John 20:28 – My Lord and My God

John 20:28 – My Lord and My God

Doubting Thomas became Believing Thomas when he saw the risen Christ standing before him:

John 20:27-28 (NASB) Then he [Jesus] *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28  Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

When taken in isolation, this passage appears to declare Jesus is God.  Every serious Bible student will agree, however, that it’s never a good idea to evaluate a verse apart from its context. What then is the immediate, as well as the broader, context in which Thomas’ confession appears?  We’ll look at both, and in the process discover what Thomas meant when he said
“My Lord and my God.”

The Immediate Context

As you read the immediate context surrounding Thomas’ confession, notice how many times the words “see” or “seen” are used in conjunction with the word “believe” in its various forms.

John 20:24-29 (NASB)  But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25  So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26  After eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27  Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see my hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28  Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29  Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”  (emphasis added)

The word “see” in Greek is horaô.[1]  When used literally it means to see with one’s eye.  For example, Thomas plainly stated that his belief in a resurrected Christ was predicated on seeing Jesus with his own eyes.  When used figuratively horaô means to perceive or to discern, that is, to “see” with the mind or with one’s understanding.  This figurative usage is common in English as well.  We say, “I see what you mean,” that is, “I understand.”  Jesus said those who believed (understood) that he was alive without literally seeing him were blessed.

Broader Context:  What does Bible say about literally seeing God?

The Bible has much to say about seeing God.  When Moses asked God to show him His glory,[2] God answered him without ambiguity:

Exodus 33:20 (NASB) But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”[3] (emphasis added)

The apostle Paul also communicates this truth on more than one occasion when he writes that God is “invisible,”[4] and that “no man has seen or can see” Him.[5]  In addition, the apostle John echoes these same emphatic statements:[6]

1 John 4:12a (NASB)  No one has seen God at any time… (emphasis added)

It is important to realize that John penned these words after tens of thousands of people had seen Jesus during his earthly ministry.  Moreover, at least 500 people saw him after his resurrection.[7]  And most important for our discussion, even after Thomas had seen Jesus and supposedly declared him to be God, John still wrote, “No one has seen God at any time” (emphasis added).  The contradiction between the Trinitarian view that Thomas was declaring Jesus to be God, and the numerous passages that unequivocally state that God cannot be seen, is rather glaring. To say that Thomas “saw God” contradicts Scripture.  Therefore, there must be another way to understand his words.

What did Jesus teach his disciples about seeing God?

The solution to this obvious contradiction lies in what Jesus taught his disciples about “seeing God.”

John 12:44-45 (NASB) And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in me, does not believe in me but in Him who sent me. 45  “He who sees me sees the One who sent me. (emphasis added)

In this passage the word “sees” in Greek is theôreô,[8] and it means to look closely at; to gaze with interest or careful observation. Figuratively it can mean to comprehend or recognize.  It is a synonym of horaô.  Thus, Jesus uses “seeing” as a metaphor for  comprehending or knowing.  In doing so, he conveys an important truth to his disciples: if you see me, it means that you also “see”–perceive, discern, comprehend and recognize–the One who sent Me, that is, the One who can’t be seen. Jesus could say this because he perfectly represented the Father.  The apostle Paul expresses this truth beautifully:

2 Corinthians 4:6 (NASB) For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (emphasis added)

In this context, Paul is comparing Jesus to Moses who reflected the glory of God after having spent 40 days and nights on
Mt. Sinai in God’s presence.  Moses wasn’t God, but he reflected God’s glory.[9]  Similarly, Jesus isn’t God, but he reflects the glory of God, thus enabling us to know Him. Paul wrote something similar to the church in Colossae:

Colossians 1:15 (NASB)  He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (emphasis added)

Jesus is the image of the God who can’t be seen.  An image is not the original, rather it is a picture or a reflection of the original.  The word “image” in this passage is the Greek eikôn,[10] and it literally means a statue.  Figuratively, it means a representation.  Jesus used eikôn in this way when he responded to the Jews’ question about the legality of the poll-tax.  Jesus told them to bring him a denarius, a coin imprinted with Caesar’s likeness:

