Here are some sobering and thoughtful words from Pastor John Armstrong about the troop surge in Iraq.
http://johnharmstrong.typepad.com/john_h_armstrong_/2007/01/to_surge_or_not.html
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
One God, Three Persons (Dt 6:4-5; Jn 1:1; 1 Cor 8:4-6; Phil 2:9-11; Mt 12:31-32; 2 Cor 13:14)
Christians worship only one God but the one God whom we are instructed to worship exists as a trinity, that is, a community of three different but equally divine persons and these are God the Father, his Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And if the one true God is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then we are obligated to treat and worship each person of the Trinity as the only true God.
I. Introduction: How Many Gods do Christians worship?
In our study of God’s word this morning, we are going to be focusing on a very important teaching that sits at the heart of our Christian faith. If you have been with us for some time in our worship and our study of the Gospel of John, I think a question that some of you will eventually be asking is this: Just how many gods do Christians worship? Now, the reason why I think that this question will surface is because as we have been looking through the Gospel of John, you would have heard us say that Jesus is God. And not only would you have heard us say that, you would also have heard us say that Jesus is the Son of God. Furthermore, you would have heard sing hymns like the one we sang earlier, the Gloria Patri: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, amen, amen.” Now, upon hearing all these things—from the hymn and from the Gospel of John—some of you cannot help but wonder: Are the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost the three main gods of the Christian faith? Just exactly how many gods do Christians worship?
Now, if you are one of those asking this question, let me assure that it is an important question. And it is important for at least two reasons. The first reason why this question is important is because it has to do with the validity of the Christian faith. Is the Christian faith true or false? The reason I say this is because the Christian faith claims to be the continuation of the true religion that God revealed in the Old Testament. Now, if this is so, and if the Christian faith actually summons people to worship more than one God or other gods in addition to the one God, then it obviously is not faithful to the Old Testament, and therefore, cannot be said to be the true religion. This is one reason why we must deal with the question of how many gods Christians worship. But the question is also important for another reason: It is important because it has to do with who God is. Who is this God that we serve? Who is this God that we worship? And if you claim to love God, and claim to want to know him, then surely you would want to understand all that Scripture has to say about him. So all this is simply to say that the issue of how many gods Christians worship is not only a question that is fun for debate, it is a question of absolute importance.
But to start us off on our study and to help us have an idea of the direction that we are headed, let me just tell you the answer to the question. Christians do not worship more than one God. Christians worship only one God. However, the one God whom we are instructed to worship exists as a community of three different but equally divine persons: God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. If you want to use the traditional language of the Church, you would say that Christians worship one God who exists as a Trinity. And hopefully, this is what we will see at the end of our time together.
II. The Revealing of God the Trinity
A. The Lord our God is One (Dt 6:4-6)
Now, there are many ways we can go about studying the doctrine of the Trinity. But the approach we will take today is to begin by looking first at what is really the basic tenet, the basic truth of the religion that God has revealed. And you will find this in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Now, in the book of Deuteronomy, the children of Israel are about to enter the land that God had given to them. But before they do so, the prophet Moses wants to give some them some final instructions. You see, Moses is about to die. But before he dies, he wants to remind the children of Israel that whatever happens, they must be loyal to the Lord. In 6:4, Moses delivers these powerful words for all Israel to hear: “4‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” These words were a call to loyalty. They were a call for a lifestyle of total, and complete, and comprehensive devotion to God. What I want to do now is simply point out three very simple things about this text.
The first thing that we should note about this verse is what the God of Israel is called: He is called the “Lord.” Now, if you notice, the word “Lord” is all in upper case letters and there is actually a reason for this. You see, the Hebrew word that stands behind the English word “Lord” can be spelled “Y-H-W-H.” This word is the holy name of God. But the problem is that to this day, no one really knows how to pronounce it (even though many will simply pronounce it “Yahweh”). Furthermore, out of respect for the holy name, whenever Jews to this day come to the name “YHWH,” they will simply call it “Adonai” which in English is the word “Lord.” And so the tradition has passed from the Jews to us that whenever the name “YHWH” appears, it is rendered simply as “Lord,” or “God” in capital letters. Now, even though no one really knows how to pronounce the name, it still doesn’t change the fact that God is not a nameless God. God has a name. And this is significant because it shows us that God has already defined himself. If God has a name, then we cannot simply make God into anything we like. He has a name and that name is “YHWH” or “Lord.”
