Jesus, Fully God, and Equal with the Father

John gives us an interesting bit of information in His Gospel: "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" (John 5:18).

In dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses, I have often been told that Jesus never claimed to be God. Yet, John tells us here that His First-Century audience took His words to be claiming that very thing. The Witnesses claim that, two-thousand years later, they alone understand what Jesus said, while His immediate audience was confused.

This verse also addresses the claims of Oneness Pentecostals. They claim that Jesus was the Father before His incarnation. This verse refutes their claim in two ways. First, He is speaking of His Father, not as the Father. Again, we see the heretics claiming to have a better understanding of His words than His contemporary audience did. Second, He is described as equal with the Father. Oneness deny the deity of the Son, claiming that "son" refers only to His flesh. If that were correct, then John would have been saying that His flesh is equal to the Father, which is nonsensical. Rather, it can only be a reference to the Son, proving the full deity of God the Son, equal to God the Father.

Both groups simply blank out that Jesus never disputes this interpretation. He could have avoided His torture and execution simply by telling the Jews that they had misunderstood Him. Yet, He didn't.

My call to both Jehovah's Witnesses and Oneness is to repudiate their irrational suppositions. Or, it would also be honest for them to claim that Jesus was a deceiver. What is not logically possible is their present equivocation. The fact that two such diametrically-opposed groups conflict this one verse should give them pause. Only the orthodox trinitarian view is consistent with it.