Part One: A Theology of Widowhood - How God Used Widows In the Bible To Impart Truths About Himself and His People

Introduction:

    In today's post I want to explore what I am calling "a theology of widowhood". God has quite a bit to say about widowhood in the Bible. My reasoning for exploring this subject is motivated by several considerations. As a pastor I have had the privilege of knowing or ministering to widows over the course of ministry. Some of the most influential people in my life were widows (my late mother and grandmother, just to name a few). Among the many people God used outside of my family to influence my life, no other group has taught me the important matters of the Christian faith quite like widows. 

    Beyond the personal evidence for the importance of widows in my life or the life of any local church, I find in my current preaching through 1 Timothy two verses that alert us to this notion of "a theology of widowhood". The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 5:3 "Honor widows who are widows indeed." The adverbial "indeed" is a translation of an underlying clause that speaks literally of "one who continues to be a widow". These are widows with no means of income, no family, and who were to receive care from the Pastoral ministry of Pastor Timothy and the benevolence of the church at Ephesus. 

    The second verse in the same context of 1 Timothy 5, particular verse 5, reminds us of how God can use godly widows in the life of the church,

"Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day."

    Such individuals are invaluable, since their prayers were used by God in the effectiveness of the church. How often I've observed this firsthand over the years. It is often that a minister will get tired in ministry. The prayers of a dear saint who is a widow can make all the difference, far beyond the cleverness of a church program or combined efforts of church members. 

    In today's post and the next one, I want to explore the theological significance of widows (or widowers), what God has to say about them, and what we can learn about this too often overlooked group of people. 

Getting a closer look at a theology of widowhood

    When I say "a theology of widowhood", I mean particular truths we can glean about God or the spiritual principles of Godly living from the Bible's teaching about widows. Think of widows in the Bible as a "window" through which we may observe major theological truths. 

1. Proof of one's profession of faith.

    I want to begin by considering one of the final verses in the Bible that gives us a clear example of the theological importance of widows to the Christian faith. James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus according to the flesh, writes these words in James 1:26-27 

"If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

    The term "religious" here speaks of "devotion" or an outward life that is committed to the Lord. Religion as a concept is not a negative, since it speaks of what ought to be a corresponding condition of the heart inwardly devoted to the Lord. The word "religion" itself, in its fundamental Latin derivation religio, speaks literally of being "tied to the Lord". 

    James is addressing claims people make about their level of devotion or "being tied" to the Lord. How does and individual or a church prove its level of spiritual devotion and health? Interestingly enough, James offers two proofs: how one treats widows and orphans and how one prioritizes personal integrity. In other words, there are moral, ethical, and theological litmus tests for a claim someone or a church may have about their level of Christianity.

2. God's Providential care.

    As one surveys redemptive history in the Bible, certain key turning points in God's Providence involved widows. God's Providence has to do with His preservation, guiding, and moving forward of history, people, and nations according to His most-wise purpose. Often, I have found that the most questioned attribute of God is not His Sovereignty, nor His love, but His goodness. How do we know God really cares? 

    Of all the ways the Bible affirms and confirms the reality of God's good-will toward all He has made (what theologians call His "common grace" or "benevolence"), one of the clearest illustrations involves widows.

    Solomon wrote these words in Proverbs 15:25,

"The Lord will tear down the house of the proud, but He will establish the boundary of the widow" (also see Psalm 68:5; Psalm 146:9). 

    When we talk of common grace or God's good-will toward all He has made, such good will, though being a non-saving form of grace, is still His unmerited favor toward us who are undeserving of it. God has special, providential oversight towards widows, whether they be believer or unbeliever. Much as He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45) or causes the general revelation of Himself to be seen in all nations (Acts 14:17), such general evidence of His common grace is presented in the specific instances of widowhood in the Bible. 

    So, we've learned thus far that God uses widows to teach us about the proof of one's faith and the providential care of God in common grace. Let's note another truth in our "theology of widows".

3. Provision of God 

    What happens when a woman becomes a widow? Sources of income, scarcity of resources, and a sense of vulnerability can become painful realities. The sinful, selfish heart of human depravity can prey upon unsuspecting widows. In Exodus 22:22-24 the Lord gives this warning,

"You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. 23 If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; 24 and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless."

    God commands His people to provide for widows, whether in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 14:28; 16:11-12; 24:19) or the New Testament (1 Timothy 5:16). Why these commands to watch out for and care for widows? God Himself is Jehovah-Jireh, "God our Provider". 

    Several instances of God's wondrous provision are found in how He provided for widows. In 1 Kings 17:8-16, we read about the widow at Zerephath whom God used to minister to the prophet Elijah. Jesus comments upon this Old Testament widow in Luke 4:25-26,

"But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow."

    Notice what Jesus said in his remarks: "Elijah was sent". God sent the prophet. The prophet went to this widow, who had nothing left for herself and her son. Yet, though being a Gentile (Zarephath was a Canaanite city), she had evidently experienced the saving grace of God. She gave the last of her flour for bread to feed Elijah. Consequently, 1 Kings 17:16 records how God provided,

"The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah."

    The prophet Elijah's protege, Elisha, the successor to his prophetic ministry in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, experienced a similar miraculous provision of God to a certain widow in 2 Kings 4:1-7. 

    Time and time again we see God's promise of provision for His people emblemized in the lives of widows. How often do you and I doubt God's supply? Look at how He provided for widows in the Bible. The entire Book of Ruth is an example of how He provided for Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. They each lost their husbands at the beginning of the narrative in Ruth 1. Yet by the end of the Book, Naomi's sorrow is turned to joy and a gentile widow, Ruth, becomes married to Boaz, with them both being part of the lineage that would produce King David and ultimately the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

    In the next post we will see further truths illuminated to us through this exploration of "a theology of widowhood". 

    

Post #47 Doctrine of God - An Introduction To Eternal Relations of Origin In The Trinity

Introduction:

    In the last post we explored how we see the doctrine of the Trinity in Paul's letters. Today's post continues our series on the doctrine of the Trinity. I did want to review the doctrine of the Trinity in this post, while introducing the important doctrine of "eternal relations of origin" in our portion of this series of posts on the Trinity. Let's then look first at the doctrine of eternal relations of origin, followed by plugging what we learn into our review of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Eternal relations of origin in the doctrine of the Trinity

     When we talk of the distinctions of identity between the Persons of the Trinity, we refer to what is called the doctrine of "eternal relations of origin". When we look at the name of the doctrine, we can break down each word as follows.

1. "Eternal", meaning forever, without beginning, the Father has always been the Father, the Son has always been the Son, the Holy Spirit has always been the Holy Spirit.

2. "Relations", meaning that the distinction of identities reside in the unique way each Person is related to the other two. Such relationships in the Trinity had no beginning. The One God of the Bible did not decide one day to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Instead, these "relations" are embedded by necessity in the nature of God Himself, which in turn would not be without the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ever relating to one another. 

