John 8:42

[jfrog]

Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

I love verses like this because they make apparent Jesus' humanity. I love it for other reasons too though. This verse serves as a good pigeonhole. You see this makes a good pigeonhole because it eliminates at least one of the options for how a oneness believer might think Jesus uses "I" or "myself".

There are a few different options for how "I" or "myself" can be used by Jesus.
1. "I" or "myself" can always refer to Jesus in his humanity only
2. "I" or "myself" can always refer to Jesus in his deity only
3. "I" or "myself" can sometimes refer Jesus in his humanity and other times refer to Jesus in his deity.
4. "I" or "myself" can refer to Jesus the person apart from his humanity or deity.

#2 is impossible based on the above verse because it's clear Jesus is using those words in his humanity instead of his deity.
#4 is impossible based on the above verse because if Jesus is both man and God then if he was speaking apart from his humanity or deity the only true statement would have been "I sent myself."

This leaves us with #1 and #3 unless someone else finds another case that I did not include.

#3 is possible but it does bring back up the problem of always having to guess whether Jesus said something through his humanity or his deity and sometimes it appears that in the same passage he goes from speaking in his humanity to his deity and back again. I feel that's a pretty major problem but not at all impossible.

#1 is possible but it means Jesus was speaking in his humanity everytime he said something that sounded like a claim of being God. This makes it really hard to argue that Jesus is God by any of his own words.

So how does your oneness belief explain this verse? How does oneness keep from being pigeonholed into these not so good options when dealing with such verses?

[Praxeas]

#5 Jesus the Person was speaking NOT apart from His Humanity or Divinty

Persons say "I". Persons exist. How they exist is their nature. Jesus did not stop having either nature, therefore He did not speak "apart" from either nature

[Abiding Now]

Originally Posted by Praxeas

#5 Jesus the Person was speaking NOT apart from His Humanity or Divinty

Persons say "I". Persons exist. How they exist is their nature. Jesus did not stop having either nature, therefore He did not speak "apart" from either nature

Absolutely!