- CHAPTER 10: Jesus, One Face of One God

A PERSON CANNOT BE A Christian and deny that the living God has revealed Himself to our sinful race as the sovereign Father, the eternal Son and the faithful Spirit. Yet some professing Christians are so selfishly intrigued by their own expressions of “following Jesus” that they seem unaware that their lives are daily dependent on the promised ministration of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
For such as these—and actually for all of us in the Christian faith—the writer of the letter to the Hebrews has set forth a compelling and revealing truth: “Christ… through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God” (Hebrews 9:14).
Salvation involves the entire Trinity
How do we effectively teach this to our “babes in Christ” who are prone to say, “I like what I know about Jesus. Surely it is not necessary for me to go beyond that.” Our best answer, of course, is a simple statement of Christian doctrine: The Bible makes it plain that the redemption of our lost race was effected on our behalf by the eternal Trinity—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
We cannot overestimate the full significance of that statement in terms of our redemption and God’s atoning work.
There likewise is no ground for a thoughtful, thankful believer to deny that his or her salvation was wrought by the
same eternal Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the whole emphasis of Hebrews 9:14. And it is what I want to emphasize, too.
None of us can ever be fully pleasing to God if we are no twilling to be well taught in His Word. I want to be sure that we know what being well taught in the Word means. It does not refer to being well taught in religion. Rather, it is being well taught in the basic concepts necessary to the Christian faith.
One of these basic concepts is the insistence that the crowning achievement of New Testament revelation is the implantation within a believer of a force that impels him or her to act righteously. God has promised this as confirmation that He is able to purge the human conscience from dead religious works, freeing the believer to serve the living God in joy and victory regardless of his or her circumstances in life.
The writer was not suggesting that these early Hebrew Christians, in a time of crisis, lean on religious forms or depend on religious practices. He stressed their need to grasp what God had done for them in a New Covenant centered in Jesus Christ, Savior and Messiah.
Which is more important?
I am reminded that one old saint was asked, “Which is the more important: reading God’s Word or praying?” To which he replied, “Which is more important to a bird: the right wing or the left?” The writer to the Hebrews was telling his readers—and telling us—that Christians must believe all there is to be believed. They are to do all that the Word commands them to do. Those two wings take the Christian up to God! I sense a spirit of independence, if not rebellion, in the believer who states, “I am not going to bother with the doctrines and the teachings. I am just going to lean back and enjoy Jesus!” It is the path of least resistance. Although I do not wish to scold anyone at this point, it is where many Christians need proper encouragement and godly example.
God has purposefully given us a mental capacity with wide human boundaries. Beyond that, if we are justified, regenerated believers, He has given us an entirely new spiritual capacity. God wants us to believe, to think, to meditate, to consider His Word. He has promised that the Holy Spirit is waiting to teach us. He has assured us concerning all of our blessings in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 9:14 informs us that Christ, who is God the Son through the divine Spirit, offered Himself to God, the heavenly Father. Thus we have in the act of redemption the involvement of the Trinity, the Godhead.
Keep in mind that the persons of the Godhead cannot fulfill their ministries separately. We may think of them separately, but they can never be separated. The early church fathers recognized this wholeness of God’s person. They said we must not divide the substance of the Trinity, though we recognize the three persons.
No contradictions
Critics often have declared that the Bible contradicts itself in matters relating to the Trinity. For example, Genesis speaks of God’s creating the heavens and the earth. The New Testament declares that the Word—God the Son—created all things. Still other references speak of the Holy Spirit’s work in creation.
These are not contradictions. Father, Son and Spirit worked together in the miracles of creation, just as they worked together in the planning and effecting of human redemption. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are consubstantial—going back to the statement of the early church fathers. They are one in substance and cannot be separated.