3. "of origin" tells us that all three Persons of the Trinity never had a beginning or origin. The Father is the source of identity for the Son, the Son in turn makes it possible for the Father to be ever the Father, and the Holy Spirit's identity is ascribed to how He proceeds forever from the Father and the Son. However, as to the source of the Divine nature shared between them, there is no beginning. God as He is has forever been and forever will be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

    To bring some clarity to what I've written thus far, we can appeal to far better thinkers than myself. Theologian Matthew Barrett defines this important doctrine in his book "Simply Trinity - The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Holy Spirit":

"Eternal relations of origin distinguishes how each person is related to another, identifying the everlasting provenance (principle/origin/source) from which each Person proceeds."

       Thus, when we speak of the Father, we talk of Him as "unbegotten" or without origin, or what theologians term "innascible" (Latin "in" meaning "not" and "nascibilis" meaning "born", hence "that which cannot be born"). When we speak of the Son, Scripture talks of Him as "begotten" of the Father, meaning He as Son derives His eternal identity from the Father and forever has shared in the same undivided deity of the Godhead (see Psalm 2:7; John 1:18). When we discuss the Holy Spirit, we use the term "proceed" to distinguish Him from the Father and the Son (see John 15:26).

    What the eternal relations of origin doctrine explains is what distinguishes each Person of the Trinity from the other two. All three are equal in glory, power, and worthiness of worship. Each Personally and all three together possess the undivided Divine essence or Godhead. 

    As touching the Divine nature, each Person of the Godhead is the same in attributes and being, with all three sharing the same essence, mind, and will as One God. These eternal relations of origin help us explain how we can distinguish the Father from the Son, the Son from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

    The great 19th century theologian Charles Hodge summarizes this doctrine of "eternal relations of origin":

"While all the Divine attributes are common equally to the three persons...nevertheless the Scriptures attribute some Divine works wrought within (the Trinity), exclusively to each divine Person respectively; thus, generation to the Father, filiation (or begetting) to the Son, and procession to the Holy Spirit." 

   So that is an introduction to "eternal relations of origin" (or what one friend of mine called "eroo" for short). In the time that remains in this post, I want to plug in what we just learned to reviewing the doctrine of the Trinity, showing how this doctrine aids us in our overall grasping of the doctrine itself.

Review: The Doctrine of the Trinity

    Being that this is the 47th post in our overall series on "The Doctrine of God", I felt it necessary to restate what has been our working definition of the doctrine of the Trinity.

1. There is only one true and living God.

2. This one true and living God is three “whos”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

3. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have the whole and entire Divine nature. 

4. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the One True & living God.

    We can summarize the four above propositions by using a diagram used in the earlier part of church history called "the shield of faith".

    As the reader can see, the doctrine of the Trinity is interested in expounding how God is "One" in one sense and "Three" in another sense. If we take the same diagram, we can change the labeling connecting the Three Persons of the Trinity to depict what we learned today about "the eternal relations of origin" of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

    The eternal relations of origin doctrine aids us in noting how there are two sets of relationships between the Three Persons of the Trinity:

1. The Father, who being unbegotten or without origin (what theologians call "innascibility") begets or makes common the Divine nature to the Son. 

    The Father is the eternal source of the identity of the Son, who forever shares co-equally the Divine nature with the Father. Sometimes we speak of the  relationship of the Father to the Son as "the paternity of the Father" in His filiation of the Son. As we view the same eternal relation of origin from the Son's perspective, the Bible reveals He is the "only-begotten Son" (Psalm 2:7; John 1:18; John 3:16), begotten of the Father.

2. The second type of relationship in the Trinity has to do with how the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, or more accurately, proceeds from the Father through the Son (see John 15:26). 

    As we view this second relationship from the Father and Son's perspective, theologians speak of this as their "spiration" or out-breathing of the Holy Spirit. Such a metaphor captures what Scripture talks about in reference to the Triune God being "the Living God". As viewed from the Holy Spirit's point-of-view, Scripture reveals Him "proceeding" from the Father and the Son.  

Closing thoughts:

    In today's post we introduced the reader to the doctrine "eternal relations of origin". Such a doctrine aids us in explaining what distinguishes the Father from the Son, and the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. This doctrine reminds us that all three Persons are identical in being and attributes, indistinguishable from the vantage point of considering as three as One God by essence. At the same time, the doctrine informs us that their eternal identities as unbegotten (the Father), begotten (the Son), and Proceeding (The Holy Spirit) is how we distinguish the Three Persons. Nothing outside of the Trinity, including the works of creation, redemption, or the Christian life, makes the Trinity the Trinity. The Triune God has been Who He is and what He is from all eternity.

    We then plugged in this important doctrine of "eroo" (eternal relations of origins) to reviewing and grasping better our overall working definition of the doctrine of the Trinity. As we progress onward in this series on the doctrine of God, knowing such truths will enable greater appreciation and worship of our Triune God. 

   

Post #46 The Doctrine of God - How The Doctrine of the Trinity Is Seen In Paul's New Testament Letters

Introduction:

    We've recently looked at how the doctrine of the Trinity is prepared for in the Old Testament here Growing Christian Resources: Post #43 The Doctrine of God: The Old Testament and Jesus' teaching on the Divine Person of the Holy Spirit, expounded upon in Jesus' teaching in the Four Gospels here Growing Christian Resources: Post #44 The Doctrine of God - Summarizing Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit's ministries and relationship to the Father and the Son, and witnessed in the preaching of the Book of Acts here Growing Christian Resources: Post #45 The Doctrine of God - How the Trinity Anchored Practices And Preaching In The Book of Acts. 

    One persistent pattern emerges about the doctrine of God as we progress into the New Testament, namely in how the Trinity is embedded in the thinking of the Biblical authors' explanations of the Christian life. B.B. Warfield's Treatise on the Trinity points out this observation,

"The phenomena of Paul's Epistles are repeated in the other writings of the New Testament. In these other writings also it is everywhere assumed that the redemptive activities of God rest on a threefold source in God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit; and these three Persons repeatedly come forward together in the expressions of Christian hope or the aspirations of Christian devotion." 

    To attempt to disentangle the practices of prayer, baptism, the Lord's Table, evangelism, and church life from the doctrine of the Trinity is to attempt the impossible. Why? Once the early Christians began confessing the deity of Jesus Christ alongside their confession of monotheism from the Old Testament, the doctrine of the Trinity necessarily followed. 

    I've argued already that what the early church was acknowledging was not so much new as it was a more clearer realization of what they faintly understood from the Old Testament. The One God of the Hebrew Bible was identified a plurality of Divine personalities. In Deuteronomy 32 and Proverbs 30:4 the God of Israel is Yahweh, the Father of Israel. The Divine Father has a Son, being also Yahweh in nature yet distinct, described as begotten of Him (Psalm 2:7). This second Divine figure, no doubt the pre-incarnate Son of God, is called "The Angel" (Isaiah 63), "The Word" (Psalm 33:6,9), the "Son of Man" (Daniel 7:13) and even Yahweh (see Genesis 19:24-25). This underlying theology proper or doctrine of God would follow through the Second Temple or Intertestamental literature, where the Jews developed a "two-powers" theology, recognizing the One God of Israel as having two Personages. 

