CHAPTER III.

J. Merle D’Aubigne, author of “History of the Reformation,” wrote in the middle of the 19th century: “What is Jesus Christ if He be not God in history? Is not this great truth, that God has appeared in human nature, in reality the keystone of the arch? History records a birth of God, and yet God has no part in history. Jesus Christ is the true God of man’s history. God appeared among men, and as man, to save that which was lost. In Jesus of Nazareth dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Martin Luther declared: “Christ is the one, sole, and true God ( 1 John 5:20). When you have Him for your God, you have no other gods.” He also declared, “Thy repentance and thy works may deceive thee, but Christ, thy God, wilt not deceive thee.” To Pope Leo, Luther wrote, “Christ who is God and man. Christ who has never sinned, and whose holiness is immaculate. Christ the Almighty and Everlasting.”

Melancthon, Luther’s co-laborer, “quoted often Homer, Plato, Cicero, Pliny and others, for he was a great scholar, but Christ ever remained his Master and his God.” – D’Aubigne.

Zwingle declared: “Christ, who is very God, and very man. Since it was the eternal God who died for us, his passion is therefore an eternal sacrifice. – Acts 20:28. Proceeding from the Father, he (Christ) is God, and consequently present in every place. According to his human nature, he was absent from heaven while be was upon the earth, and quitted the earth when he ascended into heaven; but, according to his divine nature, he remained in heaven when he came down thence (the Logos), and did not abandon the earth, when he returned thither.”

Staupitz, the spiritual father of Luther, said: “We cannot understand God outside of Jesus Christ. In Him, the Lord has said, you will find what I am, and what I require. Nowhere else, neither in heaven nor in earth, will you discover it.”

Dr. Albert Eby, Wilshire Presby. Church Pastor, writes: “The only perfect man in all history or experience was God Himself, manifest in the flesh. He is also revealed as the indwelling Holy Spirit.”

Wm. Conant, in his Magazine, “Salvation,” some years ago wrote the following: “It is the grand theological error of separating the Father and the Son, as two in this sacrifice (the atonement), in the suffering of it and the love in it, that has perverted the doctrine to an impossibility for the moral mind, and has been answerable for the defection of millions of souls from the Gospel of Christ. An intelligent Scriptural correction of this error in the theology of the church must be the32 means of arresting the present already stupendous apostasy.”

Wm. H. Bennett, a well known English writer, in his book, “The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ,” has written as follows: “The Lord Jesus Christ was when on earth, and is now in heaven, absolutely, both God and man. He is truly God. He is truly man. From His incarnation and birth He was, He is, and He ever will be both God and man.

“In Isa. 6, we read that the prophet saw. One seated upon a throne, high and lifted up, before Whom seraphim covered themselves. That this was the very One who afterwards trod the earth in humiliation, is declared by the Apostle John. – John 12:41, Isa. 7:14; Isa. 9:6. “Jehovah our Righteousness.” – Jer. 23:6. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1. The beginning of which John speaks is a beginning that is beginningless, not the beginning of creation ( Gen. 1:1). The “Word was.” Essential being was His. “Before Abraham was I Am.” – John 8:58. He is revelation of God. – John 1:18.

“The Lord Jesus is spoken of chiefly as the Son of God, But this expression denotes nothing less than oneness, with the Father, and possession of all the attributes of Godhead.” I and the Father are one.”. -_ John 10:30, – Greek. “The Jews. answered him “For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” – John 10:33. They had understood that he applied to himself that title by which Jehovah was revealed to Moses – ( Ex. 3). “Before Abraham was I am” – John 8:58. The Jews understood his meaning. – John 1:36 (He was the Logos, the Word that “was God.” – John 1:1, “equal with God.” John 5:18, Phil. 2:6.)

“St. Paul is declaring that in the Son there dwells all the fullness of absolute Godhead, they were no mere rays of Divine glory which gilded Him, lighting up His Person for a season and with a splendor not His own, but He was, and is, absolute and perfect God.” The Son of God is the exact and full expression of what God is, which He could not be if He were not Himself God.

“In Rev. 1, Christ is associated with the eternal God as the equal source of grace and peace; in Rev. 5, He is equally with Him who sits on the throne, the object of universal worship; in Rev. 22, He is seen as sharing with God the throne of the new creation. In Rev. 22:13, He describes Himself by the words which in Rev. 1:8 are the utterance of the Lord God. “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” While in that same verse, as well as in Rev. 1:17, He declares Himself to be “the First and the Last.” This prerogative is three times claimed for the Lord Jehovah, in Isa. 41:4; Isa. 44:6; Isa. 48:12, and in like manner three times in Revelation, 1:17; 2:8; 22:13. It is the expression of absolute Godhead, “I am the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no god” ( Isa. 44:6). He is from eternity to eternity, so that there is no room for any other.