When Jesus was to launch His earthly ministry, He went to John at the Jordan River to be baptized. The record speaks of the Trinity’s involvement. As Jesus stood on the bank of the river following His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon Him and the voice of God the Father was heard from heaven saying “`This is my Son, whom I love.’“
Similar references remind us of the Trinity’s involvement in the glory of Christ’s resurrection. During His ministry, Jesus spoke of His coming death. “`Destroy this temple,’“ Jesus said, referring to His body, “`and I will raise it again in three days.’“ Jesus also declared that the Father would raise Him up on the third day. We are accustomed to saying that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. But in Romans 1 we read that the Spirit of God declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power “by his resurrection from the dead.”
Throughout the Bible record, we have the ever-recurring instances of the persons of the Godhead, the Trinity, working together in perfect harmony. I rejoice in the scriptural assurances of the ministries of the holy Trinity. But I know there are many who confess to problems with the concept of and the teaching concerning the Trinity. If we are going to grasp and appreciate this truth, it will mean diligence on our part. We may need to “pull the weeds” in order that the truth will have soil in which to mature.
Probably we all have wondered at some time or another why our gardens do not produce red tomatoes and yellow corn and green beans without great care and cultivation on our part. Left to themselves, our garden plots will bring forth their own crops of weeds, thistles and briars. This they will do without any help from anyone.
Why? Because the world has been upside down since Adam’s fall. God had to say to Adam,
Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, …
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food.…” (Genesis 3:17-18)
A self-demonstrating truth
We are grateful to God for the historical insights of Genesis 3. Adam and Eve fell from their first holy and lofty estate, sinning by transgressing the Word of their God. That is a statement of fact. But even without the inspired record, we know that the progeny of those first parents are sinners. It is a self-demonstrating truth. The news in our morning paper is proof enough. Hatred is everywhere. Greed surrounds us. Pride and arrogance and violence rule our race. The issue is murder, war and a long list of continuing offenses against one another and against God.
The Scriptures tell us the whole story. Not only have we sinned, but our moral revolt has alienated us from God.
Some people still like to protest God’s right to banish the transgressor from His presence forever. They insist upon forming and holding their own humanistic views of God. For that reason I say, let’s clear away some of these weeds!
First, there is the old idea that Jesus Christ, the Son, differs from God the Father. People conceive Christ to be a loving Jesus on our side while an angry Father God is against us. Never, never in all of history has there been any truth in that notion. Christ, being God, is for us. The Father, being God, is for us. The Holy Spirit, being God, is for us! That is one of the greatest thoughts we can ever hope to think. That is why the Son came to die for us. That is why the risen Son, our great High Priest, is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, praying for us.
Christ is our advocate above. The Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts is the advocate within. There is no disagreement between Father, Son and Spirit about the church, the body of Christ.
I must confess that after I became a believer it took sometime for me to overcome the feeling that the New Testament was a book of love and the Old Testament a book of judgment. I have given the proposition much time and study, and I am able to make a report. You should know that there are three mentions of mercy in the Old Testament for every one found in the New Testament!
I find there is equally as much recorded in the Old Testament about God’s grace and faithfulness as there is in the New. Go clear back to Noah and you will find the record plain: “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). Favor, or grace, is an Old Testament quality. “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, / slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalms 103:8).
On the other hand, judgment is a New Testament quality. Read the words of Jesus in the Gospels. Read Peter’s warnings. Read the letter of Jude. Read the Revelation. In the New Testament we learn of the terrible judgments God intends to bring upon the world.
God does not change
Why do I mention these things? Because God is a God of judgment, but He is also the God of all grace. God is always the same. He will never change or falter. And when I say God I refer to the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I suspect that many preachers and evangelists have left the false impression in our churches that Christ won God over to our side by dying for us. We have been encouraged to think of the Father as the angry God standing with the club of vengeance, about to destroy sinning mankind. But suddenly Jesus rushes in and takes the blow, allowing us to escape.
That may be good drama, but it is poor theology!
