The God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ

By Gordon Coulson

When it comes to the divinity of Christ, most Christians claim that Jesus is God Almighty, the second person of the Trinity, equal in power and glory to God the Father. I will argue that the NT teaches that Jesus has a God, his Father, and so this cannot be true.

Some may think that this is not a significant issue; that if a person accepts Jesus as Savior, that is enough to guarantee salvation, so why quibble? Although God certainly values the sincerity of our hearts over the exact accuracy of our beliefs, there are significant ramifications, depending on where you stand on this issue. If Jesus is God Almighty, but some Christians don’t accept this, and demote him to a lesser being, it is arguably blasphemy. On the other hand, if Jesus has a God, his Father, and is in fact a lesser being, then making him God Almighty arguably turns Jesus himself into an idol. Therefore, understanding the correct biblical teaching on this matter is crucial to our service and worship of the one true God.

It is clear that while on earth, Jesus referred to his Father as his God, and that the Father is greater than him:

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" (Matthew 27:46, NASB)

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” (John 20:17, NIV)

You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (John 14:28, ESV)

In addition, the writers of the NT epistles often referred to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:6; 2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3,17; 1 Pet 1:3). It is clear then, that these writers believed that Jesus has a God and Father, who is also our God and Father. If Jesus has a God, which the NT clearly teaches, then he cannot be God Almighty himself. That would be absurd. It would mean that Jesus worships and prays to himself.

Some will argue that a comma should be placed in the above references, to yield the following:

“The God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The argument is that the NT writers are referring first, to the Trinity (“The God”), and then to the first and second persons of the Trinity (“Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”). First, there are no commas in Koine Greek, so inserting one here is completely arbitrary. Second, the Greek itself doesn’t allow this distinction. The Granville Sharp rule states the following:

When the Greek word kai (usually translated “and”) joins two nouns of the same case, and the first noun has the definite article [“ho” in Greek, “the” in English] and the second does not, the two nouns refer to the same subject. [1]

So according to the Granville Sharp rule, we cannot separate “The God” from “Father” with a comma. “The God” and “Father” refer to the same person. In addition, the phrase “of our Lord Jesus Christ” is in the genitive case, which means it refers to possession or close association. So the grammar says that “The God and Father” is the same person, and that person is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the clear meaning of the Greek text and is why none of the most respected modern translators, who are Trinitarian, insert a comma here, including the ESV, NASB, NIV, Lexham, RSV, and NRSV Updated Edition. They know fully well that it would be a violation of Greek grammar.

Some Christians will accept that Jesus had a God while on earth, arguing that in that state he was a perfect human, but after his ascension, he rejoined the Trinity as the second person of the so-called Godhead. However, this cannot be the case. In the book of Revelation, Jesus, in his glorified heavenly state, enthroned next to the Father, says the following:

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ (Revelation 3:12-13, ESV)

In this one passage, Jesus, in his post-resurrection, glorified, enthroned state in heaven, says four times that he has a God. He then says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.” No doubt he foreknew that unscrupulous or mistaken men would try to turn him into an idol, thus minimizing the glory that belongs exclusively to his God and Father. Do we hear what the Spirit says?

Some Christians will search the Scriptures for evidence that Jesus is God Almighty, in an attempt to invalidate the above clear biblical teaching. For example:

But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” (Heb 1:8, ESV)

The argument is that the Father is calling the Son “O God,” therefore, Jesus must be God Almighty also. However, if we are biblical Christians, we must accept that all Scripture is inspired by God and true, if correctly translated and interpreted. How can we resolve this apparent contradiction? In this case, it is a translation issue. The phrase “Your throne, O God” has another, equally valid rendering. As the footnote in the New Revised Standard Version states, the Greek here can also be translated, “God is your throne.” So the whole phrase could be rendered as: “God is your throne, forever and ever.” Thus we have resolved the apparent contradiction and maintained the integrity of Scripture. However, this problem could have been easily solved by just reading the very next verse:

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. (Heb 1:9, ESV)

Again, we have the NT teaching that Jesus has a God and so the correct translation of verse 8 should be: “God is your throne,” not “Your throne, O God.”

