The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Jericho
- Chapter 24 -
The objections of Nojed about the divinity of the Lord.
Being completely surprised, Nojed said: "O great and incredibly wise Friend, these words sounded marvelously in our ears and in our heart. From Your words we have understood that You are more than a prophet, because apart from Moses and Elijah no prophet has reached that point, and even they, never spoke about their own glory, but always only about the glory of God. But You said that You are a completely independent powerful Lord, that You can do what You want, that no God, and even less a man can and may ask You account by asking You: 'Why are You doing this or that?' Listen, if this testimony that You are giving about Yourself is undoubtedly true, then between You and God there is no other difference except that You, just like we, are a God who came into existence through time, and Jehovah on the other hand is God since eternity. Well now, that is for our understanding really too high to grasp, although also we know that God has said through the mouth of the great prophet to the former pious Jews: 'You are gods if you precisely keep My commandments and thus make My will the same as yours'.
2
Since then, a lot of Jews have lived until our time who have very strictly followed God's commandments from childhood, but among them there was not one who really by far dared to claim that he was an independent powerful lord just like God, who never has to give an account to God and still less to men for all his doings. Friend, how do we actually have to understand that truthfully?"
3
I said: "That is very easy and clear. Did I not say that someone who completely has come to know God and His will, who firmly acts accordingly and so makes God's will completely as his own, is equal to God? And if God is a Lord by His love, wisdom and power, then he, who has become equal to God in everything, will also be the same in spirit.
4
I think that this is not so difficult to understand, because about what should he have to give an account, no matter of what kind, to God or even to a human being, when he thinks, wills, speaks and acts only out of God's will and Spirit?
5
Is God's pure will in man perhaps a will that is less divine than in God Himself, and does he perhaps has less independent power than in God who is present everywhere and thus most certainly also in man? That is why a real human being must also become and be as perfect as his Father in Heaven. And if man really is, is he then also not a lord full of wisdom, might and power?"
6
On this, Nojed said: "Great and truly more than wise Friend, You have spoken living and enlightening true words, and I have no objections. But besides that, one thing remains also true, and that is the following: man can really make progress through the way of absolute self-denial, so that he will resemble God and will thus also be powerful, as this was most obviously the case namely with the great prophets, but still, man is and remains in a certain way a very small god who only came into existence through time and thus with all his perfection that resembles God, he is submissive and limited, while Jehovah is eternal, thus without beginning, infinite in time and space and therefore not limited by anything. And this more than endless great difference between the one and eternal only true God and the human god that came into existence through time can eternally never be wiped away."