Here is the truth of the matter. The Father in heaven so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It was the love of the Father that sent the Son into our world to die for mankind. The Father and Son and Spirit were in perfect agreement that the eternal Son should die for the sins of the world. We are not wrong to believe—and proclaim—that while Mary’s Son, Jesus, died alone, terribly alone, on that cross, the loving heart of God the Father was as deeply pained with suffering as was the heart of the holy, dying Son.
We must ask our Lord to help us comprehend what it meant to the Trinity for the Son to die alone on the cross. When the holy Father had to turn His back on the dying Son by the necessity of divine justice, I believe the pain for the Father was as great as the suffering of the Savior as He bore our sins in His body. When the soldier drove that Roman spear into the side of Jesus, I believe it was felt in heaven.
There is another misconception that has been taught through the years. We have been taught that only one person of the Trinity took part in the plan of redemption. But Hebrews 9:14 tells us that Father, Son and Holy Spirit all had a part. The Father received the offering of the Son through the Holy Spirit.
And what was the offering? It was the blameless and sinless Son, offered as the Lamb of God, without spot and without blemish. The redemptive price was paid by the Son to the Father through the Spirit.
The personal application
There has to be a personal application of these truths. Redemption has flowed down to mankind from the heart of God through His Son by the Spirit. But salvation, to be effective, must be appropriated and confessed. Redemption is an objective thing. It is something outside of us.
Redemption is something that took place on a cross, but salvation is something that takes place and becomes known inside of us! Salvation is redemption appropriated by faith. The three persons of the Godhead continue to call the lost to salvation.
In the Gospels, we read that Jesus ate and talked with sinners. He knew why He was there. He was not approving their wickedness. He was there because it was His nature to offer help and forgiveness and salvation. His critics and enemies saw Him there and asked, “What kind of a religious person are you? How can you eat and talk with sinners?”
Our Lord had an answer. He told them three stories, which are really all one story.
Jesus told them of the 99 sheep in the fold and of the search by the shepherd for the one that was lost. The shepherd would not rest until he had found the lost sheep.
Jesus told them of the woman who treasured a piece of jewelry made up of 10 silver coins. But one of the coins somehow turned up missing, so she got a candle and a broom, and she searched the house everywhere. Suddenly her efforts were rewarded. “I have found it!” she exclaimed with jubilance.
Then Jesus told them of the man who had two sons. The one we would call, in our day, a delinquent. I have never understood why the father gave him his share of the estate when he asked for it. But the father did, and the son set out and soon had squandered all the money. Forsaken by his false friends, he had to feed pigs in their stinking pen to earn something to eat. Finally he said to himself, “What a fool I am! I will return home and be a servant to my father. At least I will have food.”
We all know the rest of the story. “I am unworthy!” the boy confessed to his father. But his father forgave him and dressed him in new garments. He threw a great feast and, amid much rejoicing, restored the boy to his place in the family.
The meaning of the three stories
I read and studied those three stores for a long while without being sure I knew what Jesus meant to convey by them. I checked out the commentaries and the reference books; still I was not sure of the meaning. So I sought God alone in earnest prayer to find out what He was trying to say to us as a lost and alienated race. I share with you what the Spirit of God taught me.
Jesus was trying to make plain the searching, seeking, loving ministries of the Trinity—the Godhead. That lost boy was the lost world. That lost sheep was the lost world. That lost piece of silver was the lost world.
The picture that we must see, then, is the Father looking for the lost son. It is also the Son, the good shepherd, looking for His lost sheep. And it is the Holy Spirit, depicted by the woman with the light, searching for the lost piece of silver. Add them up and you have God’s picture of the Godhead working to redeem the human race. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always seeking the lost treasure.
““That is why I eat with sinners,” Jesus was saying. “I am the Son, the Shepherd, looking for my lost sheep. My Father is looking for His lost boy. The Holy Spirit is looking for His missing piece of silver.”
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are united in their search for the lost. That is our answer for the would be critics. The Son of God gave the divine offering of Himself, the Holy Spirit conveyed it, and the heavenly Father received it! The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—the divine Trinity—were jointly engaged in the great and eternal business of seeking and saving lost men and women.