Explaining The
Godhead The Relationship
Between Jesus Christ, God The Father and The Spirit
The most common question in
this world today, dominated by trinitarian catholics and allah loving
muslims, is the idea that Jesus
Christ and God are one.
Both of these groups argue that Jesus the Son and God the Father are two different individuals in spite
of the fact that Jesus Christ clearly states:
[Jhn 10:30] I
and [my] Father are one.
So, how do we explain this to unbelievers?
You'll notice that in the New Testament Jesus Christ is always referred to as 'Lord' and
never as 'God.' Likewise, the Father
is always referred to as 'God' and never 'Lord.' This
distinction is given in scriptures:
[1Cr 8:6] But to us [there is but] one God, the Father, of whom [are]
all things, and we in him; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [are] all things, and we by him.
Clearly, Jesus is the 'Lord' and the Father is 'God' and together they make the 'LORD God' whom the Israelites have
always worshiped.
This relationship is explainable.
God is the name, the characteristics and the Lord is the possessor of those characteristics.
That is to say, Jesus is God
because he is a perfect reflection of God
by following his own law.
The characteristics of God are perfectly
described:
[Col 3:12] Put on therefore, as the elect of God,
holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one
another, and forgiving one
another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave
you, so also [do] ye.
And above all these things [put on] charity,
which is the bond of perfectness.
Listed here are seven
characteristics, followed by an eighth
"which is the bond of perfectness."
We find this same bond in another place in scriptures:
[Rev 5:6] And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst
of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders,
stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes,
which are the seven Spirits of God
sent forth into all the earth.
We see the sevenspirits of God in the Lamb, yet the Lamb himself is the eighth, charity. Meaning, these seven
characteristics Paul described, are all summarized in charity, just as the seven spirits of God are bonded in God
himself.
God is literally the characteristics we should have in ourselves. The perfect possession of
these characteristics is the LORD
Jesus Christ. This means that God is not a personage, but the
components that make up the personage of Jesus Christ as LORD. It is through
the spirit of God that these
things are relayed.
A perfect example
of this is Genesis 22. If you read the entire passage you get
an idea of the distinctions. Abram is tempted by 'God' and only after he has done
right in the spirit of God does the 'LORD'
come to him, through an angel. The Lord being to possessor, the master
of the angel and God being the spirit in Abram. This is reiterated
earlier in scripture:
[Gen 17:1] And when Abram was ninety years old and nine,
the LORD appeared to Abram,
and said unto him, I [am] the
Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
But why the separation and distinction between Father and Son?
Its rather simple. If the Father
is the characteristics that we must ascribe to, the Son is submissive to those characteristics. Meaning, Jesus Christ submits to his own laws.
Just like the Magna Carta said that no King is above the law, Jesus Christ cannot be above his own law,
that is, the covenants he has made
with man and those things which he has promised. In other words, God is not a liar, a snake an
abandoner or a backstabber.
[Rom 3:4] God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written,
That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome
when thou art judged.
Jesus Christ is the
possessor of the characteristics of God and his own people in
his hand and God is, in turn, possessed by Jesus Christ. This is
summarized by Christ himself.
[Jhn 10:38] But if I do, though ye believe not
me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father [is] in me, and I in him.
And the Lord and God are equal:
[Phl 2:5] Let this mind be in you, which was also
in ChristJesus:
Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equalwithGod:
There is no Father until there is a
Son; there is no Creator until
there is a creation, but that is in title only.
You can think of it another way. God
is a Spirit. Jesus Christ
is the Word made flesh, filled
with the Spirit of God. Every
man has a spirit, a living soul, but that of Christ is God's through perfection.
So, doesn't that mean that anyone who is perfect could be God?
If it were possible for a man to be perfect he would still notbeGod because if you were God you would already be God. That is to
say, Jesus was at the beginning of the world, always present as the 'Lord' in the Lord God. He can't be dethroned
because he exists perfectly in space and time.
GENESIS OF GOD AND
LORD
It is important to look at Genesis
to find the first uses of the terms 'God'
and 'Lord' in order to
reestablish what I am arguing.
The first mention of God is in Genesis 1:1 when
God is creating the earth. Its not until Genesis 2:4 that the word 'LORD' is used.
Why?
God, according to his word, through his Spirit created that which is existent, simultaneously creating
his Lordship. In Genesis
'LORD' means 'the existing One' (Jehovah), or, 'the existing One God.'
What this means is that the word of God,
used in the first chapter of Genesis,
is the tool by which all things were created; yet these things are only
accounted in Spirit. The
account of God using the Word to carry out his work.
Then we move to Genesis 2:4 where the same time period is being
described, the LORD God is noted as actually carrying out the actions
which were described in the first chapter. That is, forming man from
dust, planting the garden, causing trees to grow, forming the animals,
etc.
Thus, the first account in chapter one is of things SAID, and the
second account is of things DONE, yet each account contains both
processes. This is the essential relationship between the Father and
the Son. The Father promised a
messiah would come, the Son is the completion of the Word. The
Word made flesh is the completion of the work of the Spirit of God.
This also explains why we have the words 'These [are] the generations'
appearing just before the first use of the title 'LORD' in Genesis 2:4, since a 'generation' is 'an account' of things. The account
here is of the completion of
the Wordof God through the Lordship over his own creation.
The existent One is different based on the TITLE ascribed in any given
situation which denotes the manner in which He is ordered. That is to say, when
we refer to 'God' only we are referring to the Spirit. The Spirit is the characteristics of
that creation whereas the LORDGod is the account
of the Lordship over such
things in the Spirit; the responsibilities of the Father and Son to his own creation.