    It is upon the advent of the Son's incarnation that He brings to full light the foundational underpinnings for the robust Trinitarian theology we see developed in the preaching of Acts and now the New Testament letters. The Spirit of God found in the opening verses of Genesis 1:2 is a third Divine Person, given a gradual revelation of being also a Divine Person (1 Samuel 15:29) and performing the same activities as the Father and the Son (Psalm 104; Isaiah 63). Jesus would equate the Spirit of God with Himself and the Father, promising to have Him sent in His name to His church (John 14:17,26; 15:26; Acts 2). 

What the New Testament letters do with the Trinity

    We find the New Testament Epistles or letters continuing on the Trinitarian trajectory set forth by the Old Testament, expounded upon by Jesus and preached by the Apostles in Acts. We will begin with Paul in today's post, since he is responsible for two-thirds of the 27 books of our New Testament. Paul exemplifies this throughout his letters where he writes for example in 1 Corinthians 8:6 

"yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him."

    As we have stressed in the last several posts of this series, Jesus and the Apostles did not introduce a new doctrinal understanding of God as a Triunity. Rather, they were making explicit was already implied in the Old Testament revelation, that God is One in being and plural in personhood. What I want to do in the remainder of this post is set before the reader how the Apostle Paul expressed the Trinity in His letters. 

The Trinity in Paul's introductions to his letters.

    Whenever we read the books of Romans through Philemon (and if we take Hebrews to be written by Paul), we find truths of the doctrine of the Trinity embedded in the introductions. Take Romans 1:7 as an example, 

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

    The Father is identified with the Divine Title "God", just as we've witnessed already in previous posts - fair enough. But then you'll notice how Jesus Christ is identified with the Divine title of "Lord", translated from "kurios" in the Greek, which reflects the Hebrew name "LORD" or "Yahweh" in the Old Testament. Both titles are ascribed to the God of Israel. The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, came to utilize this Greek term "kurios" for "Yahweh". 

    We find two different titles to distinguish these two Divine Persons, who are by nature the same, holy, eternal God who bestows grace and peace. Virtually every other letter Paul wrote begins with some reference to the Father and the Son bestowing grace, mercy, or peace as One God. 

    So too we see inclusion of the Holy Spirit in Paul's opening remarks in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 

"for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake."

    These citations should give the reader a sampling of the pattern we find throughout the New Testament letters again and again. B.B. Warfield notes,

"In numerous passages scattered through Paul's Epistles, from the earliest of them (1Th 1:2-5; 2Th 2:13-14) to the latest (Tit 3:4-6; 2Ti 1:3,13-14), all three Persons, God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, are brought together, in the most incidental manner, as co-sources of all the saving blessings which come to believers in Christ."

The Trinity is seen in what Paul has to say about prayer and worship in His letters

     Paul is fond of including an awareness of the Trinity in his teaching on prayer and worship. When we look into his letter to the Church at Ephesus, we find such Trinitarian thinking in regards to how Christians are to pray and worship. Ephesians 2:18 "for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father." 

    The reader can notice the pattern for prayer - through Him (the Son), in or by One Spirit (or by One Spirit), to the Father. Prayer's trajectory is Father-oriented, since the Father is the one who chose the believer to be His adopted child from eternity (Ephesians 1:4-5). 

    But then notice, those prayers pass through the Son, Jesus Christ, our Supreme mediator, to whom the Father gave each believer as a love-gift to pay the purchase-price of salvation in His blood (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Timothy 2:5). 

    Yet we see too that we cannot pray without the Holy Spirit helping us in our infirmity as weak, frail, helpless people (Romans 8:26). The Holy Spirit closes the circuit that was begun by the Father, through the Son. The whole of prayer is Trinitarian, through-and-through.

    We find too in the Ephesian letter that the public worship of the church is also Trinitarian. Notice Ephesians 4:4-6,

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as also 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 over all and through all and in all." 

     The whole life of the church is caught up in living for and worship toward the Trinity. Each Person of the Trinity tends to point to the others. The Spirit, by the Scriptures, points us to the Son. The Son, in turn, always makes it His point to direct our attention to the Father. The Father, sending forth the Son and Spirit into history and time, urges the Christian to draw strength from the Spirit as they focus their eyes upon Jesus Christ. What Paul is teaching us in his letters is that the doctrine of the Trinity is woven into the very fabric of Christian living itself.

Examples of the Trinity seen in aspects of Christian practice and living in Paul's writings.

    I only have space to give but a sampling of where we see the Trinity in other teachings of the Apostle Paul. Whenever he speaks of how God equips the Christian to serve others with spiritual gifts, the reader finds the spiritual gifts distributes along Trinitarian lines in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6,

"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons."

    As for certain practices, Paul expounds on the meaning of believer's baptism, he utilizes the doctrine of the Trinity, as witnessed in two passages. We find that water baptism symbolizes the union we have with Jesus from saving faith - united in His death and resurrection to the glory of the Father, as explained in Romans 6:4-5,

"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection."

    The meaning of water baptism is a sign, a symbol, pointing back to the reality of Spirit baptism granted in saving faith. The sign (water baptism) and the thing signified by the sign (Spirit baptism which united the sinner to Christ upon profession of faith) are together the One Baptism we read of in the opening verses of Ephesians 4. Water baptism, subsequent as it is to saving faith, nonetheless points back to what the Holy Spirit did in uniting us to Jesus at the moment of one's profession of faith. As Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians 12:13,

"For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit."

Conclusion: The doctrine of the Trinity seen in how Paul ends his one of his letters to the Church at Corinth

    There is so much more I could write in this post of where we find the Trinity spoken of by Paul in his epistles. Space and time forbid what merits far more comment. We've seen how Paul is thinking of the Trinity in the openings of his letters, pray, worship, Christian living, and certain Christian practices like baptism. It is appropriate to close out today's post by considering the prime example of the Trinity in the close of Paul's letter of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13:14,

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all."

Post #45 The Doctrine of God - How the Trinity Anchored Practices And Preaching In The Book of Acts

Introduction:

    As we continue our Biblical survey of the doctrine of God and the doctrine of the Trinity, we come to the Book of Acts. A pattern we find common in the Bible pertaining to God's revelation of Himself is the cycle of God's works, followed by the revelation of His ways. 

    In Genesis, we see God create - His work. Then we see the exposition or revelation of the way in which He did the work (hence Genesis 1-2). This cycle of God's work, then "ways of revelation", is repeated progressively throughout the Bible. God acted in history, followed by a codifying all He did in creation, providence, and redemption, though means of the Divine inspiration of Scripture. Scripture does not merely witness to what God did, it is the revelation of all He achieved. The entire Old Testament is a testimony of God's work of creation, providence, and redemption, followed up by the ways of His revelation put into writing via the prophets.

