The Nature of God

The concept of God as a Trinity of “persons” sharing one will is hotly debated, even among professing Christians. To find the truth, we must look at what the Bible itself tells us. After all, there is no point in debating the nature of the Christian God without using the Bible and presuming its divine authorship.

One important aspect of God as a Trinity, which is not expressly stated as such but strongly inferred from many references, is that God has only one will. There is never an instance in scripture where the will of God is plural (that is, the “wills” of God). The sole exception is that of Jesus, who has had a dual divine/human nature since his incarnation.

The reason this is important is because hierarchy cannot exist in a single will. It’s only Jesus' human nature that has its own will and is subordinate to God, just as all other humans are subordinate to God.

The Unity of God

• The Father and Son are one God— John 1:1, 18, John 10:30, John 17:21-23, Phil. 2:6, Col. 1:15-20, Heb. 1:3
• All three are the one Creator— Gen. 1:2, Deut. 32:6, Col. 1:15-20
• The Father and Spirit conceived the incarnate Son— Mat. 1:18, Luke 1:35
• Jesus raised himself from the dead— John 2:19-21
• God raised Jesus from the dead— Acts 2:24
• The Father raised Jesus from the dead— Gal. 1:1
• The Son is God and became human— Phil. 2:5-11
• The Son and Father cannot be separated— 1 John 2:23

The Distinctiveness of the Persons

• The Father begets the Son— Psalm 2:7
• All three present at once— Mat. 3:16-17
• The Son speaks of his Father— John 8:54
• The Son prays to the Father and was sent by him— Luke 23:34, John 11:41-42
• The Son sends the Spirit— John 15:26, 16:7
• The Son and Father both mentioned— 1 John 2:23
• The Son asks the Father to send the Spirit— John 14:16-17
• The Son shared glory with the Father in eternity past- John 17:5
• The Son could not have fathered himself- Heb. 1:5

The Shared Authority of the Persons

• The Father sends the Son— 1 John 4:14
• The Father sends the Spirit— Luke 11:13, John 14:26
• The Father glorifies the Son— John 8:54
• The Father is one in whose name people are to be baptized— Mt. 28:19

• The Son sends the Spirit— John 15:26, 16:7
• The Son sends the Father— Mt. 26:53, Luke 23:34, John 17:1
• The Son is called “the everlasting Father ”— Isaiah 9:6
• The Son is one in whose name people are to be baptized— Mt. 28:19

• The Spirit sends the Son— Mt. 4:1
• The Spirit anoints the Son— Acts 10:38
• The Spirit goes as he wills— John 3:8
• The Spirit inspired all scripture— Acts 1:16, 1 Peter 1:12, 2 Peter 1:21
• The Spirit indwells believers— Acts 2:4
• The Spirit teaches— Luke 12:12
• The Spirit gives gifts— Heb. 2:4
• The Spirit indwelt John the Baptist and Jesus— Luke 1:15, 4:1
• The Spirit must not be blasphemed— Luke 12:10, Mt. 12:32
• The Spirit gives orders to people— Acts 13:2-4, 16:6 20:28
• The Spirit seals believers— Eph. 1:13
• The Spirit is one in whose name people are to be baptized— Mt. 28:19

The Divinity and Sentience of the Holy Spirit

• The HS can be blasphemed— Mark 3:29, Luke 12:10
• God pours his love into our hearts through the HS— Rom. 5:5
• Our bodies are the temple of the HS— 1 Cor. 6:19
• We are sealed with the HS as a guarantee of our salvation— Eph. 1:14
• We must not grieve the HS— Eph. 4:30
• The HS lives in us— 2 Tim. 1:14
• The HS gives us rebirth when poured out on us via Jesus— Titus 3:5-6
• The HS speaks to us— Heb. 3:7-11, 9:8
• The HS commisioned the apostles— 1 Peter 1:12
• The HS gives prophecies— 2 Peter 1:21

We can present this as a logical proof:

• P1: Only persons can be grieved, and only divinity can be blasphemed
• P2 :The HS can be grieved (Eph. 4:30) and blasphemed (Luke 12:10)
• ∴ The HS is a divine Person

The Holy Spirit is referred to as “she” in the Hebrew, and “it” in the Greek. But regardless of the grammatical gender of pronouns, it is clear from the totality of scripture that the Holy Spirit is not a mere force but is in fact a Person of the Trinity just as much as the Father and Son. But just as clearly, the Holy Spirit is not gendered, just as the Father is not gendered (Num. 23:19, John 4:24). Though God is described as having body parts in various passages, these are anthropomorphisms (ways to describe in human terms). Only Jesus in his incarnation is gendered (Phil. 2:5-11), since he alone has the dual nature of both God and human.

