In the Beginning / God and Language Part 4 – Who is the Son of God?

⁷For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (1 John 5:7, King James Version) In part 3 of this series, who is God the Father, we concluded that God the Father is an invisible immaterial Spirit; He is not made of matter, does not have a body, He is not a corporeal being. The person we know as Jesus Christ is defined by the bible as the Only Begotten Son of God; He is commonly referred to as the second person of the three persons defined in the bible as God namely:
• GOD THE FATHER
• THE SON OF GOD
• THE HOLY SPIRIT
In this study I am going to deliberately avoid the word TRINITY because it is not to be found in the bible. The bible does tell us that there are three in Heaven and the three are one. This seeming paradox of three being one has caused much confusion and volumes that can fill libraries have been written on this topic. If we simply study what the bible has to teach about each of the three persons that are one, it will become apparent that the seeming paradox is exactly that, a seeming paradox, the mystery has a solution and we arrive at that solution by sleuthing through the bible. The first clue as to why there are three may be found in the fact that God the Father is invisible and the very purpose of material creation is to make the invisible visible.

²⁰For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:20, King James Version) all material creation is a visible representation of the varied and infinite facets of God the Father. All matter, all creation from the minutest particle to the largest star is a revelation, and creation reveals the Creator to all who wish to see and hear Him in that which is visible to the eyes and audible to the ears. Material creation, created matter whether in the form of celestial bodies such as stars and planets or terrestrial things such as oceans, mountains, trees and grass indeed point to the fact that there is a creator and also reveal certain facets of his being such as his power and his intelligence. However material creation alone does not reveal to us the person of God and the character of God, it is not obvious from looking at stars or oceans alone that God is Love or that he is merciful, kind and long – suffering. The heart of God could only be seen in a person whose actions would reveal such aspects of his character to his creation. Therefore God deemed it necessary not only to create inanimate objects such as planets but also to create intelligent life, living creatures that could experience life and through their experience come to understand their creator.

In order to fully make himself visible to his creation, man in particular, with whom God would have a relationship in every sense of the word, it was imperative that he first make himself visible by becoming a corporeal being, a bodily person. Otherwise God would forever remain invisible to all; even though they could understand certain aspects of his character they could never understand him intimately as he understood them. The ultimate purpose of all material creation is for the invisible creator, God the Father, to create himself in corporeal form, that person that was a result of this purpose that was purposed from the beginning of creation is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

¹⁵Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (Colossians 1:15, King James Version) God was made visible to all creation through the visible form he created for himself in the person of Jesus Christ who is God in a body.

⁹For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9, King James Version)

⁹Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? (John 14:9, King James Version)

The above two scriptures clearly reveal that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God is God in a body. The invisible immaterial God created for himself a material corporeal body to dwell in so that firstly he would become visible, and secondly but more importantly, his creation would now understand his character because as a visible person God would have revealed through his actions who he is on the inside. Jesus’ response to Philip’s question to ‘show them the Father’ is very revealing; he simply stated that whoever had seen him had seen the Father, but how? Simply put the person that dwells in all his fullness in the body of the person we know as Jesus Christ is God the Father, thus it can be understood that the only begotten Son of God and The Father are one because they are the same person. They are not similar persons , they are identical as proven by the following scripture: ³Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high: (Hebrews 1:3, King James Version) In the above scripture Jesus is said to be the Express Image of God the Father meaning he is IDENTICAL IN CHARACTER AND PERSON to God the Father. God the Father that is Spirit and not a corporeal being came to dwell in the body of Jesus in all his fullness, all of God the Father dwells in the corporeal visible being whose name is Jesus Christ which is why Jesus is God. However though all of The Father dwells in Jesus, all of him also exists outside of this one body as The Eternal Everlasting invisible Spirit that he has always been and always will be. Thus Jesus Christ is both The Eternal God through the complete and whole person of God that dwells in his body, but he is also a created being with a beginning in time in the form of the body that was created a mere two thousand years ago. It is through the visible bodily person that is Jesus Christ that The Eternal invisible God was finally made visible so that he could be touched, handled, heard, made manifest and seen. Thus God the Father continues to be the invisible immaterial Spirit but he also now exists in all his fullness in the body of Jesus Christ. They are two yet they are one. Biblically speaking there is no question as to the deity of Jesus Christ, he is God in the flesh, in corporeal form, in bodily form, in visible form. In the next part of this series we will turn our attention to the third person of The Godhead, the Holy Spirit.