If Jesus Is God, Why Did He Pray to God?

The Question

Most times when I approach Muslim, they ask the question “if Jesus is God, why was he praying to God? In verses of the Bible like

“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” — Matthew 26:39 (NKJV)

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” — Luke 23:46 (NKJV)

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” — John 17:1 (NKJV)

And many others of its kind.

And this is a genuine question which I plan to answer but first we have to understand that this verses has nothing to do with Jesus being a Muslim, because i met a Muslim guy that was trying to prove to me that Jesus was a Muslim and he brought up Luke 22:41 which says And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed,

Was Jesus Praying Like a Muslim?

And his point was that Jesus prayed like a Muslim, and i said no, because anyone from any religion can kneel to pray, that does not mean that they are Muslim’s, also as Muslims wear hijab there are some Christian’s that cover their hair as a sign of respect for God and there are others who cover their hair for fashion, it doesn’t mean that they are Muslim’s. Also, if you read the very next verse it says

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” — Luke 22:42 (NKJV)

Jesus called God “father” and as i know it is a core offense in Islam, because allah has 99 names and father is not one of them. And in Islam this offense is called Shirk (associating partners or human qualities to Allah). So, i told him that he cannot pick out verse of the bible to claim his point, either he takes it all or leaves it all, no cherry picking.

Jesus Is God, the Word

Anyways back to the topic of discussion, I will try to break it down as much as I can. So, first Jesus is God and is referred to as the Word.

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” — Revelation 19:11-13 (NKJV)

Also,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” — John 1:1-3 (NKJV)

We see that in John it says the Word was with God and the Word was God.

So now Jesus (The Word or the Son of God) was with God the father (two distinct persons) and Jesus (The Word) was God (one divine being).

Now when we say Jesus is the word of God, it doesn’t mean that as God the father is speaking the words coming out of his mouth is Jesus. The word of God is a person and that is who Jesus is, the same way when someone says you are a human being, it is not your name it is who you are.

One God, Three Persons — Not Three Gods

So, this clears the concept of 3 God’s. So, Christian’s worship One God. And i know sometimes it might be hard to comprehend one God but three persons, because as humans what we know is 1 being and 1 person (for example, I am a human being, but my person is Angel kanu)

But now the problem is that as humans we try to box God, because we are one being and one person, we expect God also to be one being and one person, since thats all our mind can graps. And i think it should be easier for Muslims to believe God as one being, 3 persons. Since according to the Surah Ash-Shura 42:11- He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. He has made for you spouses from among yourselves, and made mates for cattle as well—multiplying you both. There is nothing like Him, for He alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing. Then if we the creation are 1 being, 1 person and Allah is not like us. Then it should be easier for Muslims to comprehend God as one being but 3 persons.

The Other Helper: Answering the Mohammed Claim

Anyways let’s move on, so when Jesus said in

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” — John 14:16-18 (NKJV)

As we know the New Testament was written in Greek, so the word “another Helper” is from the Greek word Allos Parakletos meaning another of the same kind (the same divine nature). And the last verse said I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you, so Jesus is saying the father will send you another helper and that helper will dwell with you and be in you, so I am not leaving you but I will come to you. And that is why that Helper (the Holy Spirit who dwells in every one that believes that Jesus being God died for the sins of mankind and came back to life to make us righteous) is also referred to as the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God.

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” — Romans 8:9 (NKJV)

And also, John 14:16-18 clearly says who the another helper, Jesus was talking about was (The Holy Spirit). Jesus never said Ahmed, because I have spoken to most Muslims and they said that Jesus spoke about another person who would come after him in our Bible and that person was Mohammed, that is only written in the Quran. And we cannot even apply the verse John 14:16-18 to the prophet Mohammed, because the in that verse Jesus said I will never leave you nor forsake you, but as of the 21st century the prophet Mohammed is died, so if he was the one Jesus spoke about then it means that Jesus was lying because the prophet has forsaken us.

Anyways back to what I was saying, that is just a brief digression.

God’s Eternal Plan of Life in Christ

With the above being settled, before God created the world, His plan was that every man would have eternal life in Christ.

