Christ did not say, ‘I am the Father,’ for He is not. Rather, He declares that He and the Father are one in essence and undivided in nature, while being distinct persons in the Godhead.”
“Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?”
The vast majority of clergyman and preachers, worldwide, concede in their teaching that God the Father left His only begotten Son, during His final moments on the cross. This is an open admission to the fact that God the Father actually dwelt in His Son.
“At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, . . . ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?'” Mark 15:34
At this critical point in time, during the crucifixion, God the Father (who is Spirit) literally withdrew from His Son. He had to turn away from His Son, who bore all of our iniquities and transgressions on the cross. (Isaiah 53:4 & 11) Christ, in bearing all of our sins, became a curse for us. (Galatians 3:13) Jesus knew immediately that His God and Father had left Him and was no longer in Him. That Jesus cried out to His Father saying, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me,” clearly identifies the Father as Jesus’ God. That the Father had truly left Him in this most critical hour, consolidates the fact that the Father and the Son are two distinct persons, capable of being separated and are only one through the indwelling of God as Spirit.
The Incarnation of Christ in the Believer
Jesus expounded on what He meant by being one with His Father, by stating that He would also become one with us and actually dwell or abide in each of us as believers. In this way, we all become united as one.
Jesus, at John 14:20 stated: “In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
At John 15:4-5 Jesus stated: “4 Abide in me and I in you. (dwell in Me and I will dwell in you, live in Me and I will live in you). . . 5 I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides (lives) in me, and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
At John 17:20-23 Jesus said: “20 I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who believe in me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be (one) in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given to me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one; 23 I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity (one), so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you have loved me.”
This once again demonstrates that a spirit has the ability to become one with a person, in this case Christ with a believer. This is referred to as the incarnation of Christ, or the indwelling of Christ in the believer. In this way, Christ acts as the Mediator between us and God the Father. By Christ dwelling in each one of us and becoming one with us, we become one with Christ and also one with God the Father. In this way, we are all perfected and united as one.
1 Timothy 2:5 states: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus.”
Hebrews 12:24 states: “And Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. . .”
John 14:6 “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The early Christians believed that Christ was made alive in the Spirit and became a life giving Spirit. “The Lord is Spirit!”
1 Peter 3:18 states: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.”*
1 Corinthians 15:45 states: “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being (soul); the last Adam (Christ) became a life giving Spirit.'” (Read also Romans 8:2 & 1 Corinthians 15:35-50)
2 Corinthians 3:17 states: “Now the Lord (Christ) is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
The Apostle Paul stated at 2 Corinthians 5:16: “. . . (No) even though we once did estimate (know, regard) Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man (according to the flesh, as a human being); yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer with a view to the flesh (according to the flesh, as a man, from a human viewpoint, we know Him no longer that way).
After being raised in the spirit, God granted that Jesus should become visible and allowed Him to be seen by His disciples, so that they should be witnesses that He rose from the dead.
Acts 10:40-41 states: “40 but God raised Him on the third day and allowed Him to appear (granted that He become visible, enabled Him to show Himself, allowed Him to be seen), 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses. . .”
Christ (as Spirit) could appear and disappear at will, enter rooms with locked doors and barred windows, and even take on different appearances. While not always initially recognized by those who saw him, He could vanish and disappear into thin air. (Rd. Matthew 28:9, Mark 16:9, 12 & 14, Luke 24:15-16, 31 & 36, John 20:13-15, 19, 26 & 21:1, Acts 1:3, & 1 Corinthians 15:5-8)
The only test mentioned in scripture, which determines whether one is a Christian and in the faith, is whether Jesus Christ (the Spirit of Christ) is in the believer? By having Christ in us and becoming one spirit with Him, we experience the oneness and fullness of God. In this way, we belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
At 2 Corinthians 13:5 it states: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, — unless indeed you fail the test?”
Romans 8:9-10 states: “9 . . . But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him (he is not a Christian at all). 10 But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.”
1 Corinthians 6:17 states: “For he who is united to (with) the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”
Philippians 1:19 states: “. . . For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.”
1 Peter 1:10-11 states: “10 The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this salvation; 11 they inquired what person or time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory.”
John 1:16 states: “For of His (Christ’s) fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”
1 Corinthians 3:23 states: “and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.”
The early Christian scholar and theologian Origen (185-254 AD) wrote:
“Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? And again, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Seeing then that He was in Paul, who will doubt that He was in a similar manner in Peter and in John and in each one of the saints. . .”
Christ is the divine seed or sperm of God the Father, that dwells in every born again believer.
1 John 3:9 states: “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed (God’s nature, the divine sperm, divine germ) abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Galatians 3:16 states: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ.”
By becoming one with Christ and having Christ dwell in us, we become one with God the Father. In this way, we belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God. Being one with Christ does not mean that we are the same person or equal to Christ, nor does it mean that Christ being one with the Father, is the same person or equal to His Father. What the scriptures reveal is that by uniting in the spirit realm and becoming one, God the Father and His Son (Jesus Christ) now become one with us, through Christ as our Mediator, who dwells in each of us as spirit.
The Incarnation of the Holy Spirit In the Believer
As Christians, we not only have Christ dwelling in us, but also the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. It was by His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. In the same way, God will give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit, which dwells in each one of us.
Romans 8:9 &11 states: “9 However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. . . 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (See also 1 Corinthians 6:19)
1 Corinthians 3:16 states: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
1 Corinthians 6:17 states: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
Christ does not go through the Holy Spirit, but rather the Holy Spirit (the promise from the Father) goes through Christ and in His name to dwell in each of us as believers. After receiving the Holy Spirit from the Father, Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on the early Christian converts.