“Godhead in all its fulness, and manhood in all its perfectness,33 are united in the Christ of God. He appeared to Ezekiel by the river Chebar with “the likeness as the appearance of a man” ( Ezek. 1:1, 26), as He had previously manifested Himself to Moses in the bush, and to Isaiah in the temple. But when He came into the world to dwell for a season, He took on “flesh.” Phil. 2:5-11, – ”made himself of no reputation” is what is meant by “emptying himself.” He had not and could not empty Himself of His Godhead. He became what He before was not; but He had not ceased to be what He was. He divested Himself of all outward expressions of Divine glory. He abased Himself.

“In all revelations of God it was by the Son that He revealed Himself. – John 1:18. Gen. 1:1:2, – one of these was the Lord. Gen. 16:7; 32:24, Ex. 3:2, Joshua 5:15. These were all appearances of the Angel of Jehovah (Jesus Christ), in a form suitable to the occasion. It is true that Daniel had a glorious vision of “one like unto the Son of Man” (‘a son of man.’ – R. V.), receiving the kingdom from “The Ancient of Days,” but he is careful to tell us that it was a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.” – Dan. 7:13, 14.

“ Heb. 1:2, He is declared to be the Son, but in v. 8, He is addressed as God. Heb. 1:10 ( Ps. 102:25), He is addressed as Jehovah. Bishop Beveridge says, “If Jesus were God only, and not man, He could not suffer anything whereby to satisfy Divine justice; if man only and not God, He could not satisfy even though He suffered. If man only, His satisfaction could not be sufficient for God; if God only, it would not be suitable for man. And therefore to be capable of suffering for man, and able to satisfy God, Himself must be both God and man.” He was “the Man that is My fellow.” – Zech. 13:7. ( John 10:30.)

The deeper our sense of the true glory and fulness of our Lord, the deeper will be our confidence in Him, and the truer will be our confidence in Him, and the truer will be our reverence in speaking of Him.” – W. H. Bennett.

Dr. A. C. Dixon, speaking of Sir Oliver Lodge said “But I want to know, does this man believe in Jesus Christ as the eternal God, who made the world and the ether; and the atoms, and everything else that was made. And does he bow his knee and worship Him? If he does not, he is on the other side – against God.

“You don’t need anybody if you will just take “Jesus only.” And what we need is not to consult with spirits, but trust the Holy Spirit of God, looking up into the face of Jesus and worship Him, and love Him, and serve Him, and “Jesus only” will make us triumphant over sin, and sorrow, and death, and hell. Jesus only is what we need.” – Christian Alliance Weekly.

Editor Stanley Frodsham: “Every Bible student knows that since no man hath seen God (the Father) at any time, that the Lord Jehovah who manifested Himself to prophet and patriarch so often in olden times, was none other than the only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the one,34 according to John, who has declared or made the Father known (John 1:18).

Pastor Harry Morse writes: “Today I see a Christ that is high over all, with all power in heaven and earth, Matt. 28:18; and with a name that is above every name. – Phil. 2:9. People are trying to strip our Lord of His divinity, and also one is about to come in his own name.” – John 5:43. This being will be the Antichrist. – 1 John 2:18.”

God calls Himself Israel’s Savior, – ”For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. – Isa. 43:3. “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior.” – Isa. 43:11. “A just God and a savior; there is none beside me.” – Isa. 45:21. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” – I Tim. 2:3. “According to the commandment of God our Savior.” – Titus 1:3. “That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” – Titus 2:10. “Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” – Titus 2:13 R. V. “But when the kindness of God our Savior.” – Titus 3:4. “To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and greatness, might and authority, both now, and to all ages.” – Jude 25 (Greek).

Shepherd: Compare Isa. 40:10, 11, with John 10:11, I Peter 5:4. Rock: “ II Sam. 22:47, Ps. 62:2; 78:35. “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ.” – 1 Cor. 10:4. Some think the children of Israel got their water continually from this Rock in the desert. King: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be one, and his name one.” – I Cor. 2:8. “Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in its own times he shall show who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” – I Tim. 6:14, 15, R.V. “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” – Rev. 19:16. The I AM: “ Ex. 3:14 6:3; John 8:58 . The First and Last: Isa. 41:4; 43:10, 44:6; Isa. 48:12, Rev. 1:17; Rev. 22:13.”

Pastor D. W Kerr: “There are some things of which the written word of God speaks, which are, and always will be, too deep and high for us to understand. He has not told us how He can be a Father without beginning, nor how He can. Have a Son without beginning; nor how there can be a Holy Ghost without beginning. In other words, the Bible does not tell us how there can be a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost, who always was, is now, and ever shall be, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The Veil is the flesh of Christ. – Heb. 10:20, It in the “Word made flesh.” On the one side, God. On the other side man, the God-man.”

Justin Martyr, beheaded at Rome, A. D., 167, wrote: That ye might also know God, who came from above and became man among men. And who is again to return, when they who pierced Him shall see and bewail Him.”

Clemens Alexandrinus, a friend of Iraneaus (who suffered martyrdom A. D., 202), says: “Believe, O man, in Him who35 is both man and God; believe, O man, in Him who suffered death, and yet is adored as the living God.”

Thomas Chatterton, an English poet, wrote: “A humble form the Godhead wore, the pains of poverty He bore, to gaudy pomp unknown. Tho’ in a human walk He trod, still was the Man Almighty God, in glory all His own.”

