Jesus as God's "servant" in Acts 3:26 - Osama Abdallah & others Refuted

 

Many Muslim apologists, in order to deny the truth of Christ's deity, will often appeal to places in the Holy Bible where it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as being God's "servant". Particularly, I read an article written by dawah missionary Osama Abdallah from the Answering Christianity website. If you so choose to click on the above link, please note that the article extends only for part of the page (Osama's website is extremely disorganized and usually filled with mere verbiage rather than an actual meaningful argumentation). I won't be going through everything that Osama says but I will address the main verse which he cites (i.e. Acts 3:26)However, I ended up coming across this article and I thought I would provide a thorough analysis of Acts 3:26 in which Jesus is called God's "servant".

Here is the verse from the English Standard Version of the Holy Bible:

"God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” (Acts 2:36 ESV) 

It is obviously interesting that Muslims would go to this verse, since it explicitly affirms the resurrection of Christ, something which is denied by Muslims in the first place.

Here are some comparisons between the different translations of the Holy Bible on this verse:

New International Version [NIV]: "When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

New American Standard Bible [NASB]: "For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways."

New King James Version [NKJV]: "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

Christian Standard Bible [CSB]: "God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways."

King James Bible [KJV]: "Unto you first God, having raised up his SON Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

As you can see above, the KJV is the only one that uses the word "son". In this article, I will go with the ESV and the others which use the word "servant". Does this refute the divinity of the Lord Jesus? Not in the slightest, as this article will thoroughly demonstrate. I will provide some reasons why Jesus being called God's "servant" does not refute him being God incarnate.

#1 - The word παῖς does not always refer to a mere servant. 

In Acts 3:26, the word which is translated as "servant" is the Greek word παῖς. Most Islamic polemicists will probably assume that this word refers to a mere servant and nothing else. However, that is not the way this word is meant in the New Testament. Here are some biblical examples to illustrate this:

"After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son (ὁ υἱὸς) was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son (αὐτοῦ τὸν υἱόν), for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child (τὸ παιδίον μου) dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son (ὁ υἱός σου) will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son (ὁ παῖς αὐτοῦ) was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son (Ὁ υἱός σου) will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee." (John 4:43-54)

Here, in this story, we see that this official referred to his son using the word "pais" (the exact same word which is used in Acts 3:26!). This proves quite conclusively that this word pais can refer to one's son or child. 

#2- In Acts chapters 2-3 [in which 3:26 appears], Peter explicitly affirms the deity of Jesus Christ

Acts 2:33 - "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing."

Acts 2:34-35 - "For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,  until I make your enemies your footstool.' " 

Here Peter quotes from Psalm 110:1. This same OT verse used by Jesus in Mark 12:35-37: 

"And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?  David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.'  David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly." (Mark 12:35-37)

John MacArthur, a well-known pastor, as well as a commentator says these words regarding Jesus' use of Psalm 110:1:

"… Verse 1 proves that the messiah could not be merely a man, since David referred to him as his Lord. Jesus' simple argument was so powerful and convincing that when it became widely known after the New Testament was written, many Jews, to avoid the obvious reality, denied the historical view that Psalm 110 was messianic. Instead, it was argued that it referred to Abraham, or Melchizedek, or the intertestamental Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus. Modern liberal scholars, who deny Christ's deity and the infallibility of Scripture, have argued that David was simply mistaken in viewing the messiah as his Lord. However, all of those arguments require rejecting the revealed truth that David himself called the messiah his Lord because of revelation from the Holy Spirit. Further, God declared to David's Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies beneath your feet." Elevating the Messiah to His right hand, a reference to the divine position of power (cf. Ex. 15:6; Pss. 20:6; 44:3; 60:5; 89:13), symbolizes His being coequal with the Father in rank and authority, and essentially affirms His deity. Messiah's rule will be absolute, as God will put His enemies beneath His feet or, as Luke writes, "make [his] enemies a footstool for [his] feet" (Luke 20:43)… The Old Testament, then, reveals not only the Messiah Jesus' humanity as David's son but also His deity as David's Lord, exalted at the right hand of the Father. Here is the incomprehensible, infinite truth that Jesus is both fully God and man… The conclusion to this passage is anticlimactic and tragic. From the majestic heights of Jesus' profound wisdom and masterful exposition of Psalm 110 proving His deity, the reader is plunged into the depths of the hate-driven rejection by the nation's hardened leaders, as well as the amused apathy of the large crowd, who merely enjoyed listening to Him, but two days later would later cry for His execution. Some hated Him, others were entertained by Him. None, apparently, fell on their faces in the presence of almighty God incarnate to repent and confess Him as Lord and Savior." (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Mark 9-16, pgs. 209-213, emphasis originally added by Sam Shamoun)

Now we move on to yet more verses in Acts 2-3 which testify to the Jesus being God.

Acts 2:36 - "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Acts 3:13-16 - "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all."

Note several things: 

1) Jesus is called the "Author of life".

2) It is "through Jesus" that this man is healed by a miracle. 

3) Jesus is called the "Holy and Righteous One".

Conclusion

We have seen that Peter explicitly affirms that Jesus is God, in the book of Acts (and he does as well in 2 Peter 1:1). We have also shown that the word pais in the Greek language can and does refer to one's son or child (and can be a servant at the same time).

The Bible is amazingly clear that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, and thus we ought to worship Him.