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Season 2, Episode 7
For Tuesday, August 11, 2015
“The Godhead: God is One”
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Episode Transcript:
Welcome to The New You, where we focus on maintaining and accentuating the new that Christ has created in you. I’m Robert Hatfield, and here is today’s scripture:
To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him (Deut. 4:35).
“God” is a term that refers to one divine essence or being. I don’t know about you, but when I think about “God,” I typically think about God, the Father. However, that term does not always refer to the Father in Scripture. Context helps us to know for sure whether the term is referring to the Father. I know this: the term “God” (when it has the uppercase “G”) always refers the divine nature.
We are entering the realm of God that we cannot fully comprehend. That didn’t take long, did it? That’s because God is so great. We shouldn’t be uncomfortable by this. We should ever seek to learn more and more about Him (because He has revealed Himself to us), and then take comfort in the fact that He has shown us everything that we need to develop a close relationship with Him.
The Bible teaches that there are three distinct Personalities in one essence of deity. That essence is often called “God” in Scripture, and the three Beings united in that essence are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we call these three Beings the Trinity. Some translations of the Bible refer to the Godhead, referring to the same thing, the three Beings in one divine essence.
It is important to note that this is not a three-fold nature of God, but three Personalities, each having the essence of deity. That is why the Bible is so clear that there is one God. There is one divine nature. Further, we should note that God is not three separate spirit essences or tri-theistic in nature.
Let’s summarize what the Bible teaches about the nature of God in three statements:
*God is three Persons.
*Each Person is fully God.
*There is but one God.
I’d like to use the remainder of our time today by showing you some passages in which the Bible refers to the three Beings who are united in one, divine nature or essence.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Gen. 1:1, 26).
The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Psa. 110:1).When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat. 3:16-17).
Note that, in Matthew three, we have all three Persons of the Trinity present at the time of Jesus’ baptism. This proves that they are three distinct Beings.
Here’s one more:
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied (1 Pet. 1:2).
Let’s wrap it up: The God of the Bible is a unity consisting of three eternally distinct Personalities in one divine essence. The Bible is clear: God is one. The Bible is also clear that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. More on that tomorrow, the Lord willing.
Memory Verse: God’s nature is not the same as our nature. He is not physical, as we are. He is not made by man. Acts 17:29 reminds us that we are of God, not the other way around!
Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising (Acts 17:29).
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There is one God, and there are three Persons in that one divine essence. Let’s dive a little deeper into that concept tomorrow on The New You.