Thomas B. Macauly, English historian, writes: “It was before Deity embodied in human form, walking among men, that the prejudices of the synagogue and the doubts of the academy, the faces of the victors and the swords of thirsty legions were humbled in the dust.”

Frances B. Willard, American Temperance reformer, said in her last words: “I am safe with Him. I have always believed in Christ. He is the incarnate God.”

Chas. H. Spurgeon wrote: “In heaven, in earth, in hell, all knees bend before Him, and every tongue confesses that He (Christ) is God.”

“Be a valiant soldier, routing every sin. Sing His praise, sing His praise. Christ the great Jehovah, will be sure to win. Sing His praise, sing His praise.” – I. O. Brown.

“Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.” – Isaac Watts.

Dictionary of Apostolic Church, by Jas. Hastings, D. D.: “The revelation of the Son is the revelation of the, Father. – 1 John 1:2. “Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.” – Matt. 11:27. The Holy Ghost is in one breath called by St. Paul the “Spirit of God,” and “the Spirit of Christ.” – Rom. 8:9, Titus 3:4-6, Eph. 4:4. “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” – John 14:10.”

People who imagine they could view God’s unveiled presence and live do not know God. – Deut. 4:12-16. It is said by those who work among them that both Jews and Moslems believe that christians worship three gods (are idolators). Would it not be better to preach to them “God manifest in the flesh,” in the person of Jesus Christ?

“The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.” – , Isa. 40:3, 9; “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight.” – Matt. 3:3.

Ancient Jacobite copies of the N. T. read: “For God himself, in his grace, tasted death for all men.” – Heb. 2:9. “To feed the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.” – Acts 20:28.

A certain writer has added the following on the subject of the Godhead: “God’s one great being is a spiritual Being, and not angelic nor human, but He is just like Himself, and nothing can be compared with Him – Isa. 4:13, 18, 25. “Seven spirits of God” are the complete spiritual essence or subsistence36 of that one great Spiritual Being, just like the seven churches make a perfect spiritual body of Christ. These seven spirits of God are attributed to Jesus Christ ( Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5). “This proves our Lord to be the very God of the ”seven spirits” in his Deity. God has “one face.” – Rev. 22:4, 2 Cor. 4:6.”

“Christ is Jehovah of Glory.” – Ps. 24:7, 10; I Cor. 2:8; , J5: 21. Jehovah our Righteousness. – Jer. 23:5, 6, I Cor. 1:30. Jehovah’s Fellow and Equal. – Zech. 13:7, Phil. 2:6. Jehovah a Stone of Stumbling. – Isa. 8:13, 14, I Peter 2:8. Jehovah as the Mighty God. – Ps. 50:1, Isa. 9:6, Rev. 1:8. Jehovah as the true God. – “The Lord is the true God, and an everlasting king (king of eternity)” – Jer. 10:10, 1 John 5:20. Jehovah as Creator. Isa. 40:28, John 3:3, Col 1:16. Jehovah raises Himself from the dead: John 2:19-2; 10:13. Jehovah is Eternal: Isa. 9:6, Micah 5:2, John 1:1, Col 1:17. Jehovah as Husband: Isa: 54:5; 62:5, Eph. 5:25-32, Rev.21:2, 9.

Jesus Christ is the Jehovah-God of the O. T. Scholars have agreed in giving to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord the following names, titles, and character: “God. – John 1:1, Matt. 1:23, Isa. 40:3. God whose throne is forever and ever. – Heb. 1:8. The Mighty God. – Isa. 9:6. The Everlasting God. – Isa. 40:28. The true God. – 1 John 5:20. My Lord and God. – John 20:28: God my Savior. – Luke 1:47. God over all. – Rom. 9:5. The God of the whole earth. – Isa; 54:5. God manifest in the flesh. – I Tim. 3:16. Our God and Savior. – II Peter 1:1. Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13, R. V.

“Where Jesus is called Jehovah: “ Isa. 4:3, 10; 6:3, John 12:41, Zech. 14:5, Hosea 12:4, 5, Gen. 32:24, Ps. 24:8, Jer. 23:6. Other Scriptures applied to Christ: Rev. 1:8, Col 1:16, Heb. 1:3, etc. All these Scriptures have been applied to Jesus Christ by the best scholars and translators we have in the land, outside the Pentecostal Movement.

Another writer pens the following: Christ is God. To deny that Christ is God robs him of all his glory. He is both God and man. It is this veil, or mystery, that has hidden Jehovah from His people, the Jews. – John 1:11, II Cor. 3:14-18. God is veiled in Jesus Christ. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” – Deut. 6:4. The personal, visible form of God was Jesus Christ, and today the Christ with us and in us is “that Spirit” (the Holy Spirit) – II Cor. 3:17. “And it shall be said in that day Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him and he will save us, this is the Lord (Jehovah); we have waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” – Isa. 25:6-9.

The Jews declared that they knew God the Father. But Jesus alone can reveal the Father. The Mohammedans claim to know God the Father. But they look upon Jesus’ sacrificial death with unspeakable hatred. Jesus Christ is the Mighty God. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” – Rev. 21:7, Isa. 9:6. It is the37 “veil of flesh” assumed by the Mighty God that causes men to stumble. – II Cor. 5:16.

