Are Jesus and God the Same Entity as Members of the Trinity?

By Randy Alcorn

January 18, 2010

Question from a reader:

In your book Heaven, you often interchange Jesus for God. Jesus and God are not the same entity even though they are both part of the trinity. There is God, the Father; Jesus, God's Son; and the Holy Spirit. They are not exactly the same thing. God did create Jesus and the Holy Spirit, however, with specific purposes and tasks.
On page 36, you have Jesus saying something that God actually stated: "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." There are some other references to Jesus in the book where it's actually God the Father.

Answer from Randy Alcorn:

You wrote, "Jesus and God are not the same entity, though they are both part of the trinity."

Jesus said in John 10: "I and the Father are One." Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God; the Son is God and the Father is God. If Christ is a member of the trinity, then Christ is God by definition. I agree there is a distinction between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, I don't call Jesus the Father or Jesus the Holy Spirit, but I do call Jesus God because He is God. God did NOT create Jesus and the Holy Spirit, as they are in fact God, not created beings.

Randy Alcorn (@randyalcorn) is the author of over sixty books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries.

Topics

Doctrine and Theology

Do Members of the Trinity Submit to Each Other, or Is There an Authority Structure and Hierarchy Within the Trinity?

article - Randy Alcorn

Some say there is no authority structure or hierarchy within the Trinity, even though there are numerous scriptures where Jesus submitted to His Father (see John 5:19, 13:16, 14:12, Hebrews 5:8) but not one single passage that depicts the Father in submission to the Son or the Spirit.