The Divinity of the Son

• Many references have people offering worship to Jesus. Though the Greek word for worship is often used for a fellow human with higher social rank, it’s also used for deity. But it should be noted that in Rev. 22:8-9, whatever John was doing toward the angel should only be done toward God.
• In Mat. 22:44 Jesus quotes Ps. 110:1 to the Pharisees, who agree that it is about the Messiah. Jesus asks them how the Messiah can be David's descendant when David calls him “Lord”, and they could not answer. In that verse we see that there is a “Lord” of David who says something to David's “Lord”, and even the Pharisees interpreted it as that the Messiah must be more than human, or they would have said something.
• In Mat. 28:18 Jesus instructs the disciples to baptize people in the name (singular) of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Clearly the Son is as much God as God's own Spirit.
• John 1:14 states that “the Word became flesh and lived among us”.
• John 17:5 quotes Jesus as saying to the Father, “Glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began”. This is the same book of John that began with the statement, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.
• Phil. 2:5-11 states that Jesus temporarily set aside his privileges as God to become human, then returned to his place with God.
• Col. 1:15-20 states that Jesus created and sustains everything, and that the totality of God is embodied in him.
• Heb. 1:2 states that the Son created the universe. Vs. 3 states that the Son “is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being”. Vs. 6 says to “let all God's angels worship him”. In vs. 8 God says about the Son, “Your throne, O God, will last forever”. Vs. 10 says that “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth”. Ch. 9 vs. 15-20 says that the only way to enact the new covenant was by the death of the one making it, so Jesus had to be God.
• Isaiah 9:6 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given… And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Here the Son is called the Father and the Mighty God.

The debate over the deity of Christ is certainly not new. It was one of the main reasons for convening the first Council of Nicaea in the fourth century. Over time, various views disputing Christ's deity arose; here are some of the main ones:

• Subordinationism: The Father ranks over the Son, who ranks over the Holy Spirit. Neither the Son nor the Spirit are of the same divine nature as the Father.
• Arianism grew out of Subordinationism, and adds that the Father created the Son, who created everything else.
• Socinianism takes the next step of saying that the Son was a mere holy man who did not exist prior to his earthly conception— which paints the Gospel writers as liars. It also denies the personhood of the Spirit, and by extension the Trinity. Thus the Son could not be the substitutionary sacrifice for mankind, which is the key to the dispute.

To Athanasius, the 20th bishop of Alexandria who was prominent in the debate against Arius at the 1st Council of Nicaea, Christ's divinity was no trifling matter. Salvation itself was at stake, because only someone who was fully human could atone for human sin, and only someone who was fully divine could have the power to save us. The logic of the New Testament doctrine of salvation assumes the dual nature of Christ.

There are other -isms than these of course, but it demonstrates the fact that this debate has been raging ever since the apostles died. With that being the case, we shouldn't think that we'll settle the dispute any time soon. What we can do is present our arguments and let the readers weigh the evidence for themselves, paying careful attention to whether a claim can be ruled out. I would also ask the readers to weigh between that which is explicitly stated, and that which is only implicit. Ockham's Razor is a good guide on any complex or controversial topic. Or as it was put by Dr. David L. Cooper (1886-1965), founder of The Biblical Research Society,

When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.

This isn't a special rule for the Bible; it's just good reading comprehension.

God, Lord, Father, Son, Savior, Messiah

Take a look at Zech 12:10 (Hebrew and Greek), which states that they (house of David and citizens of Jerusalem) will look upon me and mourn for him. Whether one wishes to interpret this as a Messianic prophecy or not, such a meaning cannot be ruled out; it has as much validity as any alternative.

Look at Isaiah 9:6, where the Son is called the Everlasting Father and the Mighty God. To invoke metaphor is to beg the question, as is the idea that these titles are merely honorary. The same holds true for Deut. 32:15, Isaiah 43:11, and Hosea 13:4, which say that God is the only Savior.

Look next at Isaiah 40:3 to see who it is that the forerunner prepares the way for. The divine names used there are YHWH, Elohenu, Kuriou, and Theou. Where this is quoted concerning Jesus in Mat. 3:3, the name is Kuriou, so clearly Jesus is presented as the same Lord as in the Old Testament.

Now look at Isaiah 52:13-53:12. If you try and substitute Israel throughout the passage it makes no sense. Again, though some interpret the passage as referring to Israel in some metaphorical way, the literal interpretation cannot be ruled out, and it's the simplest, most straightforward explanation.