A Missionary in India, M. F. Clemenger, recently wrote a brother in Orebro, Sweden: “One comes in touch with individuals who tell us that they believe on Jesus and know that they are saved. Others tell us that they believe that Jesus is the true and living God. Some tell us that they do not know who the living God is; he may be Allah, or Jesus, or some one else. We tell them, “Jesus is the true and living God. He alone has given his life for you.” One asked, “If I accept Jesus, am I not to take the name of any other gods?” We told him, “Jesus is the only true God, and he will not give his glory to another.” Some say, “The Mohammedans say that Allah is God, you say that Jesus Christ is God, and we say others. How are we to know who is God?” (Did not the missionary do right in telling them that Jesus Christ was God?)

Still another writer adds: “In Ex. 3:13, 14, we read that Moses asked God His name, and God, speaking from the burning bush answered, “I AM THAT I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is the I AM. – John 8:58. No wonder Jews wanted to stone him. They understood him to claim that name for himself. They did not realize that the same I AM who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, and descended before Moses in the cloud ( Ex. 34:5), proclaiming his name, was standing in their midst in the form of a man. There was a terrible splendor about that name that inspired awe and fear. The Jews in times past, as the orthodox Jews do still, reverence that name so much that they do not dare to pronounce it, but substitute in its place “Adonai.” Moses admonished the Children of Israel to fear this glorious and fearful name. – Deut. 28:58, Ex. 23:21.

“ John 4:26, – ”I am, who am speaking unto thee.” John 6:20, – “I am; fear not.” John 8:28, – “then shall ye know that I am.” John 18:5, – “Jesus says to them, I am.” John 8:28 John 8:24, 28, – “If ye believe not that I am, ye will die in your sins.” “Then ye shall know that I am.” These are the literal Greek renderings of the above passages. “I am, the bread of life.” “I am, the light of the world.” I am, the door.” I am, the good shepherd.” I am, he resurrection and the life.” “I am, the Alpha and the Omega, which is, and which was, and which is to come.” “I am, the bright and morning star.” – John 6:35, John 9:5; 10:7, 11, John 15:1, Rev. 1:8; Rev. 22:16, In fact, He is everything we need. – Col. 2:9, 10.

Pentecostal Herald: As God made the “first Adam” the father of all living, He made Christ the “second Adam,” to all who come to him for eternal life. The first Adam’s children all die. But the second Adams children are children of an Eternal Father. Christ is an “Everlasting Father” – Isa. 9:6.

Dr. Joseph G. Kennedy, in “Pentecostal Herald”: “Did not Jesus Christ do for man in the New Dispensation what Jehovah did for them in the Old? We cannot escape the38 conclusion that Jehovah and Jesus Christ are one and the same person. The disciples in their writings ascribed the Jehovah attributes to Jesus Christ.

“Eternal Existence: Gen. 21:33, Rev. 1:18. Creation: Gen. 2:4, John 1:1-3. Omniscience: Ps. 139:1-4, John 2:24, 25. Unchangeableness: Mal. 3:6, Rev. 1:18. Universal Triumph: Ps. 92:9, I Cor. 15:25. Universal Dominion: Zech. 14:9, Rev. 1:18. Universal Supremacy: Ps. 89:6-9, Phil. 2:9. Universal Worship: Ps. 22:27, Phil. 2:10.

“Savior: Isa. 43:11, Luke 19:10. Life: Deut. 30:20, John 1:4. Light: Ps. 27:1; John 9:5. Truth: Ps 31:5; John 14:6. Forgiver of Sins: Ps. 103:2, 3, Luke 7:47-50, Matt. 9:2-6: Lord of Sabbath: Ex. 20:10, Matt. 12:8. Judge of World: Ps. 98:9, John 5:22, Matt. 16:27. Received Worship: Ps. 99:5, John 9:38, Matt. 28:9, 17, Rev. 5:6-14.

“When Jehovah was revealing the particulars concerning the Messiah which was to come, He must of necessity speak of Him in the third person, though it was Himself that was to be incarnated into human nature, for this indeed was to be a new creation as a God-man, mediator, and sacrifice for sin. Men were saved in O. T. times, as in our day, by faith in God through the Mediator between God and man, knowing little or nothing perhaps of the real meaning of the atonement, yet trusting in the Mediator.” – Pentecostal Heral

Missionary R. E. Bass, writes from China: “It would be no mystery if we knew there were simply three separate persons operating in unity and with one thought (in the Godhead). Jesus Christ is the image of “the invisible God.” – Col. 1 ;15 I Tim. 1:17; We need to believe and honor Jesus Christ today for what He really is, “the Mighty God,” “the true God,” “the only wise God.” “The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel” – Rev. 22:6 I Peter 1:11. “I, Jesus, have sent mine angel.” – Rev,.22:16. “To sum up all things in Christ.” – Eph. 1:10, R. V. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” – Col. 2:9. We are to look for the true God and the Father nowhere else but in Jesus Christ. So after all it was God (manifest in the flesh) who laid down His life for us. “Which things angels desire to look into.” – I Peter 1:12. (A mystery they cannot understand. The incarnation of Deity.)

