Another clear Biblical Testimony to the Godship and Fatherhood of Christ is to consider the Attributes with which the Bible endows Him. This is His Attributive deity.
...is the way Christ Himself called attention to this line of proof. It is a "lower road" to follow then direct revelation, but it will lead you to the same conclusion. It must be kept in mind also that scripturally all of these divine attributes have been transferred to Jesus by the indwelling Father, not because He is a Second Person, co-equal. It is rather a direct result of the fact that God is in Christ, that we can say He is omnipotent, omniscient, etc.,
In fact by means of the indwelling of God in Christ there was an exchange of characteristics between the human and divine in some mysterious and marvelous way.
Let us look at these attributes, for they are characteristics that can only be possessed by the one infinite God. And they cannot be passed around among "divine Persons" equally. The very nature of them preclude this. For if a person is "all powerful" what need is there for two other "all powerful" persons, if such were even possible? And especially if a divine Person is said to be the only one with immortality, how could another divine person also have it? It would render useless the word "only."
To begin with let us examine some of the "onlys" of Jesus Only. Bear in mind these things are being said of a Person, not a substance or essence.
In 1 Timothy 1:16-17 Jesus Christ is called the "King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." Now if Christ is the only wise God, then He is the Father in His interior nature, for the Father is so defined (Rom. 11:33). Another "distinct person" could not also be "the only" wise God. He might be "another wise God," but the Bible never says that. No wonder Christ is called the "wisdom of God" (1 Cor 1:24). Now if some are in doubt that the above verse in 1 Timothy is even referring to Christ, they need only turn to the close of the letter where we read
Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is the only one with "immortality". There cannot be another immortal, if he is the only one. And how is that Jesus hath immortality? Because He is "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen." That "light" is the divine nature of the Father, the same nature that mutually indwells Christ ("I am in the Father, the Father is in me.") The immortal life of God the Father is Christ's life, and dwells in him.
We are told by no less an authority than our Lord himself that God the Father is the only one who should be worshipped and served.
Yet Jesus received worship and never rejected or corrected it. He was worshipped at birth by the Magi (Matt. 2:2, 8, 11). The lepers worshipped him (Matt. 8:2), rulers worshipped Him (Matt 9:18), the disciples worshipped Him (Matt. 14:33), women worshipped Him (Matt 15:25, 20:20, 28:9), the blind did also (John 9:38), as well as the demon possessed (Mark 5:6). Yes Jesus said only God the Father should be worshipped and served. Is there a contradiction? Only if one is Trinitarian, for in their theory a Second Divine Person is receiving worship that should only be rendered to the first divine Person, according to what the Second Divine Person said! In Oneness there is no contradiction, for it is God in Christ that is worshipped so that "the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).
Jesus is also called the Holy One. Peter preached to the Jews and said
Yet who is the Holy One in the Old Testament? God the Father, the only God Israel recognized.
Remember these statements limit the title to just one "divine Person" (to use Trinitarian terms), for it is a "Person" and not a substance being addressed. And there cannot be any other divine person who is the Holy One because that would make a Holy Two! Yes, a real problem for Trinitarians and will remain so as long as they maintain their "separate identity Theory" of Christ and the Father. But again Oneness doctrine reconciles this beautifully. The Father, whom Jesus called "Holy Father" (John 17:11), was resident in Christ's flesh (John 14:10), was manifesting Himself in that flesh (1 Tim. 3:16), and using Christ's body as his Temple (John 2:19; Col. 2:9). This made Christ the "Holy One of God" (Mark 1:24). And He sends that Spirit to us, seeing it is the Father in emanation, he calls it the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26)!
The Father is said to "fill heaven and earth" (Jer. 23:24). Yet Christ "fills all things" (Eph. 4:10), or is in other words, omnipresent. While Jesus was standing here on earth, he declared that he was simultaneously in Heaven.
Notice, "which is in Heaven." That was present tense; going on and taking place right then and there. How could Jesus have been in Heaven at that moment? Because the omnipresence of the Son of God is the Father, who not only indwells Christ, but because he is a divine Spirit was also present in Heaven, and everywhere else.
The fullness of the Father, His mind and nature, were in Christ (Col. 2:9, Phil. 2:5), but the Father's Spirit still extended into all places in the universe. God did not "drain" all his Spirit into Christ, but rather incarnated into him the Fullness of that Spirit. God's mind, nature, centre of consciousness, or to be more scriptural, his glory and his life were in Christ. Seeing the omnipresence of Jesus is the indwelling Father, He can also talk about "Our Father which art in Heaven," and "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst" (Matt 18:20). In addition, He could say "Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:20). To a true believer, this is precisely how the Father and Son are able to "Come to him" and make their "abode with him" (John 14:23). Not two separate persons coming to live in a Christian, but rather the Spirit of the Son, which is the Father, comes to him. Jesus had just finished defining this indwelling of the believer as,
The coming of the Son's Spirit, which is the Father, to dwell in a believer is the only way the Father and Son can abode with a Christian today, and is the equivalent of Christ saying, "I will come" (John 14:18). This indwelling Spirit, Christians receive, is also known as the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). But it is all the same omnipresent Spirit of God in Christ. Does this not make much more sense than to believe that there are three distinct Persons, each of which fill all things and are omnipresent? Isn't it more compatible with scripture and experienced to believe that when the Holy Spirit comes to someone it is Jesus, or whom we sing:
And what Christian can tell you the occasions when the first Person, the second Person, and then the third Person of the Trinity came into them? Trinitarians have gotten into serious trouble right there. The only thing to do is abandon ship and swim hard for the Oneness shoreline!
