India #11 Theology Proper Part 2

INTRODUCTION

In our previous session we began to look at Theology Proper, the study of God.

We talked about the aseity of God, He is self existent and needs nothing outside Himself in order to exist.

We talked about how YHWH communicates with us, through language we as humans can understand, that is anthropomorphic language.

We talked about the various means of communication.

First God describes Himself for us by what He is not.

He is not finite, therefore He is infinite.

He is not mutable, therefore He is immutable.

That little prefix at the beginning of each word mean not.

Our conclusion, He is not like us.

Second God describes Himself through ultimate dimensions.

We have power, God has all power, He is omnipotent, He possesses ultimate power.

We have knowledge, God has all knowledge, His is omniscient, He possesses ultimate knowledge.

We are limited by time and space, He is unlimited in both dimensions, He is omnipresent, every where at all times.

Third God describes Himself by affirming certain attributes.

He is holy, He is sovereign, and we talked about what those mean.

This is where we left off.

The topic we are about to undertake is a bit more difficult and complicated, the very essence of what it means to be God..

What does it mean, that God is God, what is He?

So let’s begin with this reality……

GOD WAS UP FOR DEBATE

The early church sat down and debated the person of God.

When sociologists and anthropologists study past cultures they see one consistent reality, religiously they were polytheistic.

Hinduism is not alone in its polytheism.

Most the religions of the world have been polytheistic.

Every culture has worshipped a pantheon of gods.

The Jewish culture stands out, and stands alone, for their strong devotion to monotheism.

They were adamant, there is only one God.

This foundation was laid for them in Deut 6:4-5

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 LSB

“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! “You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

For the Jewish scholar, this was definitive, YHWH is One God.

This explains the conflict Jesus encountered with the religious leaders of Israel in His incarnation.

Jesus came proclaiming Himself to be God.

Yet as the same time He claimed to be sent by God, to speak for God, and He addressed God as Father.

All of which to the Jewish mind said, polytheism.

If Jesus is God, and the Father is God, and then to make matters worse Jesus spoke of another helper, one identical to Him, this screamed polytheism.

And so without hesitation, the Religious leaders of Israel rejected their Messiah to a large extent on the grounds of blaspheme.

Jesus claimed to be God, that is polytheism, that they could not accept.

Their commitment to monotheism, the worship of one God was strong.

The question then is this, were they wrong?

To begin to answer that question lets look at the history of the church.

The history of the church reveals that Christianity struggles for almost 400 years to answer the very objections of the Jews.

In fact, some Christian’s aligned themselves with the Jews, rejected the idea of a Trinitarian God and adopted what is called Modalism.

Modalism was man’s attempt to deal with the thought that Christianity was polytheistic, that we worshipped multiple gods.

Modalism says, that there is only One True God, YHWH. Deut 6:4.

But that sometimes this one God acts as God the Father, and at other times acts as God the Son, and at still other times acts as God the Spirit.

In other words, God is one, who at this moment is the Father, but then came in the flesh as the Son, and at other times functioned as the Spirit of God, but never simultaneously.

Like an actor in a play who in scene 1 is this person, but then for scene two changes their clothes and appearance and comes out as a different person, and repeats the process again in the next scene.

The problem with Modalism is that it ignores certain passages that clearly state the simultaneous presence of the multiple persons within the God head.

For example at the baptism of Jesus in Matt 3, we Jesus coming up out of the water, while at the very same time the Spirit descending like a dove, and at the very same time the Father speaking from heaven, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Modalism is dead in the water.

I am Trinitarian because in the scripture at various times the presence of two or more person within the Godhead are simultaneously present.

We should also turn to John 1:1-3

John 1:1–3 LSB

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Here we see similar teaching.

First, the word was in the beginning.

Second, the word was with God.

Third, the word was God.

Now stop and think about what John just wrote for us.

The Word is God.

The Word is with God.

Or to say it another way, God is with God.

Clearly John was trinitarian, He sees within the Godhead a plurality.

Were the Jews correct when they charged the church with heresy and blasphemy, saying the Christian was polytheistic?

Well again, for almost 400 years the church struggled to answer this question and others pertaining to the complexity of God.

Even the Ten Commandments appear to be on the side of the Jewish scholars.

The very first commandment is, You shall have no other gods before Me!

This does not mean that man can have other gods so long as He is first, as some teach.

Mormonism has an entire hierarchy of gods.

The key is to understand what “before Me” really means.

Before me is better understood or even translated “in My presence.”

That interpretation changes the way we understand the whole statement.

YHWH is saying, there are no other gods because He alone is God and reigns as such.

