Saturday, April 24, 2021

John 17:1-3 -- Eternal Life Through Jesus

This study has not yet been edited.


John 17:1-3 -  Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; [2]  even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he will give eternal life. [3]  This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. -- World English.


It is being claimed that only God can give life, and therefore, that by Jesus' claim to "give eternal life," Jesus was actually claiming to be God (the Supreme Being.) In stating this, however, Jesus is addressing his Father and refers to his Father as the "only true God (Supreme Being)", and that the only true Supreme Being had sent him. This is in harmony with Isaiah 61:1, which prophetically quotes the Messiah as saying the Lord Jehovah had anointed and sent him.


Rather than presenting himself as being the Supreme Being, Jesus actually states that the Supreme Being gave to him this authority. This harmonizes with Matthew 28:18, where Jesus states: "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." Who gave to Jesus this authority, but the father? Paul shows that it is God and Father of Jesus who has given to Jesus this great authority. (Ephesians 1:3,17-23) The fact that the God and Father of Jesus, the "one God" of whom are all (1 Corinthians 8:6), has given to His son such great power and authority does not at all mean that we need to imagine and assume that Jesus is God Almighty.


Our salvation comes through Jesus' human sacrifice of himself to his God, and by means of this we justified, reconciled to God and given a new life.


1 John 4:9-10 -  By this was God's love revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. [10]  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 


Romans 5:8 -  But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. -- Revised Standard Version.


Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. -- King James Version.


2 Corinthians 5:17-19 -  Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. [18]  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19]  that is, in [Strong's #1722, instrumental EN, by means of] Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. -- Revised Standard Version.


God's giving life through, by means of His son, does not give any reason to read into any of these scriptures that Jesus is the Supreme Being. There is definitely nothing in John 17:1-3 that presents the only true Supreme Being as being more than one person, etc.









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