The Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
Bill Diehl
We must not have any misunderstandings about the truth of the nature of the Godhead. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.
Many have difficulty understanding how there can be three manifestations of one God. We do not claim to understand all the unsearchable things of the nature of God but from the word of God we know that God is both a being with form and a Spirit without form.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
He is the Father whose face no one has seen and who dwells in unapproachable light, and He is the Son who is the approachable One whose face we will one day behold and who is the visible express Image of the Father, and He is the Holy Spirit who is the invisible One who indwells and sanctifies His people.
When our Lord speaks of the giving of the Comforter to dwell in the hearts of His people, He says "and WE will come unto him and make our abode with him (the believer)." Read each word of the following verses very carefully. I will use upper case letters to emphasize certain parts.
"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that HE may abide with you for ever; even the SPIRIT of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth HIM not, neither knoweth HIM: but ye know HIM; for HE dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I WILL COME UNTO YOU. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see ME: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.... If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and WE WILL COME UNTO HIM, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine (only), but (also) the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, HE SHALL TEACH you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I GO AWAY AND COME AGAIN UNTO YOU. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe." John 14:16-31
These verses speak for themselves but here are more:
"God is a Spirit (pneuma ho Theos, lit. God is Spirit or Spirit is God) and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"
"I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come."
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
"While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee."
Whether or not one uses the term "persons" to describe the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the fact remains that all three describe the One true God----the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God and describe how God has chosen to reveal Himself to His creation. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God.
Christ Himself gave us the formula to use in baptism and this cannot simply be swept aside by saying that He did not say "in the name of" three times" as in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit. The fact remains that the Holy Spirit has a name. It is "the Holy Spirit". His "office" is to glorify the Son and make Him known to the world.
The Holy Spirit is not merely a force or merely the power of God. The Holy Spirit is God. God indwells His people by the Holy Spirit indwelling us. The Father and the Son are in heaven and the Holy Spirit is now God's representative in the Earth. The Holy Spirit has a personality and can be grieved, resisted, spoken against, and hardened against. The Holy Spirit is one of the names of God and we must take off our shoes as we approach this topic of how God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.
Matthew 28:18-20 "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
John 16:7-28 But I tell you the truth, It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me." Some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" They kept asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying."
2 Corinthians 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Romans 8:27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
Mark 3:28-30 Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin." For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Luke 12:11-12 do not become anxious about how or what you should speak in your defense, or what you should say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
Notice also the trinitarian greeting in Revelation 1:4
" Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead,"
Clearly this it a blessing from the Father, Holy Spirit, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let there be no misunderstanding here: God loves us, God died for us, God indwells the believer. Those who do not believe in the absolute deity and eternality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not abiding in the apostolic Christian faith once delivered to the saints. Even the Old Testament name of God, Elohim, a plural noun with a singularity of use, reveals the plurality of God's person and yet the singularity of His essence or being.
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