Knowing God

The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son.   John 5:26

God has given us the wonderful gift of life, but we don’t have life in ourselves. Our lives are the gift of God, through our parents. Without them, we would not be. Only God has life in himself. He is the only being whose existence does not depend on anyone else. Jesus’ words help us gaze into the mystery of the Trinity.

Notice Jesus did not say, “The Father has life in himself, and the Son has life in himself.” That would mean there are two gods, both with life in themselves. Nor did Jesus say, “The Father has life in himself, and he has granted the Son to have life.” That would mean that the Son was a created and dependent being like you and me.

The Father has always had life in himself and so has the Son—but there’s one life. The Father and the Son share in the one eternal life of God. That’s why Jesus could say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

I have a brother in England. He is like me in some ways, but very different in others. I could not say to you, “If you have seen me, you have seen my brother,” because even though we come from the same parents, we’re entirely different. To know me is not to know my brother.

If the Son is close to the Father but is not God, then we are left guessing about what the Father is like. We could assume that Jesus is like the Father in some respects, but how could we know which ones? And if the Son is not God, then by definition he must in some ways be different from the Father. In what ways would he be different?

If the Son were not God, we would not know the Father. In that case, the best we could say is that someone who was with the Father and is in some ways like the Father has come to tell us about him. But Jesus isn’t a companion of the Father who has come to tell us about him. He is God with us, and that means you can know the Father.

For further reading, see Matthew 1