A STUDY BY
GARY RAY BRANSCOME
From the very dawn of history,
God’s prophets have emphasized the fact that there is only one God. It is
written, “Hear O
Within the pages of Holy Writ, God
has revealed Himself to us through the words of His inspired prophets and the
historical events recorded in that Word. Because God has identified Himself
with those historical events, Our God is the God who created all things in six
days, the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, and the God who took upon Himself
the nature of man in the person of Christ Jesus. Those who worship any other
God are not worshipping the God of the Bible, the one God who has revealed
Himself as:
1- Jehovah, our
Everlasting Father (Isaiah 63:16)
2- Jehovah, our Savior (Isaiah 43:11; Isaiah 12:2)
3- Jehovah, our Comforter and Strength (Isaiah 51:3, John
JEHOVAH OUR
FATHER
With the words, “O Jehovah,
Thou art our Father, we are the clay and Thou our potter and we are the work of
Thy hand,” God reveals Himself as our Father and Creator — the God
who made us and the One to whom we must ultimately give account (Isaiah 64:8).
Those words make it clear that God has given us life just as surely as our
earthly father. Just as we provide for our children, protect them, and
discipline them; God provides for us, protects us, and disciplines us.
Moreover, God’s revelation of Himself as our heavenly Father corresponds
to the first mention of the name Jehovah in the Aaronic
blessing, “Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee” (Numbers
Jehovah has blessed us by giving us
our body and soul, eyes, ears, reason, and all our senses, and He continues to
bless us by providing us with clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and
home, spouse and children, land, income, and all our goods.
Jehovah keeps us by providing us
with health, by preserving our reason and our senses, by defending us against the
wiles of the devil, by helping us in time of trouble, and by protecting us from
evil. [See Luther's explanation of the Apostles' Creed.]
The following are but a few of many
passages of Scripture in which Jehovah reveals Himself as our Father. (Isaiah
63:16, 2Thessalonians 1:1, Ephesians 1:2, John 8:41,42, 1Thessalonians 3:11,
John 14:9, Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2, Matthew 28:19, Isaiah 9:6)
With the words, “I am Jehovah
and there is no savior besides Me,” God reveals
that He is our redeemer, and that we have no Savior other than Him (Isaiah
43:11). The Bible tells us that He saved us from our sins by taking upon
Himself the nature of man (through the virgin birth of Christ), coming into the
world as that child who would be called, “The mighty God, The Everlasting
Father,” and dying in our place (Isaiah 9:6). He is the long foretold
“Holy One of
Jehovah has made His face to shine
upon us by causing the virgin Mary to conceive a son, who, unlike any other son
ever conceived, was God manifest in the flesh (1Timothy 3:16). A son, who, as
the prophet Jeremiah foretold, was born of the line of David, yet is,
“Jehovah Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:5-6).
Jehovah is gracious unto us in that
He has provided the payment for our sins and redeemed us, not with gold or
silver, but through the holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death of
Jesus Christ. Even though we are by nature children of wrath who deserve only
hell, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that we might
be redeemed from the power of sin and through faith in Him have everlasting
life (Ephesians 2:3, 1Peter 1:18,19, Ephesians 1:7, Romans 3:24, Acts 20:28). [See Luther's Explanation of the Apostles' Creed.]
The following are a few of many
passages in which Jehovah reveals Himself as our Savior. Those who wish to
study this topic in depth might want to get a copy of the “Holman Topical
Concordance” or the book, “Jesus: A Biblical Defense of His
Deity” by Josh McDowell with Bart Larson. (Isaiah 43:3,14, Isaiah 35:10,
Psalm 2:7,12, Isaiah 45:15,21, Isaiah 47:4, 2 Peter 1:1, 1 Timothy 1:1, Luke
1:47, Acts 5:31, 1 Timothy 4:10, John 14:9, Titus 1:3,4, Isaiah 60:16, Matthew
1:23, Psalm 103:4, Psalm 34:22, Job 19:25, Psalm 19:14, Isaiah 33:22, Psalm
78:35, 1 Chronicles 16:36) (Also, Compare Jeremiah 23:5,6
with Revelation 22:16. Compare Isaiah 44:6 with Revelation 21:6. Compare Psalm
23:1 and Isaiah 40:10,11, with John
[Note: Because the Bible identifies Jesus as Jehovah,
we understand that those passages which refer to Jesus as a servant of Jehovah
are referring to Christ's human nature rather than His divine nature.
Nevertheless, it is important to remember that there is only one Christ, not
two (one divine and one human). Christ is at once both true God and true man
(Romans 1:3,4, Philippians 2:5-11, 1 Corinthians
11:3).]
With the words, “Jehovah hath
comforted His people, He hath redeemed
Jehovah has lifted up His
countenance upon us by causing the Bible to be written, by causing the gospel
to be proclaimed, and by working through His Word to enable us to recognize our
sinful condition and look to Christ for forgiveness (Acts 18:27b).
Jehovah gives us
peace by daily strengthening our faith, forgiving our sins, assuring us of His
mercy, and keeping us in the faith (1Peter 1:5). [See Luther's
explanation of the Apostles' Creed.]