Now, the second thing that I want to point out with regard to Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is what we see next: The Lord is one. What does this mean? It means that the Lord is the only God. There is no one like him. There is no one equal to him. And this is a crucial truth that is repeated and restated all across Scripture. In Deuteronomy 5:7, the Lord says to Israel: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Isaiah 43:10: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.” Isaiah 46:9: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.” In Mark 12:29-30, Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and he himself responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The most important commandment, Jesus says, is “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
Now, the question is, “Why is it important for God to stress that he is one? Why does God devote so much of Scripture to emphasize this truth?” Because the Lord wants our absolute loyalty. You see, the truth that God is one is not primarily an interesting topic for philosophical discussion. The truth that God is one is first and foremost an ethical principle. If the Lord is one, then we may not treat anything else like God. If the Lord is one, then we may not treat food, or entertainment, or government, or work, or cultural traditions, or even our own families like God. If the Lord is one, then his word must be the final and supreme moral authority over our lives. That is the command which rests in the truth of the oneness of God. The Lord is one—and all morality, all fact, all truth, is based on that.
B. The Emerging of the Three
But having seen that the Bible teaches that God is one, what we must see now is that the picture becomes a little more complicated as we go further in Scripture. What will happen as we read further in Scripture is that we find that within the one identity of the Lord God are actually three different persons, each of whom possesses the full nature of God, each of whom can rightfully be called “God.”
1. The Word Was With God and the Word Was God (John 1:1)
Now, the first place that I want us to look at in building this truth is John 1:1. Just as Deuteronomy 6:4-5 was a good place to start building the foundation of the oneness and the uniqueness of God, John 1:1 is a good place to start building the foundation of the plurality within God. Listen to John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now, upon hearing these words, those of you who know your Bibles pretty well will immediately think that John 1:1 sounds a lot like Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And John knew that. But what is significant is what John seems to have done with Genesis 1:1. Instead of saying something like, “In the beginning was God,” John says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Now, what is John doing here? By mentioning the Word before mentioning God, John seems to be calling attention to the Word more than God. And if this is so, who or what then is this Word who deserves as much attention as God himself? That is the question we need answered.
As we read on, we are told that the Word was “with God.” What this tells us is that the Word was someone different than God. Apparently, the Word had a separate personality from God. He wasn’t the same person as God. But what is incredibly mind-boggling is what we see next. Even though the Word was with God, the end of John 1:1 says these remarkable words: “The Word was God.” Now, this is fascinating. The Word is not the same as God, yet the Word was God. How can this be? What is John trying to say? Well, I believe that what John is trying to say is that even though the Word was with God and is therefore not the same person as God, he is however also the same as God in terms of his nature, his species. In other words, the first time the word “God” is used, it is used as a name. But the second time the word “God” is used, it is not used as a name but it is used to describe a quality. The second time the word “God” appears, it refers not to the person named God, but to the nature of the Word. And so, if I may restate John 1:1 to bring out this understanding more clearly, it might go this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was by nature also God.” Everything that God was, the Word was. Everything that God could do, the Word could do as well. No wonder John had no problem calling attention to the Word—because as God, the Word deserved that attention.
2. One God and Lord: The Father and Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 8:4-6, Philippians 2:9-11)
But I want to move on now from John 1:1 to look at two other passages: 1 Corinthians 8:6 and Philippians 2:9-11.
