Articles

The Godhead

Written by Frank Jamerson.

The Bible teaching on the Godhead is misunderstood by many in the religious world. Some teach that God the Father is the only person, or being, in the Godhead and that Jesus was a created being. Others teach that Jesus is the only person in the Godhead and that He manifested Himself sometimes as Father, and other times as the Son or the Holy Spirit. Neither of these is true. The Bible reveals the Godhead, or Divine Nature as composed of three distinct beings, yet composing one God, or Deity. Paul told the Athenians, “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). He wrote the Colossians “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). Jesus was both man and God. An angel told Joseph that the birth of Jesus would fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us” (Is. 7:14; Mt. 1:23). In the record of the creation, we see the first teaching on the plurality of persons called God. The first verse in the Bible says “In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Then God said “let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:26,27). To whom does “us” and “our” refer? Moses wrote that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). Job wrote, “by His Spirit He adorned the heavens…” (Job 26:13). John tells us concerning the Word (Jesus) that “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (Jn. 1:3). Paul wrote, “For by Him (Jesus) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16). Moses wrote, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD (Jehovah) our God (Elohim), the Lord is one” (Dt. 6:4). The word one (echad) means a united one, not a numerical one. In describing the tabernacle, Moses said, “And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together with the clasps, so that it may be one tabernacle” (Ex. 26:6). Ezekiel was told to write on two sticks and join them in his hand and “say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand” (Ezek. 37:19). The two sticks were to become a united one, not a numerical one. There is one humanity, but many human beings. Likewise, there is one God, or Godhead, but three Divine Beings—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father is God (1 Cor. 8:6), but He is not the Son, nor the Holy Spirit. “For God (the Father) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (Jn. 14:26). The Son is God (Jn. 1:1; Mt. 1:23; Heb. 1:8), but He is not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit. Jesus existed “in the form of God” before He came to the earth (Phil. 2:6-11), but was not the Father. He told the Pharisees, “I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me” (Jn. 8:18). That is two witnesses, yet He said “I and My Father are one” (Jn. 10:30). Two are one—in nature, just as three are one in nature—one Deity. The Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3,4), but He is not the Father nor the Son. The Holy Spirit was sent by the Father in the name of the Son (Jn. 14:26), therefore He is different, numerically, from both. At His baptism, the Father spoke from heaven, and the Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove (Mt. 3:16,17). In the great commission, Jesus said to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28:19). Idol worshippers had many gods. Bible believers have one God, but there are three Divine beings who make up that one Godhead.