    The time between the Old and New Testaments, known in the technical literature as "the second temple era" or the "intertestamental period" witnesses a temporary cessation of this cycle of "God acting, followed by revelation" for four hundred years. We could say that the Jews spent four centuries reflecting upon the revelation they had received through the 39 books of Genesis to Malachi. 

    It is then that the Son of God is incarnated in history as the man Jesus Christ. Once Christ arrives in history through His incarnation, the cycle resumes. Jesus came as the decisive revelation of God in the flesh. He came to work the final work of redemption here on earth, and then to ascend after His resurrection to do His work as Mediator in the Heavens (see Hebrews 10:19-25). The Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and John's Apocalypse serve as the final body of revelatory literature, disclosing God's ways through the incarnate Son of God and the ongoing work of the Spirit. The New Testament, along with the Hebrew Bible or "Old Testament", completes God's written revelation of His acts in creation, providence, and redemption, as well as predicting what will be Christ's return and consummation of the ages. 

The Triune God in the practices and preaching of the Christians in the Book of Acts

    The reader may notice in my introductory comments above how embedded the doctrine of the Trinity is in the fabric of Scripture. We've witnessed the Old Testament's setting the stage for this doctrine. No doubt Jesus spoke time and again about His own relationship with the Father. He further elaborated on His promise of the Holy Spirit. These two-sets of truths show how all three Persons of the Trinity worked together as One God in the drama of redemption accomplished in the four Gospel accounts. But what about the Book of Acts, and the remainder of the New Testament for that matter? 

    The 19th century theologian B.B. Warfield wrote a wonderful article on the Doctrine of the Trinity in His volume "Biblical and Theological Studies", an essay that readers can access in the online "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia" here Trinity, 1 - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.. What Warfield has to say is relevant to our posting today,

    "The relation of the two Testaments to this revelation is in the one case that of preparation for it, and in the other that of product of it. The revelation itself is embodied just in Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is as much as to say that the revelation of the Trinity was incidental to, and the inevitable effect of, the accomplishment of redemption. It was in the coming of the Son of God in the likeness of sinful flesh to offer Himself a sacrifice for sin; and in the coming of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, that the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead was once for all revealed to men." 

    When you consider the practices of the early church as demonstrating their consciousness of the Triune character of the God of the Bible, one can begin with the practice of Baptism. Jesus gave the church the practice of Baptism as one of two ordinances or commands. In Matthew 28:19-20 we find Him commanding the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them, and then "baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit". 

    When we come to Acts 2:41, 8:12, and other places in Acts of the Apostles, we see Christian converts being baptized in the name of Jesus. This isn't a denial of the Trinity in the Baptismal formula. If anything, to be baptized in the name of Jesus was still affirming the plurality of persons in the Godhead, since public identification with all that was entailed in public confession of Jesus was resident in His name (The true deity, co-equality of the Son with the Father, plus He and the Father's promised sending of the Holy Spirit). 

    No doubt the practice of worship, prayer, and preaching in the Book of Acts showed how central the Trinity was in the Christians' minds. For instance, Peter's inaugural sermon on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 explains the event of Pentecost by reference to all three Persons of the Trinity. In Acts 2:17, reference is made to the Father's sending of the Spirit, wherein Peter quotes the prophet Joel "God says 'I will pour forth my Spirit'". Peter later in the sermon mentions all three Persons of the Trinity in Acts 2:33

"Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear."

    Throughout the Book of Acts you'll encounter roughly twenty sermons, half of which center upon the Resurrection of Jesus. In one of the Apostle Peter's sermons, we find him mentioning the Trinity in Acts 10:38

"You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." 

    The Apostle Paul's preaching is also recorded in the Book of Acts, referencing language that points us to the Trinity. One example is found in Acts 13:33, where Paul quotes Psalm 2:7, a passage that depicts the eternal Son of God and the Father in an inter-Trinitarian dialogue,

"that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten You.’"

    Like I said, there are roughly twenty sermons in the Book of Acts, most of which have woven within them a Trinitarian understanding of God's acts and revelation of Himself. 

    I only need to mention a couple other examples of practices of the early Christians to round out our study today.

1. The Lord's Supper.

    In addition to Baptism, Jesus had given one other command or ordinance to His church, the Lord's Table. In Acts 2:46 we read of how the early Christians were "breaking bread" from house-to-house. It is most likely this was reference to eating of meals together, however we could also include that they observed the Lord's Supper as a church gathered together. 

    The text states they continued in the Apostle's teaching. What was it that the Apostles had taught? In context, Peter had expounded to those gathered on the Day of Pentecost of the promised Holy Spirit, and how He came as a consequence of the ascension of Christ, as promised by the Father (see Acts 2:1-37 for the whole sermon preached by Peter). 

    The Lord's Supper, initiated by Jesus on the Eve of His crucifixion, represented not only His accomplished work of redemption, but also the body of believers. The three-thousand people saved that day were summarily baptized and had occasion to celebrate the Lord's Supper and other acts of fellowship with one another (Acts 2:42-47). No doubt the Trinity informed these practices of the early Christians.

2. Church Discipline.

    Jesus first taught about church discipline in Matthew 18. He expounded what I call "The Great Concern", namely the concern over the holiness of believers in what would be the forthcoming Church birthed on the Day of Pentecost. Accountability is so important in the Christian-life. The local church is designed by God to be a community in which Christians urge one another onto love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:23-25). 

    In Acts 5:3-5 we see the harrowing episode of the deceit of Ananias and Sapphira, a married couple who pretended to sell property to give to the church, while lying about how they secretly held back some of the proceeds for themselves. The Apostle Peter  publicly confronted them. In the passage, we find one of the strongest passages concerning the Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit,

"But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it." 

    We see in verse three above that this couple had lied to the Holy Spirit. Then in the next verse, Peter tells them they have lied to God. The Lord disciplined these two by way of physically taking their life! This was what the Apostle John would later refer to as "the sin unto death" (1 John 5:16-17). 

    The deity and Personality of the Holy Spirit follows from the doctrine of the Trinity, since the one divine nature is equally and wholly in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. What is remarkable here is that the early Christians, Jews by background, would have had no problem affirming the deity of the Spirit of God, since He is mentioned as God in the Hebrew Bible (as early as Genesis 1:2, and most robustly Psalm 104:30, Isaiah 63:10, plus several other places). To mention one of the of the Divine Persons is to automatically include the other two. Even in this traumatic scene, the Triune God was deeply embedded in the spiritual life of the early Christians - Peter most notably.

Closing thoughts

    Today we looked at how we see the doctrine of the Trinity shaping the preaching and practices of the early church in the Book of Acts. Although I've given only a sampling of the full scope of references for sake of space, the reader ought to perceive how much the doctrine of the Trinity factored into the Church's understanding of itself. This ought to also demonstrate that the doctrine of the Trinity is not just a speculative doctrine, but highly practical in helping the Christ-follower and the Bible believing church to remain faithful to the Biblical revelation of the Triune God.  

