John 7:17 JESUS’ divinity

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Hello everyone, just to get this out of the way
: I do believe JESUS is GOD, i am just having trouble with this verse. There had been one thread on this i found but it didn’t quite answer the specifics i have.

So the verse reads

Jesus answered them and said, 'My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me;

This seems to say that JESUS didn’t have authority but it was GOD’s authority. If He and GOD are one, why the distinction? Thanks

GOD bless!
 
The distinction is in Persons, not in Nature. Jesus is God. The Father is God. But the Person of the Son is distinct from the Person of the Father.
 
So the Son has different authority than the Father? Also if all three persons are distinct how are they all fully GOD?

Thanks
 
Well, that’s the mystery of the Trinity. We have no experience of more than one person fully expressing one nature. I’m one human being. I have one human nature. God is one divine nature, which nature is expressed by three distinct Persons. There is one divine will. But Jesus also has a human nature. Acting in his human nature, it is perfectly correct for him to say that all his authority comes from the Father.
 
Jesus is the embodiment of God’s word. God’s word is the expression of God’s will. Therefore, Jesus is subordinate to God, because he is walking expression of God’s will.
 
Yes. The church teaches that the man and the woman are equal within a marriage, but nonetheless the woman is subordinate to the man. It is a matter of roles.
 
Jesus is the Son sent from the Father who became the greatest of servants.
 
My doctrine is not mine; i.e. not mine only, but also the Father’s; from whom I proceed, and with whom I am always. (Witham)
 
Thanks for the replies all, the analogy of the men and women helped.
 
When Jesus says God here, He is referring to the Father. Yes, Jesus claimed to be God- but anyone who wasn’t a disciple of His wouldn’t believe him. Besides, it wouldn’t make much sense for Jesus to say, “You will find out whether my teaching comes from me, or if I speak on my own.”

I hope I’m right in saying that Jesus was appealing to a common authority here. The Jews didn’t accept Jesus’ authority, but they accepted the authority of the Father. They didn’t know or didn’t believe that Jesus is also God, so He made the point of referring to the Father, since they all believed in Him.
 
Gmsod said:
My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me
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Haydock Commentary:

Gospel of John 7, Ver. 16. My doctrine is not mine; i.e. not mine only, but also the Father’s; from whom I proceed, and with whom I am always. (Witham)
 
Again and again let us attend. Questions like these are best answered when we consider

The Nature of the Trinity
The Incarnation
The Hypostatic Union
The Communication of Idioms

Jesus is one Person with two natures. He is fully God and fully man.

As God is is absolutely simple, there is nothing the Father does separate from the other Persons. As God, Jesus is the origin and source of his teachings.

As man he is the servant of God and as man he is not the origin of divine teachings but their Teacher and Messenger.
 
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Gmsod said:
Hello everyone, just to get this out of the way
: I do believe JESUS is GOD, i am just having trouble with this verse. There had been one thread on this i found but it didn’t quite answer the specifics i have.

So the verse reads

Jesus answered them and said, 'My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me;

This seems to say that JESUS didn’t have authority but it was GOD’s authority. If He and GOD are one, why the distinction? Thanks

GOD bless!
Click to expand...
Jesus, human nature is subordinate to his divine nature. As a human being, Jesus’ human nature and thus his person, when and as he is human, is subordinate to the Father’s from whom he proceeds as God the Son…
 
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