It is a similar case with John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with [the] God, and the Word was God” (ESV). According to the Greek, the first instance of “God” has the definite article, (“ton” in Greek, or “the” in English). The second instance of “God” does not have the definite article and so is descriptive. In other words, the word “God” in that case refers to a quality of the Word, not the Word’s identity, and so other translations render it as follows:

“he was the same as God” (Today’s English Version)

“what God was, the Word was” (New English Bible)

“a god was the Word” (Emphatic Diaglott)

“the Word was divine” (An American Translation)

“the Logos was divine” (Moffat’s Translation)

So in this case as in Hebrews 1:8, we are faced with a choice: either ignore Scripture that contradicts our beliefs, or accept all Scripture as inspired and try to reconcile apparent contradictions. In the case of John 1:1, the reconciliation is easily arrived at by using perfectly valid, alternative translations of the Greek.

So where does this leave us? If the Word, Jesus Christ, is not God Almighty, but has a God, his Father, and at the same time, is “divine” in some sense, how do we approach him? Do we worship Jesus? If so, how do we differentiate him from the Father, who is God over all?

The two most common Greek words for worship are proskuneo, which means “to do obeisance," or "to prostrate oneself," and latreuo, which when applied to God, means “to render sacred service.” When Jesus calmed the storm, the Greek word proskuneo is used:

And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are truly God’s Son!”

(Matthew 14:33, NASB)

Latreuo, on the other hand, when used for “sacred service,” is applied exclusively to God and not to Jesus. I looked up every instance in the NT and they all applied to God the Father [2]. The only text that is somewhat ambiguous is the following:

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. (Revelation 22:3, ESV)

The question is, does “him” refer to God, the Lamb, or both? According to William D. Mounce, a Koine Greek expert, a pronoun’s gender and number are determined by its antecedent; that is, the key words that precede it to which the pronoun refers [3]. In this text, “him” is the pronoun, its gender is masculine, and it is singular. So we have to look at the preceding nouns and find those close by that are also masculine and singular. “Lamb,” is singular, but its gender is neuter. So “Lamb”, according to Greek grammar, cannot be what is referred to by “him.” However, “God” is singular and masculine in the Greek text, so matches the pronoun “him” exactly–its gender and number is the same. John here, when saying “his servants will worship [latreuo] him,” means they will render sacred service to God, not to the Lamb, even though the Lamb is closely associated with God. So again, the NT teaching that Jesus has a God, his Father, is maintained by the Greek grammar.

Despite the clear NT teaching that Jesus has a God, his Father, Trinitarians continue to devise all sorts of convoluted arguments to try to show that Jesus is God Almighty, second person of the Trinity. In my opinion, most if not all of these arguments fall under what I call the Athanasian Rule: When the Bible doesn’t say what you like, find someone with a PhD to make it say what you want.

So where does this leave us? According to the NT, it is allowable and proper to render proskuneo to Jesus. We bow before him, praise him, and honor him as the unique and divine Son of God, our Savior and King. However, our sacred service, latreuo, is reserved exclusively for God the Father, whom we serve and worship with Spirit and truth, in the name of Jesus, our High Priest and worship leader (John 4:24; Heb 4:14; Mat 11:25).

References

[1] The Granville Sharp Rule. Biblical Unitarian, https://www.biblicalunitarian.com/articles/the-granville-sharp-rule, accessed February 7, 2025.

[2] All NT references that use latreuo (sacred service) with reference to God: Mat 4:10; Luke 1:74, 4:8; Ac 7:7, 24:14, 26:7, 27:23; Rom 1:9; 2 Tim 1:3; Phil 3:3; Rev 7:15, 22:3

[3] Mounce, William D., Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar: Third Edition. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2009. P.102.