Titus 3:5-6 states: “5 He saved us. . . by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 which He (God the Father) poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
Jesus, at John 14:26 said: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Acts 1:4-5 states: “4 And while staying with them He (Jesus) charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, ‘you heard from me, 5 for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'”
The Apostle Peter at Acts 2:32-33 stated: “32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He (Christ) has poured out this (the Holy Spirit) which you see and hear.”
As believers who comprise God’s temple (the church), we have the assurance that the Holy Spirit dwells in each one of us, through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Father, Son, & Holy Spirit/ Three Distinct Persons
By being united in the spirit realm and sharing in the divine nature, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, and yet are still three distinct persons. The scriptures testify to this distinction, both when Jesus was on earth and after His ascension.
At Matthew 24:36, Jesus tells us that no one knows the day and hour of the Christ’s return, neither the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father.
“But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Matthew 24:36
Jesus drew a distinction between Himself and His Father in that only God (the Father) is good.
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.'” Matthew 19:18 (See also James 1:16-18)
Following Christ’s resurrection and glorification, the Apostle Paul tells us that no one has come to know the mind of the Lord (God the Father), but we do have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16 states: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
When James and John (the sons of Zebedee) approached Jesus and asked that they each be seated next to Christ in His glory, Jesus replied:
“But to sit at My right hand or My left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Mark 10:40 (See also Ephesians 1:3-5)
Only God the Father would have the power and authority to grant such an accommodation.
God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. (See John 3:16) The scriptures never state the God the Father sent Himself to earth. God sent His only begotten Son, while the Father remained in heaven.
All of theses passages clearly show a distinction between the Father and the Son and that they are truly two distinct persons.
The scriptures tell us that all sins and blasphemies (spoken against God) can be forgiven men, even speaking a word against the Son of Man, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this age or the age to come.
At Matthew 12:31-32 Jesus said: “31 Therefore I tell you, every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this age or the age to come.”
This clearly shows that the Holy Spirit is a distinct entity from God the Father and the Son. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin.
As three distinct persons, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each have their own unique roles or functions. This is apparent in that they can appear in different locations or at different times from one another, while carrying out their individual missions. The following scriptural accounts verify this.
After Jesus was baptized in the water, the Holy Spirit (in the form of a dove) landed on Jesus, and God the Father spoke from heaven.
Matthew 3:16-17 states: “16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him. 17 And behold, a voice out of heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. ‘”
God the Father also spoke from heaven on two other occasions, while Jesus was on the earth.
God spoke from heaven during the transfiguration. Matthew 17:5 states: “While He (Christ) was yet speaking, look! a bright cloud overshadowed them, and look! a voice out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved; listen to Him.'”
Jesus spoke to His Father and His Father responded from heaven: “‘Father glorify your name.’ Therefore a voice came out of heaven, ‘I both glorified it and will glorify it again.'” John 12: 28
Prior to His death, Jesus promised His disciples that the Father (who was in heaven) would send the Helper (the Holy Spirit) to earth, while He (the Son) returned to His Father in heaven.
John 14:26 &28 states: “26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. 28 You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”
John 16:7 states: “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
The early church father, Tertullian, wrote: Happily the Lord Himself employs this expression of the person of the Paraclete, so as to signify not a division or severance, but a disposition (of mutual relations in the Godhead); for He says, “I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter. . . even the Spirit of truth,” thus making the Paraclete distinct from Himself, even as we say that the Son is also distinct from the Father; so that He showed a third degree in the Paraclete, as we believe the second degree is in the Son, by reason of the order observed in the Economy. Besides, does not the very fact that they have the distinct names of Father and Son amount to a declaration that they are distinct in personality?
Tertullian wrote: “For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: My Father is greater than I.
John 14:28 In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being a little lower than the angels.
Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son, inasmuch as He who begets is one, and He who is begotten is another; He, too, who sends is one, and He who is sent is another; and He, again, who makes is one, and He through whom the thing is made is another.”
Origen wrote: “The God and Father, who holds the universe together, is superior to every being that exists, for He imparts to each one from His own existence that which each one is; the Son, being less than the Father, is superior to rational creatures alone (for He is second to the Father); the Holy Spirit is still less and dwells within the saints alone. So that in this way the power of the Father is greater than that of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; that of the Son is more than that of the Holy Spirit. . .”
Thus, in unraveling the secrets of the spirit realm, we see how God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons or entities, each having different functions and at times being in different locations; yet they can be one through their ability to dwell in one another in the spirit realm. In the same way, we become one (or united) with them, by their ability to abide or dwell in us. As a result, we all become united or perfected as one.
Matthew 28:19 confirms the unity or oneness of these three divine entities, in the divine commission to baptize believers in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said at Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Ephesians 4:4-6 states: “4 There is one body (the church) and one Spirit (the Holy Spirit), just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord (Jesus Christ), one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over (above) all, and through all, and in all.”
Note, how although being one and united in the spirit realm as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God the Father is supreme. He is the one God and Father of all, over and above all, through all, and in all. He is not only our God and Father, but also the God and Father of both the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus stated at John 20:17: “. . . Do not hold me, for I have not ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Psalms 89:26-27 states: ” He (Christ) shall cry to me, ‘Thou art my Father, My God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ 27 I will make Him the first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth.'” (A prophecy ultimately fulfilled in Christ Jesus; see Hebrews 1:5-8 & 5:7-10)
* The rendering, “made alive in the Spirit,” in referring to Jesus Christ, is accurately translated from the earliest Greek manuscripts and appears in this exact wording in most translations.
*Print in red intended for clarification/ or various renderings from other translations/ or the original languages.