Matthew 22:20-21 (NASB) And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21  They *said to him, “Caesar’s.” Then he *said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” (emphasis added)

The word “likeness” is eikôn, the same word used in Colossians 1:15 where it is translated as “image.”  Obviously, the image or likeness of Caesar on the coin was not literally Caesar.  Rather it was a representation of him.  Similarly, Jesus is the image of God and not the original.[11]  How did Jesus reflect or image God to mankind? By speaking only the words God gave him to speak, by doing only the works God gave him to do, and by obeying God’s will and denying his own.  This is how he could say in John 12:45: when you see me, you see God who sent me.  Not surprising, this idea is in perfect keeping with Hebraic thought.  A.R. Johnson, Biblical scholar and author, writes:

In Hebrew thought a patriarch’s personality extended through his entire household to his wives, his sons and their wives, his daughters, servants in his household and even in some sense his property. The “one” personality was present in the “many” who were with him. In a specialized sense when the patriarch, as lord of his household, deputized his trusted servant as his malak (i.e. his messenger or angel), the man was endowed with the authority and resources of his lord to represent him fully and transact business in his name. In Semitic thought this messenger-representative was conceived of as being personally-and in his very words-the presence of the sender.”[12] (emphasis added)

The night Jesus was arrested

On the night Jesus was arrested, he gathered his disciples in the upper room and taught them about knowing and seeing God.  This discourse provides us with further insight into the meaning behind Thomas’ confession:

John 14:3-6 (NASB)  “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4  “And you know the way where I am going.” 5  Thomas *said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?” 6  Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. (emphasis added)

Notice that the Father is the objective, while Jesus is the means by which the objective is reached.  Furthermore, Thomas is specifically mentioned as being an active part of the discussion that evening.  What follows are some of the last words Jesus spoke to his disciples before being arrested and ultimately crucified.

John 14:7 (NASB)  “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” (emphasis added)

The word “know” here, along with its various forms, is the Greek word ginôskô,[13] and it means to come to know, recognize, perceive.  The word “seen” is horaô. You’ll recall that it can mean to see, perceive, to discern.  Again, Jesus uses “seeing” as a metaphor for “knowing.” He doesn’t mean that when they look at him they are literally looking at the Father.  For one reason, God cannot be seen, and for another reason, Jesus is not the Father. Rather, Jesus is saying that when they see or observe him they also come to “see” and know God.  Philip, however, misses Jesus’ point:

John 14:8-9 (NASB) Philip 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, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (emphasis added)

Jesus questions their failure to understand that to see him is to “see” the Father especially since he had been revealing the Father to them for so long.

After Jesus’ Resurrection

After God raised Jesus from the dead, he appeared to the disciples.  Thomas, however, was not present:

John 20:24-25 (NASB) But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25  So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  (emphasis added)

The point here is that Thomas refused to believe Jesus was alive, even though there were eyewitnesses. Several days later, Jesus appeared to the group a second time. Thomas is now among them.   

John 20:26-29 (NASB) After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”  27 Then he said to Thomas,  “Reach here with your finger, and see my hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28  Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29  Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

The Meaning of Thomas’ Confession

In view of the context we have examined, Thomas finally understands what Jesus has been trying to teach him all along:  Not only do I see my risen Lord, I now “see” or perceive that you are indeed the image of the invisible God.  You have been revealing the Father to us all along!  Thomas finally sees his Lord and perceives his God.

Understanding Thomas’ confession in this way resolves the conflict created by the Trinitarian interpretation which claims that Thomas sees Jesus as God when Scripture repeatedly says God cannot be seen.  Furthermore, it is in keeping with Hebraic thought which views the one sent, in this case Jesus, as being the personal presence of the sender, that is God.  In addition, Jesus’ statement in John 17– that God the Father is the only true God, while he is the Christ–remains intact, [14]  and no complicated formula is required for dealing with a multi-personal God. It also helps explain why Thomas’ confession is not included in the other gospels; something we would expect to see if he were truly confessing Jesus to be deity.  It’s important to note that no other disciple declares Jesus is God.  Not one.  Perhaps most telling is the reason John gave for writing his gospel.  A mere two verses after Thomas’ so called confession of Jesus’ deity, John says his purpose for penning his gospel is that we might believe Jesus is the Christ.  John does not say one word about the supposed recent revelation about Jesus’ deity, which, if it were true, would eclipse Jesus being the Christ.

