The One Sent, is the Lord himself

Christian and Sana chat at work over lunch. Sana is a thoughtful Muslim colleague who has begun reading the Gospels for herself. She raises the objection if the Jesus of the Gospels is sent, prays to God, obeys the Father, and is anointed by the Spirit - surely that is a servant of God, not God.

Sana: Can I ask you something? I’ve actually been reading the Gospels and honestly, the Jesus I find there seems to make this Trinity thing harder, not easier. From what I can see, he’s sent by God (John 5:37), he prays to God (John 17:1) and he says he only does what the Father tells him (John 5:19). He even says ‘the Father is greater than I.’ (John 14:28) He’s anointed by the Spirit (John 1:32-33). That isn’t God - that’s a servant of God. A prophet. Which is exactly what we say he is (Quran 5.75).
John 5:37

The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.

John 17:1

Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;

John 5:19

Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.

John 14:28

You heard how I told you, ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I.

John 1:32-33

John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him. I didn’t recognise him, but he who sent me to baptise in water said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending and remaining on him is he who baptises in the Holy Spirit.’

Quran 5:75

The Messiah, son of Mary, was no other than a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) had passed away before him. And his mother was a saintly woman. And they both used to eat (earthly) food. See how We make the revelations clear for them, and see how they are turned away!

Christian: Sana, I’m so glad you’re reading it for yourself. You’ve put your finger on exactly the right thing. Most people, on both sides, try to make Jesus say things he doesn’t. You’ve done the opposite - you’ve read what’s actually there. So let’s stay with exactly what’s there. But let me start somewhere that might surprise you: I’m not going to deny a word of it. Sent, obedient, anointed by the Spirit - yes, all of it. The only question is whether that rules out being God, or whether it’s precisely how the one God of Israel has revealed himself.
Sana: Go on - but I don’t see how ‘sent’ and ‘God’ fit together at all. If he’s God, who’s sending him? Who is he praying to?
Christian: First, notice what Jesus and his followers insist on: they are not introducing a new God, or even a new idea of God. When Paul is put on trial for his life, his whole defence is that he’s added nothing: “…saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass.” Acts 26:22. So whatever the New Testament shows us, it claims to be the same God Moses knew. And what was Moses’ God like? All through the Hebrew Scriptures there is the LORD who sends, and his Word - his Angel, his Presence - who is sent, and yet is himself called the LORD. Sending was always how the one God worked. So when the Son is ‘sent,’ that isn’t the opposite of being divine - it’s the very pattern the prophets already knew. From the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.
Acts 26:22

Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen,

Sana: But he obeys. He says he only does what the Father tells him. A king’s son who only does as he’s told is still under the king.
Christian: Read those ‘I only do what the Father tells me’ sayings really closely, though, because they claim far more than you’d expect. Here’s one: “…whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19) Notice, not ‘some things’ - whatever the Father does, the Son does too. And a few lines on he says everyone should honour the Son just as they honour the Father (John 5:23). Sana, what creature, what prophet, could ever say ‘whatever God does, I do too - and you must honour me exactly as you honour God’? That isn’t the language of a servant. And it’s why - this is the part people skip - his opponents kept trying to kill him. Not for being a good teacher, but that, “…he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18) They understood him perfectly. They didn’t say ‘this man blasphemes because he claims to be a prophet.’ They said he was making himself equal with God. The ‘servant’ language never once fooled the people standing right in front of him.
John 5:19

Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.

John 5:23

that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who doesn’t honour the Son doesn’t honour the Father who sent him.

John 5:18

For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Sana: Then why the obedience? Why ‘the Father is greater than I’? You can’t just wave that away.
Christian: I wouldn’t dream of it - it’s true, and it matters. But ask what kind of greater. In a family, a son submits to a father he is fully equal to in nature - both human, equal in being, yet the son honours and obeys. Jesus is ‘lesser’ in role - the one sent, who serves, who obeys - while being equal in nature. That’s how John’s Gospel starts, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1:1-2. Paul puts it like this: Jesus “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:6-7)
John 1:1-2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

Philippians 2:6-7

who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

Sana: …That’s a different way of seeing it. But what about the Spirit? If he’s God, why does he need to be anointed, filled, led by the Spirit? God doesn’t need topping up.
Christian: See what’s actually happening at his baptism. You see three at once: “…the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son…’” (Matthew 3:16-17) Notice, The Son in the water, the Spirit descending, the Father’s voice - all three in one moment, acting as one. It’s the one God letting you see his own being: the Father who speaks, the Son who is loved, the Spirit who rests. The same three you’d have met in Genesis, now standing on a riverbank.
Matthew 3:16-17

Jesus, when he was baptised, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Sana: But your own scriptures still say God is one. Paul says it, the whole Bible says it.
Christian: They do - and I’ll go one better. Let me show you the most fiercely monotheistic Jew in the New Testament saying it, but watch what he does. Paul is quoting the Shema your faith honours too - ‘there is no God but one.’ (Deuteronomy 6:4 cf Quran 112.1) Then listen, he says: “…for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things… and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things…” (1 Corinthians 8:6) Do you see what he’s done? The Jewish confession is ‘the LORD our God, the LORD is one.’ Paul takes that single line and puts the Father in the word ‘God’ and Jesus in the word ‘Lord’ - all things from the one, all things through the other. He hasn’t set a second god beside the first; he’s put Jesus inside the oneness of the one God of Israel.
Deuteronomy 6:4

Hear, Israel: the LORD is our God. The LORD is one.

Quran 112:1

Say: He is Allah, the One!

1 Corinthians 8:6

yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.

Sana: I’ll admit - I’ve never had it explained without it sounding like three gods, or like word-games.
Christian: That means a great deal, Sana. Lunch again tomorrow? Bring your questions - you ask good ones.
Sana: Sure thing! Thank you - really.