The only true God and His agent

 “This is the Life of the Age to come: that they may know you, the only one who is truly God, and Jesus the Messiah whom you sent (apesteilas).” John 17:3, OGF

The Gospel of John is frequently used—or, more accurately, misused—to “prove” that Jesus is God. Yet, ironically, this very Gospel is dominated by Father–Son language and by the biblical principle of agency (which by definition portrays the Son as subordinate to the Father).

John 17:3 sets the stage for understanding how Jesus viewed himself. For example, he refers to himself in the third person as “the Messiah whom you [the Father] sent.” The Greek verb translated "sent" (apesteilas) is the the aorist form of “apostle,” and carries the sense of an authorized representative. This lies at the heart of the biblical principle of agency. In Scripture, an agent (Heb. shaliach) represents the one who sends him with full delegated authority, yet the agent is never confused with the sender. God remains the one who appoints, and the agency belongs to the one He commissions. This is the framework within which Jesus consistently describes his own mission.

The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible (2013) adds:

“The repeated stress, in these and other passages, on the `sending’ of Jesus (e.g. 5:23-4, 36-7; 7:29; 10:36; 17:18) indicates that his depiction as God’s authorized envoy is to be explained against the background of Jewish notions of agency. Based on the principle that the one who is sent (Hebrew: shaliach) is endowed with the full authority of the sender….Jesus, therefore, functions as the unique emissary, because the Father ‘has placed all things in his hands’ (3:35). His words and works are those of God, including the giving of life and executing judgement (5:21-2, 27). The Son acts in dependence upon the one who sent him (7:28; 8:42; 10:37; 12:49) and commits himself obediently to the will of the Father (4:34; cf. 5:30; 6:38). During his earthly life he speaks and acts in unity with God (10:30), so that to see and know him is to see and know the Father (12:45; 14:7, 9).”

John 17:3 therefore presents a decisive and unmistakable distinction: the Father is “the only true God,” and Jesus is the Messiah whom that one God has commissioned. In other words, Jesus is God’s authorized agent—not God Himself.

Too many Christians assume that if Jesus is “sent,” it must imply that he literally pre-existed—either as the archangel Michael or as “God the Son.” But in the Old Testament, patriarchs, prophets, and kings (all anointed ones) are also described as being “sent” by God. The language is about agency, not about being sent from one physical location to another.

In John 17:3, Jesus identifies himself as God’s ultimate human representative precisely because he is the Father’s human Son—anointed, empowered, and commissioned to carry out the Father’s kingdom mission. This text also clearly sets apart the Father as "the only true God," and it identifies Jesus as the Messiah whom this one God has sent.

Understanding the biblical principle of agency allows John 17:3 to speak with its intended force: Jesus is God’s uniquely appointed human representative—the one through whom the Father accomplishes His saving purpose. Knowing the Father and His Messiah—that is the essence of immortality in the kingdom age to come.

1 John 2:24 As for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 This is the promise which he himself promised us: the life of the age to come.