Post #44 The Doctrine of God - Summarizing Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit's ministries and relationship to the Father and the Son

Introduction:

       As we move ahead in our study of the doctrine of the Trinity, I've labored these last several posts to set forth the Biblical theological understanding of the doctrine of God. Before we can consider the Systematic theological treatment of the Trinity (that is, theological conclusions we draw from the Biblical text in conversation with other disciplines), we must first have an understanding of how God progressively revealed Himself through the Bible. 

    The task of Biblical theology with respect to the doctrine of the Trinity it two-fold: God's unity of being and plurality of identity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Once this foundational work is completed, only then can we move onto consideration of what Christians throughout church history understood reflected in the Biblical data (Historical theology). Consequently, once the work of Biblical theology and historical theology are considered, we can then reap the harvest of systematic theological reflection. 

    We surveyed the Old Testament's teaching and revelation of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. In this post, we will observe how Jesus handled the revelation of the Spirit's identity and work. 

    Much the same way we observed in our studies of Jesus' teaching on the relationship between Himself and the Father, so too we shall see how Jesus' teaches the Personhood and true deity of the Holy Spirit. Such observations will reinforce to us the Trinitarian understanding of the doctrine of God found in the remainder of the New Testament. 

What Jesus taught on the Holy Spirit

    Throughout the four Gospels we find references to the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Author John Walvoord's book "The Holy Spirit" summarizes these mentions of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus by way of five headings.

1. The Holy Spirit in Christ as a child.

    Isaiah 11:2-3; 42:1-4; 61:1-2 all refer to the anointing of the Messiah with the Holy Spirit. It is in passages such as Luke 1:35; 2:40,52 and John 3:34 that we find the Holy Spirit accompanying Jesus from His virginal conception and early life. Let readers be reminded that the incarnate Son of God has two natures or "two ways of expressing His Personality". There is the "Divine nature" which He shares eternally with the Father and Holy Spirit. Then, we have the "human nature" He received when the Holy Spirit united true humanity to the Person of the Son in the virginal conception in Mary (see Matthew 1:20-23; Luke 1:35). 

2. The Holy Spirit and the baptism of Jesus.

     It was the prediction of Old Testament prophecies (such as Isaiah 11; 61:1-2) that the Messiah, as a man, would be marked by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, which was fullfilled by Jesus once He was publically baptized. The Spirit of God's working was with the incarnate Son from the beginning of His human life. The empowerment and Messianic anointing phase of the Spirit's working began at Jesus' baptism, thus initiating Him into public ministry. 

      Scriptures such as Matthew 3:17 record for us the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove. This public anointing of Jesus was a public way of expressing that Jesus was indeed God's Messiah. Walvoord comments on the scene in Matthew 3:17 - "The Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and Christ was coming up from the Jordon. No better instance of the revelation of the Trinity could be desired." 

    Readers may note that in Jesus' baptism, we have the voice of the Father from Heaven, coupled with the descent of the Spirit upon the Son of God incarnate.

3. The Holy Spirit in relationship to Christ's public ministry (Luke 4:18 compared to Isaiah 61:1-2; also see Matthew 12:28; Mark 5:30; Luke 5:17; 6:19; 8:46). 

4. The Holy Spirit in relationship to the sufferings of Christ.

    Walvoord reminds us here of how the Holy Spirit drove Christ into the wilderness to face Satan the Temper in Mark 1:12 and Luke 4:14. No doubt the writer of Hebrews references the Holy Spirit's work in enabling Jesus to endure suffering on the cross, thus presenting His once-for-all sacrifice to the Father (Hebrews 9:14). 

5. The Holy Spirit's relation to the resurrection and glorification of Christ. 

    Jesus had already indicated in John 11:25 that He was the resurrection and the life. In John 10:17-18, Jesus stated that He could lay down His life and take it up at will. As to the Holy Spirit's work in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Paul calls Him the "Spirit of holiness" that exercised that resurrection power in Christ's lifeless body to raise Him in Romans 1:4. The Apostles commonly credited the Holy Spirit with the work of raising our Lord from the dead (see Acts 2:32-36; 1 Peter 3:18). 

    Coupled with Jesus' resurrection is the Holy Spirit's activity in His ascension, especially in how He works with the Son in the distribution of spiritual gifts to the church (Ephesians 4:12-16; 1 Corinthians 12:1-7). The coming of the Holy Spirit to empower the church at Pentecost was proof positive of Jesus' ascension (see Acts 2:22-36). 

    It is no wonder that Jesus taught so much on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, since the Spirit Himself was resident in Christ's humanity, as well as active throughout His life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. We find the following two ideas summarizing what Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit.

1. The Holy Spirit as the Divine Person of the Comforter.

    The Deity and Personality of the Holy Spirit are evident in what Jesus taught about Him as "the Comforter", "Helper", or "Paraclete" in John 14:16; 15:26-27; and 16:7. This truth of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter calls to mind all of the references to Yahweh as the "Helper" or "Comforter" of Israel (Deuteronomy 33:26; Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalm 115:9; Isaiah 41:14, 44, 49:8;Hosea 13:9). No doubt the Holy Spirit's predicted ministry to believers would come as a consequence of Jesus' accomplished work and the sending forth of the Spirit by Himself and the Father (see John 14:26; John 15:26).

2. The mutual indwelling of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.

    A couple of posts back I devoted time to showing how Jesus as the Son taught about He and the Father's mutual indwelling or unity with one another as the One True and Living God. 

    This "He in me" language is Jesus' theological short-hand for summarizing how He and the Father are distinct Persons yet truly God within the Godhead or Divine nature. In John 14:17 and 14:23, we see a prime example of how the Holy Spirit would mutually indwell somehow with the Father and the Son in the indwelling ministry He would come to have in the life of believers. 

    Jesus also used this same "Him in Me, I in Him" language to convey the Holy Spirit's work of uniting the Christian to Christ upon their profession of faith in Him. 

    Such a work is what theologians call the "believer's union with Christ". It is this union with Christ that the Spirit uses to bring to every Christian the Person and ministry of Jesus on their behalf in Heaven, so that they may sense their Savior at work within them (see Romans 6:4-12; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27 and roughly 100 other places in the New Testament that use the phrase "in Christ"). The Holy Spirit weds our humanity to His in a wondrous work that Peter describes as "participation in the Divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4). What this means is that all that Christ is and has done is mine to experience, enjoy, and to ground my identity.  

    This closeness of "mutual indwelling that the Holy Spirit shares with Christ is of such nature that seven New Testament passages refer to Him as "the Spirit of Christ" or some other variation (Acts 5:9; 8:39; Acts 16:7; Rom 8:9; Galatians 4:6; Phil 1:19; 1 Pet 1:11). 

    Much like what we saw in the mutual indwelling language of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit's mutually indwelling work with the Father and the Son entails His "unity of essence" with the Father and Son, while preserving His distinct identity as the third member of the Trinity. 

Closing thoughts for the day.

