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Was Jesus’ relationship with God very special or truly divine?
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This essay was written in year 12, achieving an A+ grade and discussing Jesus' relationship with God
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‘Was Jesus’ relationship with God very special or truly divine?’The Bible is considered as a supreme source of moral authority, primarily because it is the revealed word of
God. Particularly in the New Testament, there is overwhelming evidence for the deity of Jesus, with the authors
deliberately intending to present Jesus as God incarnate. Thus because of the moral authority of the Bible,
almost
all Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore, this essay will demonstrate that whilst Jesus’
relationship was undoubtedly very special, above all, it was truly divine. Moreover, this line of argument will
also include the scholars Channing, John Hick, Augustine, Karl Barth, Bart Ehrman, Reimarus, N.T. Wright, Keith
Parsons as well as biblical references.
The first way to examine whether Jesus’ relationship with God was very special or truly divine is through the
doctrine of the trinity, which simply put, is the foundational Christain belief that God is one being who exists in
three persons. The three persons of God are known to be the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Whilst the
word ‘trinity’ is not found in the Bible, trinitarians believe that the concept of the trinity is a fundamental
aspect of the Christian faith because it accurately captures the way that the Bible refers to the relationship
between the Father and the Son. For example, John 10:30 shows when Jesus states ‘The Father and I are one’,
seeming to suggest that the Father and Son are one being, which would entail co-equal and co-eternal. Such
biblical evidence therefore posits the thought that Jesus’ relationship with God has to be more than very
special, and even to an extent asserts in the book of the revealed word of God itself that their relationship was
truly divine. There are, however, several objections to this idea, with the most prominent being the
incoherence of the trinity. The Unitarian liberal theologian Channing argued that the trinitarian view of Jesus is
one of ‘infinite confusion’ and questions how Jesus could be both human and divine, weak and almighty,
ignorant and omniscient. Channing therefore argues that Jesus has to be either human or divine, but not both,
as they are incompatible states. Moreover, he also asserts that Jesus has contradictory qualities as divinity is
infinite, and humanity is finite; something cannot have both of these qualities. John Hick also agrees with the
objections of Channing and states ‘to say Jesus is God is saying that a circle is also a square’. Hick concludes his
line of argument by stating that Christ being a mere human solves the paradoxical implications of the trinity.
There are, however, arguments against the objections made surrounding the trinity, mainly deriving from
theologians such as Augustine and Karl Barth. Both scholars admit that the trinity is ultimately a mystery, which
must be taken on faith and that all human attempts to understand the trinity through reason are misguided.
Therefore, it is through the scholarly views of Channing and Hick which seem to dismantle the coherency of the
doctrine of the trinity, showing that whilst the Bible may reveal their relationship was truly divine, through the
trinity alone, their relationship can only be determined as very special.
As aforementioned, the verse of John 10:30 where Jesus states ‘The Father and I are one’ shows how Jesus
himself not only thought he had divinity, but that his relationship with God also adopted the same nature. John
Hick, however, asserts a contradictory claim, arguing Jesus did not seem to believe he was divine. Hick argued
that the historical Jesus did not teach nor ‘apparently believe that he was God, or God the Son, Second person
of a Holy Trinity, incarnate, or the son of God in a unique sense’. Hick points out that the label ‘Son of God’,
which Jesus attains, was a common title within Judaism when referring to a very special human chosen by God,
not a truly unique divine person. An example which corroborates this claim, is that Adam was called the son of
God. Furthermore, many scholars, including Hick himself, create a development argument regarding Jesus’
divinity, which essentially questions the authenticity of the Gospel of John, which emphasises the deity of
Jesus. It is thought that the earliest gospel is Mark, which begins with Jesus’ baptism; there is no mention of a
divine birth and Jesus is depicted as a prophet. Both Matthew and Luke followed this and Jesus’ divine birth
was mentioned. The Gospel of John however, presents the Son, or the ‘word’, as having existed even before the
incarnation. Hick’s argument is therefore that Jesus being the son of God in a unique sense was a later
invention and thus an idea of human origin. It can therefore be deduced from Hick’s development argument
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