The Godhead

There are inherent difficulties when discussing the Godhead. These difficulties are: 1) resistance to anything not in line with our present beliefs 2) anything not accepted as truth by the religious church i.e. anything not part of orthodox belief. 3) Ability to fully understand God, who is beyond human comprehension (but not spiritual comprehension). 4) Inability to fully comprehend God's omnipresence. 5) The understanding of scripture references to each individual person of the Godhead, seemingly making it three people. 6) Jesus' own references to Himself as the "Son of God" and yet His claim of equality with God.  

While some of these difficulties are unavoidable others are not. We must always be open to the spirit of God and truth so we may enter into truth. Truth sets us free while faith in Jesus saves us. This means our belief system controls how much freedom we are experiencing and does not address our salvation (just the quality and the extent to which we are saved). Our beliefs can be completely wrong and yet if we believe Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead we are saved. The reason I am saying this is that there are many ideas about the Godhead and all of them may be wrong, including mine.  This section is not intended to be part of the ultimate purpose but is included to explain to anyone who may stumble over what I have written in The Ultimate Purpose as to my beliefs about the Godhead.

Our first address of the Godhead comes from the Jewish proclamation called the shema: DEU 6:4 ¶ "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" In Judaism the belief in only one God is clear. While nations all around Israel served and worshiped many God's, Israel served only one. Even today Jews struggle with the Christian idea of one God equaling the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While Jewish faith does allow for the Holy Spirit they do not view the Holy Spirit as an individual separate from God. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible states "In the O.T. (old Testament), the Spirit is holy not because He is 'the Holy Spirit' in distinction to the Father and the Son, but because the Spirit pertains to God and comes from God who is holy. The Spirit of God is the divine nature viewed as vital energy." Christians on the other hand view the Holy Spirit as a distinct personality of Godhead and yet believe there is only one God. For the sake of brevity I will quote only one of the four verses in the New Testament (1 Co 8:6, Eph 4:6, 1 Ti 2:5, Jam 2:19) that state that there is only one God. "EPH 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." From this verse it may seem that Paul not only separated the Spirit, Lord and Father but also stated the Father is the one God and the other two are something other then God. This is not an accurate understanding of these verses for Paul was not making a statement pertaining to the character of God but of the reality of the Christian belief. In other words Paul was stating that there is only "one body" not many bodies (churches) as is common in the Christian vocabulary today. The same should be understood with the "one faith, one Lord, one God, etc." Paul was stating the obvious. There is only one God and how we understand His essence can help us understand the ultimate purpose of God.  

When looking at the Godhead we should start with what God declared in the beginning: "GEN 1:26 Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...." It seems only appropriate to start here, after all this is not my declaration but God’s. God states that He is going to make man after His likeness and this is where we need to pitch our flag. It is here that we should deal with the concept of "let us make." Who exactly is the "us" that is being referred to here? If we say it is angels we would be wrong. For nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that we were created like the angels. Jesus does tell a group of Sadducees that in the resurrection we will be like the angels that are in heaven (Matthew 22:30). This likeness to the angels will be that we will not marry and we will possess spiritual bodies. We may have other likenesses to the angels but we were created after the likeness of God not the angels. So we must understand that it is God and His three-part being that He is addressing here as the "us." God was addressing his spirit, soul and body when He declared let us make man according to our image and our likeness. We must realize that each part of our being whether soul spirit or body has a mind, a will and desire of its own. God created us like himself. If we doubt this we may as well doubt the whole bible. This concept should not be foreign to us. We are created in God’s image and likeness which means we are created similarly. This would infer that if we understand our make up then we can understand how God is designed. The apostle Paul states, "1TH 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul here states that we are not a dichotomy but a trichotomy. If we are not spirit and body or soul and body but spirit, soul and body then God must also be the same. Most branches of Christianity believe that God is a three part being. Those three parts are God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy spirit. These three parts of God can be actually represented by our spirit and soul and body. The Scriptures declare that God is spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. I believe that our soul is directly connected to our spirit. They are not one and the same but I believe they’re made of the same substance which is spirit. If our spirit leaves our body our soul will go with it for the soul cannot live in a dead body. Our soul being our mind will and intellect is the master over who we are. Our soul will decide if we surrender to our bodily needs, follow our soul-ish needs or be obedient to our spirit. It is our soul that will make our body declare truth which our spirit will get behind. It is our soul that decides whether we will stand or fall and that engages spiritual forces for our victory. While our spirit contains the power for victory and our body will speak forth the victory it is our soul (our will) that brings the unity and the authority to accomplish the victory.

Many people are only aware of two of their three parts. We all know that we have a body and that our body can exert it’s influence upon us. If it is damaged we will usually know by excruciating pain. If it is weak we may not be able to accomplish the task at hand. If it is hungry or sick we are usually aware of the problem even if there is no ill effect to the soul. In the same way, if our soul is sick, (which may manifest as depression, bad attitudes, hurt feelings, offense, anger and other ways) it will eventually affect the working of our body though maybe not right away. Even though the soul and body are separate entities they also have a connected unity. Our soul can pressure us to skip work and go out and play. It can shut down the body’s craving for food until we have accomplished whatever we are working on. Many even put everything they have at risk because of the lust of a beautiful woman or handsome man. They may even recognize that there are different elements within themselves warring with one another.

