In-depth study · 3 minute read
Begin with the explicit identifications
Jesus addresses the Father as the only true God and describes himself as the one whom the Father sent. Paul identifies the one God as the Father and the one Lord as Jesus Christ. We read these statements as the foundation for understanding their relationship.
Honour the Son as the Father appoints
Jesus is not an ordinary teacher. Conceived through the Holy Spirit, he reveals God’s character, speaks his words, obeys him perfectly and is raised and exalted by him. The honour given to the Son is inseparable from the Father’s purpose and authority.
His relationship to God continues
The risen Jesus speaks of his God. Paul’s account of the kingdom reaches its completion with the Son subject to the Father, so that God may be all in all. We therefore understand the Son’s dependence on his Father as more than a temporary feature of mortal weakness.
Read the Father–Son relationship across the whole story
Luke 1:35 connects Jesus’s sonship with his conception through the Holy Spirit. During his ministry he prays to the Father, receives his words and obeys his will. After the resurrection he speaks of his God in John 20:17, and the exalted Lord does so again in Revelation 3:12. We see a consistent relationship of divine source and appointed Son, continuing beyond the circumstances of his mortal life.
God’s perfect revelation in a human life
When Jesus says that seeing him is seeing the Father, John 14:9–10 explains the claim through the Father’s words and works in him. Hebrews 1:3 describes the Son as the exact representation of God’s being. Representation here is neither superficial imitation nor identity with the Father. God makes himself known decisively through the Son’s character, teaching and saving work. To honour Jesus is to receive the one through whom the Father has chosen to be revealed.
Exaltation is real glory
Philippians 2:9–11 describes God giving Jesus the name above every name, with universal acknowledgment of his lordship directed to the Father’s glory. John 5:22–27 gives the Son authority to judge and describes life granted to him. These are extraordinary claims. The question is not whether Jesus deserves honour, but how Scripture explains its source. We understand his lordship as bestowed by the Father and exercised in complete unity with the Father’s purpose.
Engage the strongest alternative
Classical Trinitarian teaching distinguishes Father and Son while affirming their shared divine nature; it does not say the Father was crucified. Our disagreement concerns whether the biblical pattern requires that additional account of coequal persons. Read 1 Corinthians 8:6 and 15:24–28 together, then compare passages giving Jesus divine titles. The case must account for both sets of texts. Our companion study on the Word considers the passages most often used to argue for personal pre-existence.
Questions & responses
Why is Jesus addressed as God and given worship?
The divine titles and honour given to Jesus must receive their full weight. We understand them through God’s unique manifestation in his Son and the authority bestowed on him. Trinitarian readers also distinguish Father and Son; the issue is whether Scripture teaches their coequal deity, not simply whether it distinguishes their persons.
Adapted from An Apostolic Faith, reference edition revised 20 September 2026, pp. 19–25.
Further reading: Robert Roberts, Christendom Astray, lecture 6. This article is a modern summary, not a quotation from Roberts.
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