FBCD_FaithEssentials_June_FlipBook

Faith Essentials

image of God He created him” (Genesis 1:27). The night before His crucifixion, Jesus said “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Clearly, God is a person. In fact, He is three people, the Father, Son , and Holy Spirit. However, we must use caution when using the three-person explanation because it could imply separate moral or rational individuals. “There are not three individuals but three personal self-distinctions within one divine essence.” 1 Terms used to describe this divine trio are Trinity and triune. As that great hymn of the faith, Holy, Holy, Holy proclaims, “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” The term “Trinity” never appears in Scripture, though it is clearly implied. Jesus commissioned His disciples to baptize new converts “in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Paul writes, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). “It is important to understand the relationships of the persons of the Trinity. The Son and the Spirit are said to be ‘subordinate’ to the Father, but this does not mean they are inferior. Their subordination has been called a matter or relationship but not of nature.” 2 If you have trouble wrapping your mind around this, think of an egg. Though it’s made up of a shell, yolk, and egg white, it’s still one egg. Think of the Father, the fount of Deity, as the one who originates; the Son, eternally begotten of the Father, as the one who reveals; and the Spirit, eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son, as the one who executes. 3 They each have separate roles to play, but will never act independently of one another.

And finally, what is God?

God is Spirit, which implies that He is invisible, not possessing a physical body. As Jesus said to a curious follower, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Paul writes that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God,” (Colossians 1:15),

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