Scripture Study on the Godhead

[Joseph Gill]

Exodus 20:3 “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
Psalm 102:25-27 “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end."

1 Timothy 6:15,16 “Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."

The pre-eminence of God is asserted in Exodus 20:3. We realize the same from Deuteronomy 6:4; moreover, when we consider the Hebrew, we see an allusion to the tri-unity of the Godhead. The Hebrew word rendered “the LORD” in English is Elohim, a plural form that is treated as a singular noun (at least implying multiplicity-in-unity). The passage from Psalm 102 celebrates the omnipotence, creativity and eternality of God. 1 Timothy 6:15,16 is also an ode to omnipotence and eternality.

John 6:27 “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.”
1 Peter 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”
John 20:28 “And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”
Acts 5:3,4 “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”

In discussing two Persons of the Godhead, John 6:27 makes it clear that the Father and the Son work cooperatively. The salutations to the epistle 1 Peter, in mentioning all attributing the existence of the diasporic Church to the work of all three Persons, builds on that theme of their cooperation. The testimony of the disciple Thomas was meant to actually equate the Father and the Son, as he referred to the resurrected Jesus as “God.” Similarly, the comments by the apostle Peter serve to equate the Father and the Holy Ghost.

Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”
Matthew 3:16,17 “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit and the audible voice of God the Father at Jesus’ baptism makes Matthew 3:16,17 suggestive of the tri-unity of God. So too is the inclusive references to the Persons of the Godhead by Christ in his great commission (Matt. 28:19) and Paul in his epistle to the Church in Corinth (2 Cor. 13:14).

Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. ”
John 5:37 “And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.”
Hebrews 12:9 “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”

Those who believe on his dear Son have been adopted into God’s family (see also Gal. 4:4,5). The Father gave us Jesus to reveal to us more of His nature and will (see also Heb. 1:2), so that even though we have “neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape” (for God is a spirit, and thus outside of our sensory perception), Jesus could serve as the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15).

John 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
1 John 4:8 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
1 John 1:5 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

The verses state that God is love and that God is light, and further imply that God is truth (since he can only be approached by worship based “in truth”). By implication, the truth, love and holiness of God is affirmed here. There is no evil in His purposes, will or acts. He does not operate in dishonesty or guile. The attribute of love means God cannot operate maliciously or capriciously.

The attributes of God here shape our view of God. He is seen as self-existent, immutable, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, loving, true, holy, merciful, gracious, and yet still just. A Christian apologist must memorize some of these passages, to shore up this understanding of God’s nature with proof texts. An awareness of what God is like helps to reconfirm our devotion and faithfulness to him. Yet as useful as this “head knowledge” can be, a deeper understanding comes through experiential learning. In instances where weI experience the identifiable mercies of God, for example, we capture a fuller sense of what it means to say “one of God’s attributes is mercy.” Or, for example, to visit the a planetarium--and eyeball the vastness of the Milky Way Galaxy--has to impress the believer with the relative immensity of God. Such illumination into the God of our salvation is a sheer inspiration to our Christian lives.