In 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, the apostle Paul is actually addressing a particular concern that the Corinthians had about eating food that had been offered to idols. You see, in that particular culture that Paul was writing in, people worshipped many gods and there were temples built to these gods. And it also happened that food was served in these temples. Often the food that was served was usually food that had been offered to the gods. And to make matters even more complex, the food that was offered was also eventually sold in the markets. And as a result of this pervasive nature of food that had been offered to idols, some of the Corinthians struggled with eating these things because they were afraid of the power of these so-called gods. And so in response to that fear, Paul says in 8:4, “4Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one.’” Now, what Paul is trying to do here is obviously remind the Corinthians that the idols that people worshipped really had no power because they were not actually gods. And the reason they could not be real gods was because there was only one real God. Then Paul goes on to say in verse 5, “5For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’—”[1] Now, what Paul is doing here is acknowledging that people do actually worship different gods. The “gods” here were basically the traditional Roman gods that people worshipped at the time. They were the gods who supposedly lived in heaven. As for the “lords,” well, these were the gods who lived among men.[2] The Roman emperor, for example, was considered a lord and he was actually worshipped in the culture that Paul was writing. But then this is where it gets interesting. Having said that the people worshipped many gods and many lords, Paul now makes this triumphant declaration: “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Now, the reason this statement is a significant one is because not only is Paul placing Jesus in the closest possible relationship to the Father, but Paul is showing that Jesus is actually included within the identity of the one true God. In other words, Jesus can rightfully be called the one true God. Now, how do I come to this conclusion? Well, follow along Paul’s argument with me again. First of all, Paul says in verse 4 that there is only one God. This is an important enough statement because whatever conclusion you hope to get from verse 6, the one conclusion that you must never, ever reach is that there are two Gods. If you think that Paul is saying that Christians worship one main God and another divine lord, I think you would have missed the point because Paul’s point here is precisely that there is only one God and therefore only one Lord. Secondly, Paul says in verse 5 that even though there is only one God, people do in fact worship many other so-called gods. Some of these gods live in heaven and some of them, those who were called “lords,” live on earth and run empires. And then thirdly, in verse 6, Paul essentially returns to the original point he made in verse 4 by saying that we only have one God. But notice that in verse 6, Paul does not simply repeat what he said in earlier verse 4. Instead, what Paul does is expand the idea of verse 4. And he says this: “We have one God and one Lord.”[3] Now, with this understanding of Paul’s logic in mind, we can really marvel at what Paul is teaching in this passage. If Paul said that there is only one God, and if the terms “God” and “Lord” both refer to divine beings that receive worship, and if Jesus Christ is called “Lord,” then Paul is basically saying that Jesus is the one true God. In other words, if Jesus carries the name, “Lord,” then by implication he also carries the name “God.”[4]
But this is where it gets even more interesting. If you turn to Philippians 2:9-11, you will see that the name “Lord” actually has even more weight than what it sounds. When Paul calls Jesus “Lord,” so often we think that he is simply calling him “Master” or “King.” But I think we can say that Paul is actually saying more than that. Listen now to Philippians 2:9-11: “9Therefore God has highly exalted him [referring to Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Now, do you remember what we said about the meaning of the word “Lord” when we were looking at Deuteronomy 6:4-5? “Lord” was the special name of the God of Israel. And let me also ask you this: “Which passage from the Old Testament does Philippians 2:9-11 sound like?” It sounds like Isaiah 45:23: “23By myself I have sworn [this is the Lord God speaking]; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’” Do you see what Paul is saying? Philippians 2:11 is the fulfillment of Isaiah 45:23. In Isaiah 45, the Lord God said that all will bow to him. In Philippians 2, we are given a glimpse as to who that Lord is: He is Jesus. And so you see, when Paul calls Jesus “Lord,” he is actually calling Jesus by the name of the God of the Old Testament.
So let’s try to summarize what we have seen so far. First of all, from John 1:1, we have seen that God was not alone at creation. He was accompanied by his divine Word, the Word who shared his nature (Jn1:1). But from 1 Corinthians 8:6 and Philippians 2:9-11, we also see that not was Jesus equal in nature to God the Father, but that Jesus also shares the name of God the Father. And if we take this fact seriously, what we are left with is the conclusion that Jesus is also the one true God of Israel. Jesus is YHWH. Yes, there is only one God but this one God is both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The Holy Spirit is God (Matthew 12:31-32; Acts 5:3-4; Psalm 139:7; Genesis 1:2)
But having said that, there is still one more person unaccounted for—and that is the Holy Spirit, or as he is elsewhere called, the Spirit of God. Who is the Holy Spirit? And what is the Holy Spirit? Listen to the following passages and see what conclusion Scripture wants us to arrive at.
In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus says, “31Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” When we hear these words, the question we must ask is this: “Who is this person who is so important that any insult against him cannot be forgiven?”
