Living by faith is not a human-centered religious experience. In the biblical sense, one living by faith is trusting God (Jesus) for every eventuality in personal life and ministry. Who we understand God to be will directly determine the degree of trust we are willing to place in Him.

    Before Jesus' incarnation, Jewish theologians thought they had a reasonable understanding of Yahweh. He was One, Indivisible God. All devout Jews repeated the sh'ma during the morning and evening prayer:

    Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

    Then, Jesus claimed to have existed before Abraham and to have had an intimate prior relationship with the Father. It was for that supposedly blasphemous claim that the Jews picked up stones to kill him.^[1]

^[1] John 8:48-59 is rich in meaning. Jesus made a number of statements in this passage which set Him apart from mere human existence. He also stated that the Father sought His glory; that if anyone kept His word, they would not die; that unlike His audience, He knew God and kept His commandments; and finally, He unequivocally stated that He existed before Abraham. However, even the disciples did not yet understand the extent of Jesus' claim. It was not until after the resurrection and the events leading up to Pentecost that His closest associates began to understand His true nature.

    Jesus had already introduced the Father in His teaching. It comes as a surprise to most Christians today that identification of the Father was strictly a New Testament concept. The King James Old Testament only capitalizes the word Father once when referring to deity (Isaiah 9:6), and that verse refers to Jesus. (The NIV translation capitalizes the word Father nine times in the Old Testament. [Deut. 32:6, Ps. 2:7, Ps. 89:26, Isa. 9:6, Isa. 63:16, Isa. 64:8, Jer. 3:4, Jer. 3:19, and Mal. 2:10]. Isaiah 9:6 identifies Messiah in reference to Jesus. The other eight verses refer to Yahweh rather than the Father in the New Testament sense.) The Jews of Jesus' day did not have a concept of Father. They thought in terms of a unified God whom they knew as Yahweh.

    Jesus introduced the concept of the Father being a Person. In itself, that did not challenge the Jewish understanding of a God of Unity. However, when Jesus placed Himself into a relationship with the Father which removed death for those who believed His word (John 8:48-59), He identified Himself as possessing divine attributes. Though the full development of His deity was still to come, Jesus' statement contradicted the Jewish understanding of the Unity of God.

Graphic representations of God

    The purpose of this appendix is to show graphic representations of God without lengthy explanations. This may help you develop a mental picture of the Person of God. As used in this appendix, the term Person identifies individuality or being rather than humanity.

    Each graphic depiction will be flawed in some way or at least incomplete. Nonetheless, use these mental images of God as you study Scripture. Attempt, with the Spirit's enlightenment, to develop an understanding of God that is biblically accurate and goes beyond the excuse that "God is just too hard to understand. We must simply accept that He is Three but He is also One."

    These graphic representations are limited. They merely represent my personal understanding of the Godhead and the inter-relationship of the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit.

The God of the Old Testament

    Figure 1 represents God as He was understood by the Old Testament saints. They understood Him to be Unity. With the exception of special revelation to specific individuals—if, in fact, David understood the Spirit to be a Person—the devout Old Testament Jew understood Yahweh to be a single Person. That was the religious setting of Jesus' day.

The New Testament concept of God

    Figure 2 represents my understanding of the Godhead as described in the New Testament.

    This representation properly shows both the Unity of God and the three Persons of God without contradicting the Absolute nature of Jesus or the Spirit. However, when using this representation, a satisfactory explanation is required for Jesus' statements that He was "under" the Father (see Chapter 8).

1. The concept of the Unity of God is as true in the New Testament as it was in the Old Testament. God did not change His character. However, after Pentecost, Jesus' disciples most certainly understood that Jesus was Messiah. They understood Jesus' title Emmanuel to describe exactly His nature as God with us (Matt. 1:23). In addition, Jesus introduced the Spirit as a Person rather than a Force. In John 15:26 the Spirit is specifically identified as the Helper who possesses personality.
   

2. Any graphic representation of God must show individual Persons while maintaining the Unity of God. This is indicated with the dashed lines in Figure 2.

3. The Unity of God cannot be compromised. In this figure, He can still be characterized as "God is One."

4. However, according to Jesus' life and teaching, we must recognize that there are three unique Persons within that Unity.

5. There cannot be any designation of greater and lesser rank among the Persons. If one is Eternal, all are Eternal. If one is Absolute, they must all be Absolute, and so on. (Note the arrow on the left side of the drawing. You can mentally rotate this figure so that any one of the three names may be placed at the top of the drawing. The Father cannot be placed at the apex of a triangle representing the Godhead.)