So you can see why this was such a struggle for the early church.

But friends, let me say this, if something is true, it will stand the test of scrutiny.

In the mid to late 300’s AD a council met at a place called Nicea to discuss these issues.

First and foremost, how does the church respond to its critics who claim we are polytheistic?

How does the church respond to Modalism?

And since Jesus as God is at the heart of the issue, how do we explain the person of Jesus?

GOD IS ONE IN ESSENCE

John 1 is critical to our understanding because we see two parallel truth portrayed that might seem contradictory.

First the Word is God.

Ok, that seems fine.

But second, the is with God.

If you are committed to God being One, you have a problem, and you must answer that problem

Let’s begin with the little phrase “with God” because this causes the problem of polytheism.

In Greek there are three words translated with.

Each word has a slightly different meaning.

The word John chose for with is “pros”

Pros means with in the sense of the closest possible relationship.

Consider it this way, I am with you in this room.

But some of you are in the back, some of you are a little closer, but right now, Ramesh is closest to me.

This is how that word pros is used.

It is saying that Jesus, who is the Word, was in the closest possible relationship to YHWH.

Closer than the Jews, closer than even Believers.

And this was true at Creation.

Jesus was at Creation is the claim of the NT writers.

Paul would write to the Colossians, that all things were Created by Jesus, for Jesus, and in Jesus all holds together. Col 1:16-18.

So in John 1, we see the Word differentiated from God, but also identified with God, and as God.

This is why some accuse Christianity of being contradictory.

We claim to believe the OT, God is One, and the NT, God is a Trinity, and to many that is a contradiction.

But in truth, it is a paradox.

A paradox is something that appears to be a contradiction, but when properly understood is not.

This is where the Council of Nicea can help us, and it begins with the word homoousious.

Homo mean alike or one.

Ousious means essence.

The conclusion of the church was this, God is homoousious, He has one essence or substance.

God is made up of only one substance, deity.

Man is made of of at least two.

I have a physical body, that is one substance.

But I also have a spirit, that is another substance.

When we speak of God being one, as in Deut 6, we are saying He is of one substance or essence.

This was the very claim of Jesus.

Jesus never claimed to be another god.

Jesus never claimed He was a second or even third god.

Jesus used very specific language to make His claim.

Jesus claimed that YHWH was His Father.

Even the Jews understood what Jesus was saying, and here it is.

When Jesus claimed that God was His Father, He was claiming to be of the same essence and substance as the Father.

Children have the same essence as their parents.

My children are human beings, like me, made up of spirit and body.

They are not dogs, or monkeys, they are of the same essence as me.

The Jews understood what Jesus was saying and accused Him of making Himself out to be God.

They were absolutely correct, this was exactly what Jesus was claiming.

But He was not claiming to be another God.

He was claiming to be of the same substance as God.

Jesus was claiming to be homoousious.

It is critical that we understand this truth.

What this means is that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, are all of the same essence and substance, thus they are One.

They share one life.

They are one in nature, thus if you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father.

It is not a contradiction to say that they as three distinct persons share one life, one substance.

The two are not the same.

Thus Christianity is not Polytheistic, we worship One God who exists as three distinct persons, yet in perfect unity, sharing one life and one substance.

This is not a contradiction.

It would be a contradiction to say that God is one in essence and then say He is also 3 in essence.

So when we look at the Trinity carefully, according to the precise use of words, there is nothing contradictory.

Now I admit, the Trinity is one of those doctrines that we will never fully understand.

The normal standard is that humans are one being who exist as one person.

But God is one being, who exists as three persons.

It is His one Being, His one essence and substance that He speaks of in Deut 6.

The stuff that makes God God, is His essence or substance, His ousious.

His ousious is what God is in Himself.

This is where the word subsistence comes in.

Subsistence is a difference within the scope of being, not a separate being or essence.

Each person of the Trinity is subsistent.

They have a slight difference within their scope of Being.

Yet all three have all the attributes of Deity.

It is essential that we recognize this great truth.

All attributes of God were in Jesus in bodily form.

Jesus had them all, because Jesus was God.

Likewise, since the Spirit of God is another who is exactly like Jesus, we conclude that the Spirit too has all the attributes of God.

To be subsistent is to exist under the presence of deity.

They all subsist co equally, co eternally, fully God, yet with a slightly different role.

We see this difference in roles in the plan of salvation.

The Father planned it all.

The Son initially executed the plan.

And the Spirit provided the power and will finish the plan.

Therefore there is no contradiction.

God is one in essence, nature, and substance, who subsists in three distinct persons.

This is the Trinity.

This is God.