In Acts 5:3-4, we have a very well-known but disturbing incident in the life of the early church. A member of the church named Ananias told a lie. He sold a piece of property but kept back part of the proceeds for himself instead of giving it all to the church as he had promised. Now, when the apostle Peter confronts Ananias about his sin, what does he say? First of all, he asks Ananias why he lied to the Holy Spirit (5:3). But then after that, Peter also goes on to say, “You have not lied to men but to God” (5:4). And we know how that episode ends—God’s judgment falls and Ananias and his wife die.
I. Introduction: How Many Gods do Christians worship?
In our study of God’s word this morning, we are going to be focusing on a very important teaching that sits at the heart of our Christian faith. If you have been with us for some time in our worship and our study of the Gospel of John, I think a question that some of you will eventually be asking is this: Just how many gods do Christians worship? Now, the reason why I think that this question will surface is because as we have been looking through the Gospel of John, you would have heard us say that Jesus is God. And not only would you have heard us say that, you would also have heard us say that Jesus is the Son of God. Furthermore, you would have heard sing hymns like the one we sang earlier, the Gloria Patri: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, amen, amen.” Now, upon hearing all these things—from the hymn and from the Gospel of John—some of you cannot help but wonder: Are the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost the three main gods of the Christian faith? Just exactly how many gods do Christians worship?
Now, if you are one of those asking this question, let me assure that it is an important question. And it is important for at least two reasons. The first reason why this question is important is because it has to do with the validity of the Christian faith. Is the Christian faith true or false? The reason I say this is because the Christian faith claims to be the continuation of the true religion that God revealed in the Old Testament. Now, if this is so, and if the Christian faith actually summons people to worship more than one God or other gods in addition to the one God, then it obviously is not faithful to the Old Testament, and therefore, cannot be said to be the true religion. This is one reason why we must deal with the question of how many gods Christians worship. But the question is also important for another reason: It is important because it has to do with who God is. Who is this God that we serve? Who is this God that we worship? And if you claim to love God, and claim to want to know him, then surely you would want to understand all that Scripture has to say about him. So all this is simply to say that the issue of how many gods Christians worship is not only a question that is fun for debate, it is a question of absolute importance.
But to start us off on our study and to help us have an idea of the direction that we are headed, let me just tell you the answer to the question. Christians do not worship more than one God. Christians worship only one God. However, the one God whom we are instructed to worship exists as a community of three different but equally divine persons: God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. If you want to use the traditional language of the Church, you would say that Christians worship one God who exists as a Trinity. And hopefully, this is what we will see at the end of our time together.
II. The Revealing of God the Trinity
A. The Lord our God is One (Dt 6:4-6)
Now, there are many ways we can go about studying the doctrine of the Trinity. But the approach we will take today is to begin by looking first at what is really the basic tenet, the basic truth of the religion that God has revealed. And you will find this in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Now, in the book of Deuteronomy, the children of Israel are about to enter the land that God had given to them. But before they do so, the prophet Moses wants to give some them some final instructions. You see, Moses is about to die. But before he dies, he wants to remind the children of Israel that whatever happens, they must be loyal to the Lord. In 6:4, Moses delivers these powerful words for all Israel to hear: “4‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” These words were a call to loyalty. They were a call for a lifestyle of total, and complete, and comprehensive devotion to God. What I want to do now is simply point out three very simple things about this text.
The first thing that we should note about this verse is what the God of Israel is called: He is called the “Lord.” Now, if you notice, the word “Lord” is all in upper case letters and there is actually a reason for this. You see, the Hebrew word that stands behind the English word “Lord” can be spelled “Y-H-W-H.” This word is the holy name of God. But the problem is that to this day, no one really knows how to pronounce it (even though many will simply pronounce it “Yahweh”). Furthermore, out of respect for the holy name, whenever Jews to this day come to the name “YHWH,” they will simply call it “Adonai” which in English is the word “Lord.” And so the tradition has passed from the Jews to us that whenever the name “YHWH” appears, it is rendered simply as “Lord,” or “God” in capital letters. Now, even though no one really knows how to pronounce the name, it still doesn’t change the fact that God is not a nameless God. God has a name. And this is significant because it shows us that God has already defined himself. If God has a name, then we cannot simply make God into anything we like. He has a name and that name is “YHWH” or “Lord.”