New Testament references to these titles are found in Luke 2:11, John 4:42, Acts 5:31, 13:23, Phil. 3:20, and Titus 2:13. Regarding that last one, grammatically speaking, both of the nouns (God and Savior) modify Christ. The koine (1st cent. common) Greek rule called the TSKS construction (see Sharp's rules), is that whenever we see (1)the definite article, (2)a noun, (3)and, (4)a noun, they always refer to the same person. Therefore the expression the God and Savior Jesus refers only to Jesus. So here we have an explicit affirmation of the deity of Christ, and no valid reason to ignore the grammar or twist it to split God and Jesus.

Next take a look at Mt. 22:41-46, where Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1 and asks the Pharisees how the Messiah could merely be a descendant of David. They were stumped— which was no easy task, if you know anything about the Pharisees. But see also Ps. 110:4, which identifies this Lord as an eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek, a priesthood not part of the line of Aaron and Levi. For anyone interested, there's much more about this priesthood in Heb. chapters 5-7, and of course Gen. 14:18-20.

Visibility

An often-overlooked factor in this debate is the matter of appearances or visibility of God. As you study some of the pertinent passages, 1 Cor. 10:1-4, Col. 1:15-20, and Col. 2:9, you see that any time God appears it must be Jesus. This includes all Old Testament theophanies.

A good man

Would a mere good man or not God say the words in these references? Take a look at Mark 2:5-7, Mark 14:61-64, John 2:19-21, John 8:23-24,58-59, John 14:6-9, John 10:28-33, Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, and Rev. 22:13,16. It should be very clear that no mere good man could utter those words. In addition to those, we have the clear declarations given in these passages: Mat. 1:23, John 1:1-5,14,29-30,45, John 17:5, John 20:28, Phil. 2:6-7, and Heb. 1:2-10. Note also that both Mat. 2:2 and Rev. 19:10 use the word for worship (G4352 προσκυνεω). It was directed at Jesus as a baby, and when John tried to direct it to the angel in Rev. he was told it was only for God.

At a point in time, Jesus added human nature to God nature. Genetically speaking, mitochondria are DNA passed on only thru the female. They enable the body to aerobically respirate, so without them we could not survive. Jesus had to have the mitochondria DNA of Mary in order to live as a human. Biblically speaking, Jesus had to share in our human nature; see Rom. 8:3, Phil. 2:7, Heb. 9:16-17, 27-28.

This explains how Jesus could both be God and pray to God. Now as you also check Heb. 2:17, Acts 13:33, Heb. 5:5, and 1 Cor. 2:7-8, what other explanation can be given for all this? It says that Jesus had to become like us in every way. And since one cannot become what one already is, Today I have become your Father means there was an unprecedented event that happened at a point in time, a colossal change. In fact, we see that this Jesus was the Lord of Glory who would not have been crucified if this had not been kept hidden from the rulers of this age. How could attributes that hadn't changed from eternity past have been kept hidden?

Consider also the Great Commission in Mat. 28:19, where Jesus says to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The New Covenant

Finally, we must consider the matter of covenants. There were at least 5 major covenants as illustrated Ex. 19-24. Now look at Heb. 9:15-18; it is Jesus who mediates the new covenant, via his death and shed blood, because the death of the testator had to be proved before it could be in force. Who was the testator, meaning the one who made the covenant? God. Remember also what Jesus said at the Last Supper in Luke 22:20, quoted again in 1 Cor. 11:25: This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Summary of argument for Christ’s deity

Arguments against the deity of Christ have failed to demonstrate that it can be ruled out, given that the many passages cited here must all be dismissed as meaning something other than what they say. The argument against the deity of Christ relies heavily upon implication to change explicit statements affirming his deity into mere euphemisms.

The clincher is that only God could enact the New Covenant, and only by proving his death. A mere good man, or especially a being who is neither human nor divine, could never be the sacrifice for sin— the Redeemer, the Mediator, the Savior. Only God can be those things, and Jesus is those things. It can't be stated any clearer or simpler than this:

• P1: Only God's death could enact the New Covenant
• P2: Jesus' death enacted the New Covenant
• ∴ Jesus is God

Conclusion

There is one God, composed of three Persons, each of which is fully God and not a physical or gendered entity. Jesus alone has a dual nature as both divine and human, the latter of which was physical and gendered at his incarnation, the point at which the Father / Son relationship began (Heb. 1:5). Critics of this view, whether believers or unbelievers, have to ignore or reinterpret all of these passages in order to claim otherwise.