Friday, June 01, 2007

Three in One

How is it possible that God is one entity, yet three persons? I don't know. But I know that some people would rather reject that idea than grapple with it. It is too hard, and doesn't make human sense. So some people, who believe in God, say it isn't true. Unfortunately, that is not a good reason to reject this idea about God, because we can't possibly understand God on our own. The way we get to know God is when He chooses to reveal Himself to us. And that has happened through Scripture (testimony and His messages), Jesus (the exact representation of His being, and the testimony of his apostles and other witnesses), and the Holy Spirit.

Why do I believe this? Jesus.

For people who reject ideas about God, and reject the Bible (Scripture) because they require proof that their rejection is wrong, they will be disappointed that I believe the reverse is actually required. The person of Jesus is historically verifiable. What he did and taught is verifiable and attested to. The issue is not proving it, the issue is accepting it.

Concerning Jesus, he settles the matter about who God is, and what He wants. First, Jesus did what no other man or woman has ever done. He taught with verifiable proof—miracles. Not even his enemies contested that. Second, what he taught about himself was either revolutionary, or heretical. He taught that he had the same authority as God (Matthew 28:18-20), the same nature as God (John 5:16-23, Philippians 2:5-6), and that he and God are One (John 10:28-30, 14:9-14). Since his miracles and resurrection are attested to, he was right. Therefore, we have confirmation that the Scriptures are not only authentic and reliable, but divine, because Jesus confirms Scripture.

This is a stumbling block for some people. Consequently, it is impossible to accept God's triune nature without accepting the nature of Jesus. When we say we have faith in Jesus, this is at the crux of the matter: accepting him as Lord and Christ (God in the flesh). And in so doing, we accept the Holy Spirit into our lives (John 14:15-17) and we accept the Scriptures as God's authoritative Word about reality.

This is another stumbling block, because the world cannot accept the Holy Spirit, because they have neither seen Him nor known Him. But a believer must be saved by the Holy Spirit. For without the Holy Spirit there is no salvation (Romans 8:5-11).

No comments:

Post a Comment