    We have witnessed how much the Old Testament set the tone for the New Testament's teaching of the Holy Spirit as a distinct member in the Godhead, co-equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. We also observed how Jesus carried on such a "Trinitarian consciousness" in His teaching about the Holy Spirit. In the next post we will lay out what the remainder of the New Testament teaches about the Godhead with respect to the Divine unity of the Godhead and the three distinct Persons. 

Post #42 The Doctrine of God: The Old Testament and Jesus' Teaching On God the Father as Creator And Redeemer

Introduction:

    In our last post http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2024/04/post-41-doctrine-of-god-old-testament.html, we began to look at what the Old Testament and Jesus had to say about the Deity of the Father and the Father's relationship to Him as the incarnate Son. We noted that the Old Testament reveals the Person of the Father under four major subjects:

1. God the Father as truly God.

2. God the Father sharing the same equality of deity or Godhead with the Son.

3. God the Father being the Creator of the world.

4. God the Father being the Savior of His people.

     We looked at the first two headings and will devote the remainder of this post to the final two subjects. The point of our current postings is to establish a Biblical theology of the doctrine of God with respect to the doctrine of the Trinity. One major point to make is that the New Testament's revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity did not come from left field. The testimony of Jesus and the Apostles reveal a full-realization and progressing revelation of the Old Testament foundational truths we already noted about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in the Godhead. 

    Thus far then, we can say Jesus's teaching brought together the above  truths into a coherent picture of the Biblical doctrine of God. It is this coherent picture that springs forth the full robust doctrine of the Trinity in the New Testament.  

God the Father as the Creator of the world. 

    If we take into consideration everything I wrote above, we can understand why the Old Testament makes known the Father's work in creation. Passages such as Job 38:8; Psalm 33:6,9; and Malachi 2:10 indicate God the Father as having the capability to create. The Father, often called "the First Person of the Trinity", is assigned the title "from whom all things are made" (1 Corinthians 8:6).1 As to the work of creation, we must not forget that all three Persons inseperably worked as One God in creating all things. 

      This capability of the Father as the Creator, being God by nature, is also ascribed to the Divine Person of "the Word" or Son and the Person of the Holy Spirit in Psalm 33:6,9 and Psalm 104:30. Such Scriptural assigning of creative abilities to the Son and the Holy Spirit lead to the conclusion that they are wholly God by nature - with all three Divine Persons being God the Creator.

    Such ascription of Divine power to the pre-incarnate Word and the Spirit of God is the Old Testament's indirect way of pointing us to their equality with the Father in regards to deity. No doubt Jesus, in His many mentions of the Father throughout the Gospel, taught this very same truth (see Matthew 19:1-7; John 5:25-29). 

God The Father as the redeemer of His people. 

    We've noted how the Old Testament teaches us about the Father as He is as truly God, His relationship to the Son, and His work in creation. We've observed how Jesus taught those same truths. One final area we find the Hebrew Bible teaching about God the Father is in His role as the redeemer of His people. 

    It is in this work of redemption where the Old Testament shows us precursors of the doctrine of God the Father. Such "precursors" set the stage for Jesus' teaching and the underpinnings for a full New Testament revelation of the Trinity.2 

   So, we have seen four main ways the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament brings forth the revelation of God the Father, and how Jesus incorporated such truths into His teaching.

1. God the Father as truly God.

2. God the Father sharing the same equality of deity or Godhead with the Son.

3. God the Father being the Creator of the world.

4. God the Father being the Savior of His people. 

Jesus' teaching about the Father and the Godhead - what additional light He shed upon the Godhead.

    I have labored to show how much unity there is between the Old Testament's vision of God as one in being and plural in person and Jesus' reaffirmation of the same. We must equally grasp that the incarnate Christ furthered our understanding as to how those two major truths about the God of the Bible (His unity of being and plurality of Personhood) operated to set the ground for the doctrine of the Trinity.

    The 19 century theologian B.B. Warfield's essay on the Doctrine of the Trinity points out that what Jesus was setting forth was not new. The doctrine of the Trinity flowed naturally from the Old Testament through Jesus' teaching into its full-orbed revelation in Acts, the Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. 

    What was it then that Jesus brought to the table that propelled the understanding of the Godhead forward? 

    The unity of the Godhead and the plurality of the Persons find their clarity in Jesus' teachings, which interested readers may read more about in the footnotes following this post.3 

   Thus, in the Old Testament, the acts of creation and salvation are used as lenses to introduce us to the Father. What Jesus does is show how He Himself is that primary lens, explaining the Father and making Him known, since He Himself is truly God as the Father as God - He being the Revealer and the revealed (see John 1:18; John 14:8; 17:3). 

Closing thoughts

    Whenever we combine what Jesus says about the distinctions He and the Father have as Divine Persons along with the mutual indwelling language we devoted time to in the last post, what emerges is a firm foundation for the continuing, progressive revelation of the Trinity in the Bible.  

    This then demonstrates what I said at the beginning of today's post concerning what Jesus taught about the Godhead, and the agreement between Himself and the prior Old Testament revelation.

1. There is one, and only one true and living God that is one in nature or in His Godhead.

2. This Godhead (that is, deity, Divine nature, Divine essence, God's very substance and being) is equally and wholly in each of the Divine Persons - The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Endnotes:

1. In theology, we often refer to the Father as "the first Person of the Godhead". Why is that? The idea of "first" means "principle", which is to say the Father is unoriginated, the "unbegotten One", who makes common the Divine nature by His eternal act of "filiation" or "begetting" the Son (see Psalm 110; John 1:18; 3:16). 

    The ordering here is not an ordering of importance (all three Divine Persons are of equal importance). The ordering is also not that of power, being, or glory (all three Persons are one in nature, hence co-glorious, co-eternal, omnipotent). The ordering of "first person", "second person", and "third person" refers to how the undivided Godhead or nature is communicated among the three persons.  

    Thus, the Father, as I mentioned, is described in the Bible and in the doctrine of the Trinity as "begetting the Son", the fount that makes common the Divine nature. The Son, eternal and without beginning, ever receives or is "begotten" in an eternal, second act of sharing in the Divine nature with the Father. Then, the Father, with the Son, in what we could call a "third activity", makes common the Divine nature in what theologians refer to as "spiration" (that is, an outbreathing) of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is identified then as the third Person of the Trinity, proceeding eternally from the Father and the Son (John 15:26). 

    This "order of eternal relations" distinguishes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from one another in terms of identity, while at the same time affirming their equality and unity of being. 

2. It is in Deuteronomy 32:6 we find first clear mention of the Father's explicit involvement in the salvation of His people - 

“Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you." 

    The remainder of Deuteronomy 32 is devoted to how the Father saved Israel from Egypt, carrying them along as a father would his son. 

    Isaiah 43:10-11 is another striking example of the Father being the Redeemer of His people, with the reminder that He is God by nature, and that there is no other God - asserting His nature of self-existence or what theologians call "Aseity" (from the Latin a se, meaning "from oneself"). 

