Verse 2 is a very important theological statement and needs to be
considered carefully. The three parts of the trinity that is God; the Father,
the Word or Son, and the Holy Ghost operate together in unity but at the time
of the gospels operated physically independently which God can do but we
cannot. If our soul, body, and spirit are separated we are no longer
biologically alive. It is valuable here to review what has been said before
about the three parts of God that are one and yet can act independently
although with one will and purpose.
God is composed of three parts, as man and woman are;
a body, a soul, and a spirit.
1Thessalonians
5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God has a soul, the seat of self-identity and will.
Psalm
11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but
the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
This is God the Father, sometimes referred to just as
God in the New Testament. He is invisible to us. As John says in John 1:18 and
in 1John 4:12 no one has seen God, presumably God the Father, at any time.
Every act of God’s will originates with Him.
God has a Spirit, how He moves throughout creation and
acts on it and in it.
Genesis
1:2 And the earth was without form, and
void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters.
Romans
8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in
the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
This Spirit is called the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
1Corinthians
12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand,
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no
man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
John
14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 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…26 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.
The Holy Spirit in its function, the Holy Ghost in His
identity, is the mind of God and also God.
For contexts where the Spirit of God or the spirit of man can be
synonymous with mind please see the following;
Romans
8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind
of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
1Corinthians
2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may
instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ.
Ephesians
4:23 And be renewed in the spirit
of your mind;
Philippians
1:27 Only let your conversation be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be
absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the
faith of the gospel;
2Timothy
1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit
of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
God not only has a soul and a mind but has a body, His
person, whom man can see, and has even touched, as God in the flesh, called the
Son of God.
Hebrews
1:1 ¶ God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds; 3 Who 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;
Colossians
1:
13
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son:14 In
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:15 Who is the image of the invisible God…
Of course, an image is the likeness of someone, what
he looks like.
Genesis
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.
Genesis
5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty
years, and begat a son in his own likeness,
after his image; and called his name
Seth:
Exodus
20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth:
(Refer back to these verses when someone insists that
the image of God is man’s ability to discern between good and evil, which is
nonsense, as Adam was made in the image of God but did not taste of the fruit
of the knowledge of good and evil until he fell).
Jesus Christ is also the Word by which all things were
created. Read the first 18 verses of the Gospel According to John. God’s mind
formed creation and God’s Word spoke it into existence, bringing forth the
light, which He is.
Genesis 1:3 ¶ And God said,
Let there be light: and there was light.
One stark difference between man and God is that God’s
three parts can act independently of each other and still be one God.
Deuteronomy
6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is
one LORD:
Mark
12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Matthew
28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost:
2Corinthians
13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you
all. Amen.
1John
5:7 For there are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Christ is then that bridge between God and man, fully
God and fully man, without whom the believer in God would be in the same
predicament as other religions where their god is so distant from man that
there is no connection, no compassion for man’s suffering, no understanding of
the human heart, fears, and affections.
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