John 20:30-31 (NASB)  Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31  but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; [17] and that believing you may have life in his name.

If Thomas’ confession was actually a declaration that Jesus was God, you can be sure John would have featured it as a reason for writing his gospel.  

God made it possible for Jesus to be seen. 

There is one last point that is worthy of inclusion in this examination of John 20:28.  Peter provides us with an important detail regarding Jesus’ post resurrection appearances.  He says that Jesus was made visible because God made it possible for him to be seen:

Acts 10:40-41 (NASB) “God raised him up on the third day and granted that he become visible, 41  not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead.

If Jesus is God, why would someone else named God have to grant him the ability to be physically seen, and only by certain witnesses of God’s choosing?  Wouldn’t Jesus have the right, the authority and the ability as God to do this himself?  It makes no sense unless Jesus is the human Messiah and not the God-man that the 4th century Church Fathers interpreted him to be.

By examining both the immediate and broader contexts surrounding Thomas’ confession, we see a continuity between Jesus’ teaching that to see him is to “see God” and Thomas’ realization that his Lord (literally) and his God (figuratively) were before his eyes. 

Jesus’ teaching is relevant for us today.  We, too, are blessed if we believe in Jesus even though we have not seen him with our eyes.  It’s no wonder Peter writes:

 1 Peter 1:8-9 (NASB) and though you have not seen him [Jesus], you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9  obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

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[1] Greek horaô, Strong’s #3708.  Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, (Chattanooga, TN:AMG Publishers, 1993), p. 1054-1055.

[2] Exodus 33:18

[3] Moses saw God’s back in Exodus 33:23.  Isaiah saw God’s glory, presumably in a vision given the logistics of seeing God in heaven on the throne while at the same time standing in the Temple and seeing the train of His robe. (Isaiah 6:1, 5; John 12:41)

[4] Colossians 1:15 and 1 Timothy 1:17.  Paul is speaking of God the Father here since he is invisible and Jesus was seen by the multitudes. 

[5] 1 Timothy 6:16.  This applies to God the Father because Jesus was seen by the multitudes.

[6] See also John 1:18 KJV and 1 John 4:20

[7] 1 Corinthians 15:6

[8] Greek theôreô, Strong’s #2334.  Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, (Chattanooga, TN:AMG Publishers, 1993), p. 734-735.

[9] 2 Corinthians 3:1-4:6. 

[10] Greek eikôn, Strong’s #1504.  Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, (Chattanooga, TN:AMG Publishers, 1993), p. 512.

[11] See the same concept in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Hebrews 1:3

[12] A.R. Johnson, The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1961).  As quoted by Juan Baixeras in his monograph, The Blasphemy of Jesus of Nazareth, accessed 6-1-19, http://www.biblecenter.de/bibliothek/baixeras/theblas.html

[13] Greek ginôskô Strong’s #1097.  Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, (Chattanooga, TN:AMG Publishers, 1993), p. 372ff.

[14] John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Tim 2:5; mark 12:29

[15] Luke 24:36-43.

[16] Mark 16:14

[17] The title Son of God in John 20:31 is a synonym for Christ and in no way indicates deity.

The above article was taken from:
One God Worship: John 20:28 - My Lord and My God

If Jesus pre-existed, he wasn’t a human, John 17:5 By Bill Schlegel

Many trinitarians believe that Jesus’ prayer in the Gospel of John 17:5 shows that Jesus pre-existed:

“and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made” (RSV).

As with any difficult biblical passage, we must consider the context of Jesus' statement in this prayer
to God (the Father). Just two sentences before, as recorded in John 17:3, Jesus prayed to God:
“Father (17:1) …this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah whom you have sent.” In John 17:5, two sentences after Jesus said that the Father is the only true God, it would be very strange for Jesus to imply that he too, Jesus himself, is also God.