Elder D. Vervalin, in Pentecostal Herald: There is but one Holy Spirit; not one Holy Spirit in the Father, another Holy Spirit in the Holy Spirit, and another Holy Spirit in the Son. There is one body and one Spirit. – Eph. 4:4. In Rom. 8:9, the Spirit of God that dwells in us is called the Spirit of Christ.

“There is one God in his trinity. God is a name for Him in his trinity. Father is the name for God as to His essential character: the One who is always unseen and who causes all action and plans all things.

“The Holy Spirit is the name for God as the worker, or doer; the one who acts and performs. There is not a verb in39 the Bible referring to God’s action, but is asserting such action as the Holy Spirit action.

“The special name given to the Holy Spirit to designate the action of giving birth is the “Spirit of Christ.” To those who have been born again and have the Spirit of Christ, God gives this same Holy Spirit to personally operate man by filling man’s spirit and body with the Holy Spirit, direct personal action of man, for purpose of service, first and primarily to God in worship, and secondarily the service toward men.

Jesus never said He would send us another Spirit, but another Advocate. John 14:16 and I John 2:1.

“The Son is the name of God when He manifests Himself to any of His creatures, taking a form that will enable His creatures to comprehend him. Everything made and brought to sight is by the Son. “All things were made by Him.” – John 1:3, Col. 1:16-17, Heb. 1:2, etc.

“Man himself is made in the image of God and is in his trinity; spirit, soul, body. Man does not have three spirits in himself, one in his spirit, one in his soul, and one in his body, but has one spirit only.

“So is God in whose image we are made. The Father is not the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit the Son – though the three are one; even as man’s spirit is not his body nor his soul his body, though the three: spirit, soul, and body make one man.

“The water that gushes out into a living spring may have come from a greater reservoir and may run for a long way through an underground channel, but it is not a different water from that in the reservoir or in the channel.

“The water in the ever unseen reservoir is the Father. The water ever in action and running in the channel is the Holy Spirit. The water coming in view in the spring to refresh the weary is the Son: It is JESUS, the Water of Life.”

J. Munro Gibson, M. A.; D. D., in his book “Christianity according to Christ,” published m London, England, 1888: “The Fullness of God in Christ,” –

“The name of God is that by which He has made Himself known to us, specially in the course of revelation; above all, the two great names of “Jehovah” in the Old Testament and “Jesus” in the New

As to the name of “Jesus,” while the sweetness has never been crushed out of it, as it has out of the rich and precious Old Testament name yet it has not been so closely identified with the Divine Being as it ought to have been. In their zeal for personal distinctions in the Holy Trinity, theologians have been too often tempted to forget such passages as these – “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,” “I and my Father are One,” “I am the Truth.” etc.; and so they have attempted to unfold a knowledge of God apart from His Son Christ Jesus; that is to say, a knowledge of God apart from that Name by which He has made Himself known to us.

“Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Consider,40 then, that in order to meet this reasonable appeal (for, if He be our Father, why should He not show Himself to us?) it is necessary that there should be some visible form; and if some visible form, it needs little consideration to decide which it is likely to be. “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.”

The Man Christ Jesus is the face of God to us. By looking at Him we become acquainted with our Father in heaven; not otherwise; “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”

Here, in the face of Jesus Christ, is “the knowledge of the glory of. God.” There is no other possible facility for knowing God. Even at the best and fullest our knowledge will remain but partial and inadequate. It will be far from absolute knowledg

So the whole knowledge of the Father is provided in Christ. We are “complete in Him.” From all this it follows that those who would know God must seek Him in Christ

First, it is not the absolute essence of Deity that we are to seek; it is His face, what of Him is turned to us, so that we can see and recognize Him. Hence the prominence given to “the Name of God.”

The word “Trinity” does not occur in Scripture, nor is there anything to be found there corresponding to those complicated formulas by which (notably in the so-called Athanasian Creed) theologians have tried to define the relations of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If theologians had only followed the Scriptures in this respect, how many bitter controversies might have been spared, and how many needless difficulties and perplexities would have been avoided.

“I am the Life,” says the Lord Jesus, claiming thus the special prerogative of the Holy Spirit. What Christian minister has not again and again been consulted by good people, who were in some perplexity as to which of the Three Persons of the Trinity they should address themselves to. Some have, even been afraid they might pray too much to one Person and thus create jealousy between them.

“There is no knowledge of the Spirit apart from the knowledge of Christ. In fact, so complete is the identification that the Lord speaks of the Spirit’s coming as His own. – John 14.

The presence of Jesus was to be withdrawn in one sense, but restored in another: it was to be withdrawn in an inferior degree, to be restored in a far better way;. it was to be withdrawn after the flesh and restored in the Spirit; it was to be withdrawn as a human presence and restored as a Divine presence; it was to be withdrawn as a local presence, and restored as omnipresence; it was to be withdrawn as an occasional and temporary presence, and restored as a perpetually abiding presence; all of which is implied in the transition from the preposition with to the preposition in.

