Kevin DeYoung On Jesus As Autotheos

This meditation on Autotheos is very helpful. In his Daily Doctrine book, Pastor Kevin DeYoung writes:

John 5:19-26 is a crucial passage about the identity of Jesus Christ. At the heart of Jesus's teaching about himself is the statement he makes right in the middle of this section: "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him" (5:23b). The point is not simply that we should honor Christ because he is the Father's Son. Rather, we must honor the Son because he is equal with the Father.

It's hard to exaggerate how upsetting statements like this must have been to first-century Jews. They knew there was only one God, but now Jesus was calling God his own Father and making himself equal with God (5:18). No wonder they wanted to kill him. Everything about their religion as they understood it and their worship was being called into question.

So how can God be one and the Father and the Son be equal? How can Jesus say that whoever does not the honor the Son does not honor the Father? The answer is found in five "for" (gar) statements that follow (5:19b, 20a, 21, 22, 26).

• "For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise" (5:19b).

• "For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing" (5:20a).

• "For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will" (5:21).

• "For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (5:22).

• "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself" (5:26).

This last statement from verse 26 is particularly important. The phrase "life in himself" refers to the life God has because he is God. It means God is dependent on no one and contingent on nothing for his existence. The Father has this life in himself and so does the Son. They are both marked by aseity.

Verse 26 supports Calvin's argument that the Son is autotheos; he is God in himself. Calvin insists that the Father was not the deifier of the Son. The Son is deity in himself. His divinity is in no way subordinate to the Father. To be sure, the Son’s in-himself-life came from the Father in one sense, by an eternal grant (to use Augustine's language). But we must not take the language of "eternal grant" to support the contention (made by Arminius, among others) that only the Father was autotheos, and not the Son. As we might expect, Turretin's distinction is helpful: "So the Son is God from himself although not the Son from himself." That is to say, the Son is God-of-himself (autotheos) with respect to his essence, but not with respect to his person.

The phrase "life in himself" in verse 26 is a perfect, pregnant phrase. Jesus has both clarified the charge in verse 18 and reaffirmed it. He is not another God, an independent God, or a second God. He only does what the Father does. And consequently, he ought to receive what the Father receives; namely, glory and honor. The Son can exercise divine judgment and produce in us resurrection life because he is, himself, the self-existent one. We will not find the true God except in and through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. (Week 24, Day 116, Pages 169-170)

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.