Equality With God

Some Christians read in the Bible that Jesus was equal to the Father and therefore was God. Is it so? Two texts seem to say as much.

The first, “Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:17-18

The profoundly monotheistic Pharisees were not accusing Jesus of saying he was God Almighty in the flesh. In essence they were saying, “You are putting yourself on a par with the Almighty” and not that Jesus was Jehovah. We believe it inadvisable to place much weight on the observations of those religious leaders who so rarely understood what Jesus was saying. It is a great stretch of the imagination to claim the Pharisaical statement is evidence that Jesus was God.

Jesus acknowledged his subservience to the Father in the next verse, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” John 5:19

The second text is Philippians 2:6; rendered in the King James Version, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:” More accurate translations are to be found in various modern editions, “who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” (NAS) Jesus would not usurp his Father’s office by putting himself on a par with God.

The word “equal” in the preceding Scriptures is translated from the Greek “isos” (Strong’s number 2470) meaning similar (in amount or kind): variously translated agree, as much, equal and like. It does not mean “one and the same” as some trinitarian thinkers are inclined to speculate. Its’ meaning is made clear by Biblical use. Matthew 20:12 is an excellent example, “. . .These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal [Greek “isos”] unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.” Those who had worked long and hard were not saying that the “one hour workers” were one and the same as themselves! They were merely saying, “You have put them on a par with us.”

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