The Revealed Member of the Trinity


Introduction: In working on Genesis, it suddenly occurred to me that I began referring (correctly) to Jesus Christ as Yahweh Elohim. This must be disconcerting for the new student of the Bible; and sometimes, even the old student of the Bible. We will certainly have to take this in points:

 1.    God is a Spirit. [Jesus is speaking]: "God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) Note that Jesus Christ is speaking and He is speaking of God the Father (John 4:23).

 2.    Spirit cannot be seen or touched (or perceived with any of the basic five senses). [Jesus is speaking]: "See My hands and My feet, that it is I myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." (Luke 24:39).

 3.    No one has seen God at any time. No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God Footnote , who is in the bosom of the Father; He has thoroughly revealed [and explained] Him. (John 1:18)

 4.    The Godhead is a trinity; three persons with identical essence and different functions (Gen. 1:1–2, 26 .Isa. 44:6 45:11 48:16 Hos. 1:7 II Cor. 13:14).

       a)   God the Father planned human history and He is not seen (John 1:18 Acts 1:7  2:23).

       b)   God the Holy Spirit provides the energy or the enablement to execute portions of God the Father's plan (Matt. 12:28 w/ Luke 11:20 Acts 19:11 w/ Rom. 15:19); however, He does not speak of Himself nor does He call attention to Himself (John 16:13–14).

              i.     He warmed the ice pack that the earth was frozen in (Gen. 1:2).

              ii.    He provided Jesus Christ with His divine operating assets during His incarnation Jesus Christ did not depend upon His own deity (Matt. 12:28 Luke 3:22 4:1,14,17–21).

              iii.   He provides us with our enablement to execute the Christian life (I Cor. 3:16 Gal. 5:5,18 Eph. 3:16). This is why all Christians have a meaningful part in God's plan whereas the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament only provided enablement to a few (I Sam. 16:13–14 II Chron. 20:14 Psalm 51:11 Footnote Isa. 61:1 Ezek. 11:5 Joel 2:28 Footnote ).

       c)    God the Son is the revealed member of the trinity (Col. 1:15). He acts in accordance with the Father's plan and does the work (John 6:38–40 8:28 10:37–38).

              i.     He is the Yahweh Elohim who created the universe (John 1:1–3,14 Col. 1:15–16).

              ii.    When Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus replied: "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, 'Show us the Father'?" (John 14:9b)

              iii.   He went to the cross on our behalf, according to the Father's plan, and was judged for our sins (Matt. 16:21–23 20:17–19).

 5.    When the Pharisees asked Who Jesus was, He said, Before Abraham, I existed eternally. We can today try to obscure what Jesus meant but the Pharisees understood perfectly what He was saying. They took up stones to stone Him because they knew He was making Himself equal with God (John 8:56–59).

 6.    Since God the Father is a Spirit and no one has seen Him at anytime, and since Jesus Christ is also called Yahweh Elohim (by comparing Gen. 1:1,26–27 with Col. 1:16 and John 1:1–3,14), we can conclude that Jesus Christ is the member of the trinity Who walked with Adam and the woman in the garden.


Related doctrines: The Trinity, the Hypostatic Union, the Deity of Jesus Christ, the Theophanies, Jesus Christ is the Messiah (John 4:25-26)