    This same self-existent, exclusive Redeemer of God's people is expounded most clearly in the Old Testament in Isaiah 63:8, 15-19; 64:6-9). Jesus no doubt taught this truth in His expression of the Father sending Him, the Son, to be the Savior of the world (John 3:16).

3. The places Jesus teaches about the Father in Matthew 6:9-11; Mark 8:38; 11:25; 13:32; 14:36; Luke 10:21-23; 11:11-13; 15:11-32 sharpen the picture about the Father, with the additional, startling reality of the intimate awareness and uniqueness of relationship Jesus has with this Father that no other had. 

   We find Jesus revealing truths about Himself as He teaches the sharper picture of the Father. For example, as truly man, Jesus shows how much He is yielded in His human will to the Father's will, thus encouraging others to do the same (Matthew 6:10, 25-32; 11:25; 12:50; 21:31; 26:39,42; Luke 23:34; 6:36; 10:21-22; 11:2,13; 12:30). As truly God, the Son equates Himself with the Father, who being God by nature, means Christ Himself is truly God as well (John 5:17-18; 5:26-27; 8:58). 

    No doubt the "only-begotten" language I referred to earlier in Psalm 2:7 finds its way in Jesus teaching about Himself in His relationship with the Father (John 1:14-18; 3:35; 5:20; 10:17). To be "the only-begotten Son" refers to how the Father, as the unoriginate one, shares in common that same unoriginated nature through communication of it to the Son by the eternal act of begetting. 

Post #41 The Doctrine of God: The Old Testament and Jesus' Teaching On God the Father's Deity And His Relationship To The Son

 

Introduction:

    In the last post here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2024/04/post-40-doctrine-of-god-jesus-teaching.html we focused upon Jesus' teaching about the unity He has with the Father and the Holy Spirit by way of their "mutual indwelling" with one another. We looked at key passages in the Gospels where Jesus used the "He-in-me, I-in-Him" language. Such phraseology indicated that Jesus had in mind two pillar doctrines that are essential for a Biblical understanding of the doctrine of God,

1. There is one, and only one true and living God that is one in nature or in His Godhead.

2. This Godhead (that is, "deity, Divine nature, Divine essence, God's very substance and being) is equally and wholly in each of the Divine Persons - The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

    We can summarize these twin pillars of Biblical theology proper (i.e. the Doctrine of God) as God's unity of being and plurality of identity. Both pillar truths provide the basis for articulating the Doctrine of the Trinity. 

    It may surprise readers to know that in most respects, what Jesus taught about the Godhead in its unity and plurality of identity was revealed throughout the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament (albeit in progressive fashion). In other words, much of what Jesus taught in His doctrine of God was not novel. He simply added further insight to an already established theology proper revealed in the Old Testament. The famed 19th century theologian B.B. Warfield in his essay "The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity" in his "Biblical and Theological Studies", page 32, comments on how the New Testament authors handled the doctrine of God with respect to the Old Testament revelation

"The simplicity and assurance with which the New Testament writers speak of God as a Trinity have, however, a further implication. If they betray no sense of novelty in so speaking of Him, this is undoubtedly in part because it was no longer a novelty so to speak of Him. It is clear, in other words, that as we read the New Testament, we are not witnessing the birth of a new conception of God. What we meet with in its pages is a firmly established conception of God underlying and giving its tone to the whole fabric."

Jesus' teaching about Himself and God the Father

    As Jesus revealed Himself as the decisive revelation of God in human flesh, He always pointed to the Father.  Who exactly God the Father was in the Old Testament, as well as how Jesus conceived of Himself in relationship to the Father, will enable us to get more prepared for the New Testament's full revelation of the Trinity. 

    We can summarize the Old Testament revelation of God the Father under four headings. For this post, we will detail the first two of those headings, and deal with the remaining two in the next post. The four ways the Old Testament reveals the Father is as follows:

1. God the Father as truly God.

2. God the Father sharing the same equality of deity or Godhead with the Son.

3. God the Father being the Creator of the world.

4. God the Father being the Savior of His people.

    As I expound each heading, let the reader note how Jesus reiterates that truth in His own instructional ministry.

1. God the Father as truly God.

    He is the eternal one, being without origin by nature, expressing all the Divine attributes that we have looked at in previous posts. In the Old Testament, the Father is revealed as "God", "LORD", and other Divine names. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 63:15 "Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation....". Then Isaiah 63:16 "For You are our Father....". In Daniel 7:9, Daniel relays a vision of the Heavenly throneroom, speaking of the Father as "The Ancient of Days". In Malachi 1:6 and 2:10, we see reference to "The Father", the "LORD of Hosts", being His name. 

    In most of the 5766 places within the Hebrew Bible where we observe the personal name of God, Yahweh"/"LORD", as well as most of the 2706 places where we see the more general name "Elohim" mentioned, unless otherwise indicated, we can safely say the Old Testament is speaking of God the Father.  

    Jesus made a point to distinguish Himself in His humanity as submitted to the Father, to whom as truly man He regarded as the only true and living God by nature (Mark 10:18). He also made a point to show Himself, as truly God, being equal to the Father, with whom He said He was "One" (John 10:30). As truly God, the Son mutually indwelled with the Father, meaning they both shared the undivided nature or Godhead as One God (see the previous post in the this series). 

    The incarnate Son also claimed He could perform the same functions as the Father in forgiving sin (Mark 2:7), raising the dead (John 5:25-29; 11:25), and executing final judgment (Matthew 11:25-27; 25:31-46; 28:18).  

2. God the Father sharing the same equality of deity or Godhead with the Son.

    We've already noticed how the Father is called "Yahweh/LORD" throughout the Old Testament. In most cases, we can assume the Old Testament is speaking of Him. The only times where we find exception to this is when mention is made of another figure, "The Angel of the LORD" in passages such as Genesis 16:7-11; Exodus 3:6,14; 23:20-33; Joshua 5:13-15; Judges 2:1-5; 13:18; Malachi 3:1-4 and others. Or, where we see an occasional mention made of "two-Yahwehs" (a Yahweh in Heaven and a Yahweh on earth - Genesis 19:24; Job 19:25-28). 

    Biblical scholars refer to this Old Testament revelation of the Father and the Angel of the Lord or other designations of a second Divine Person as "the two-powers doctrine". It is well documented in the Jewish literature spanning between the 400 year gap of Malachi and Matthew the Jewish beliefs about a "Yahweh in Heaven" and a "Visible Yahweh".  

     Scholars such as Michael Heiser have noted that following the advent of Christianity and the Bar Kochba rebellion of 132 A.D., the Jewish Rabbis expunged any mention of such "two-powers teaching", thus eliminating their one-time held belief of the plurality of Divine Persons within the Godhead.                    

    As one studies the Old Testament revelation, as well as Jesus' own teachings, it is evident that within the Godhead there is a plurality of at least two, if not three Divine persons. Each Person is distinct, while equal in their possessing the entirety of the Godhead or Divine nature.  