Father = God

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is directed to the “Father”. In the New Testament, Jesus’ Father is synonymous with “God”. When Jesus says, "Father", he means "God". Bringing presuppositions to the text, trinitarians look at this prayer and see “God the Son” making an appeal to God the Father to give back glory that he, “God the Son” had before in a pre-human existence. But this interpretation misunderstands the Fatherhood of God in the Bible. In the Bible the Fatherhood of God is a metaphor which describes the relation of God to mankind
(Exo. 4:22, Isa. 63:16, Hos. 11:1, Matt. 5:45, 6:9, John 20:17). Biblically, the Fatherhood of God does not describe a metaphysical relation of one person of the “godhead” to another.

Also, the Bible does not describe the glory destined for the Messiah at the right hand of the Almighty God as something that the Messiah once had, that he gave up, and was given back. Rather, the exaltation and glory of Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament and then fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus said: "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:25-26).  

Speaking of things that don’t yet exist, as though they exist

The trinitarian interpretation of John 17:5 fails to understand that both God, and God through His prophets, speak of predestined things (and people) as if they already exist. Note Jesus’s words in this same John 17 prayer just 15 verses later:

"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, … The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (John 17:20-22).

1. Here Jesus said he already had been given the glory intended for him. But his glory had not literally been given since Jesus had not yet died, been raised and exalted to the right hand of Almighty God
   (Luke 24:25-26). Jesus used past tense language in his prayer because he knew that God had promised the glory. The granting of the glory is as “good as done” so Jesus could speak of it as if it he already possessed it.
2. And Jesus could also speak of glory that he had given to people that were not yet believers in him.
   Some of those people that Jesus already gave glory to did not even exist when Jesus spoke these words. Just as God gave to the Messiah glory before the Messiah literally existed, here Jesus speaks of glory he had given to people before they literally existed.

A basic principle of interpreting Scripture is to take the words in their historical and grammatical context. In this case we only need to listen to 15 more sentences in Jesus' prayer to get a better understanding of what Jesus meant in 17:5. In John 17:20-22 Jesus used again the language of “giving glory” and “having glory” before literal existence.

The glory that God planned for Messiah, Jesus spoke of in past tense, just as he spoke in past tense of the glory that he would give to future believers. Predestined things are spoken of as already existing because they are
“as good as done” in God’s eyes.

Another way to say this is that in the Bible, a person can “have” something before they literally have it or even before they literally exist. Jesus said the poor in spirit and those persecuted for righteousness sake have
“the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3, 10).  Even though these people weren’t in possession of the kingdom of heaven yet (they were poor and persecuted) they had it.

Paul said that believers in the One true God and His Messiah Jesus had salvation and a holy calling even before they existed. “(God) who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Messiah Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested…” (2 Timothy 1:9-10).
For Paul, being “fully convinced that God is able to do what He promised” is saving faith (Romans 4:21).

Another example, Isaiah 53

Most Christians would agree that Isaiah 53 is Messianic, that is, in some way it tells us about the coming Messiah (John 12:37-38, 1 Pet. 2:24-25). Isaiah 53 was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Yet Isaiah 53 is all in past tense. “He grew up before him…he was despised and rejected by men…he has born our griefs…we deemed him stricken…he was wounded…Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all…” and on and on, all past tense.
Did Yahweh lay on Jesus the iniquity of us all before 700 BC? Obviously not, but it is spoken of 700 years before it happened, as if it already happened.

Some call this language the “prophetic perfect tense” because the prophets’ words deal with something yet to come, but the words are spoken as if it already happened, already existed. If God predestines it, it is as good as done.

Another example, Abram

When Abram was old and childless, God said to him “I have made you the father of many nations”. Really? Abram, old and childless, was already the father of many nations? This is because God speaks of things that don’t yet exist as if they already exist (Romans 4:17).

More problems with the Trinitarian interpretation

Trinitarians create huge theological problems by saying that Jesus is recalling his own literal pre-existence and glory in John 17:5. Let’s be clear: Jesus makes no claim to deity in John 17:5, let alone to be a part of
a three-personed godhead.  Neither did Jesus say he had glory with God from eternity past, only from before the world was, which is a strange way to describe a shared glory of two eternally existing godhead persons.

