1, 2. (a) What simple truth does the Bible teach regarding almighty God and Jesus Christ? (b) What do the religions of Christendom teach?

JESUS CHRIST was baptized at the age of 30 by being immersed in water. When he came up out of the water, a voice from heaven said: “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.” (Matthew 3:17) That voice was God’s voice. On another occasion, in prayer to God, Jesus said: “Father, glorify your name.” And when Jesus had said that, God’s “voice came out of heaven: ‘I both glorified it and will glorify it again.’”​—John 12:28.

² From these accounts, even a child can understand that the relationship between almighty God and Jesus Christ was that of a father and his beloved son, two different individuals.

Not ‘God the Son’ but “God’s Son”

7. What does an impartial study of the Bible reveal about Jesus?

⁷ Never did Jesus claim to be almighty God himself. Any impartial reading of the Bible without preconceived ideas about the Trinity will verify that. For example, at John 3:16, Jesus said: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son.” Just two verses later, Jesus again said that he was “the only-begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) When the Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy, he answered: “Do you say to me whom the Father sanctified and dispatched into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, I am God’s Son?” (John 10:36) Jesus did not say that he was ‘God the Son’ but that he was “God’s Son.”

8. What testimony did an army officer and those with him give?

⁸ When Jesus died, even the Roman soldiers standing by knew that Jesus was not God: “The army officer and those with him watching over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things happening, grew very much afraid, saying: ‘Certainly this was God’s Son.’” (Matthew 27:54) They did not say, ‘this was God’ or ‘this was God the Son,’ because Jesus and his disciples taught that Jesus was the Son of God, not God Almighty in human form.

9, 10. What powerful testimony is given in the Gospels about the relationship between God and Jesus?

⁹ God himself testified that Jesus was his beloved Son, as the Bible writer Matthew noted when Jesus was baptized. (Matthew 3:17) Other Bible writers noted the same. Mark wrote: “A voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are my Son, the beloved; I have approved you.’” (Mark 1:11) Luke said: “A voice came out of heaven: ‘You are my Son, the beloved; I have approved you.’” (Luke 3:22) And John the Baptizer, who baptized Jesus, testified: “I have borne witness that this one [Jesus] is the Son of God.” (John 1:34) So God himself, all four Gospel writers, and John the Baptizer clearly state that Jesus was the Son of God. And some time later, at the transfiguration of Jesus, a similar thing happened: “A voice [God’s] came out of the cloud, saying: ‘This is my Son, the one that has been chosen. Listen to him.’”​—Luke 9:35.

¹⁰ In these accounts, was God saying that he was his own son, that he sent himself, and that he approved himself? No, God the Father, the Creator, was saying that he had sent his Son Jesus, a separate individual, to do God’s work. Hence, throughout the Greek Scriptures the phrase “Son of God” is used to refer to Jesus. But not once do we see the phrase ‘God the Son,’ for Jesus was not almighty God. He was the Son of God. They are two different persons, and no theological “mystery” can change that truth.

The Father Superior to the Son

11. How did Jesus show that God was superior to him?

¹¹ Jesus knew that he was not equal to his Father but in every way was in a subordinate position. He knew that he was a beloved Son who had deep love for his Father. That is why, time and again, Jesus made statements such as the following: “The Son cannot do a single thing of his own initiative, but only what he beholds the Father doing.” (John 5:19) “I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me.” (John 6:38) “What I teach is not mine, but belongs to him that sent me.” (John 7:16) “I know him [God], because I am a representative from him, and that One sent me forth.” (John 7:29) The one who does the sending is the superior. The one who is sent is the lesser, the servant. God is the sender. Jesus is the one who is sent. They are not the same. As Jesus expressed it: “A slave is not greater than his master, nor is one that is sent forth greater than the one that sent him.”​—John 13:16.

12. What illustration demonstrates Jesus’ subordinate position to the Father?

¹² This is also made clear in an illustration Jesus gave. He likened his Father, Jehovah God, to the owner of a vineyard who traveled abroad and left the vineyard in the charge of cultivators​—who obviously picture the Jewish clergy. In time, the owner sent a slave to get some of the fruit from the vineyard, but the cultivators beat the slave and sent him away empty. Then the owner sent a second slave, and the same thing happened. He sent a third slave, who got the same treatment. Then the owner (God) said: “I will send my son [Jesus] the beloved. Likely they will respect this one.” But the corrupt cultivators said: “‘This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may become ours.’ With that they threw him outside the vineyard and killed him.” (Luke 20:9-16) Again, this makes it plain that Jesus is subject to the Father, sent by the Father to do the Father’s will.

13. What clear Bible statements show that God was Jesus’ superior?

¹³ Jesus himself said: “The Father is greater than I am.” (John 14:28) We should believe Jesus, for he surely knew the truth about his relationship to his Father. The apostle Paul also knew that God was superior to Jesus, and he said: “The Son [Jesus] himself will also subject himself to . . . God.” (1 Corinthians 15:28) This is further seen in Paul’s statement at 1 Corinthians 11:3: “The head of the Christ is God.” Jesus acknowledged that he had a superior God when he said to his disciples: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.”​—John 20:17.

14. What other scriptures show that Jesus was not God Almighty?

¹⁴ Jesus mentioned God’s superiority when the mother of two of the disciples asked that her sons sit one at the right and the other at the left of Jesus when he came into his Kingdom. He answered: “This sitting down at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give.” (Matthew 20:23) If Jesus had been almighty God, it would have been his to give. But it was not. It was his Father’s to give. Similarly, when relating his prophecy about the end of this system of things, Jesus stated: “Concerning that day or the hour nobody knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32) Had Jesus been God Almighty, he would have known that day and the hour. But he did not know because he was not the All-knowing God. He was God’s Son and did not know everything that his Father knew.