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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 seven spirits 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 Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

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 not be God 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 Word of 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 LORD God is the account of the Lordship over such things in the Spirit; the responsibilities of the Father and Son to his own creation.

This seems more complicated than it really is.

May Christ be with you,
John

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