In trinitarian doctrine, “God the Son” did not give up his divine-nature when he took on human-nature at the incarnation, i.e, when he became “fully God and fully man”. The human-nature of Jesus did not have divine glory “before the world existed” so this must be the divine-nature of “God the Son” speaking in John 17:5.

But can “God the Son” be fully God without His glory?

• If the Son gave up his glory, the Son is not God, since God can not give up His glory.
• If the Son had glory with God, the Son is not God.
• If the Son was asking God to give him (back) glory, the Son is not God.

The trinitarian interpretation of John 17:5 ends up being a tangled web of contradiction.

If trinitarians want to say that John 17:5 shows Jesus literally pre-existed, then they should be followers of
AD 4^th century Arius who believed that the Logos (Word), a lesser god or angel who pre-existed took on human nature. Anyone that had glory “with” God, then didn’t have glory “with” God, but then gets glory back again “with” God, is not God. Just like anyone who “goes to God” is not God.

A Warning

If Jesus pre-existed as God, he is not a human. He would be some other kind of creature, but not a human person. Trinitarian doctrine in the end leads to a denial of the humanity of Jesus.

Did Adam pre-exist other than in the plan and purpose of God? Did any other human being pre-exist other than in the plan and purpose of God? (Apparently Mormons believe that humans pre-existed, but this is unbiblical).
If Jesus pre-existed literally, then he is not a human being, he is something else. He is not like you or me in what makes us essentially human. The dual-natured Jesus of the catholic creeds is a Clark Kent Superman,
a science fiction, a fairy tale, a fantasy. If Jesus is God who took on flesh, he is not a human person and we don't have a sin offering (Romans 5:15, 17; 1 Tim. 2:5; 2 Cor. 5:21).

The Scriptures never come close to saying something like "that's the human Jesus”, but “that's the God Jesus".
A dual-natured Jesus is philosophical speculation, a fantasy. 

The death of the human (not dual-natured) Jesus on the cross, the resurrection of the human Jesus from the dead, the exaltation of the human Jesus to the right hand of Almighty God in heaven, is not a fantasy.

For more information see here.

The above article was taken from:

If Jesus pre-existed, he wasn’t a human, John 17:5

He is part of a cult. By Bill Schlegel

People have said that I’m part of a cult. They mean it, of course, in a derogatory sense.

These same people that derogatorily accuse me of being part of a cult believe that God is somehow a combination of three persons in one essence. They also believe that one of those persons of the three-person god also has a human essence (or nature).

So, this belief system that accuses me of being part of a cult has for their god:
Three persons in one essence, but one person in two essences.

But I’m the one, supposedly, who is part of a cult with a strange belief system.

And they don’t notice that in their definition of who God is, they have eliminated the possibility that Jesus the Messiah (Christ) is a real human person. Otherwise their god definition would be three persons with two essences (a divine essence and a human essence).

Again, according to them, I’m part of a cult with a strange belief system.

I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. The God of Jesus the Messiah, like your God and my God, is the God whose name has been revealed to us in the Bible, spelled with the four Hebrew consonants יהוה.

My belief lines up word for word with what Jesus said after his resurrection:
“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).

My belief lines up word for word with what the Apostle Peter preached on the first Pentecost (Shavuot) after Jesus was raised from the dead.

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know - this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 
God raised him up… (Acts 2:22-36).

My belief lines up word for word with what the Apostle Paul wrote: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Let’s just say for a moment that I and a growing number of others are hearing Jesus, Peter and Paul correctly, taking their words at face value and not adding to them.
Jesus, a human, the Messiah (Christ), was put to death and raised from the dead by God.

Could it be? Is it possible? What if the Trinity and the “deity of Jesus” are incorrect interpretations made by people in the decades and centuries after Jesus, in lands and cultures distant from Jerusalem?
What if the post-biblical Alexandrian (Egyptian), Cappadocian (modern Turkey) and Roman interpretation of God and Jesus is departure from biblical truth? What if they are wrong -- that in fact their three person in one essence god and their one god person in two essences god-man is the aberration -- not the real God or Christ?