“No man can say Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit.” We must find a point of vital contact with the Spirit of God, and this is found only in His Son Jesus Christ.

Again and again Jesus speaks of the coming of the Spirit41 as equivalent to His own coming again to continue the work that He had begun on earth. It was His Spirit that He was speaking of. He ascended to His Father and ours, and His Spirit came to guide the disciples into all truth.

The Bible is not responsible for the formula so generally used of “Three in and One, and One in Three.” While God may be said to be Three as well as One, it is certainly never meant that He is or can be Three and One in the same sense.

The Father is presented to our thoughts as God invisible, inaccessible; the Son, as God manifest; the Spirit, as God working. Though the Word is eternal, the Incarnate Word had, a beginning; and though the Spirit is eternal, the indwelling Spirit dates from Pentecost. The Eternal Spirit came as the Spirit of the Son. The Incarnation prepared the way for the Indwelling; the Indwelling crowned the Incarnation by rendering it practically universal and perpetual.

The Incarnate Word and the Indwelling Spirit have almost lost their connection among Christians. “The Comforter,” “the Paraclete,” is always understood of the Spirit; and it seems rarely to suggest itself to the minds of Christians that the Lord “Jesus” has equal claim to the title.

He who came before as the Spirit of God is now come as the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. His coming is, to all intents and purposes, the coming of the Lord Jesus Himself.” “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” “God manifested in the flesh,” was “justified in the Spirit.” The “only begotten Son,” by His atoning death took away the sin of the world, and gave His Holy Spirit.

“At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” – John 14:20. The Saints of old did not have this knowledge. Nor did the disciples of Christ reach it in the days of His flesh. They had as yet no experience of being in Him, and He in them.

The Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all in Jesus Christ. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all here, each found in Him, so that our thoughts are not to leave Christ when they pass to the Father or to the Holy Spirit. Christ is all – in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Now this is manifestly the way in which we are intended to realize to ourselves the truth about God as Father, as Son, as Holy Spirit – not by wandering away into the infinite, but sitting at the feet of Jesus and looking up into His face.

The reason why some get into difficulty and perplexity is their perverse determination – notwithstanding all the directions and cautions the Master has given – to seek a separate knowledge of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They wish to know God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They wish to Know God the Father, and in order to find Him, they look away from Christ, instead of at Him. They gaze into the infinite unknown instead of looking at the face of Jesus. And when they think of the Spirit, again they must have this as a separate region of theological lore.

So again they look away from the face of Jesus to find somewhere else God the Holy Spirit. If they would have what they are vainly seeking, they would have three Gods instead of one, as practically many Christians have, for they actually have great difficulty sometimes as to which of the three to go to.

It is very easy to show how utterly needless all this perplexity is, and how thoroughly unscriptural are all these notions out of which it grows. There is only one Person, to whom any one can go, and, that Person is Christ. We should go to Him always, under all circumstances, with our prayers, with our tears, with our longings, with our doubts, with our difficulties, with our troubles, with our innumerable wants.

When we say “Our Father,” we must look to Christ, for He plainly tells us that we cannot reach the Father but by Him. Christ Himself says, as plainly as tongue can express it, that it’s impossible to know the Father apart from Him. “No man, cometh unto the Father but by Me.” And when even after that plain statement the still puzzled disciple says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” what can the Master do but repeat the same truth in still more emphatic terms, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Do you not know Me yet? Who can suppose that Philip retained his perplexity after so clear an answer? Why should any one be perplexed now?

Christ is the only way, and those who turn away from Him set their faces to the outer darkness. The same considerations apply to those who perplex and confuse themselves by trying to have a knowledge of the Spirit apart from their knowledge of Christ. Our Savior claims, Himself to be the Life, as well as the Truth.

He speaks of the giving of “another Comforter,” but, when He comes He will not speak of Himself, but “He shall take of the things of Mine and show it unto you”. So complete is their identification that the Lord speaks of His coming as His own coming: “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” “At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”

“I am in the Father” – there is the doctrine of the Father. “Ye in Me” – there is the doctrine of the Son. “I in you” – there is the doctrine of the Spirit. If we think of the Father, there is Christ – “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.” If we think of the Son, union to Christ is the practical thought – “ye in Me.” If we think of the Holy Spirit, the practical thought is Christ in us – “I in you.”

It comes to this, that practically Christ is all in all. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” It is “I am” all the way through. The divine name is all in Christ. “Hear, O Israel ! The Lord our God is one Lord.” The unsearchable God has made Himself known to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But all that there is for us in the Father – all that there is for us in the Son – all that there is for us in the Holy Spirit – is manifest in Christ.

He is all and in all. All praise and glory to Christ the43 Son – the only Revealer of the Father – the only Fountain of the Spirit. Let our prayers always be to Him, whether we are looking at the Father as revealed in Him, or whether we are looking at Him, as the source whence flow the streams of the Spirit’s life.