6. It is this Unity that makes God One. He is One in essential nature. For example, God is Absolute. The Father is Absolute. Jesus is Absolute. So too, the Spirit is Absolute. No other being is Absolute. Therefore, only the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit share this quality of being Absolute. That same quality of uniqueness (Oneness) could be extended to many other areas of their individual and collective attributes.

7. Their unique nature is not the result of a random process of elimination that left only these three with these qualities. They are not identified only by their attributes. They are equally identified by their Unity.

8. The Unity would be destroyed if any one of the three Persons were absent. God does not consist solely of the Father. God is the three Persons in Unity.

    The three Persons are recognized as such, and throughout the New Testament are seen to have different functions and relationships to believers. To mention just three, Jesus saves, the Father provides, and the Spirit convicts. Yet, they are in perfect agreement in all of their individual acts.

    The terms God and Father are not synonyms, even though the Father is fully God. The same is also true of both Jesus and the Spirit. Jesus (or the Spirit) is fully God. Nonetheless, we would not use the terms God and Jesus as synonyms. Much confusion results from using God and Father interchangeably. The term God should be used to identify the corporate Godhead. The name Father is used to identify one Person of the Godhead. However, the term God the Father properly identifies the Father.

    When Thomas exclaimed "My Lord and my God." he was not identifying Jesus as the Father. He was acknowledging Jesus' nature as God. The idea that "Jesus was his own Father" cannot exist in this explanation as it can within Modalism. (See Figure 5 below.)

    Scripture never identifies God as "They." We can speak of the individual Persons of the Godhead, but we can never go beyond the convention of Scripture and speak of God corporately as They. (The English language will force us to use They or Their when describing individual Persons of the Godhead. Nonetheless, we will never use They or Their of the corporate Godhead.) God is more than merely three equal and Absolute Persons. When speaking of the Persons collectively, Scripture recognizes only the singular form of address or identification.^[2] Scripture uses only Him, He and His when speaking of God.

    ^[2] The identification of God as Elohim is plural in Hebrew. It is, however, probably a plural form recognizing majesty rather than number.

    A brief comment needs to be made regarding the more familiar "Trinity" representation of the Godhead. A triangle is commonly labeled God, with Father at the top, Jesus (or Son) on the lower left and Spirit on the lower right. My primary objection to this representation is the presumed hierarchical order when Father is always placed at the apex. Nor does it represent both the Unity of God and the unique Persons of the Godhead as Figure 2 attempts to do with the use of dashed lines. If the three Persons are represented inside the triangle, my objection is limited to what I said above. If, however, the three Persons are represented outside of the triangle, it becomes a representation of a modalistic God. (See Figure 5 below.)

    Needless to say, most who use a drawing to represent God are not attempting to precisely represent all of His attributes. It is merely a graphic representation and we must be tolerant of that. Nonetheless, caution is in order. Many base their understanding of the Godhead on these quickly drawn illustrations.

Other views of the Godhead

    Throughout the history of the Church, there have been numerous views of the Person of God. Within two hundred years of Jesus' life, there were debates and heresies regarding the Person of Christ resulting in various explanations of the Godhead.^[3]

^[3] For an excellent study of the numerous heresies in the early Church, see the book Heresies, by Harold O. J. Brown, Hendrickson Publishers, 1988.

    I cannot give a historical background of the different views of the Godhead in this short appendix. I am merely selecting several invalid ideas encountered in churches today. You can contrast them with the graphic representation of Figure 2. In all but Figure 8, their proponents would acknowledge that Jesus—and probably the Spirit as well—is God. Your own study of Scripture will help you determine the truth or error of each viewpoint.

God is greater than the three Persons

    Figure 3 represents a view that God is something more than the three Persons, Father, Spirit, and Jesus. This is not typically a stated doctrinal position, but it may well be a misconception of many.

    This viewpoint properly identifies the three equal Persons in the Godhead, and it has a basis of recognition of the Unity of the Godhead. However, it sees God as something more than the three Persons.

A polytheistic God

    I have stressed the Unity of God in order to avoid another potential misconception. God is not merely three Persons who all, by chance, are Eternal and Absolute. The Unity of God transcends the existence of the individual Persons. Figure 4 represents three, individual Gods in communication with each other (as represented by the arrows). We need to be careful that we do not distort what was depicted in Figure 2. God is not three equal—though distinct—deities.

    This viewpoint properly identifies the three equal Persons in the Godhead, but it does not recognize the Unity of the Godhead.

