Jesus, the Son of God, became flesh to reveal His Father. His confirmed Sonship (through His works and resurrection)confirms His divinity. Not another God...not the same God...but a different personality altogether having the attributes of God thus equal with God in all things except in rank, for it pleased God (the Father) that in Him (the Son) should all fulness (of the Godhead) dwell, and through this Sonship has inherited a better name (God) than the angels. As God therefore, He has authority to judge and to give immortality, but only because He received these things from His Father. Christ was not created. He is begotten. This is why He is God's Son (Hebrews 1:2). This is also why the Father is God and the Son is God yet they each have a personal identity of their own. Christ is the express image of God‘s person (Hebrews 1:3). This is because He is God from God. He is God‘s person (personality) made visible. In Christ we behold God in the person of the Son. Here though is where we need to remember the words of Jesus contained in that beautiful prayer to His Father.
"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." John 17:3
Christ refers to His Father as the only true God. He did not say though that He, as God‘s Son, was not God, neither did He say that only His Father is God or only His Father should be called God. He is simply referring to His Father as the great source of all. Christ is also saying of Himself that He, as a Son, is a distinct individual from His Father.
It was the same when the young man came to Jesus saying to Him Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? (Mark 10:17). Jesus replied
…Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Mark 10:18
Jesus was not denying His own divinity. It was just as though He was saying to this man ―If you accept that I am good – and it is true that only God is good - then are you acknowledging me as whom I say I am – the Son of God? The Scriptures also tell us
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: Philippians 2:5-6
If Christ had been less than God or someone other than God, then He could not have considered Himself as equal with God. This equality is the result of His Sonship with God. Here again we see two divine personalities. One personality is God while the other is Christ Jesus. Here we are also told that Christ, in His pre-existence, was in the ―form of God. As well as in character, this would be in outward appearance. This is why God could say to Him, (the Son Jesus) Let us make man in our image, after our likeness (Genesis 1:26). The Greek word translated form is morphe. The only other place it is used in the Bible is where Mark wrote that Jesus, on the road to Emmaus, ―appeared in another form [morphe] to two of His followers (Mark 16:12, see also Luke 24:16). William Tyndale translated this verse in Philippians as
Which beynge in the shape of God and thought it not robbery to be equall with God. Philippians 2:6 Tyndale‘s translation 1525
God must have a shape. If He didn‘t have a shape then there would have been no point in Jesus saying
And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. John 5:37
Jesus identified Himself with the one true God. This is when He said to the Jews
… Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. John 8:58
Christ was indeed the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Exodus 3:14-15) He was the God of the Jews. He was their spiritual rock that was with them in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). He is Jehovah (Isaiah 12:2). Now though, in human flesh, He was standing before His people as their God. Unfortunately they failed to recognise Him as such. They would only have applied this appellation (the I AM) to God – and they certainly did not regard Jesus as such. This is why the Scriptures record that they took up stones to throw at Him (see John 8:59). It is also why John wrote in the prologue to His Gospel
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:11
It was Philip who said to Jesus Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus could have replied saying ―Sorry, I cannot do that Philip. No one can see the Father and live. Instead He replied
… Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. John 14:9-10
Jesus seems to be surprised. The disciples had confessed Him to be the Son of God (Matthew 14:33, 16:16, John 1:49). They also knew He claimed to be the Son of God (Matthew 16:16-17, John 5:18, John 9:35). They knew too that this was what the Scribes and Pharisees held against Him (John 5:18). They would even have known that this had been the testimony of God Himself (Matthew 3:17, 17:5). They still though, so it seems, had failed to recognise His true identity. It was just as though Jesus was saying to them, Are you saying that even though I have been with you for over 3 years you still don‘t know who I really am? Christ then said
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. John 14:11
Christ‘s words are again the reiteration of the great truth that He spoke to the Jews when He said
I and my Father are one. John 10:30