Whether we are thinking of the invisible God quite out of our reach, or the invisible Spirit proceeding from Him and entering into us, the eye of faith is ever directed to Him who is for us the face of God. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Light shining out of darkness suggests the Father; shining in our hearts suggests the Spirit; shining reflected from the face of Jesus Christ – there is the Son. There is only one face to look at – only one direction for the eye to take. All is simple as when one speaks to a friend.” – J. Munro Gibson.

Mrs. J. Penn-Lewis: “Now for a moment pass on to Acts 2, and read it in the light of John 14:20; for, as we have seen, it is the Lord’s foreshadowing of what would occur to the disciples inwardly when the Holy Ghost came down, and filled the house where they were sitting. The disciples knew as the Spirit of God came, that Christ was God in very truth, that the Man they had seen go up into heaven had reached the unseen Father, and was, as He had said, “In the Father” – one with Him. Very God of very God.”

Carl M. Nichelsen, in Pentecostal Evangel”: “God allows no man to become ‘familiar’ with Him. Some are daring enough to attempt to put God under their mental microscope in order to determine the make-up of His character, and, measure the mighty Jehovah by their intellectual tape lines, and other human standards. At the very sight of the Almighty, the breath of man would instantly leave him. God must be known some other way, by revelation to man’s inner consciousness. Although God has outwardly manifested Himself at times, His Deity was always veiled. Even in the case of the outer manifestation of God, through Jesus Christ, to Saul on the way to Damascus, the sight blinded him and struck him to the ground.”

Sunday School Times, July 30, 1921: “Look unto me and be ye saved.” – Isa. 45:18-24. Compare v. 22, with John 1:29. The Jehovah of the Old Covenant is the Jesus of the New. The two are one. The Jews’ Jehovah is the world’s Savior.”

Some one has written the following facts on the Memorial Name: “Elohim in its first occurrence connects it, with creation, and gives it its essential meaning as the Creator. Elohim is God, the living God, the power of creation. ( John 1:3, Col. 1:15-17, Rev. 3:14; 4:11.) He first assumes a creature form, though spiritual in nature ( Gen. 12:7; 32:24-30, Isa. 6:1-5), afterwards the human form, for the purpose of redeeming mankind. ( John 1:14, Heb. 2:9, 14, 16, 17, Phil. 2:7, 44 Rom. 8:3.) That Elohim, in His creature form spiritually, who appeared to the patriarchs and prophets, is the same who appeared in a human form 1900 years ago to Israel, can be clearly seen by the following Scriptures: Gen. 17:1-3, Ex. 6:2, 3, with John 8;56-58, Isa. 6:1-8, with John 12:41-45.

“Jehovah: “While Elohim is God as the Creator of all things, Jehovah is the same God in covenant relation to those whom He has created, Jehovah means the Eternal, the Immutable One; He who was, and is, and is to come. – Gen. 21:33. He is especially, therefore, the God of Israel; and the God of those who are redeemed, and are thus now “in Christ.”

“The Jehovah Titles: “Jehovah-Jireh. – Gen. 22:14. Jehova-Ropheka. – Ex. 15:26. Jehovah-Nissi. – Ex. 17:15. Jehovah-Mekaddishkem – Ex. 31:13. Jehovah-Shalom – Judges 6:24, Jehovah-Zabaoth. – I Sam’l 1:3, etc. Jehovah-Zidkenu. – Jer. 23:6. Jehovah-Shammah. – Ezek. 48:25. Jehovah Elyon. – Ps. 7:17. Jehovah-Roi. – Ps. 23:1. Jah is Jehovah in a special sense and relation. Jehovah as having become our salvation – Ps 68:4, ( Ex 15:2).

“Which of these names and titles, with their meanings, do we not find incorporated in the Name of Jesus, The Psalmist declared, “Thou East magnified thy Word above all thy name.” – Ps. 138:2. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh.” John 1:1,14. “His name shall be called Jesus.” – Matt. 1:21-23. And He has been given “a name which is above every name” – Eph. 1:21-23, Phil. 2:9.

“When Jacob wrestled with the angel he sought to obtain the secret name, but was prohibited. – Gen. 32:29. When Moses sought to obtain the secret name, all that he received from the angel in the burning bush was, “I am that I am.” – Ex. 3:14. The Children of Israel were led by the Angel of the Lord, and Jehovah said, “Beware of him; for my name is in him.” – Ex. 23:21. To Manoah, the Jehovah Angel replied, “Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret (Wonderful).” – Judges 13:8. The prophet Isaiah declared, “His name shall be called Wonderful” – Isa. 9:6. From these Scriptures it can be clearly seen that Jehovah had a name to be revealed which was to be above all His names. – Matt. 1:20. 21.

“When the Angel appeared to the Virgin in Nazareth, it was there that he finished his journey over the hills of time and deposited that “secret name” in the bosom of her who was “highly favored” of God. – Matt. 1:20; 21, Luke 1:26-31, “His name shall be called JESUS.” All the titles that Jehovah ever bore are comprehended in this one name, JESUS. The name of “Jesus” bears in it all that God’s other names ever bore. All the attributes of God, as revealed by His names, are found in Jesus. – Rev. 1:8, Ex. 6:3. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him.” – Col. 2:9, 10, Col. 1:17. In the Book of Acts the whole battle raged around “the Name.” “and hast not denied my name.” – Rev. 3:8.