We should be fully aware of all three parts of our being, soul, body and spirit. We may be hungry and feed the body only to find that our hunger remains. The cause of this could be that we have neglected to feed our spirit which may manifest as hunger. How many of us have binged on dessert not because our body needed it but our soul was craving it? Many of us are overweight, Not because of a bodily need for food, but a vacuum in our soul. We may even spend weeks in depression because of a perception of things not going well. The perception may not even be accurate, and yet the depression is real as well as it’s effects on the body. We may become fearful in our soul which will cause the body to tremble. Our spirit can want things that neither our soul nor body wants. We may even understand things in the spirit that has not been processed by or originated in our minds. We can read and have our minds wandering at the same time. Not only that, but we can speak in tongues while reading as we daydream. This ultimately illustrates the three parts of man and his ability to do more than one thing at a time and not have all three parts know what the other is doing. So what am I saying? We are three part beings just like God. Each part has a will of its own but there is only one part that really decides what is going to happen. Jesus said to his apostles "JOH 16:25 ... an hour is coming when I will speak no more to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father."

God the Father

God the Father is the great controller of the universe. It was the Father who decided to create all that exists. "GEN 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Once God decided to do something He did it seemingly without consulting His other parts, "GEN 1:3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light." If we look at all of the creation story the only place that God consults the other parts of his being is in the creation of man. This does not imply that God the Father created all things without the help of the Holy Spirit and Jesus but just that it was the father who made the decision to create. We know that everything God did was in unity with the Holy Spirit as well as Jesus. Paul makes a statement about Jesus that clearly describes this. "COL 1:15 And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him." God the Father willed to speak the reality into being but could not bring it about without Jesus. That is why Paul states that all things where created by Jesus. We see the apostle John stating the very same thing, "JOH 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 1:2 He was in the beginning with God. 1:3 All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." This scripture states that not only was Jesus present during the creation as well as an active part of it, but also that He is God. So we see God the Father as the soul of the Godhead and we know that Jesus is the body. The Gospel of John spoke about Jesus as being the word. We must understand that without a body there is no word, only thought. This is why Jesus was present at the creation, for the Father willed to speak and it came out of the body: Jesus. JOH 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. JOH 1:2 He was in the beginning with God. JOH 1:14 ¶ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. We do not know what kind of body God had before Jesus came to the earth, we do know however that Jesus was the sound of the will of God. God the Father willed to create: the sound, "let there be ..." and it came through Jesus. JOH 1:3 All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Jesus

It was stated that God the Father is the soul of the Godhead and Jesus is the body. Are there any scriptures that verified this beyond that which was already presented? When we look at Jesus we see a submitted attitude towards God and the work that he came to earth to accomplish. Jesus did not come to earth on his own initiative, nor was he here to follow his desires and his will but the Father’s will. JOH 8:28 Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me." Jesus here, clearly states that all that he was doing did not flow from his own initiative, but from the Father. Jesus further states that what he spoke was taught to him by his Father and did not come from himself, his imagination or worldly learning. Again in the Gospel of John, we see Jesus making a declaration JOH 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative...." not only do we see Jesus' submission to the Father, but we also see the Father’s rule over the son’s affairs. JOH 4:34 "Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.’" Jesus' purpose was to accomplish the will of the Father even as it was his purpose to accomplish the Father’s will in creation.

Jesus makes a statement about His relationship to God which is most profound. JOH 14:7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." Here Jesus explains that not only is he so intertwined with the Father to the point that His disciples could know what God the Father was like just by watching Jesus; but He states, "you have seen Him." Jesus is part of God the Father. This is why He tells them that they have seen the Father. This is further enhanced by the outrage Jesus expressed after Philip’s request for Him to show them the Father. JOH 14:9 "Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, 'Show us the Father'? JOH 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works." Even as Jesus had difficulty explaining spiritual things to men, we must realize that we also will have difficulty understanding the same spiritual things. There is never any guarantee that anything we believe is true, just a belief that it is. One thing is for sure only Jesus has the final word on the subject, MAT 11:27 "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Jesus show us the Father!

Holy Spirit

I have stated before that the Holy Spirit is the powerhouse of the Godhead. It is from the Holy Spirit that the power comes to create and to transform. The Holy Spirit, like Jesus was not sent to magnify himself but instead will only speak what He hears. JOH 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come." but how do we know that the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead? There are many scriptures that declare what the Spirit does, that He can be grieved, and about His general personality. The apostle Paul however makes the most profound statement in the book of first Corinthian’s that should eliminate any question about whether or not he is part of the Godhead. 1CO 2:11 "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." Here Paul contrasts the relationship of human spirit with a human host and God’s Spirit with God. Paul is making a statement that man’s thoughts are not necessarily part of conscious mind. These unconscious thoughts reside deep within man and can only be known by the spirit of the men that searches out and lives in the very depths of the man. If we follow what has already been put forth, that God is spirit, soul and body. It is the spirit’s responsibility to search the depth of God in order to know the mind of God. Paul says that the spirit of God is the one who knows the thoughts of God. Thus, the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit.

Whether or not you choose to believe even as I believe that the Godhead is three parts and those three parts are spirit, soul and body is of course your choice. A very strong argument can be made that Jesus is the first offspring of God and actually not part of the Godhead yet still God. While I do not believe this at this point. It could be true. I explain in the ultimate purpose God’s desire to replicate. It would not be unbelievable that God’s first replication was Jesus, and through Jesus, God replicated us to be His sons. As I’ve explained in the beginning of this short dissertation on the Godhead, our belief about the Godhead does not save us. Only faith in Jesus saves us. But accurate understanding will bring freedom, for the more accurate we are the greater freedom we will have.