Who can fully understand God?

 
When God took me into His forever family, my sister told me to read John’s gospel five times, then Romans twice. This was good advice. The first Bible words I read as a believer reveal a basic truth that is believed by all who are reborn and trust Jesus:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

Knowing that Jesus is God is foundational to being a Christian. At least one cult tries to avoid this truth. They put an “a” in front of the last God, as if He is one of many, despite the many verses in the OT that say there is only one God. Not only that, the original Greek language of the NT does not have the word “a” in it!

How can there be one God yet both Father and Son, and add the Holy Spirit who is also God? This is humanly not understandable. We make analogies that try to explain it, such as ice, water, and steam are all different yet all H2O. But even that falls short.

This truth was His way of revealing Himself to the people He created and introducing me to Himself. God simply says it and I need to believe it. There is much more:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… (Hebrews 1:1–3)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1:15)
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily… (Colossians 2:9)
…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped… (Philippians 2:6)
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3–6)

This truth is difficult for Christians, yet we are told to believe it, not to fully understand it. However, that Jesus is God is totally impossible for those who do not have faith in God or confess their sins to Him. They are blinded by the “god of this world” who is also called “the father of lies” who wants to keep people from faith in this marvelous God who sent His Son to show us what He is like, and to die for our sins that we might be with Him forever.

PRAY: Jesus, today we attend a Celebration of Life for a dear woman who loved You and walked with You for much of her life. While we miss her, our faith says she is with You now, seeing You in all Your glory and rejoicing for multiplied reasons, one of which is that she now fully understands how three can be one holy God. Because of You, we can celebrate even as we dearly miss her.

Who is this Babe in a manger?

 

Can anyone adequately describe God? Or the Son of God who is the Word made flesh? Or the Holy Spirit who impresses truth in our hearts? Charnock tries, first by what the Bible says about their roles. All three had a role in creation. The Father is the lawgiver who presented His holiness to humanity and the way to our happiness. However, the fall into sin made us impotent to obey His law or experience the joy of union with Him. Redemption became necessary that humanity could be recovered. Jesus was given the task, but because humanity was blinded by sin and had turned to our own way, enlightenment was needed to change that condition. This work is assigned to the Holy Spirit.

In brief, the Father sends, and the Son is sent because God cannot properly send himself, so the Son acts, and the Holy Spirit applies it by purifying our souls to understand, believe, and love these mysteries. It is the wisdom of God to prepare and present these truths, then impress them on those He chooses.

As to the deity of Jesus Christ, God wisely “unites finite and infinite, almightiness and weakness, immortality and mortality, immutability, with a creature subject to change; to have a nature from eternity, and yet a nature subject to the revolutions of time; a nature to make a law, and a nature to be subjected to the law; to be God blessed forever, in the bosom of his Father, and an infant exposed to calamities from the womb of his mother — terms seeming most distant from union, most incapable of conjunction, to shake hands together, to be most intimately conjoined; glory and vileness, fulness and emptiness, heaven and earth; the creature with the Creator; he that made all things, in one person with a nature that is made; Immanuel, God, and man in one; that which is most spiritual to partake of that which is carnal flesh and blood; one with the Father in his Godhead, one with us in his manhood; the Godhead to be in him in the fullest perfection, and the manhood in the greatest purity; the creature one with the Creator, and the Creator one with the creature. Thus is the incomprehensible wisdom of God declared in the ‘Word being made flesh.’ ”

As Charnock says, this union of two natures in Christ is incomprehensible: and it is a mystery we cannot fully fathom. How can the Son who is the same nature as the Father and the Holy Spirit be united to human nature, without its being said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were made flesh? The Scripture speaks only of the Word being made flesh, and that He is “the only begotten of the Father.”

As the Bible affirms, deity is not changed into flesh, nor flesh transformed into God: they are distinct and yet united, conjoined and yet unmixed. It is impossible that the majesty of God can be altered or the “meanness of humanity” be changed into deity, yet the Incarnation of Jesus Christ unites the two so that the properties of both remain firm. Two become one person in two natures containing the perfections of the Divine, and the weaknesses of the human.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. (Colossians 2:9)
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14–15)

This Christmas season puts my focus even more on who Jesus is, this babe born in a manger. Reading the above explanations fills my heart with joy. I know that Jesus delivers from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of sin. I’ve learned how trusting Him keeps me from evil and delivers me from temptation. I do not need to rely on my own ideas or efforts for salvation because Christ is able and willing to keep me from falling and will restore me even when I do fall.

PRAY: Jesus, You have cleansed my heart and by grace continue to work through the power of Your Spirit to transform me into the person You intend me to be. I give myself to You because only You can purge me, cleanse me, and sanctify me. Your plan shows both my need and Your incredible ability to  meet that need, to change my heart and delivery me from both the penalty and the power of sin. I look forward to being with You and being delivered from even the presence of sin. You are able and willing and I am joyful.

One God? or Three?

 

 

There is much confusion and argument over the concept of the trinity. How can there be ONE God yet three? However, is there confusion and a battle over H₂O? Is it not three: water, steam and ice? Yet one element? Most all known elements are like this one in that they can be a liquid, a solid, or a gas yet their essence does not change. Could this reflect the One who created all things?

In the OT, the word for one does not signify isolation or aloneness. Hebrew has another word for that idea. Instead it is an important word that describes marriage making two people “one flesh,” yet they do not lose their individuality.

It is the same idea expressed in descriptions of God. The Shema, Israel’s confession of faith says: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” stressing monotheism (that there is only one God) and the uniqueness of Israel’s God, but this does not suggest that the Lord God is a solitary, isolated, alone individual. Like marriage, God is described in relationship to Himself. In Genesis 1:26 He says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . .” which is consistent with NT teaching about Him.

The NT uses a Greek word that refers to “one God” and also to explain the unity in the body of Christ. We are members of “one body” and are “one in spirit” with “one hope” and “one Lord” and “one baptism” and “one faith” yet we are many. This one God is also spoken of many as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

In human terms, one crowd is made up of many people, and one team is two horses, yet one God is not three gods. Instead, this One God is three distinct Persons, each Person being fully God, yet there is only one God. Again, H2O illustrates as one element in three distinct forms yet there is only one H2O.

John Piper (LINK) points out that the Bible speaks of the Father as God, Jesus as God, and the Holy Spirit as God:

Philippians 1:2. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Titus 2:13. “Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Acts 5:3–4. Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

Some might argue that these are merely three different ways of looking at God, or simply ways of referring to three different roles that God plays, but the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. For instance, the Father sent the Son into the world, and when the Son returned to the Father, they sent the Holy Spirit into the world.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. When I pray, my concentration might be on my heavenly Father, or on my Savior Jesus Christ or I might be thinking of the Holy Spirit who helps me know how to pray, yet my words are heard by each Person in this triune God. He is united in how He cares about me and how He will respond to my prayers. I have confidence that there is no division in the Godhead. I can also see from thinking about Him how He wants His people, me included, to think about each other — in unity and in sharing the love, peace, and joy that He gives us without division. In Him, we are one.