Who would be part of a cult then?

The above article is taken from:

He is part of a cult.

1 John 5:1 - Do you love God's child, the person who believes that Jesus is the Christ? By Bill Schlegel

1 John 5 was especially significant for our family about a year and a half ago when I was coming to understand that God is One and that Jesus is His human Messiah. My wife points out the irony in the fact that while Trinitarians often go to the Gospel of John and the Epistle of 1 John for presumed evidences of the deity of Jesus, it was these two books that showed us that God is One person, and Jesus is God’s designated human Messiah (Christ).

1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whomever has been born of Him.”

How tragic that people who believe that Jesus is God condemn those who believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). They say that unless you believe that Jesus is God, you are “denying Christ”. What a strange twist of Scripture. The Scripture says that “anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) is born of God…”

This Scripture does NOT say you are born of God if you believe that Jesus is:

·         God
·         a God-Man
·         co-eternal (“pre-existing”) and co-equal to the God the Father
·         of the same substance as God, the Father.
·         one person of a trinity in a godhead.
·         God who dressed up in human flesh.

These are all human inventions.  We should not cling to human inventions (5:21) while abandoning God our Father’s revelation of Himself and His testimony that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). We don’t want to call
God a liar (5:10) by twisting or distorting what God said, or by claiming God said something He didn’t say.

If believing that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) does not mean any of those things listed above, what does it mean?

“Jesus” is the name of the human person, born in Bethlehem.
It is not the name of a pre-existent person of an eternal godhead (Matt. 1:25, Luke 2:21).

This human Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). Many people seem to think that “Christ” is a title for deity. It most definitely is not.
Christ/Messiah is never, never, ever God in the Bible.
To make "Christ" a title of deity is a perversion of Scripture.

“Christ” (Hebrew, “Messiah") means “anointed”. Grammatically, the word is an adjective with a passive sense. One who is anointed has been acted upon by someone else. The one doing the anointing is not the anointed.
In the Bible, God is the Anointer, and the one whom God has anointed is the Christ (the Messiah).
The Anointer is not the Anointed.

To be anointed meant to be chosen by God for a specific role or task. The Persian king Cyrus was anointed by God as a Messiah/Christ for the role of restoring God’s people to their land (Isa. 45:1). Aaron and his descendants were anointed to serve God as priests (Exo. 28:31, 30:30). The descendants of David were selected, designated, that is, anointed by God (through human agents) to be king (1 Sam. 16:12, 1 Kings 1:34, cf. 1 Sam. 15:1, 2 Kings 9:3).
This is the essence of what “Christ/Messiah” means: to be the God-chosen, designated, equipped, human priest and/or king. To believe that Jesus is the Christ means to believe that Jesus is the one anointed by God.

The Christ/Messiah in the Bible can’t be God, because it is God who chose and anointed the Christ.

In the Bible, Jesus is the Christ of God, never the Christ who is God.

·   “He (Jesus) said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” (Luke 9:20).

·   “But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled”
(Acts 3:18).

Son of God or God the Son?

This same human Jesus who is the Christ is the “Son of God” (1 John 5:5), a title which is parallel to and in many ways synonymous with “Messiah/Christ” (2 Sam. 7:14, Psa. 2:1-7, 1 Chron. 28:6).
“Son of God” does not mean “God the Son”. There is no “God the Son” in the Bible.
“God the Son” is an invention of the human mind.

Do you Love God’s child?

The person who believes that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) is a child of God. If you love God, you will love the person, God’s child, who believes that Jesus is the Christ. If do not love that person, or reject that person, or call that person a heretic, the implication is that you do not love the Father (God).
Because whoever loves God the Father loves God’s child (1 John 5:1).

Let me repeat that. If you reject as a heretic someone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), the implication is that you do not love God, the Father of that person.

To love God’s child (the person who believes that Jesus is the Messiah) is a commandment from God
(1 John 5:2-3; 3:23).

The above article is taken from:

Do you love God's child, the person who believes that Jesus is the Christ? Comments on 1 John 5:1