Jesus Has a God?

John 20:17 (ESV)  Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

If Jesus is God, how can He have a God?  I hear this quite a bit, and the question really just comes down to the nature(s) of Jesus.  Is Jesus a man?  Of course He is:

Rom. 5:15-17 (ESV)  But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

From this passage, we see Jesus is as much a man as Adam was.  Paul equates their humanity in a corresponding way: “A man got us into this, and it was a man who got us out.”

So, when we see Jesus praying to God (the Father) from the cross in Luke 23:34 it is the man Jesus praying to His God. 

Another indication of Jesus’ humanity is to the man, Jesus, the Father is greater than He:

John 14:28 (ESV)  You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

Of course the Father is greater than the man, Jesus.  He is greater than all men, angels, and all the heavenly host. Note the word is “greater” and not “better.” “Greater” indicates rank. “Better” indicates nature.

The Bible also says Jesus is God as well as man, so how does that work?  There are quite a few passages in Scripture which point out Jesus is God.  For instance, He claims to be equal to the Father in John 5:18  (ESV)  This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Some other verses which point to the deity of Christ are Matt. 1:23; John 1:1, 14, 20:28; Rom. 9:5; 1 Cor. 8:6; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1 and many others.

Let’s not misunderstand this.  Jesus is both God and man: 100% God and 100% man.  He is not a blend like cards shuffled in a deck.  He is both God and man in nature.  These are not mutually exclusive.  Think of a ball bearing.  It is 100% spherical and 100% stainless steel.  There is no conflict in nature.  In the same way, Jesus is all man and all God. 

We cannot reduce one nature to emphasize the other.  When faced with questions like “How can God have a God,” we are often tempted to limit one or another of Jesus’ natures.  Maybe He’s more man than God and needs to pray to His father.  After all, Phil. 2:7 (ESV) says “[He] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  He must have emptied Himself of something.  Maybe it was His divinity.

Or maybe He is more God than man and forgive sins, work miracles, speak the will of God.

Why is this important?

It turns out the Greek word for emptied in the ESV translation in Phil. 5:7 is kenoo and is translated very differently in other translations.  The NIV says Jesus “made himself nothing.”  The New King James says Jesus “made himself of no reputation.”  The ESV translates the same word where it appears in 1 Cor. 8:15 as “deprive.”  These aren’t really actions of Jesus emptying Himself of His deity but of stepping down from the position equal with the Father in order to accomplish the will of the Father.  We see this in verse 6 of Philippians 2.

So, I think the problem is with us, with our understanding.  The Bible plainly says Jesus is both God and man.  How exactly that works is for the theologians to argue – and believe me they have lots of theories on this.  It needs to be enough for us to accept what the Bible clearly states and accept it as written.  We can be assured however it works, it is the Father’s will which is accomplished by Jesus taking on human form.

We must conclude from the direct statements of Scripture.  The person, Jesus, has a God, but He is not the God He is praying to.  He is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity who prays to the Father, the first person of the Trinity.