The Godhead

The subject of the Godhead is very controversial. It is one of the issues that brought about a major schism in the early church. There are doctrines such as trinity, triune, oneness, etc.

But what did the apostles think of the Godhead?

It is important for us to accept what God says about himself and about Jesus. It is also important to accept what Jesus says about himself and about The Father. Whether it fits into our doctrines or not, let us stick to the scriptures. Let’s begin:

In the strictest sense the scriptures describe the Godhead in the following way:

1. There is One God, One Lord, One Spirit.

Paul Explains the Godhead here. Let’s pay attention.

1 Corinthians 8:5-6 (NKJV)
5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),

6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

This is The Godhead. One God who is the Father and One Lord who is Jesus Christ our Saviour. Here are more scriptures that witness to the same thing.

Ephesians 4:4-6 New King James Version (NKJV)

⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

 1 Corinthians 1:3 (WEB)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 1 Thessalonians 3:11 (WEB)
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you;

2 Timothy 1:2 (WEB)
to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

We shall visit more scriptures on this as we go. I know you have a billion questions rising so let me address a few.

 1. Is Jesus God?

Yes. Jesus is God.

Scripture says So…

John 1:1 (NKJV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Hebrews 1:8 (NIV)
But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

2. If there is only One God who is the Father, How can we call Jesus God?

Jesus explains simply, If the scriptures referred to Moses and the Judges of Israel who received the word of God as Elohim (gods) How much more the word himself made flesh…

 John 10:35-36 (WEB)
35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken), 36 do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’

In fact let me post a key scripture.

Isaiah 9:6 (WEB)
For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

I will explain that scripture later. Jesus is God yes, but he has one person whom he calls my God and my Father. God the Father is a God of gods and Father of fathers. God The Father has no one whom he calls my Father or My God.

When Jesus was on earth he speaks of his Father who is his God…

Mark 15:34 (WEB)
At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When Jesus Resurrected from the grave, he comes in glory and still calls God the Father his God and His Father.

John 20:17 (WEB)
Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

How about when Jesus is in heaven right now, he still continues to call God his Father and his God…

Revelation 3:12 
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.

If Jesus keeps saying My God to God the Father who am I to deny him…

THE FATHER AGREES ALSO
God the Father calls Jesus God, but he then saying to Jesus, you are God, but I am your God.

Hebrews 1:8-10 (WEB)
8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom.

9 You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”

Do you see that, God The Father acknowledges that Jesus is God, but he is God who has someone whom he calls My God. The Father is God of all gods but Jesus is Lord of all Lords.

Revelation 17:14 (WEB)
These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”

Jesus is Lord of all creation because it was his hand that created all things.

Hebrews 1:9-10 (WEB)
9 You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”

10 And, “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands.

So that is why there is only One True God. And one True Lord who is The Son of God. The Apostles spoke of God as The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The God of Our Lord

Let’s hear from the apostles.

PAUL

Ephesians 1:17 (WEB)
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;

PETER
1 Peter 1:3 (WEB)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…

JOHN

 2 John 1:3 (WEB)
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

JESUS

John 17:3 (NKJV)
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Everlasting Father

In Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is referred to as everlasting father. Yes. But he is not referred to as God the Father.

Consider this: If Abraham could be called the Father of all nations, such that all who shall enter the kingdom of heaven are Abrahams children. Does that make him God The Father. No. How much more then Christ by who’s hand we were created?

Christ is our Father and His fatherhood is eternal. hence an everlasting father.

3. HOW IS CHRIST OUR FATHER?

Jesus as The first begotten inherits all things from the Father. As the first born and heir to all things he is given the Father’s children to become his…

READ…

Hebrews 2:13 (NKJV)
And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And again: “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”

God gave him children.

John 16:15 (NKJV)
All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

4. WAS JESUS CREATED

No. Jesus was not created. Jesus is the one who created all things.

Colossians 1:16-17 (NKJV)
16 For by Him 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. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Jesus was not created, He was born. His body, soul and spirit was directly born from God. That is why he shall remain the ONLY TRULY and COMPLETELY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER. As for us, our spirits are born of God, but our bodies were formed from the dust and our souls were created by the word.

Jesus is before all things, however there was a point in eternity when he existed inside the Father, and then he came out of the father and created the universe.

Jesus tells us this…

John 8:42 (NKJV)
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

John 8:42 (WEB)
Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.

The word proceeded forth… or came out… in the greek original is ezekormai which means to come out. This is what Jesus would shout to demons, ‘Come out of him.’ Ezekormai. So he is saying, I came out of God and then came here. That is why Jesus is the Son of God.

4. IS THE FATHER GREATER THAN THE SON.

Yes. I say so because that’s what Jesus tells us with his own mouth. Who am I to argue with Jesus.

John 14:28 (WEB)
You heard how I told you, ‘I go away, and I come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I.

Okay. So this was when Jesus was on earth without his glory. How about now and in the future? Will the father still be greater?

Yes. Jesus will in eternity future still submit to God the Father.

READ.
In this scripture Paul is describing what shall happen after the second coming of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:24-25, 28 (WEB)
24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 28 When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

So The Son will always be subject to God The Father

5. WHAT ABOUT ESSENCE AND SUBSTANCE?

Just as you share the same flesh and blood with your Father,  Jesus is of exactly the same essence and substance with his father. This is why as the Son of God, it makes him equal (of the same substance) to God.

The Jews make this deduction.

John 5:18 (WEB)
For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

This equality is in relation to essence. Because a Son shares the same blood and flesh with his Father. The Son of God will also be God in essence.

This same phrase translated as Equal with God… is also used by Paul…

Philippians 2:5-7 (WEB)
5 Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

6. WHAT ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT?

The Father and The Son share the same Spirit. This is what makes them one.

Jesus is one spirit with the Father.

This one Spirit they share in common is The Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Christ and The Spirit of The Father.

Romans 8:9 (WEB)
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

 1 Peter 1:10-11 (WEB)
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them.

A Spirit of Spirits

Just as God The Father is The GOD OF ALL GODS, Jesus Christ is The Son of God and LORD OF ALL LORDS, the Holy Spirit is THE SPIRIT OF SPIRITS.

What do I mean. John 4:22 tells us that God is spirit.

John 4:24: God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Yet though God himself is spirit, inside him, he has a spirit that dwells in him. This spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. He is a spirit that dwells inside other spirits.

While The Son came out of (Ezekormai) The Father. The Holy Spirit flows out (Ekporeuomai) from the Father. He is like a river that continuously and eternally flows out of the Father.

John 15:26 (WEB)
“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

The word is present continuous. He proceeds from the Father. The greek word here is also used to describe the flow of water in a river. Consider Rev22:1.

John 7:38-39 (NKJV)
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Because The Father and The Son share the same Spirit. when you receive the Holy Spirit it means you are now connected to both the Father and The Son.

So inside your body, you have your own spirit, and inside your spirit is where the Holy Spirit comes to live. All spirits that belong to God have the Holy Spirit within them. He is the mark. If any spirit does not have the Holy Spirit in him, then he does not belong to God.

Romans 8:9 (WEB)
 …But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.