By Gavin G.
This article addresses a common Muslim objection to the divinity of Christ, but it is written with a second purpose as well: strengthening Christians in their trust in God's Word when they encounter difficult passages. Doubting God over a verse that seems troubling at first glance is not the right response. Examining the text more carefully is.
One clarification before starting. Muslims do not refer to Allah as "Father." For the purposes of this article, the Father will be discussed using the terminology the Bible itself uses.
The Objection from John 17:3
Muslims frequently appeal to John 17:3, where Jesus prays to the Father and says, "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
At first glance, this verse seems to exclude Jesus from deity. The Father is called "the only true God," and Jesus appears to be set apart from that designation. Taken in isolation, this looks like a serious problem for the doctrine of the Trinity.
The problem with this objection is that it stops reading at verse 3. The verses that immediately follow tell a very different story.
What John 17:5-11 Actually Says
John 17:5-11 reads: "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one."
Two details in this passage carry significant weight.
First, in verse 5, Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him with the glory He shared with the Father before the world existed. This cannot be explained as prophetic language. No prophet existed before creation. No prophet possessed divine glory alongside the Father prior to the world's beginning. This is a claim about Jesus' own eternal existence.
Second, in verse 11, Jesus speaks of possessing the Father's name. Throughout Scripture, God's name signifies His authority, character, and identity, not a mere title. Jesus is not described as acting on God's behalf under God's name. He is entrusted with the name itself, as the one through whom the Father's name, authority, and salvation are revealed to humanity.
A Muslim might respond that this language is metaphorical, or that it simply describes authority delegated to a prophet, perhaps the message of Tawhid or the people of Israel entrusted to His ministry. But this explanation cannot account for the full passage. Prophets receive revelation. They do not possess glory with God before creation. Prophets speak in God's name. They are never given the divine name itself.
What John 17:21-24 Adds
The same theme continues and intensifies later in the same prayer.
John 17:21-24 reads: "that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."
A common Muslim response to this passage is that Jesus is simply describing how God loved the people of Israel, the same way He loved Jesus as His chosen messenger. But verse 24 does not support that reading. Jesus says he was loved "before the foundation of the world," not at a point within history. He does not say God loved Him when He was sent, or appointed, or commissioned. He places that love in eternity, prior to creation itself.
Prophets are loved within time. They are chosen, sent, and commissioned within history. None of them claim to have been loved by God before the world existed. Jesus locates His own identity and glory in a love that precedes creation. That is not the language available to a created messenger.
Reading the Passage as a Whole
John 17:5 and John 17:24 frame the entire prayer. In verse 5, Jesus shares glory with the Father before the world existed. In verse 24, Jesus is loved by the Father before the foundation of the world. Read together, these verses describe a relationship that is not temporary, not merely symbolic, and not functional in the way a prophetic commission would be. It is eternal.
John 17:3 does not weaken the case for Christ's divinity. Read in isolation, it might appear to. Read within the full context of the prayer, it strengthens the case considerably, because the same passage that calls the Father "the only true God" also has Jesus describing Himself in terms that no prophet could ever claim.