    For instance, we find the Father "begetting" the Son in Psalm 2:7, a term Jesus used often in His teaching ministry about He and the Father's relationship (John 1:14, 18; 3:16). Proverbs 30:4 explicitly mentions the Persons of the Father and the Son. The Old Testament revelation gives us two general conclusions in regards to the Father's relationship to the Son. 

    First, the Father and the Son both share and reveal the totality of the Divine nature or Godhead. Then secondly, the two are to be distinguished from one another while exhibiting the same Divine perfections we would expect when talking about God. 

Conclusion for today

    In our next post we will continue noting how the Old Testament reveals God the Father as the Creator of the World and the Savior of His people. We will also draw conclusions as to how Jesus not only incorporated the revelation of the Old Testament's teaching of the Father into His own expositions, but also the additional light He shed upon the relationship shared between the Father and Himself. Such understanding will show the reader how the Old Testament and Jesus' teaching paved the way for the New Testament's full-orbed revelation on the Trinity. 

Post #40 The Doctrine of God: Jesus' Teaching On The Godhead And Mutual Indwelling Between The Three Persons Of The Godhead

Introduction:

    In our last post we began to pivot this entire series on "The Doctrine of God" from discussion of the unity of God's being expressed through His Attributes to how we plan to approach conversation of His Triune identity. I had pointed out three starting points for getting ourselves to the doctrine of the Trinity from considerations of the unity of His being.

1. The glory of God.

2. The Old Testament revelation of God and how it presupposed a plurality of personality within the Godhead.

3. Jesus' teaching on the mutual indwelling of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

    It is the third of these I want to draw out attention to in this post, since the entire Old Testament revelation of God finds it harbor in the teachings of Jesus' doctrine of God. 

    Anytime we talk of the unity of God's being and attributes, the term used is what we call "the Godhead". I'll elaborate on that below. Also too, how the unity of the Godhead relates to the Three Persons of the Trinity (The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit) in such unity is what we find in Jesus' teaching on the mutual indwelling of the Three Persons. 

    For now, let the reader know that the particular subject of the Godhead and the mutual indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity is spelled out by Jesus in His teachings, providing a launching point for the remaining revelation of God in the New Testament. 

    As I noted already, in today's post we'll define the term "Godhead" and understand how it is handled by Jesus in a sample of His teachings. We will then introduce the reader to Jesus' teaching on the mutual indwelling He, the Father, and the Spirit have among themselves. 

What is meant by the term "Godhead"

    The reader may had noticed I made mention of the term "Godhead". The idea of "Godhead" is synonymous with everything we've looked at concerning God's being and attributes - that is, the Divine nature itself. The KJV uses this term "Godhead" in three places. As I list the three places, I'll use the NASB as a comparison for readers to see how this term is understood in modern English.

1. First verse with the term "Godhead", translated as "Divine nature" in the NASB 1995

Acts 17:29 "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." (KJV)

Acts 17:29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man." (NASB 1995)

2. Second verse using the term "Godhead", translated "Divine nature" in NASB 1995 

Romans 1:20 "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." (KJV)

Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

3. Third passage with the term "Godhead", translated "Deity" in NASB 1995

Colossians 2:9 "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (KJV)

Colossians 2:9 "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form." (NASB 1995).

    Thus what we find then the term "Godhead" is synonymous with "deity" and "Divine nature". In Acts 17:29, we have then the term "Godhead" speaking of God's substance of deity, not being made of physical material, leading to the conclusion, as Jesus taught, that the Godhead is "spirit" in John 4:24. Jesus certainly taught what theologians speak of concerning the "substance" of the Godhead, otherwise known as the Divine attribute of spirituality.  

    In the Romans 1:20 passage, we see the Divine nature or "Godhead" listed alongside one of the attributes - Divine power or "omniscience". Jesus taught that for God, all things are possible, since He is omnipotent. One of things we will see in future posts is how the term "God" could either refer to the Godhead or was Jesus' way of talking about His Father (context of course being the final deciding factor). At anyrate, when we speak of the Godhead expressed through the attributes or perfections of deity, we find this theologically termed "the character of God". 

    Then we thirdly see in Colossians 2:9 how the Divine nature or Godhead is possessed by the Son. Jesus will unpack this point of the Godhead or Divine nature being an entire possession of not only Himself, but of the Father, who makes common to Him the Godhead or Divine nature by His act of begetting (John John 1:18; 5:26). This third use of the Godhead introduces us into discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

    Thus far, we've noticed how the term "Godhead" contemplates God's Divine substance and character, and how both are possessed wholly by the Father, the Son, and as we shall see in later posts, the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus' teaching on the mutual indwelling between Himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit

    As we move on from having defined the term "Godhead", we can now pivot to starting to discuss how Jesus conceived of the "oneness" of the Godhead or Divine nature on the one hand, and then how He understood the Godhead functioned in, among, and through the Father, Himself, and the Holy Spirit. 

    Jesus often used what theologians call "mutual indwelling" language when highlighting both the union of deity and distinction between Himself and the Father, or between Himself, the Father, and the Spirit. This phenomena in Jesus' teaching on the Godhead would involve phrases such as "I in Him, and He in me". Take for instance John 10:38 "But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him." We see Jesus using similar phraseology in how He describes the unity between He and the Father in John 14:10,11 (2x He states "I am in the Father and the Father is in me). In Jesus' High-priestly prayer in John 17:21 He prays "that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You". This isn't a mere unity of activity, but of being. We similarly see how He, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit mutually indwell one another in how they work in and through believers (see John 14:23). 

    In the first four centuries of the church, certain theologians such as Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, and others took notice of this descriptive terminology of Jesus. They grasped that what Jesus was teaching was nothing other than the two most fundamental tenets of Trinitarian theology,

*There is one, and only one true and living God.

*This one Godhead is in the Father, as well as in the Son, and equally in the Holy Spirit.

    Theologians came to use the term "perichoresis" (Latin "circumincession") to describe how the Persons of the Father, The Son, and Holy Spirit mutually indwelled or "co-inhered" within one another. Theologian Vern Poythress explains this idea in his book "The Mystery of the Trinity", page 91, 

"The coinherence of the persons means that each is completely present to the others. Each has complete knowledge of the others. Each acts with the others in the works of God in creation, redemption, and consummation."

    Poythress later adds,

"Coinherence (that is, the mutual indwelling of the The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit) presents us with a kind of harmonious bridge between the biblical teaching on the distinction of the persons. The persons are indeed distinct, but they are also profoundly one, through coinherence. Each person is fully God, the one God."

Conclusion for now

    In the next post I plan to pick up more on Jesus' teaching on this doctrine of mutual indwelling, and specifically what He had to say about the Person of the Father. For today at least I wanted to alert readers to some examples of Jesus' teaching on the Godhead, and the doctrine of mutual indwelling. As we shall see in forthcoming posts, Jesus brings together everything taught in the Old Testament on the doctrine of God, as well as setting the tone for how the New Testament would bring into full view the Triunity of God. 

More next time....