The Only True God: The Father Alone

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish man born out of a woman, born under the Law, kneeled down to pray to his God, the God of Israel, saying these words, "Father.... that they may know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You sent" (John 17:3). Jesus' God was Yahweh, the God of Israel. He was a Jew who was obligated to observe the Law and the Shema, "Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one." He believed the Sheman meant "there was no other but He/Him" (Mark 12:28-34). His God, His Yahweh, was his Father and his Father alone. Jesus' God was a one person being: his Father only. Jesus' God was not a Trinity and he did not have, and does not have, a different God than everyone else.

All that Jesus ever did was in the name of his Father who he called "the only God" (John 5:43-44). When Jesus was about to die on the cross he cried to his God, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). And when he rose from the dead, he made his servants to be kings and priests to his God and Father (Revelation 1:6). And he promised them, "He 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." (Revelation 3:12). His God was the Father. Indeed, the Father is the Lord's God, the God of our Lord, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 15:6, 2 Corinthians 1:3; 11:31; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3), "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory" (Ephesians 1:17). And his God is equivalent to our God as Jesus himself said, "I ascend to my Father and your Father and my God and your God" (John 20:17). His God was his Father alone and he teaches us that our God is the same as his God, the Father alone. The Head of every man is Christ and the Head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11:3). For those who have been born again in him, Jesus' God and Father is our God and Father.

And Paul identified the one God as the Father when he said, "There is no other God but one.... for us there is one God, the Father, out of whom are all things and we to him, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and we through him" (1 Corinthians 8:6). Our one God is the Father and the Father alone. Our one Lord is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. Jesus' one Lord is his God, the Father alone. The one Head of every man is Christ and the one Head of Christ is God. The one Lord of every man is Christ and the one Lord of Christ is God. We have one Lord: Jesus. Jesus' has one Lord: God. We have one God: the Father. Jesus has one God: the Father. And again, Paul said, "there is... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all. Yes the Father is above all and as Jesus said, "the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) and "the Father is greater than all" (John 10:29). "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ" (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus came to reveal the true God to us, the only true God and eternal life, and we are in Him who is True, the Father, in His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 5:20). Having made us kings and priests to his God and Father (Rev 1:6), kings and priests to our God and Father (Rev 5:10), we are to turn from idols to the Living and True God and wait for His Son who delivers us from the coming wrath. (1 Thesslonians 1:9-10) at an hour only God his Father knows (Matthew 24:36). We ought then to turn from idols made my men such as a three person God never mentioned in the Scriptures, a God Jesus never knew or served, and turn to the God of our Lord Jesus, the God he came to reveal to us, his Father alone, his Father and our Father, his God and our God.

Jesus' God and Father was also the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Acts 3:13). God the Father is the God who called Israel out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1) and called His son out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15). Jesus' God and Father was the God of the Prophets. Through the mouth of Moses, God the Father had promised to raise up a prophet and He raised up His son Jesus and sent him first to Israel to turn them from their wicked ways (Acts 3:22-26; Deut 18:15-18). And so we also see it was God the Father who gave the Law to Israel when He spoke to them out of the fire (Deut 18:15; Exodus 20:1-19). And it was God the Father who spoke out of the fire and of whom Moses said, and Jesus affirmed, "there is no other but He" (Deut 4:34-39; Mark 12:32), Yahweh, the God of the Shema, the God who delivered Israel out of Egypt (Deut 6:1-5). And so when he was tempted by Satan to disobey the God of Israel, his God, Jesus responded by saying he would worship and serve only the God of Israel, his God, (Matt 6:10; Deut 6:4-13) who was, and is, the Father alone.

Created: July 10, 2012
Last Updated: July 10, 2012