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TL;DR:
This email exchange examines Jesus' cry from the cross, His role as our Advocate, the distinction between Father and Son, and salvation's present and future dimensions. Jesus' quotation of Psalm 22 connects His suffering with a psalm that ends in vindication and worldwide worship. Other passages describe believers as already saved, being saved, and awaiting salvation's completion.
"Get and read God's book." — Isaiah 34:16, The Message
What does Jesus' role as our Advocate with the Father tell us?
Watchtower Society correspondence: A member of Jehovah's Witnesses and I exchanged numerous email messages about beliefs and doctrines. Here are his questions and my responses. These excerpts record our correspondence. Some material overlaps because the exchange occasionally returned to the same themes.
Unfortunately, my Jehovah's Witness friend rarely engaged with my answers or asked follow-up questions, so we had few opportunities to explore our differences in depth.
My answer: Christian belief in Jesus' divinity does not identify the Son as the Father. Jesus, the incarnate Son, was addressing the Father.
His cry quotes the opening of Psalm 22. It expresses the anguish of His suffering while connecting His crucifixion with a psalm that moves from lament to vindication and worldwide worship. Quoting its opening words may also have invited His listeners to recall the rest of the psalm, much as a familiar line from a song can call the entire song to mind.
Christians read Psalm 22 in light of Jesus' suffering, and the Gospel accounts connect details of His crucifixion with this psalm. Its opening lament should be read alongside its later affirmation that God hears the afflicted person's cry. Verse 24 says:
"For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help." — Psalm 22:24, NIV 2011
One interpretation is that Jesus' cry expresses the withdrawal of divine protection as the Father permits the Son to suffer in fulfillment of God's saving purpose. On this reading, the cry does not mean that the Father ceased to love the Son or that the unity of the Trinity was broken. This is a theological interpretation of the passage, rather than an explanation explicitly supplied by the psalmist.
Earlier in Jesus' ministry, His opponents sought to kill Him (John 5:18; 8:59). John 7:30 explains that an attempt to seize Him failed because His hour had not yet come. As His crucifixion approached, however, Jesus announced that the hour had come (John 12:23). He also told Pilate, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above" (John 19:11). These passages place His suffering within God's purpose; they do not suggest that His enemies had overturned that purpose.
Jesus' cry therefore does not, by itself, disprove His divinity. It gives voice to His suffering through the words of a psalm that ends with vindication and worship extending to the ends of the earth. Psalm 22:27 says, "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord." Meditation on this saying from the cross
My answer: Notice that the verse describes Jesus as an advocate with the Father. It does not call Him the Father's helper. In the NIV 2011, John writes, "we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." Jesus acts on our behalf before the Father.
This verse distinguishes the Father from the Son and describes their relationship in the work of salvation. It is consistent with the Christian understanding of the Trinity, although it does not, by itself, explicitly establish the full doctrine of one God in three persons.
The Greek word translated "advocate" is parakletos, often rendered in English as "Paraclete." It conveys the idea of someone called to another's aid and, in this context, someone who pleads another's case. In the New Testament, the word occurs four times in John's gospel (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) and once in this letter.
John's gospel uses the same title for the Holy Spirit. This shared title contributes to the biblical case for the Spirit's personhood, particularly when read alongside passages describing the Spirit's teaching, testimony, and guidance. The title alone, however, should not bear the entire argument.
Likewise, 1 John 1:9 describes God as just, and 1 John 2:1 calls Jesus the Righteous One. These descriptions are consistent with the broader Christian confession of Jesus' divine character, but the use of a shared adjective does not, by itself, prove that Father and Son share the same divine essence.
Christian teaching distinguishes personhood from divine being: the Father is not the Son, yet both share the one divine being. Calling Jesus our Advocate identifies His relationship to the Father and His ministry for us; it does not require us to identify Him as the Father.
Jesus, the incarnate Son, is our sinless Savior who died for us and rose again. His advocacy does not mean that the Father is reluctant to save us. Rather, it expresses the desire for our salvation shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
My answer: That question treats the Father and the Son as the same person, which is not what Christians mean by the incarnation. Christians confess one God in three eternally distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. The three persons are distinct, yet they share the one divine being.
The incarnation means that the Son became human; it does not mean that the Father became the Son. Jesus could therefore pray to the Father and return to the Father without contradicting His divinity.
My answer: Your statement that none of us are presently saved does not account for passages that describe salvation as already received or presently unfolding.
Consider Exodus 14:301; 18:42; 18:83; Deuteronomy 33:294; 1 Samuel 14:235; 2 Samuel 22:46; 2 Chronicles 32:227; Psalm 18:38; 22:59; 34:610; 106:8, 1011; 107:13, 1912; 116:613; Isaiah 25:914; 43:1215; and Jeremiah 4:1416. Many of these passages describe physical rescue from enemies or danger. They show God's saving activity, although they should not all be treated as direct statements about salvation from sin.
The New Testament makes the more direct case for believers' present salvation: Luke 7:5017; John 10:918; Acts 2:21, 4719; 15:1120; 16:17, 3021; Romans 8:2422; 10:1023; 1 Corinthians 1:1824; 2 Corinthians 2:1525; Ephesians 2:526; 2 Timothy 1:927; Titus 3:528; and Hebrews 10:3929.
Our final redemption remains a future hope. Yet Paul also describes believers as already saved and as being saved. These expressions describe salvation as something received, something presently unfolding, and something awaiting completion.
In Titus 3:5, Paul twice uses the words "saved us." In 2 Timothy 1:9, he describes God as having saved us and called us to a holy life. Romans 8:24 also speaks of salvation as already received. How, then, can we reconcile those passages with the assertion, "None of us are saved"?
The following quotations are excerpts from the NIV 2011. Ellipses indicate omitted wording.
— Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu