Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
- Deuteronomy 6:4
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
- Matthew 3:16-17
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,
- Matthew 28:19
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
- 2 Corinthians 13:14
“8. The nature of God in himself is infinite, invisible, eternal, almighty; whence it follows that they are mistaken who ascribe to God a visible form. In his one essence there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Aphorisms
John Calvin did not write these aphorisms. They are a summarization of what he wrote in Institutes of the Christian Religion. There are 100 aphorisms.
I think this next statement paraphrases what I have heard from many theologians and pastors.
“If you think you have God figured out, He is bigger than that.”
Even when the attributes do not lend itself to “bigger,” God’s Justice is purer than anything we can imagine. God’s love is more intense than any love we have ever experienced – and for those who love God with every fiber of their being, just wait until we meet Him face to face.
And as for that invisibility, we ascribe features like a face to a Father God who has no visibility. But somehow in the Glory of His presence we will be in awe.
But God is in three persons. I tried early on to describe the three persons, and I was told that I was in error, but I have heard nothing better. God the Father is sovereign. God the Son, who has a body, a body with scars, sits at the “right hand” of the Father, meaning He intercedes for us. And the Holy Spirit is within each believer. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins prior to accepting Jesus, or not. The Holy Spirit remains with us and in us.
The mechanism of how that works is unknown but consider your life.
I was a son. I was a husband, father, and grandfather. I was a variety of things in my working life. I was still one person. I write for this blogsite, but when I am not writing, do I cease being a writer? A father? An engineer with a master’s degree? An elder in the church? A Sunday school teacher?
No, I am all those things at once, but I am limited. I cannot write a blog, cook supper, watch my favorite television show, and check the weather all at the same time. I am great at multitasking. I can dream up dialogue for a short story while washing dishes. But I have two eyes and they only look in one direction at a time.
God is infinite. The Holy Spirit can indwell 2.6 billion people in this world and still have infinite power to deal with other stuff. Note: The internet claims 2.3 to 2.6 billion Christians in the world today.
God is not bound by time and space. He can see what our great-great grandchildren are doing in the future, while He is focusing on the cell divisions in our body right now.
Let us not make the mistake of limiting our God to what we can perceive or imagine.
If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
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