Ø  John 17:1-3, 5—“These things Jesus spoke, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee; as thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal. And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent . . . And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was.”

That is:

And this is the eternal life [this is the purpose of, this is what characterizes the present possession of eternal life by those given to the Son by the Father], that they should know thee [the Father] the only true God [in opposition to all idols, in opposition to any and every false god, not in opposition to the Son or the Holy Spirit, the other two Persons of the Triune Godhead, Who are both likewise the only true God], and [equally with the Father] Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent [‘Jesus’ = ‘Jehovah the Saviour’ (Matt. 1:21), Jehovah-Jesus, the God-Man, the eternal Son incarnate, the revelation of the Father in the Person of the Son, the Eternal Life Himself who was with the Father and became flesh, whom the Father sent to do His will, to glorify Him in perfect obedience unto death, even the death of the cross and to impart eternal life to those who trust in Him] . . . And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I [the Son] had along with thee before the world was [i.e., in eternity past, before the beginning of time/creation].”

“Take again that striking declaration in John 17:3, ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.’ Of course He was man, He deigned to be born of woman, else unbelief would have no ground of argument on that score. But what mere man ever dared, save the vilest imposter, calmly to class himself with God, yea, to speak of the knowledge of the only true God, and of Him, as life everlasting?” (WK)

Now consider Gal. 1:1 (and similarly 1 Cor. 7:22-23, Eph. 6:5-9 and Col. 3:22-24):

“Paul, apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from among the dead.” (Gal. 1:1)

John 17:3 no more implies the non-Godhood of Christ than Gal. 1:1 implies His non-Manhood! For Jesus Christ is both God and Man in His Person. Godhood and manhood are indissolubly and unfathomably united in the one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is a divine-human Person, fully God and fully man, the God-Man. In both John 17:3 and Gal. 1:1 it is Jesus Christ as the God-Man who is the Object before us. Thus the true implication of John 17:3 is that the Son is not simply Jehovah God, as the Father is, but He is also Man. He is more than, not less than, Deity—He is both God and Man in His Person. Such is the complex glory of His Incarnate Person. Likewise, the true implication of Gal. 1:1 is that He is not simply Man; He is Jehovah the Son become flesh in taking manhood into His Person. Thus He is infinitely more than, not less than, Man—He is both God and Man in His Person.

Moreover, scripture further reinforces all of the above by explicitly and emphatically declaring that  Jesus Christ is Himself “the true God,” just as the Father is:

“That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life; (and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life [the eternal Son], which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us).” (1 John 1:1-2)

“And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life [as explicitly stated of Him in 1:2 above]. Children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:20-21)

Exclusive statements such as John 17:3, in context, are thus clearly not intended to negate or exclude the absolute deity of the Son or the Holy Spirit, and thus contradict the entire Gospel of John for example, and all other scripture. The Triunity of the Godhead is such that the most exclusive assertions may be made, and are made as to the absolute deity of one of the three Divine Persons without excluding either of the other two Divine Persons from the same absolute deity. Such exclusivity excludes any and all outside of the Triune Godhead.

Take, for example, 1 Cor. 8:6:

“Yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom all things [not merely some things but ‘ALL things,’ all creation without exception], and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things [the very same ‘all things,’ not merely some things, or all things except one, but ‘ALL things,’ all creation], and we by him.” (1 Cor. 8:6)

1 Cor. 8:6 no more implies that the Father alone is God, to the exclusion of absolute, eternal Godhood from the Son and the Holy Spirit, than it implies that the Son alone is supreme Lord, to the exclusion of Divine Lordship from the Father and the Holy Spirit!  Likewise as to Jude 4:

“For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence, ungodly persons, turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)

Neither 1 Cor. 8:6 nor Jude 4 are meant to imply that the Son alone is supreme Lord [“Lord of lords” (Rev. 17:14, 19:16)], to the exclusion of the other two blessed Persons of the Triune Godhead, the Father and the Holy Spirit (see, e.g., 2 Cor. 3:18 with respect to the Holy Spirit, “the Lord the Spirit”; and James 3:9 with respect to the Father, “the Lord and Father”). The fact of the matter is, Godhood is absolutely implicit in such Lordship, for:

“For Jehovah your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of lords [supreme Lord], the great God, the mighty and the awesome, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.” (Deut. 10:17)

“Thou art worthy, O our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and they have been created.” (Rev. 4:11)

“The God who has made the world and all things which are in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” (Acts 17:24)

Consider also 1 Cor. 2:11 as another example:

“The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God [the Spirit sounds the very depths, the infinite, limitless depths of God, as indeed He is God]. For who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? thus also the things of God knows no one except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 2:10b-11)

1 Cor. 2:11 is not intended to imply the Holy Spirit is the only Divine Person who omnisciently knows the things of God, to the exclusion of the Son and the Father!

