July 2019 – What Does This Mean?

And There’s None Other God

Encore Post: The word “Trinity” is old — it was first used in second century AD. (100-200 AD) Yet, it is not a term used by the Bible. Christian theologians use it to sum up what the Scripture says about the nature of God. It helps to look at the passages that brought the Church to talk about God in this way.

The first truth that the Word of God reveals to us about God is that he is unique. There is only one God. On this point, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and a number of other religions agree. Here is how the Holy Spirit talks about the number of gods and the unity of God.

Judaism uses Deuteronomy 6:4 as its creed: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Jesus and Paul agree. (Mark 12:29, Romans 3:30, Galatians 3:20). Other passages emphasize that there is one God. (Ephesians 4:6 1 Timothy 2:5, James 2:19).

There are no other Gods besides the Lord. (Isaiah 45:21, 1 Corinthians 8:4) None of the so-called gods of the nations are like him. (Isaiah 46:8-9) None of the false gods can bring rain (Jeremiah 14:22) Since they are not real, they cannot help, much less save.

From these, and many other passages, the Church concluded and still believes that there is only one God. It is this God that we fear, love and trust as our own.

The Bible Calls Jesus God

Encore Post: The Church knew from the start that Jesus was God. Yet both the Scripture and the Church from its earliest days confessed that there is only one God. They fearlessly proclaimed this truth when every culture around them believed anything but that there was just one God. They were even called Atheists because they didn’t believe in the Roman Gods or play the game of merging their religion with those around them.

The early church recognized that the New Testament clearly assumes Jesus is God. In some places, it calls him so point blank. (John 1:1, John 1:18, Romans 9:5, Philippians 2:11 (Jesus Christ is Lord), Titus 2:13, Hebrews 1:8, 2 Peter 1:1) He is identified as the Son of God and calls himself the Son of Man. Jesus is called Lord, calls himself Lord or implies he is Yahweh.

The New Testament also gives titles to Jesus that the Old Testament reserves for God alone. He is the Savior (Isaiah 45:21, Hosea 13:4, Luke 1:47, Acts 5:31) God is our shepherd (Psalm 23:1, Ezekiel 34:15) and Jesus is the shepherd (Hebrews 13:20) God is the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6). Jesus is the first and the last. (Revelation 1:17) Other titles are also given to both God and to Jesus. These reinforced the conviction of the church that Jesus is both God and Lord.

The Eternal Son of the Father

Encore Post: Jesus has always been God’s Son and always will be God’s Son. “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity…” Martin Luther explains in the Small Catechism. “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds…” we confess in the Nicene Creed. It is why we sing in the ancient hymn Te Deum Laudamus, “you are the Everlasting Son of the Father.”

We can somewhat understand how Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. But how he could be “begotten” by the Father in eternity — outside of time — without having a beginning makes no sense to us. Yet that is exactly how God describes the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

So far, so good. The problem comes when we try to understand how this can be. As we discussed in a previous post, we cannot fully understand God because we are creatures and he is our creator. It is a mystery — a riddle human logic cannot solve. The issue has to do with the quality of God (attribute) that he is eternal — that time does not exist for God. For human beings, everything has to do with the fact that time passes. We are conceived in our mother’s womb, grow, are born, become adults, grow old and die. Even though we we live forever, it is at best difficult to imagine life without a beginning and an end.

Yet God, in his wisdom, uses this language to help us understand the closest relationship in the universe — the eternal Father begets his eternal Son. (Psalm 2, John 1:18, 3:16-18, Hebrews 1) So, we also use this way to describe the Son and be content to understand him this way.

Program Note: Updated Blog Series Page

Program Note: I’ve updated the Blog Post Series page ( https://whatdoesthismean.blog/blog-post-series/ ) to reflect all of our Church Words posts. More to come.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Electronic Resources Librarian
Concordia Theological Seminary
Blog Editor