Now, the second thing that I want to point out with regard to Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is what we see next: The Lord is one. What does this mean? It means that the Lord is the only God. There is no one like him. There is no one equal to him. And this is a crucial truth that is repeated and restated all across Scripture. In Deuteronomy 5:7, the Lord says to Israel: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Isaiah 43:10: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.” Isaiah 46:9: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.” In Mark 12:29-30, Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and he himself responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The most important commandment, Jesus says, is “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
Now, the question is, “Why is it important for God to stress that he is one? Why does God devote so much of Scripture to emphasize this truth?” Because the Lord wants our absolute loyalty. You see, the truth that God is one is not primarily an interesting topic for philosophical discussion. The truth that God is one is first and foremost an ethical principle. If the Lord is one, then we may not treat anything else like God. If the Lord is one, then we may not treat food, or entertainment, or government, or work, or cultural traditions, or even our own families like God. If the Lord is one, then his word must be the final and supreme moral authority over our lives. That is the command which rests in the truth of the oneness of God. The Lord is one—and all morality, all fact, all truth, is based on that.
B. The Emerging of the Three
But having seen that the Bible teaches that God is one, what we must see now is that the picture becomes a little more complicated as we go further in Scripture. What will happen as we read further in Scripture is that we find that within the one identity of the Lord God are actually three different persons, each of whom possesses the full nature of God, each of whom can rightfully be called “God.”
1. The Word Was With God and the Word Was God (John 1:1)
Now, the first place that I want us to look at in building this truth is John 1:1. Just as Deuteronomy 6:4-5 was a good place to start building the foundation of the oneness and the uniqueness of God, John 1:1 is a good place to start building the foundation of the plurality within God. Listen to John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now, upon hearing these words, those of you who know your Bibles pretty well will immediately think that John 1:1 sounds a lot like Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And John knew that. But what is significant is what John seems to have done with Genesis 1:1. Instead of saying something like, “In the beginning was God,” John says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Now, what is John doing here? By mentioning the Word before mentioning God, John seems to be calling attention to the Word more than God. And if this is so, who or what then is this Word who deserves as much attention as God himself? That is the question we need answered.
As we read on, we are told that the Word was “with God.” What this tells us is that the Word was someone different than God. Apparently, the Word had a separate personality from God. He wasn’t the same person as God. But what is incredibly mind-boggling is what we see next. Even though the Word was with God, the end of John 1:1 says these remarkable words: “The Word was God.” Now, this is fascinating. The Word is not the same as God, yet the Word was God. How can this be? What is John trying to say? Well, I believe that what John is trying to say is that even though the Word was with God and is therefore not the same person as God, he is however also the same as God in terms of his nature, his species. In other words, the first time the word “God” is used, it is used as a name. But the second time the word “God” is used, it is not used as a name but it is used to describe a quality. The second time the word “God” appears, it refers not to the person named God, but to the nature of the Word. And so, if I may restate John 1:1 to bring out this understanding more clearly, it might go this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was by nature also God.” Everything that God was, the Word was. Everything that God could do, the Word could do as well. No wonder John had no problem calling attention to the Word—because as God, the Word deserved that attention.
2. One God and Lord: The Father and Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 8:4-6, Philippians 2:9-11)
But I want to move on now from John 1:1 to look at two other passages: 1 Corinthians 8:6 and Philippians 2:9-11.