Or take Luke 10:22:

“All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is pleased to reveal him.” (Luke 10:22)

Luke 10:22 is not meant to imply that the Father alone is omniscient and able to fathom the complex glory of the Person of the incarnate Son, to the exclusion of God the Son Himself and God the Holy Spirit.

Likewise with respect to Rev. 19:11-13:

“And I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and one sitting on it, called Faithful and True [the Lord Jesus Christ in His coming with power and great glory], and he judges and makes war in righteousness. And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head many diadems, having a name written which no one knows but himself; and he is clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God.” (Rev. 19:11-13)

Rev. 19:12 is likewise not meant to imply that He who is the personal and eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ, alone in the Godhead knows this “name” that He possesses—i.e., that He alone is omniscient and able to fathom His own “name,” the complex glory of His Person as the God-Man—to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit and the Father (see Luke 10:22 above).

Again, scripture reveals that the Triunity of the Godhead is such that the most exclusive assertions may be made, and are made as to the absolute deity of one of the three Divine Persons without excluding either of the other two Divine Persons from the same absolute deity. The true intention and exclusivity of the above passages is to exclude anyone and everyone outside of the Triune Godhead. As such, the Father verily may be said to be the only true God; the Son verily may be said to be the only true God; and the Holy Spirit verily may be said to be the only true God. Each of the three Persons of the Godhead is “the only true God,” yet each Divine Person is distinct from the other two Divine Persons and there is only one God—the blessed Triune God . . . fundamental and foundational to all ultimate reality and truth.

“The Lord [in John 17] speaks of life as given in Himself to faith now. . . . If it be distinguished from that which is to be enjoyed in the displayed kingdom by-and-by, it stands as to its character in the knowledge not of the Most High Possessor of heaven and earth, with the true Melchisedec a Priest on His throne, but of the Father and of His sent One, the only true God now plainly revealed in the Son, the one Mediator between God and man. If distinguished from the past, it is no longer the Creator-God giving promises to the fathers protected and lodging as under the shadow of the Almighty; nor yet the sons of Israel in relationship with the name of Jehovah, the moral governor of that chosen nation. But the children of God now possess the revelation of the Father and of Jesus Christ Whom He sent; and this knowledge is identified, not with promises nor government, but with ‘eternal life,’ as a present thing in Christ, the portion of every believer. A deeper blessing it is impossible for God to bestow or for man to receive; for it is exactly what characterised the Lord Himself, Who is the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Only Christ could be said to be that life; we as believers are not, but we have it in Him; and as by faith alone it is received, so in faith it is exercised, sustained, and strengthened. It may be noticed further that, as eternal life is bound up with the knowledge of the Father, the only true God, in contrast with the gods many and false of the Gentiles, so it can only be where Christ is known Whom the Father sent, in contrast with His rejection by the Jews to their own deeper guilt and ruin. Neither the Son nor the Holy Ghost is excluded from the deity, which is elsewhere predicated or assumed of both equally with the Father. The object in hand is to assert it of the Father and to state the place taken here below by Him Who did not regard it as a prize (act or object of plunder) to be on equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondman. (Phil. 2:7.) He was here to obey, to do the will of the Father that sent Him. But that He took such a place in lowly love is the strongest if indirect proof of His proper and eternal Godhead; for even the archangel is a servant, and can never rise out of the position or relation of a servant. Whereas the Son was pleased to take it in order to make good the full blessing of redemption unto the glory of God the Father. So life was in Him, and He was eternal life before all ages; but here He is viewed as coming down to impart it in a scene departed from God, and to a creature, which otherwise must know death in its most terrible shape of judgment as now of guilt.” (WK)