While
reading a work form 1888, based on a series of sermons the year previous, we
have this rather amazing comment about John 17:3, a genuinely anti-Trinitarian
text wherein there is a numerical distinction between “only true God” and the
person of Jesus made by the person of
Jesus himself!
And who does not see here also another evidence,
by implication, of the Eternal Godhead of Jesus? The juxtaposition, in which he
is here placed with the Father, as the object of that knowledge, which is not
only the source, but the very essence of eternal life, is to us the clearest
evidence that this is the true God and eternal life. (Charles Ross, The Inner Sanctuary: An Exposition of John
13-17 [originally published 1888; London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1967],
207)
One is
reminded of Augustine’s mutilation of the text to preserve the belief in creedal
Trinitarianism in tractate CV of his Tractates on the Gospel of St. John:
"And this," He adds, "is
eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent." The proper order of the words is, "That they
may know Thee and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent, as the only true
God."
Further Reading
If the Father is "the only true God" does that mean Jesus is an idol?
James McGrath, The Trinity Debate and John 17:3