In 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, the apostle Paul is actually addressing a particular concern that the Corinthians had about eating food that had been offered to idols. You see, in that particular culture that Paul was writing in, people worshipped many gods and there were temples built to these gods. And it also happened that food was served in these temples. Often the food that was served was usually food that had been offered to the gods. And to make matters even more complex, the food that was offered was also eventually sold in the markets. And as a result of this pervasive nature of food that had been offered to idols, some of the Corinthians struggled with eating these things because they were afraid of the power of these so-called gods. And so in response to that fear, Paul says in 8:4, “4Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one.’” Now, what Paul is trying to do here is obviously remind the Corinthians that the idols that people worshipped really had no power because they were not actually gods. And the reason they could not be real gods was because there was only one real God. Then Paul goes on to say in verse 5, “5For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’—”[1] Now, what Paul is doing here is acknowledging that people do actually worship different gods. The “gods” here were basically the traditional Roman gods that people worshipped at the time. They were the gods who supposedly lived in heaven. As for the “lords,” well, these were the gods who lived among men.[2] The Roman emperor, for example, was considered a lord and he was actually worshipped in the culture that Paul was writing. But then this is where it gets interesting. Having said that the people worshipped many gods and many lords, Paul now makes this triumphant declaration: “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Now, the reason this statement is a significant one is because not only is Paul placing Jesus in the closest possible relationship to the Father, but Paul is showing that Jesus is actually included within the identity of the one true God. In other words, Jesus can rightfully be called the one true God. Now, how do I come to this conclusion? Well, follow along Paul’s argument with me again. First of all, Paul says in verse 4 that there is only one God. This is an important enough statement because whatever conclusion you hope to get from verse 6, the one conclusion that you must never, ever reach is that there are two Gods. If you think that Paul is saying that Christians worship one main God and another divine lord, I think you would have missed the point because Paul’s point here is precisely that there is only one God and therefore only one Lord. Secondly, Paul says in verse 5 that even though there is only one God, people do in fact worship many other so-called gods. Some of these gods live in heaven and some of them, those who were called “lords,” live on earth and run empires. And then thirdly, in verse 6, Paul essentially returns to the original point he made in verse 4 by saying that we only have one God. But notice that in verse 6, Paul does not simply repeat what he said in earlier verse 4. Instead, what Paul does is expand the idea of verse 4. And he says this: “We have one God and one Lord.”[3] Now, with this understanding of Paul’s logic in mind, we can really marvel at what Paul is teaching in this passage. If Paul said that there is only one God, and if the terms “God” and “Lord” both refer to divine beings that receive worship, and if Jesus Christ is called “Lord,” then Paul is basically saying that Jesus is the one true God. In other words, if Jesus carries the name, “Lord,” then by implication he also carries the name “God.”[4]
But this is where it gets even more interesting. If you turn to Philippians 2:9-11, you will see that the name “Lord” actually has even more weight than what it sounds. When Paul calls Jesus “Lord,” so often we think that he is simply calling him “Master” or “King.” But I think we can say that Paul is actually saying more than that. Listen now to Philippians 2:9-11: “9Therefore God has highly exalted him [referring to Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Now, do you remember what we said about the meaning of the word “Lord” when we were looking at Deuteronomy 6:4-5? “Lord” was the special name of the God of Israel. And let me also ask you this: “Which passage from the Old Testament does Philippians 2:9-11 sound like?” It sounds like Isaiah 45:23: “23By myself I have sworn [this is the Lord God speaking]; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’” Do you see what Paul is saying? Philippians 2:11 is the fulfillment of Isaiah 45:23. In Isaiah 45, the Lord God said that all will bow to him. In Philippians 2, we are given a glimpse as to who that Lord is: He is Jesus. And so you see, when Paul calls Jesus “Lord,” he is actually calling Jesus by the name of the God of the Old Testament.
So let’s try to summarize what we have seen so far. First of all, from John 1:1, we have seen that God was not alone at creation. He was accompanied by his divine Word, the Word who shared his nature (Jn1:1). But from 1 Corinthians 8:6 and Philippians 2:9-11, we also see that not was Jesus equal in nature to God the Father, but that Jesus also shares the name of God the Father. And if we take this fact seriously, what we are left with is the conclusion that Jesus is also the one true God of Israel. Jesus is YHWH. Yes, there is only one God but this one God is both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The Holy Spirit is God (Matthew 12:31-32; Acts 5:3-4; Psalm 139:7; Genesis 1:2)
But having said that, there is still one more person unaccounted for—and that is the Holy Spirit, or as he is elsewhere called, the Spirit of God. Who is the Holy Spirit? And what is the Holy Spirit? Listen to the following passages and see what conclusion Scripture wants us to arrive at.
In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus says, “31Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” When we hear these words, the question we must ask is this: “Who is this person who is so important that any insult against him cannot be forgiven?”
In Acts 5:3-4, we have a very well-known but disturbing incident in the life of the early church. A member of the church named Ananias told a lie. He sold a piece of property but kept back part of the proceeds for himself instead of giving it all to the church as he had promised. Now, when the apostle Peter confronts Ananias about his sin, what does he say? First of all, he asks Ananias why he lied to the Holy Spirit (5:3). But then after that, Peter also goes on to say, “You have not lied to men but to God” (5:4). And we know how that episode ends—God’s judgment falls and Ananias and his wife die.
