Dear _______________,

This is a long email, so let me summarize my recommendation:

I’d say, first that “Father” and “Son” are important metaphoric words to describe the type of relationship these two persons exhibit. One is “originating” and the other is “of the same kind”. While the relationship is different than our human father-son relationships it was the metaphor that God felt (we assume) best fit the way that God exists in three persons that are unified in their being or essence.

So here are my more detailed thoughts….

First off, I might recommend a book (I have not yet read but have in my office) by Carl Maderas called Speaking of Jesus.  He has worked with Muslims for many years and while he might not address this specific issue, probably has a great deal to teach us on the topic generally.  I’ve enjoyed talks by him.

Your friend asks a great and difficult question. I’d certainly encourage your friend in his questioning.  God is a mystery to us for the very reason that he is God and infinite and we are not.  We can (and should) search for him and for knowledge of him, but our understanding will never completely be satisfied. That said, the pursuit of God is the best thing we can do.

At the core of his question lies our doctrine of the Trinity.  That God is one (essence or substance) and also that God is three (persons).  It took the early church a few hundred years to figure out how to talk about that this and it still is too much for our minds to grasp, and however, it’s clear that this is what the Bible teaches and that it is essential to our understanding of how salvation and grace work.

The union that the Trinity describes is one of both substance and fellowship. So Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, called “the Son” and sometimes “the Word” and he makes claims about himself that only God can make.  So all the attributes that you’d use to describe God (eternal, ultimate, all-powerful, etc) apply to Jesus, the Son of God. Since these attributes are only attributable to God, then Jesus is God.  John 1 says “The Word was with God and the Word was God.”  That said, it is clear that Jesus is a separate person from God the Father. This is important for two reasons.  One, Jesus (the Son) took on humanity when he came to earth and God the Father did not. In this, the Son was able to represent humanity in his crucifixion taking the punishment for our sins.  Two, Jesus (the Son) was restored into communion or fellowship with God the Father in his resurrection. When we are “in Christ”, we too are brought into the relationship that they have shared for eternity past.

So, borrowing from an early discipler, Don Fairbairn…

“Salvation or heaven apart from Christ is inconceivable, precisely because salvation is Christ; salvation is our sharing in Christ’s relationship to His eternal Father.” –  – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 57

As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In the resurrection, “God the Son was brought back into the fellowship (communion) of the Trinity, and through his humanity he brings us with him.” –  – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 182

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently…. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” – Romans 8:23-25,29

or to the Colossians “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority….having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”  – Colossians 2:9,10,12

Again, Don writes,

“The Bible depicts three divine persons who are identical in terms of characteristics or attributes, although…there are other ways to distinguish them in spite of their having the same set of divine attributes. Theologians describe this by saying that they possess a single “substance,” “nature” or “essence” or simply that they are a single God.” –  – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 51.

“The biblical idea … is that there is one God, the Father, but there are also two other persons who are equal to him and united to him and each other in such a way that they are one being, one God.” – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 44.

or from a much older theologian…

“The Word of God (the Son), in so far as He subsists in Himself, is distinct from Him from whom He has His subsistence. But, since He exhibits in Himself those same things which are discerned in God, then in His nature He is identical with God.” – John of Damascus, 750 AD

So…. how does that translate to a person without a Christian background…

I’d say, first that “Father” and “Son” are important metaphoric words to describe the type of relationship these two persons exhibit. One is “originating” and the other is “of the same kind”. While the relationship is different than our human father-son relationships it was the metaphor that God felt (we assume) best fit the way that God exists in three persons that are unified in their being or essence.  So, as the early church wrote in the original Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God,] Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;

By whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth];…

The parts in the square brackets were removed and/or replaced by other text in the one we and other churches occasionally recite (the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed).

I hope that helps more than it confuses.  As ___________ said, probably the most important things you are doing for them is praying for them and loving them.  Ironically, it is the third person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit) who will be the most effective agent at promoting the glory of the first two (John 16:14,15).

Blessings,

Pastor Chris