A Modalistic God

    Modalism, an early heresy in the Church, described God as a single Being with three manifestations. That is, the single Being manifested Himself as the Father in the Old Testament. In the New Testament He took on a human form as Jesus in order to live as a man and pay the price of redemption. At Pentecost He appeared as the Spirit. A number of explanations have been attempted allowing the simultaneous presence of the Father and the Spirit at Jesus' baptism, etc. A surprising number of evangelicals today have a modified modalistic view of the Godhead.

    This viewpoint properly identifies the Unity of the Godhead, but it denies the three distinct Persons of the Godhead.

One Supreme God

    In practice, the viewpoint most commonly held by evangelical Christians today is represented by either Figure 6a or Figure 6b. They see the Father as the Supreme God, and Jesus and the Spirit as lesser Gods. Though most would strongly object to the term lesser God when speaking of Jesus or the Spirit, they have no difficulty identifying the Father as the Supreme authority.

    Figure 6a represents one variation in which God is generally understood to be the Father. Leading to much confusion, Jesus and the Spirit are also called God, but are assigned lower rank.

    Figure 6b represents a more complete understanding of the distinction between the corporate Unity of the Godhead and the Person of the Father. Nonetheless, the faulty hierarchical arrangement is maintained.

    This viewpoint is usually depicted by an equilateral triangle.

    The viewpoints of both Figure 6a and Figure 6b correctly identify all three Persons as being God. However, both arrangements must logically deny the Absolute nature of two Persons of the Godhead because the Father is placed above them as being pre-eminent. The convenience of the viewpoint of either Figure 6a or Figure 6b is its simple explanation of Jesus' statements that He is "under" the Father.

A Gnostic God

    In this viewpoint, God is depicted in a hierarchical arrangement shown in Figure 7. It varies little from the Supreme God viewpoint in Figure 6a other than its placement of the Spirit under Jesus' authority.

    This viewpoint correctly identifies three Persons in the Godhead, but it does not recognize God's Unity because it denies the Absolute nature of all but the Father. However, with this viewpoint, there is superficially less difficulty reconciling Jesus' statement regarding His relationship with the Father, and the seemingly slight emphasis in Scripture on the Spirit's status as God.

    The above depictions of God all portray Jesus (and the Spirit, to some degree) as being God. However, there are many who deny the deity of Jesus. It is impossible to adequately represent each viewpoint that denies the deity of Christ with a single drawing. However, any viewpoint denying the deity of Christ will contain the common element of a difference between the Absolute nature of the Father and all other created beings who differ in nature from Him. In some cases, the Spirit may be viewed as a power rather than a Person. For many, Jesus logically becomes, in a Gnostic sense, an intermediary between God and man. (That is, because Jesus is lower than God but higher than mankind, humans can communicate with him more easily than with God, or communicate with God through his agency. In a reciprocal arrangement, God communicates to humans through the agency of Jesus.) This view of God is represented in Figure 8.

    This viewpoint properly identifies the Unity of God, but it denies the deity of either Jesus or the Spirit.

"God" and "Father"

    We often interchange God (or Yahweh) and Father. When we read passages such as "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," (Genesis 1:1 NASB) and "Thus says [Yahweh] 'It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands, and I ordained all their hosts,'" (Isaiah 45:11-12 NASB) we usually visualize the Father as the One being described or speaking.

    If we interchange God and Father, we create complexity in a passage like Colossians 1:16 which says of Jesus,

    For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. (NASB)

    If we would simply understand that unless the context specifies otherwise (Scripture does sometimes use God the Father), we must understand that the term God or Yahweh (or the capitalized LORD in the Old Testament) means the corporate Godhead. The Father did not create heaven and earth. God, without specifying any individual Person of the Godhead, created all things.

    Quoting these two passages using symbols rather than God, Yahweh or Jesus will illustrate what has just been said. The basic symbol of Figure 2 without highlight represents God (or Yahweh). However, when one Person of the Godhead is identified in the verse, that Person will be highlighted in the symbol. By using the symbol from Figure 2, we will not minimize the Unity of God because all are present even when only one is highlighted. The position of the names Father, Spirit and Jesus will alternate in the symbol to emphasize the fact that there is no hierarchy in the Godhead.

    Read the passages below and see if you can better visualize what Scripture is trying to communicate. There is no discrepancy between the two reports. The New Testament is merely adding precision to the Old Testament's statement.

In the beginning

created the heavens and the earth.

Thus says

"It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it.

For in

all things were created, both in

through

and for

    The New Testament often refers to the Father, God, and Jesus in the same verse. For example, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2 says,

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you.

    These two verses would look like this using our symbols:

    Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians

in God the

and the Lord

Christ:

We give thanks to

always for all of you.

    Space prevents carrying this any further, though we could also use a similar symbol for the Spirit. Hopefully, these graphics have represented something not easily communicated with words.