Yesterday, we considered the
oneness of God. We saw that the scriptures very clearly define Him as the one
and only God. And yet, we don't get very far before we start to notice something
unusual about Him. It first shows up in the verse above, as God identifies
Himself with the plural pronouns us and our.
It happens again later on in
Genesis 3:22 when He says man has become "like one of Us." And again it shows up in Genesis 11:7 as He says, "Let
Us go down" to confuse man's language at the tower of Babel. Why does God, who
is One, identify Himself this way?
Here's what we can determine
based on what the rest of God's Word reveals to us: Although He is one and only
one being, there are also three separate and distinct persons that
simultaneously exist. These persons are revealed as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. They are distinct from each other and yet they aren't three separate
gods. They are three yet one, and the term we use to capture this concept is
triunity, meaning three and one.
Sounds pretty confusing...how
can we buy into something so mind-bending? Although the triunity, or
the Trinity, is a challenge to our finite minds, we know it to be absolutely
true because Scripture says so.
One of Jesus' final commands to
His disciples on earth was to make disciples of all nations and to baptize them
in the "name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
(Matthew 28:19). Notice the singular form of the word "name," pointing to the
oneness of God, and yet the three persons are clearly distinguished. We also
have plenty of passages that identify each person of the Trinity as being God
(John 1:1, Acts 5:3-5, Colossians 2:9).
So while we embrace the oneness
of God, we also recognize the triunity of God as one
of His essential attributes.
Think about
it...
What
does this passage reveal to me about God?
What
does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based
on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for
today?
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