John 4:24
“God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”
God is Spirit:
- Spirit: Greek New Testament (pneuma) a current of air or breath (From to breath hard). Hebrew Old Testament (ruwach) wind, a sensible (or even violent) exhalation.
- A spirit has not flesh and bones, not solid or substantial that it can be touched (Luke 24:39).
- The Spirit quickens or gives life or has life (John 6:63). The body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26).
- The Spirit is eternal (Heb 9:14).
God is Spirit, He is invisible and insubstantial, can’t be seen with the eyes or touched with our hands. He is not only alive but is life giving and is eternal.
We are substantial beings who relate to our environment through our senses. What can’t be seen, touched, tasted, smelt or heard can’t be measured and weighed by our intellect and therefore becomes hard to comprehend through reason. It is impossible to “work Him out”, He has to show us who He is.
How can the finite hope to understand the infinite? It requires a revelation, yet having received this revelation do we know what we see and if we do, what words can describe the indescribable? Unto what shall we liken the incomparable?
It is evident that God does not fit into any category of being that we either know or can conceive of. However we persist in thinking of Him as though He was not very different from us… “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self” (Psalm 50:21). This is a grave mistake because in our thinking we have sketched the outline of a man into which we will seek to flesh out our concept of God, so making God in our own image. This is Idolatry. It is imperative that we simply receive in faith the self disclosure of the Divine Nature by the Word of God.
One God:
Deuteronomy 6:4
“Hear O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord:”
The Hebrew word translated God is “elohiym” plural for “elowahh” which means Deity or God. The word translated one is “echad” refers to one in a collective sense. Used in the same sense in Genesis 2:24 of Adam and Eve being “one flesh” (two persons being one flesh).
When the bible refers to God it is in a plural sense. When God refers to Himself He uses the plural pronoun.
· Genesis 1:26 “... Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”
· Genesis 3:22 “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil…”
· Genesis 11:7 “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language…”
Scripture also reveals distinctions in the Godhead:
· Psalm 110:1 “ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” see Mathew 22:41-46
· Isaiah 7:14 “…Behold a virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Mathew 1:23 “…they shall call his name Immanuel which being interpreted is, God with us”
· Hosea 1:6-7 “And God said unto him… But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God,”
· Isaiah 48:16 “Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.” [Three distinctions: the speaker (divine use of I am), the Lord God, His Spirit].
The Father is God:
- “For him hath God the Father sealed.” John 6:27
- “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God” John 20:17
- “but to us there is but one God, the Father” 1 Corinthians 8:6
- “and God the Father” Galatians 1:1
- “one God and Father of all” Ephesians 4:6
- “to the Glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:11
- “foreknowledge of God the Father” 1 Peter 1:2
The Son is God:
- “and the word was God” John 1:1
- “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) John 1:14
- “And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and My God” John 20:28
- “All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” John 5:23
- “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” John 8:58 (“I am” is a declaration of the Godhead see Exodus 3:13-14)
- “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8
- ‘the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” Titus 2:13
- “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:” Hebrews 1:8
- “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: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. “ Philippians 2:5-11
- See also: Hebrews 1:1-3; Revelation 1: 17-18 with Isaiah 44:6; Colossians 2:9
The Holy Spirit is God:
- “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” 1 Corinthians 12:3
- “ The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life” Job 33:4
- “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:11
- “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16
The Son and the Holy Spirit share a number of Divine Attributes with the Father. These attributes are unique in that they are not found in any created being only in God.
- Omniscience: Son (Mathew 9:4), Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10)
- Omnipresence: Son (Mathew 28:20), Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19)
- Eternal: Son (John 17:5), Spirit (Hebrews 9:14)
In the Scriptures the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are shown to act in harmonious unity in all the mighty works that are wrought throughout the universe.
Creation is attributed to the Father (Genesis. 1:1), to the Son (Colossians. 1:16), and to the Holy Spirit (Job. 26:13 and Psalm. 104:30).
The incarnation is shown to have been accomplished by all three in full accord (Luke 1: 35), though only the Son became flesh to dwell among us.
At Christ’s baptism the Son came up out of the water, the Spirit descended upon Him and the Father’s voice spoke from heaven (Matt. 3:16, 17).
Probably the most beautiful description of the work of atonement is found in Hebrews 9:14, where it is stated that Christ, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God; and there we behold the three persons operating together.
The resurrection of Christ is likewise attributed variously to the Father (Acts 2:32), to
the Son (John 10:17-18), and to the Holy Spirit (Rom.1:4).
The salvation of the individual man is shown by the apostle Peter to be the work of the whole of the Godhead (1 Pet. 1:2).
The indwelling of the Christian’s soul is said to be by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-23).
A.W Tozer made this profound observation: “The doctrine of the divine unity means not only that there is but one God; it means also that God is simple, un-complex, one with Himself. The harmony of His being is the result not of a perfect balance of parts but of the absence of parts. Between His attributes no contradiction can exist. He need not suspend one to exercise another, for in Him all His attributes are one. All of God does all that God does; He does not divide himself to perform a work, but works in the total unity of His being.”
It is evident by the wealth and weight of evidence from the scriptures that God is an unfathomable mystery to us. The Lord our God is one Lord who is distinctly Father, Son and Holy Ghost, not three but one. He is one Lord, one Spirit and of one mind exercising Himself with singleness of purpose.
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