There are few questions more important than this one.
Who is “the only true God”?
The answer should not come from centuries of theological debate. It should come from the Scriptures themselves. Remarkably, the Bible answers this question very, very plainly. And the first answer comes from Yeshua.
As He prayed to His Father on the night before His execution, He said:
“O My FATHER, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify You, 2since You have given Him power over all flesh, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give life eternal. And this is life eternal, that they might know You, that You are the only true God, even the one who sent Yeshua the Messiah.” [John 17:1-3
Notice carefully what Yeshua says. He does not identify Himself as “the only true God.” He addresses His Father and calls Him “the only true God.” He then distinguishes Himself as the One whom God sent.
Throughout His ministry, this pattern never changes. Yeshua speaks of “My God.” He prays to His Father. He declares that the Father is greater than He. He asserts that He is subordinate to His Father. He says He came not to do His own will, but the will of the One who sent Him. Again and again, He directs our attention upward—to His Father.
The apostles continued using the same language. Paul wrote,
“… there is one Elohim, The Father, from whom comes everything and by whom we live; and one יהוה Yeshua The Messiah.”
He did not merge the Father and the Son into one person. He distinguished the one God from the one Messiah. Peter repeatedly preached,
“The God of Avraham and of Yitz’khak and of Ya’akov, the God of our Fathers, has glorified His Son Yeshua…” What need would there be for Yeshua to be ‘glorified’ if He were ‘god of gods” already? The God of Israel remains the One who sent, raised, exalted, and glorified His Messiah.
Even after His resurrection and exaltation, Yeshua speaks of “My God”. The final book of Scripture continues to distinguish between God and His Messiah.
None of this diminishes the Son. Far from it. The Father has given Him all authority in heaven and on earth. He has exalted Him above every ruler and authority. He has appointed Him Judge of mankind. Every knee will bow before Him. Every tongue will confess Him. He alone is our Savior, our High Priest, our coming King, and the only Name by which mankind must be saved. But the very One who possesses this authority continually points beyond Himself to His Father.
“There is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind: the man, Yeshua the Messiah.” [1 Tim 2:5]
Why?
Because His mission has always been to reveal the Father. Throughout the Scriptures, that Father is identified by Name. He is יהוה , the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the One who spoke from Sinai. The One who brought Israel out of Egypt. The One who declared, “I am יהוה , and there is none other.”
Yeshua never came to replace His Father. He came to reveal Him. He did not come to draw worship away from יהוה, but to lead mankind back to Him. That is the very definition of what “repent” means: ‘Return to God the Father’. When Philip asked, “Show us The Father,” Yeshua answered by pointing to His own perfect representation of the Father’s character, words, and works. To know the Son is to know the One who sent Him.
Perhaps that is why the apostles almost never preached simply, “Believe in God.” And they never said, “Jesus is God”. If it were so important, they would have! Instead, they proclaimed that יהוה has sent His Messiah. That message glorifies both the Father and the Son. It honors the Father as the only true God. It honors the Son as the Messiah, the Son of God, whom the Father loved before the foundation of the world, sent into the world, raised from the dead, exalted to His own right hand, and appointed to reign forever. If we truly desire to speak as Scripture speaks, perhaps we should begin where Yeshua Himself began.
“The Father…
…the only true God.” And Yeshua, the man, is the perfect representation of The Father on earth. By the Spirit.