Robert Letham on Jesus' Equality as God

In reading The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship by Robert Letham for my Seminar in Theology: The Trinity class, I come across quite a bit of good stuff. In chapter two Letham explores Jesus’ equality and identity with God. I would like to quote a chunk of it here for your edification.

First, Jesus asserts his identity in the face of opposition from the Jewish leaders. In John 5:16-47, they try to kill him for breaking the Sabbath and for calling God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God. Jesus denies the charge of blasphemy, citing in his support the plurality of witnesses required by Jewish law – John the Baptist, the works given to Jesus by the Father, the Father himself, and the Scriptures all testify to the truth of his testimony. His claim to be equal with God is true, not false. He then turns the tables on his accusers, charging them with failure to believe Moses’ testimony concerning him (vv. 45-47).

In John 8:58, Jesus tells his accusers, “Before Abraham was, I am.” For his audience, his claim to have lived prior to Abraham is monstrous. Later, they charge him with blasphemy for identifying himself with God, when he says that both he and the Father grant eternal life and preserve his disciples from perishing, for he and the Father are one (John 10:25-39). His opponents threaten to exact the penalty for blasphemy, death by stoning. However, Jesus denies that he is blaspheming, not by withdrawing his claim as false, but by reinforcing it as true (vv. 34-39).

In keeping with this, in John 14:1 Jesus coordinates himself with God as the object of faith – “Believe in God; believe also in me.” It is not certain in the original Greek whether he uses imperatives or indicatives here, for pisteuete could be either, but this does not affect the point. The context favors two imperatives, but in either case Jesus regards himself as equal with God as the proper object of his disciples’ faith. Along the same lines, John refers to him as “God” in John 1:18 at the start of his gospel, and has Thomas confessing him as “my Lord and my God” in John 20:28 at the end – like frames closing a picture. (41)

 So, did Jesus claim to be God? Yes. YHWH in the flesh. Fully God, fully man. The Incarnate Christ. Amen!

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