And then there are other passages from the Old Testament that we can look at. Psalm 139:7 tells us that the Spirit of God is everywhere and no one can escape his presence. Genesis 1:2 shows us that the Spirit of God was present at the point of creation. So taken together, all these passages give us very clear indication that the person called the Holy Spirit is not simply another angel. The Holy Spirit is shown as someone who has full divine qualities. Like the Father, and the Son, the Spirit is also fully God.
4. The Trinitarian Statements (Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; Ephesians 2:18; 4:4-6; Jude 20-21; 2 Corinthians 13:14)
And so what we have in the Scripture is really a remarkable picture of who God is. The God of the universe is, and has always been, and will always be, a community of three persons, each person fully divine, each person entitled to the one name of the one true God, and all three persons reaching out to us as one. And the Scripture writers were so conscious of this fact that they made statements that hinted at this Trinitarian awareness. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus himself says, “19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-6: Paul writes, “4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” Ephesians 2:18: “18For through him [referring to Jesus] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” Ephesians 4:4-6: “4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” Jude 20-21: “20But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” And then there is the verse we so often use for our closing blessing, 2 Corinthians 13:14: “14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
III. “One God, Three Persons”—So What?
But what difference should all these things make to our lives? You know, a good number of Christians will probably go through life very blissfully without giving much thought to this teaching at all. But if the doctrine of the Trinity is God’s word to us, then it should impact how we live. Now, I do not have to time to look at all the implications of that doctrine today, but let me just point out the most obvious and most important implication. If the one true God is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then we are obligated to treat each person of the Trinity as the only true God. If you want to put it very simply, worship is the first and final application of this doctrine. We are commanded to worship the Father because he is God. He is the source of all things. Light, and life, and wisdom, and knowledge all come from him. We are obligated to worship the Lord Jesus Christ because he is the God by whom the universe was made. Do you want to know when Jesus first made his appearance in Scripture? It wasn’t in Matthew 1:1 but in Genesis 1:3: “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’” Jesus was the Word of God by whom the universe was made. The angels, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the waters, the trees—all of them were made through the Son of God. And so to fail to worship the Lord Jesus Christ is to be an atheist, no matter what other gods you claim to worship. And last but definitely not least, we are also compelled to worship the Holy Spirit. If you want to know when the Spirit first made his appearance in Scripture, simply read Genesis 1:1—there you will see him, at the very beginning, hovering over the primordial waters. And if you believe in Jesus Christ, he is hovering over you today as well, watching over you and shaping you into the person that God wants you to be.
4. The Trinitarian Statements (Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; Ephesians 2:18; 4:4-6; Jude 20-21; 2 Corinthians 13:14)
And so what we have in the Scripture is really a remarkable picture of who God is. The God of the universe is, and has always been, and will always be, a community of three persons, each person fully divine, each person entitled to the one name of the one true God, and all three persons reaching out to us as one. And the Scripture writers were so conscious of this fact that they made statements that hinted at this Trinitarian awareness. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus himself says, “19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-6: Paul writes, “4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” Ephesians 2:18: “18For through him [referring to Jesus] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” Ephesians 4:4-6: “4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” Jude 20-21: “20But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” And then there is the verse we so often use for our closing blessing, 2 Corinthians 13:14: “14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
III. “One God, Three Persons”—So What?
But what difference should all these things make to our lives? You know, a good number of Christians will probably go through life very blissfully without giving much thought to this teaching at all. But if the doctrine of the Trinity is God’s word to us, then it should impact how we live. Now, I do not have to time to look at all the implications of that doctrine today, but let me just point out the most obvious and most important implication. If the one true God is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then we are obligated to treat each person of the Trinity as the only true God. If you want to put it very simply, worship is the first and final application of this doctrine. We are commanded to worship the Father because he is God. He is the source of all things. Light, and life, and wisdom, and knowledge all come from him. We are obligated to worship the Lord Jesus Christ because he is the God by whom the universe was made. Do you want to know when Jesus first made his appearance in Scripture? It wasn’t in Matthew 1:1 but in Genesis 1:3: “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’” Jesus was the Word of God by whom the universe was made. The angels, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the waters, the trees—all of them were made through the Son of God. And so to fail to worship the Lord Jesus Christ is to be an atheist, no matter what other gods you claim to worship. And last but definitely not least, we are also compelled to worship the Holy Spirit. If you want to know when the Spirit first made his appearance in Scripture, simply read Genesis 1:1—there you will see him, at the very beginning, hovering over the primordial waters. And if you believe in Jesus Christ, he is hovering over you today as well, watching over you and shaping you into the person that God wants you to be.
