Understanding the Godhead

1. Understanding the Godhead

2. Understanding the Godhead

3. Defining our Terms is the First Step in Understanding • “Godhead”, Merriam-Webster • originally from 13th century Middle English, “God-hood” • God’s essence, Deity, divinity, • i.e. His “characteristics”

4. “…hood” describes the characteristics of a person/group • Manhood • Womanhood • Childhood • Knighthood • or Godhood

5. Acts 17:29 • Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being (NASV Divine nature) is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

6. Romans 1:20 • For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

7. 2 Peter 1:4 • by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

8. Colossians 2:9 • For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

9. Acts 5:3-4 • But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

10. John 1:1, 18 • in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. • No one has ever seen God; the only God,who is at the Father's side,he has made him known.

11. John 8:57-58 • So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

12. Deuteronomy 4:35, 39 • To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. • know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

13. Deuteronomy 6:4 • “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. God is ONE, yet He/They are THREE

14. More Terms to Define • Hebrew… Yachead - mathematical one

15. Genesis 22:2 • He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

16. Zechariah 12:10 • “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

17. More Terms to Define • Hebrew… Yachead - mathematical one • Hebrew… Echad - collective one

18. Genesis 2:24 • Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

19. Ezra 3:1 • When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.

20. More Terms to Define • Hebrew… Yachead - mathematical one • Hebrew… Echad - collective one • Greek… Monos - numerical one

21. Hebrews 11:17 • By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,

22. More Terms to Define • Hebrew… Yachead - mathematical one • Hebrew… Echad - collective one • Greek… Monos - numerical one • Greek… Heis - compound unity

23. 1 Corinthians 12:12 • For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

24. John 17:21 • that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

25. Putting This All Together • Three persons possess Deity (Godhood) • These three are described as one.

26. Deuteronomy 6:4; 4:35 • Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.

27. Putting This All Together • Three persons possess Deity (Godhood) • These three are described as one. • Their oneness describes their relationship, purpose and efforts

28. Their oneness describes their relationship, purpose and efforts • From the beginning…

29. Genesis 1:2; 1 John 1:2-3 • The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. • He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

30. Genesis 1:26 • Then God said, “Let us make manin our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

31. Their oneness describes their relationship, purpose, and efforts • From the beginning… • In their work of redeeming man

32. John 5:30, 6:38, 44, 57 • I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. • For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me • No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. • As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

33. Their oneness describes their relationship, purpose, and efforts • From the beginning… • In their work of redeeming man • The Father did the sending

34. John 10:17-18 • For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

35. Their oneness describes their relationship, purpose, and efforts • From the beginning… • In their work of redeeming man • The Father did the sending • The Son gave himself

36. Their oneness describes their relationship, purpose, and efforts • From the beginning… • In their work of redeeming man • The Father did the sending • The Son gave himself • The Spirit reveals, teaches, & explains

37. Romans 1:20 • For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

38. 2 Peter 1:3-4 • His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us tohis own glory and excellence,4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.