The following are a few of many
passages in which Jehovah reveals Himself as our comforter and strength: (Acts
5:3-4, Job 33:4, Isaiah 12:1,2, Isaiah 51:3, Isaiah 61:2, Luke 4:18, Isaiah
48:16, Isaiah 52:9. John 14:16,17,26, John 15:26, John 16:7,13, Psalm 19:14,
Psalm 27:14, 1Peter 5:10, 2Corinthians 1:3,4,10, Isaiah 49:13, Isaiah 40:1,13,
Romans 16:20, 1Thessalonians 5:23, 2Corinthians 13:11, Hebrews 13:20-21).
God’s
revelation of Himself as our Father, Savior, and Comforter involves far more
than just three roles, for the Bible makes it clear that each person of the
Trinity is distinct from the other two. The Father is not the Son or the
Holy Ghost (John
The following are some of the
passages that reveal the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be distinct persons
within the One Divine Being: (Matthew 28:19, Isaiah 48:16, 2Corinthians 13:14,
Genesis 18:1, 1 John 5:7, John 14:9,16,26, John 1:1,14, Philippians 2:6,
Matthew 3:16,17, John 12:28, John 8:58, John 5:23, Colossians 1:16,17, Genesis
19:24, Colossians 2:9,10, Psalm 110:1, Matthew 22:41-25, 1Thessalonians 1:1,
Galatians 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1).
The ancient Jews were aware of the
threefold nature of Jehovah, for they saw a plurality of the one God revealed
in those passages where the Bible joins the plural form of the word God to a
singular pronoun. They also saw a threefold nature (which they called
“the three names” of Jehovah) revealed in the Aaronic
blessing with its threefold use of the name Jehovah, and in the Shema itself with its threefold reference to God (Numbers
6:23-26, Deuteronomy 6:4). Furthermore, Jehovah (who has clearly identified
Himself with the name “I Am,” [Exodus
Christians not only accept God’s revelation of Himself as triune
(three-one), but also reject all attempts to simplify what God has revealed by
explaining away some part of that revelation, such as the threeness
or the oneness of God. Since the Bible teaches both the threeness
and the oneness of God, we must believe and teach both; for anyone who
contradicts those teachings of Scripture is not speaking according to God's
Word (Isaiah 8:20, 1John 4:6). For that reason we reject as false:
1. All attempts to portray Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as
differing in authority. For example, the Father being
greater in authority than the Son. Because Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
are all One God, they all have the same authority. God cannot be greater or
less than Himself.
2. All attempts to portray Christ as a cross between God and
man, half-man and half-God. A Christ who was half-man and half-God would
be a completely different being from the Father, a
being who is neither true man nor true God. We know that Christ is not a
different being from the Father because there is only one God. Therefore, the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all One Divine Being.
3. All attempts to portray Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as
three Gods. The Bible teaches that there is only one God (Isaiah 43:10).
4. All attempts to portray Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as simply three roles
that God takes — as if God sometimes appears as the Father and other
times as the Son, etc. This view contradicts those passages of Scripture that
speak of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as distinct from each other. It also contradicts
those passages in which all three persons are present at once, such as Christ's
baptism. At His baptism Jesus comes up out of the water, the Spirit of God
descends and lights upon Him, and the Father speaks from heaven (Matthew
5. All attempts to deny that the Son is true God. The Bible teaches that Jesus
is God manifest in the flesh (1Timothy
6. All attempts to explain away the Holy Ghost as simply a force or energy. The
Bible speaks of the Holy Ghost as a person. He has a mind, speaks, testifies of
Christ, convicts the world of sin, and is grieved when we do wrong. We could
not grieve an impersonal force. (Romans
The doctrine of the Trinity does
not consist of man-made ideas, but of the truth of God as it is explicitly
stated in God’s Word, “Line upon line; here a little, and there a
little” (Isaiah 28:10). Therefore, all attempts to modify what is
revealed in order to make it conform to man’s limited understanding only
corrupts what God has revealed about Himself.
1-
What truth is the foundation of all that God reveals about Himself in the
Bible?
2- Does Isaiah 43:11 reveal God as our Creator, Redeemer, or Comforter?
3- Give six Bible passages in which God reveals Himself as our Father.
4- How has Jehovah made His face to shine upon us?
5- How can we explain those passages of Scripture that speak of Jesus as a
servant of Jehovah?
6- List six Bible passages in which Jehovah reveals Himself as our Savior.
7- How does Jehovah give us peace?
8- Were the ancient Jews aware of the threefold nature of Jehovah?
9- Who is the “I AM” spoken of in Exodus
10- Why must we believe and teach both the threeness
and the oneness of God?
11- Why do the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all have the same authority?
12- Why must we reject the idea that Christ is half man and half God?
13- How do we know that the Holy Ghost is a person and not just a force or
energy?
14- List six passages of Scripture that reveal the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
to be distinct persons within the One Divine Being.
15- How does the Bible distinguish God the Father from God the Son?