The Nature of God and Christ - Members Site - United Church of God

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THE NATURE OF GOD AND CHRISTDoctrinal Study Paperexperienced the spiritual birth process that brings one into a family relationship with the Father.He is our leader and the captain of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10).Furthermore, the Greek for “beginning,” arche, can also indicate “that by which anythingbegins to be, the origin, the active cause.” 46 Arche can also denote a “ruler” or “high [arche]priest.” Notice other translations of this verse: “the origin of God’s creation” (NRSV), “theorigin of all that God has created” (TEV), “the source of God’s creation” (NAB), “the ruler ofGod’s creation” (NLT). This type of translation is consistent with Colossians 1:16, “all thingswere created through Him.”Christ and the ComforterThe fact that Christ said He would send another Comforter does not mean that the HolySpirit is a separate entity. God is spirit. So the very essence of God is spirit. Furthermore Godand Christ dwell in us through Their essence—the Holy Spirit. In order for this wonderful gift tobe made available to humans, reconciliation for sin had to be made. Christ had to be crucifiedand resurrected—so we could be reconciled to the Father by the death of His Son and saved byHis life (Romans 5:10). Christ said that the Father would send the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name(John 14:23, 26). At times the Holy Spirit is associated with the name of the Father and at timeswith the name of Christ. “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Goddwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is inyou, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans8:9-10). So it is clear that the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit can be associated with thename of Jesus Christ.In 1 John 2:1, the Advocate (Greek Parakletos) is equated with the resurrected JesusChrist sitting at the right hand of the Father who ever lives to make intercession for us. Theapostle Paul writes, “the Lord is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17). John writes, “He who has theSon has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). Thus onecan also clearly see that the Holy Spirit (Parakletos) is not separate from Jesus Christ. The HolySpirit is shed on believers through Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5-6). So the Scriptures clearly reveal tous that the Holy Spirit is sent to us from the Father through Christ. Moreover, this shows that theHoly Spirit is not an entity to itself—it is the essence of the Father and Christ and comes to usthrough Their direction.Biblical View of the “Oneness” of God“God is Spirit” (John 4:24). Spirit is the essence of God. God is uncreated and eternal.According to John 1:1, both God and the Word are uncreated and coeternal. Moreover, They areof the same spiritual essence (Hebrews 2:11). There is one spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians4:4). The spirit that is in the Father is the same spirit that is in Christ and is the same spirit that isin believers. “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that onebody, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into46 Joseph Thayer, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon.Page 40September 2005© 2005 United Church of God, an International Association
THE NATURE OF GOD AND CHRISTDoctrinal Study Paperone body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drinkinto one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).In Romans 8:9 Paul associates the Holy Spirit with the names of God and Christ bystating, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” In this verse the Spirit of Godand the Spirit of Christ are referenced. Yet as noted above, there is one Spirit, yet there can bethousands of people joined to God and Christ and each other through the Holy Spirit, which isthe essence of God and Christ. This is why the apostle Paul could boldly proclaim, “So we, beingmany, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Romans 12:5). Thusthe Holy Spirit is not a person—a separate and distinct entity that acts apart from God and Christ.The Holy Spirit is the life essence and power of God and Christ. Through it, God imparts life andspiritual understanding to the believer.The apostle Paul beautifully summarizes this spiritual unity: “For both He who sanctifiesand those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to callthem brethren [Greek adelphos, brother]” (Hebrews 2:11). In this verse a familial relationship isestablished between Christ and believers. If we are all of one, and if we are brothers of Christ,then we can only conclude, as the apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:17, that we are heirs of Godand joint heirs with Jesus Christ.On the night before Christ was crucified, He prayed that the Father, Son and believerswould all be made one, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctifiedby the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through theirword; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may beone in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:19-21). The plain words ofChrist in the above passage clearly reveal that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Heprays that believers also become one with Them. This “oneness” as explained above is not aTrinitarian construct, but a spiritual unity whereby God, Christ and believers are all one throughthe Holy Spirit, the very essence of God.ConclusionThe subject of the nature of God and Christ is an expansive one and more could bewritten. When John spoke of things that Christ had done, he stated: “And there are also manyother things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the worlditself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen” (John 21:25). As clearly shownin this study, God and the Son are coeternal with the Son preexisting in eternity as the Wordbefore His incarnation (John 1:1). God and the Son are of the same essence, the Spirit of God(John 4:24). God the Father, the Son and Spirit-filled sons of God are united through that oneSpirit (Romans 8:11, 14-17; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). Thus, the Godhead is not a closed Trinity,nor an absolute unity of only one God, but a dynamic family unity that allows for Spirit-bornbelievers to become the very children of God. John summarizes this when he says, “Beloved,now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know thatwhen He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Paul alsoPage 41September 2005© 2005 United Church of God, an International Association
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