Christ is distinct from the Father, but He is also God (John 1:1) Christ is called God in Hebrews 1:8 and John 20:28. Matthew 28:19 associates the Persons of the Trinity under one name and there are also Old Testament references (Deuteronomy 6:4). In Psalm 2 the Messiah and God the Father are differentiated but both divine, as are the spirit and the Father in Isaiah 48:16. Can you please tell me more about the Godhead? I do believe that there is one True God in His threefold personality.
To this, I gave the following answer:
Thank you for your question.
The relationship that exists within the Deity (Godhead) is truly one of the great mysteries - but how could it be otherwise? To explain it, one would have to be God, as would any who would understand the explanation. Yet, there are many things we can know about this relationship.
One thing we know about God is that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Certainly this is not all that God is, but love is basic and fundamental to His nature. This is true so much that John says in this verse, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
Now, one of the things about love is that it must have an object. Can you imagine love that has no object to love? As humans, we learn to love by being loved. God, who is love and who is also eternal (that is, He has always existed), did not "learn" to love - but being Trinity, He always existed in community where there is relationship. The basic fact of that relationship is love.
In this, we can think of the Godhead as Family. But this is not like our imperfect human families where tensions and (sometimes) even hatred mars family love. This is Family where perfect love exists eternally. This Family is one and this Family is perfect love.
The beauty of perfect love is that it seeks other objects to love. This can be seen in a human family when a husband and wife who, as an expression of their love for each other, want a child to love as well. With the Divine Family, this led to Creation. "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.... So God created man in in own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:26-27). God not only created creatures whom He could love; He also created creatures who had the capacity for loving each other. "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
That is, it was good until sin came into the world. How did sin come? It came when the serpent convinced Mother Eve that God did not truly love her as much as He claimed, that God was holding out on her by forbidding her the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The mistrust that entered the world by that sin quickly spread. When Adam was confronted by God with having disobeyed, what did he do? He immediately blamed God and the woman! "The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (Genesis 3:12). Not only was there a rupture in Adam's love for God by that mistrust, but there was also a rupture in Adam's love for his wife!
It was to restore love in the world that Jesus came. It was God's love that sent Him (John 3:16). He said that the greatest commandment is to love God; the second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:34-40). Later He "raised the bar" on the love we are to have for others: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34). This love was to be the sign of His disciples. Just how great that love is is seen two chapters later: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love" (John 15:9).
Does this explain the relationship among the Godhead? Does it remove the mystery? No, it does neither of these. Yet it does point us in the right direction, a direction that is frequently lost in the theological niceties of human minds attempting to explain how there can be one God when there is a plurality of persons.
The Godhead wants us to share in the love that is in heaven. This is a sharing that begins even now, but will exist in a fuller perfection when we go up into glory. The apostle of love declared, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). Later in that same epistle he wrote:
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! .... Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
Even now, we are already privileged to be in the Family of God, but John says we will not know how great this will ultimately be until that great day when we see Him as He is - and finally realize fully the purpose for which He created us, to be in His image and His likeness.
To the above answer, I would like to add the following:
What does all of this have to do with unity?
Simply that love is the glue that holds us together - and the love that is in the church (congregation, brotherhood) is to be of the same quality as the love that exists in the godhead.
I always thought that loving one another as Jesus loves us is a high "bar" as a standard for our love. Yet, when Jesus told us He loves us as the Father loves Him, my previous concept was blown away.
Now, consider the progression:
- I love you as the Father loves me.
- You love one another as I love you.
- We are to love one another as the Father loves Jesus.
How do I love you? Certainly not as much as the Father loves the Son - but is it even the same quality of love? It is certainly not as constant as the heavenly love, but does it make real differences in how I treat you?
When I look at members of my congregation or brotherhood as objects of God's love - and therefore, as objects of my love, I will begin to love as I ought. As long as I regard them as competitors instead of my lovers, there will be tensions among us (potential or real).
Until the congregation begins to develop interactive love such as the Godhead has always had, unity will be a Chimera. When we base our unity on perfection of agreement of understanding of the Word of God, we will never have unity. It is when we allow God's love to be poured into our hearts by God's Spirit that we will find the unity of the Spirit. Then, in that love, we will find it easy to maintain that unity because it will be unity in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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