So, you see, this is the God we worship. He is one God in three ways. He is one God in three persons. Granted, this is hard to understand. But if we could fully understand God, then of course, he ceases to be God. The doctrine of the Trinity does not sit well with skeptical minds—it does, however, rest very easily in worshipful hearts.
Bibliography
Mcleod, Donald. A Faith To Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1998.
Newton, Derek. Deity and Diet: The Dilemma of Sacrificial Food at Corinth. England, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.
Toon, Peter. Our Triune God: A Biblical Portrayal of the Trinity. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996.
White, James. The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1998.
Wright, Tom. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004.
[1] “This could include a wide spectrum of beings such as upperworld gods, underworld gods, emperors, heroes, and even divinized ancestors to various degrees. It is precisely this range of spiritual beings which was a feature of Corinthian religious life in the first century CE.” See Derek Newton, Deity and Diet, 288.
[2] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 373.
[3] N.T. Wright says, “Paul has glimpsed the astonishing truth that this one true God is now to be known as ‘the father’; that this one true Lord is now to be known as ‘Jesus the Messiah’. Somehow, within the very being of the one God, we learn to see both the world’s creator, the one from whom everything comes into being, to whom we owe our all, and the world’s redeemer, the man Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, the one through whom everything came into being…the one through whom we ourselves have come to be God’s people.” Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004), 101.
[4] James White writes, “Here some wish us to believe that, just like in John 17:3, Paul’s use of the phrase ‘one God, the Father’ excludes Jesus from the realm of deity. Of course, we immediately recognize that there is a real problem here: that’s not all Paul says. If ‘one God, the Father’ is meant to be taken exclusively, then does it not follow that “one Lord, Jesus Christ” also excludes the Father from the realm of Lordship? When we see the distinctive use of the terms ‘God’ and ‘Lord,’ we should realize that the Scriptures are not here introducing a competition or contest between the two. God is just as much Lord as the Lord is God. The two terms are merely being used to describe different Persons in their relationship to one another. They are not being used to say that God is more ‘Lord’ than the Lord is ‘God’” See James White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1998), 93.
Bibliography
Mcleod, Donald. A Faith To Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1998.
Newton, Derek. Deity and Diet: The Dilemma of Sacrificial Food at Corinth. England, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.
Toon, Peter. Our Triune God: A Biblical Portrayal of the Trinity. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996.
White, James. The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1998.
Wright, Tom. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004.
[1] “This could include a wide spectrum of beings such as upperworld gods, underworld gods, emperors, heroes, and even divinized ancestors to various degrees. It is precisely this range of spiritual beings which was a feature of Corinthian religious life in the first century CE.” See Derek Newton, Deity and Diet, 288.
[2] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 373.
[3] N.T. Wright says, “Paul has glimpsed the astonishing truth that this one true God is now to be known as ‘the father’; that this one true Lord is now to be known as ‘Jesus the Messiah’. Somehow, within the very being of the one God, we learn to see both the world’s creator, the one from whom everything comes into being, to whom we owe our all, and the world’s redeemer, the man Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, the one through whom everything came into being…the one through whom we ourselves have come to be God’s people.” Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004), 101.
[4] James White writes, “Here some wish us to believe that, just like in John 17:3, Paul’s use of the phrase ‘one God, the Father’ excludes Jesus from the realm of deity. Of course, we immediately recognize that there is a real problem here: that’s not all Paul says. If ‘one God, the Father’ is meant to be taken exclusively, then does it not follow that “one Lord, Jesus Christ” also excludes the Father from the realm of Lordship? When we see the distinctive use of the terms ‘God’ and ‘Lord,’ we should realize that the Scriptures are not here introducing a competition or contest between the two. God is just as much Lord as the Lord is God. The two terms are merely being used to describe different Persons in their relationship to one another. They are not being used to say that God is more ‘Lord’ than the Lord is ‘God’” See James White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1998), 93.
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