“God is one. None apart from Him, none equal with Him; none beside Him; none formed after Him; none like Him, and none with Him. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of that one God in the flesh.”

Sunday School Times, “Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Before Abraham was I am.” – John 8:57, 58. Jesus was claiming that He existed in the eternity of the past. He was claiming for Himself one of the O. T. titles of Jehovah. It was as though He had said that it was Himself that was spoken of by Moses in Ex. 3:14. “I Am” describes Jehovah as the ever existent One, “who was, and is, and is to come.” (“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” – Heb. 13:8.) Jesus was He. “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” – Col. 1:17..

Another writer has said: “They (most christians) do not have the full apostolic vision of Jesus Christ as Lord or Jehovah. “All” the fullness of the Godhead is in Jesus Christ. – Col. 2:9. Don’t be afraid the Father and the Holy Ghost will be left out. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” – John 14:7-10; 10:30, 38; 12:44, 45; 17:10. “He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.” – I John 2:23, 24, R. V.; 4:15.

“It is unreasonable when magnifying Jesus as Lord to stop and mystify the readers on the Greek mysteries about the Trinity. Few after years of study know much more about it than when they began. I never knew of any one being saved by a study of the Trinity, but exalting Jesus Christ as the mighty Lord, able to save to the uttermost, will do it.

“No man can come to God except through Christ, and he that has the Christ or Son, “hath the Father also.” They are inseparable. You can’t get Christ without getting the Father also, even if you want to. God gives Himself only in the Son. Also whoever gets Christ in His fulness gets the Holy Ghost also. “In that day (Pentecost) ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” – John 14:20, 23.

“There was a mysterious angel called the angel of the Lord, that went before the camp of Israel which was none other than Christ the Lord – Jehovah in Angelic form. – Ex. 3:2-14; 14:9; 23:20, 21, ( Isa. 42:8), Acts 2:36, Phil. 2:9-11, I Cor. 15:47, I Cor. 3:17. So the whole Godhead in all its fulness is in Jesus.

“The apostles started the church out right with the vision of Jesus as “the Lord from heaven.” “God is Spirit.” – John 4:24. “Now the Lord is that Spirit” – II Cor. 3:17.” E. N. B..

“Bishop Hippolytus, born in the latter part of the second century, a disciple of Iraneaus: “Let us believe then, according to the tradition of the apostles, that God the Word came down from Heaven, and entered the holy Virgin Mary. The Father is one whose Word is present with Him, by whom He made all things. Whom also the Father sent forth in later times for the salvation of men. He now coming forth into the world, was manifested as God in a body.

“Thus then, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the condition proper to Him as man. He who as God has a sleepless nature, slumbers on a pillow. In agony He sweats blood, and is strengthened by an angel, who Himself strengthens those who believe on Him. He who is inseparable from the Father, cries to the Father and commends to Him His spirit; and bowing His head He gives up the ghost, who said “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.” – John 19:18. And because He was not overmastered by death, as being Himself life, He said thus: “I lay it down of myself.” He who raises the dead is wrapped in linen and laid in a sepulchre, and on the third day is raised again by the Father, though Himself the resurrection and the life. For all these things He has finished for us; who for our sakes was made as we are, except sin. This is the God who for our sakes became man; to whom also the Father hath put all things in subjection.

E. N. Bell, in “The Truth about the Godhead”: “It was no use for Philip to ask any other revelation of the Father. The Father is seen by seeing Jesus. He that has seen Jesus has seen all of the Father that the Father intends now to reveal. No true Trinitarian can logically deny the Deity of Jesus as the Son of God. To do so is to make him a mere created being like ourselves. Those who should worship such a created being would be pure idolators. God forbids us worshipping anything less than Himself. We cannot worship Jesus unless He is truly God. The Arians believed that Jesus was a little less than God, yet higher than the noblest angel, and still worshipped Him.

“The Scriptures clearly teach that He is God. – Isa. 9:6, “Mighty God.” Heb. 1:8, “Thy throne, O God is forever and ever.” John 20:28, “My Lord and My God,” – ( Rom. 9:5), It is an unspeakable joy to ascribe unto the Son all the attributes of Deity. We need not expect as finite beings to understand fully the mysteries in the Being of the Infinite God. No intelligent Trinitarian believes there are three material or corporeal bodies in the Godhead. Jesus is the only one in the Godhead who has a material and glorified body. The Latin word (persona) from which we get our word person has absolutely nothing in it even suggesting a material body.

“These three persons (of the Godhead) are not three gods. Because they coexist, in one divine essence, in one divine nature, they constitute one God, and His name is one. We have not gods many and lords many, as the heathen. We all believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly God. If Jesus is God at all, as we all believe He is of course He is the true God, not a false God. We love and adore Jesus as our Lord and our God. He is the only way to the Father, the way of Life. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also,” – John 2:23.” – E. N. Bell. Now if this latter statement be true, and it is the Word, then how foolish to talk about denying the Father. We have both the Father and the Son.