Jesus said:
He certainly didn't have it as the Son, for
How therefore did He get "all power?" When the Father resurrected Him, he simultaneously re-established his divine indwelling in the Son of God, and this placed all the power of the Godhead in Christ.
The resurrected Christ is the glorified Temple of the incarnate and all powerful Father, hence Christ has been given all power. Now Christ upholds everything by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3), and is able to subdue all things unto himself (Philip 3:21). He lives by the "power of an endless life" and this power is the Godhead that resides in Him (Rom. 1:20, Col. 2:9).
This word means all knowing. As the Son, or human being, Christ did not know the hour of his Second Advent.
But in His divine nature as the Father, He knew all things (John 21:17), including the hour, for he said:
and,
He could not have said those things if he didn't know the day and the hour. As Ron Rhodes, a Trinitarian, puts it in his book, Christ Before the Manger:
Two excellent examples are provided for us that illustrate his well taken point.
Boyd lambastes Oneness theologians for maintaining that Jesus could "alternate" between his two natures, as his fellow Trinitarian, Ron Rhodes, just described.
He sharply criticizes this "Oneness key" as "switching", or "alternating" and "illusion." But apparently it is all right for Jesus to "switch" and "alternate" between his two natures, as long as He does it in a Trinitarian framework, that is, as long as the divine nature is considered to be "God the Son" and not the "Father." Another Trinitarian put it this way:
So it is alright for Jesus to display his two natures, even simultaneously, as long as we use this "Trinitarian key" to interpret it; a key which asks us to ascertain with whom he is keeping company, with gods or men!
After having observed Christ reading the hearts of men (Matt 9:4), declaring the future (John 10:46), and describing the past (John 8:56), the disciple's conclusion is found in John 16:30:
And this they accept because they believed his other nature had its origin and source in God,
Only God is eternal -
Only God "inhabits eternity." He alone is eternal. Who could dispute this conclusion? A "God" who is not eternal must of necessity had a beginning, and therefore would be only a creature. But our Lord Jesus Christ is said to be eternal; he is called in prophecy the "everlasting Father" (Isa. 9:6). Thus showing us that his eternal nature is that of the indwelling Father. When Jesus asserted His Jehovahistic eternality by declaring, "Before Abraham was I Am" (Jn. 8:58), it was his divine nature as Father that he referred to. For as a Son, he had a beginning (Heb. 1:5), but in his divine nature as Father, he had "neither beginning of days, nor end of life."
As Father, his ...
...or days of eternity.
But as Son, he came forth from Bethlehem of Judah. For the Father's immortality, or eternal life, which Christ now has, has always been with the Father. That eternal life which was with the Father (1 John 1:2), was placed in His Son Christ Jesus at the incarnation:
And by means of this, the eternal life of God "was manifested and we have seen it" (1 John 1:2).
Apostle John says by means of this miraculous incarnation of the eternal God in our Lord Jesus Christ, the early disciples actually saw Him who was from the beginning!
In Christ was life, the eternal life of God, and this was the light of men (John 1:4). The fusing of the divine nature with the human nature of man in Christ which gave our Lord an eternal Pre-existent memory and nature.
Thus we see from a study of Christ's attributes, that through the indwelling of God the Father in his incarnational Son all the attributes and powers of God are transferred to Christ, and made characteristics of this person. He is therefore omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and eternal. Paul expressed it beautifully when he said:
And this he describes as the real
A far cry from another "Three Person" mystery that was yet to be invented, in which the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are divided up equally between three co-existent divine Persons.
THE ONLYS OF JESUS ONLY
ONLY HAS IMMORTALITY
1 Tim 6:15-16ONLY ONE TO BE WORSHIPPED
Matt 4:10.THE ONLY HOLY ONE
Acts 3:14
1 Sam 2:2
Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker,
Isa 45:11OMNIPRESENCE
John 3:13
Psalm 139:7-8
John 14:21
Come in to stay, Come in today,
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus"OMNIPOTENCE
Matt 28:18
John 5:19
Romans 1:4OMNISCIENCE
Mark 13:32
Rev 22:12
Rev 22:20ALTERNATING NATURES
ETERNAL
Psalm 90:2
Micah 5:2
John 5:26
1 Tim 3:16
1 John 1:1CONCLUSION
Col. 2:3
Col. 2:2