“Blessed and worthy of praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ, just as in His love He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy and blameless in His sight. In love” — Ephesians 1:3-4 (AMP)

And

“in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,” — Titus 1:2 (NKJV)

However, the first people God created sinned by rejecting this Life and automatically what they were left with was death. And that is why the Bible says,

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 6:23 (NKJV)

Now because God created human beings to have a relationship with us, he did not want us to die (because the death here is not physical death but eternal separation from God and ultimately Hell) and that is why God would come to pay for the sins of mankind because of his love for us.

Now before God would come to pay for the consequences of our sins, he would by his mercy choose a nation (the nation Isreal) and would try to inform human beings about this eternal plan, which is Eternal Life in Christ, although most of them were not understanding. But this is the reason why the Old Testament is full of prophecy about the Christ, and the Jews knew clearly well that a Messiah was coming to save them.

Jesus Emptied Himself: The Incarnation

Now the Bible lets us that know when Jesus came on earth, he stripped himself of divinity.

“Have this same attitude in yourselves which was in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form and unchanging essence of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted; but emptied Himself by assuming the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. After He was found in terms of His outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the Father to the point of death, even death on a cross.” — Philippians 2:5-8 (AMP)

So, the Word of God/the Christ became man and picked up a human name Jesus, because before Jesus Christ came on earth there were people answering Jesus. Infact the name Joshua also meant Jesus. So, before God would come on earth, he tried to let human beings know his eternal plan. And that is why throughout the Jewish scripture as i said (the Hebrew Bible/Tanakh) it has been prophesied to them that a Messiah/The Christ - the anointed one or savior) was going to come and he would save them.

Did People Know Jesus Was the Christ?

So, when Jesus came through the Jewish linage, he deliberately made it clear that I am the Christ. The one whom it has been prophesied would come. So, people knew, at least those who wanted to accept the truth for example Jesus disciples

“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” — Matthew 16:15-16 (NKJV)

Also, Martha, a lady whose brother (Lazarus) had just died.

“She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’” — John 11:27 (NKJV)

Even a Samaritan woman said the same thing;

“The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’” — John 4:25-26 (NKJV)

Also a man named Simeon,

“And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: ‘Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation’” — Luke 2:25-30 (NKJV)

Even demons in the Bible knew that Jesus was God,

“When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’” — Matthew 8:28-29 (NKJV)

“Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, ‘Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!’” — Mark 1:23-24 (NKJV)

And the psalmist speaking in psalms 16:10,

“For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” — Psalm 16:10 (NKJV)

speaking of the Christ.

Also other Old Testament prophets would also talk of the Christ.

So meaning that people knew, however most of the Jews refused to believe and instead said he was blaspheming and that was the reason they crucified him.

“Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, ‘Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?’ The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.’” — John 10:31-33 (NKJV)

“But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, ‘I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!’” — Matthew 26:63-65 (NKJV)

Why Jesus Prayed as a Man

So back to where I stopped earlier, Philippians 2, it says that Jesus emptied himself of divinity and became a man, he was dependent on the Holy Spirit as a man, giving us an idea on how we are believers are supposed to live dependent on the spirit of God. And also showing us how we are to have a relationship with God (father-son relationship) and that is why jesus would pray and say ‘Father’

And because at that point he was man, he said things like who touched me?

“Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. And Jesus said, ‘Who touched Me?’ When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, ‘Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, “Who touched Me?”’” — Luke 8:43-45 (NKJV)

Because at that point he was a man and dependent on the Holy Spirit, and that is why this same Jesus who said you touched men could still heal the sick, could still raise the dead.

So from this explanation we can also understand why Jesus would say in

“You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.” — John 14:28 (NKJV)

Now in context, Jesus saying this was not because the father was greater in sense of superiority because we read Philippians 2:5-6 and it says that

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,” — Philippians 2:5-6 (NKJV)

So, Jesus was equal with God the father but when he became man, he emptied himself of divinity and that is why Jesus would say in

“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” — John 17:5 (NKJV)

Even the writer of the book of John would say close to the end of his book in

“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” — John 20:30-31 (NKJV)

so john was not writing amiss, everything John wrote including those ones that some pick might pick out of context and use it to say Jesus is not God. John said he has written all these things so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ and he is the Son of God, and Son of God doesn’t mean that he is less of God or that God gave birth to Jesus, Son of God here basically talks about the incarnation; God that became man.