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Question from Ghana about the Persons of God

Question

Is God the father, Son and the Holy Spirit? pls explain for me. Thanks a gain.

Answer

The Scriptures emphatically teach there is one God. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4) “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God’” (Isaiah 44:6).

But this oneness is a united oneness, in contrast with the confusion of paganism, rather than an absolute oneness. Jesus prayed in the upper room:

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20-21)

All disciples of Christ are to be one in the same way He and the Father are one. An illustration of this use of the term “one,” a united oneness rather an absolute oneness, is found in Genesis 11:6. “And the LORD said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them’” (Genesis 11:6).

There are three persons who compose the one God. By “person” I mean “a being characterized by conscious apprehension, rationality, and a moral sense” (Webster's Third New World Dictionary, unabridged). A “being” need not have a material body to be a person. “Being,” as I use the noun, means “the quality or state of existing: material or immaterial existence” (Ibid).

The Father is God.
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him... (1 Corinthians 8:5-6).

The Son (the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ) is God as well.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1,14).

But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’ Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:17-18).

“But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom’” (Hebrews 1:8; quoting Psalm 45:6).

But the Holy Spirit is likewise God. When Ananias lied “to the Holy Spirit,” he “lied ... to God” (Acts 5:1-4).

But these three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct but perfectly united Persons.

“Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me’” (Hebrews 10:5). In order for the Word to become the Son in human flesh, the Father prepared a body for Him. The Father and the Son are distinct from one another, and both existed as spirit beings before Jesus walked upon the earth.

The Son and the Holy Spirit are not the same Person. The Son promised His apostles, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26).

Finally, the Father and the Holy Spirit are not the same Person. Again, Jesus promised the apostles, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).

There is one God. This is a united rather than an absolute oneness. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God, but each of them is distinct person perfectly united with the others.



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