Isaiah 43:11
I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.
Some Trinitarians believe that since this verse says there is no savior besides God, and Jesus is called the “savior” in the New Testament, then Jesus must be God. However, this is a mistaken leap in logic as we will discuss below.
First, we must ask what does God mean by saying “apart from me there is no savior?” Is He saying that no other person could ever save or deliver someone else in any context? No, clearly not. People are delivered or saved from things every day by other people. If one is rescued out of a burning car, they have been saved by the firefighters. We even have biblical precedent in which other people in the bible are called “saviors” (Neh. 9:27; Isa. 19:20). Therefore, God must be using “Savior” in a specific way.
There are a few options for what God might mean by calling himself the only “savior.” He could have in mind the Exodus in which God alone (through his servant Moses) parted the Red Sea (Exod. 14:21), certainly no one else could claim this achievement. In fact, God’s saving act of parting the Sea is mentioned in the immediate context (Isa. 43:16). Secondly, he could be referring to eternal salvation, or the forgiveness of sins which is also in the immediate context of Isaiah 43 (Isa. 43:25). This is also true, because ultimately God is the Savior, who brought about our eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. Jesus could not have secured our redemption without the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in him (John 5:19; Matt. 26:41). For more information on this, see notes on Luke 1:47.
Either way, whatever exactly God meant by saying there is no other savior, He did not intend to say that Jesus was also included in the “I, even I.” If we want to make the claim that Jesus’ being called “savior” makes him God, then the people of Nehemiah 9:27; 2 Kings 13:5; and Obadiah 21 are also God, which would create Polytheism, a clear problem biblically. Thus, this verse does not teach the Trinity by any means.
For more on the usage of Savior in the Bible, see notes on Luke 1:47 and our article “Can Only God Save?“
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