It Is Important To Know God Our Father,
As Well As Jesus

Joel Hemphill

“And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.” (John 16:3).

“Father…this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:1, 3).

“No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matt. 11:27).

On that day in March of 1986 when the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob told me to study the Scripture, as He was going to reveal Himself to me in His word, I knew I had missed something very important in my Bible study. I have been an avid Bible reader since I was a small boy. I have been since the age of nineteen, and remain a minister of Jesus Christ. However, I had done what most of Christianity has done for centuries. I had clearly seen Jesus in Scripture, but I had overlooked God our Father. Jesus is the “express image” of the Father (Heb. 1:3) but he is not our heavenly Father. An image is “a representative likeness” but it is not the original. Jesus is the perfect revealer of God, but he is not God. Jesus told Pilate “for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (John 18:37). I thought Jesus was God for over 50 years, but when I realized that he, the witness to the truth never said he is God, I quit saying it! Paul said “God” some 513 times in his New Testament writings and not one time can it be proven that he was referring to Jesus.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Paul is clearly speaking of two entities here, and he gives no hint that they are the same.

Peter mentions “God” forty-six times in his two epistles, and not once was he referring to Jesus.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:3). Peter and Paul believed alike.

The apostle James mentions “God” seventeen times in his small but powerful epistle and not one time was he speaking of Jesus; it was always God the Father.

Since he is the perfect revealer of God (John 6:46), Jesus desires that men should know God through himself, not lose God in himself. Jesus is the only way to the Father, but he is not the Father!

“Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father” (John 13:1).

Jesus is not God, but he is the door by which we get to God. Some have stopped at the door, but the object is to get to God!

“No man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb. 7:25).

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins…that he might bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18).

My belief was what is known as “Oneness” or “Jesus Only,” which means that I saw Jesus to the exclusion of the Father. I believed that Jesus was a human incarnation of God the Father.

You might ask, “Why bring up this issue? How important is it?” Well, let me ask you a question. How important is it to know who our God is?

It must be very important to God our Father, for he says seventy-seven times in the Old Testament:

“Then they shall know that I am God [or “the Lord,” or “the Lord God”].

I am reminded that when my earthly father said something twice, I had better listen!

In the verse at the beginning of this chapter, from John 17:1, 3, Jesus makes it a very important issue!

“Father…this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Precious Jesus, did you say it is “life eternal” to know God the Father “and [in addition to] Jesus Christ, which thou [God] hast sent?” In this verse we have a sender, God, the “only true God,” and one “sent,” Jesus Christ! And to know both, Jesus said, is “life eternal.” I do not seek to make this stronger or less strong than Jesus did, but do yourself a favor and study this verse until you see exactly what God wants you to see in it. But, beware that as a noted Christian scholar of the past said, “If we explain away the obvious meaning of the words, then, there is an end of all significance in language, and Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to anything.”

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Expert from Joel Hemphill’s book –  Glory To God In The Highest