the deity of messiah, part one
the deity of messiah, part two
the deity of messiah, part three
the deity of messiah, part four
We have seen that man is the natural picture which teaches us something about the nature of God (see the teaching tools of scripture to learn about the teaching tool of natural pictures), for man was created in the image of God. We have seen that the Scriptures reveal man as a triune being, as 1) an eternal spirit, possessing 2) a soul consisting of the mind, will, and emotions, the personality, who 3) dwells in the body as a house.
So then I am a triune being, but no one would come up to me and tell me that my body did not represent me, or that my mind did not represent me, or that my spirit did not represent me. I am a single, unique, and unifed person, and all my parts are so thoroughly integrated so as to express my existence, my individuality and my personhood in the world.
Might not this be the natural picture of man, something that we are very familiar with, which teaches us something about the nature of God who we cannot see and who we cannot otherwise understand?
God, admittedly, is far too great for our human finite minds to grasp. But if man is the natural picture which is meant to reveal something about God, might not the Holy Spirit roughly represent the Spirit of God, the heart of God; might not God the Father, YHVH, roughly represent the soul or mind or will or personality of God – please, I am speaking very generally here and am in no way saying this is the limit of God! – and might not Yeshua, Jesus, roughly represent the body of God, or perhaps more accurately, God in bodily form so that He can interact with us in this limited natural world?
Of course man as a natural picture does not reveal everything about God. But he reveals enough about God so that what we see in the Scriptures concerning God — physical manifestations of God in the Old Testament; clear language and grammar referring to the Holy Spirit as God; Jesus in the Gospels and New Testament receiving worship as God — allows us to understand the triune nature of God as completely compatible with His unity and singularity and uniqueness as the Shema in Deu 6:4-5 clearly teaches.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Rev 1:8
If one were to continue reading in Rev 1, it is clear that the One who is speaking in Rev 1:8, who proclaimed Himself the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty, is the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
So for me, whenever a debate begins among my friends about the deity of Messiah Yeshua, I neither get alarmed nor worry nor am plagued with doubts. Instead I wonder, if they have no problem accepting the triune nature of their own existence, why accepting the triune nature of God’s existence is such a stumbling block.
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