Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 27

Matthew 28:18, "And Jesus came and spake unto them (i. e. his disciples). All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." This passage does not show that he was a Divine Being; for, had he been so, he would not have asserted that the power was given to him. To God, nothing can be given; for "Unto him belongeth the dominion and the power." He is the Giver, and not the Receiver. It could not be maintained that Jesus received the dominion from his Father, for in that case the Bestower and the Acceptor must incontestably be considered as two separate and distinct Beings. This concludes our views concerning the book of Matthew.

In this passage, Jesus is making allusion to the one like a son of man in Daniel. Here is the relevant passage:

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

We also have a hymn in Philippians 2 called the Carmen Christi which explains this situation:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

 Again, the rabbis simply beg the question by assuming that God is not able to enter into his own creation in physical form. Jesus in his divine nature did have such power, but now the new person who was created by the divine Logos taking on the form of a servant, that person Jesus, as man, received such exaltation. The New Testament repeatedly teaches that Jesus is both God and man, and so both need to be taken into account when evaluating his position.

As Paul writes in Philippians, Jesus was in the form of God, and hence was God. He did not think of equality as a thing to be grasped, or to be held onto at all costs, but became a servant. For Jesus to assert his divine power while incarnate would violate the point of the incarnation. The divine Logos had to take on a fully human nature in order to redeem it. This passage also uses the word "God" in two different senses. The first use is as the God of the universe, and the second is meant to denote the Father, even though the Son and Holy Spirit are equally God.

Troki also charges Matthew with treating the Father and the Son as two separate beings, when Matthew does nothing of the sort. They are indeed separate persons, but that does not mean they are separate beings. We make the distinction between being and person all the time. A pen is a being. It is an object that exists. It is not a person. Being is what you are. Person is who you are. God is one being, but multiple persons. Postmodernists argue that God is not conscious, but beyond consciousness. However, they then describe God as though he is unconscious. They should instead describe God not as conscious, but as super-conscious, which is sort of what the trinity is.