One more fact about the Christian conception of God remains to be
mentioned and that is: _There is but one God_. The Unity of God comes
out again and again in both the Old Testament and the New. For example,
we read in Deut. 4:35: +"Jehovah he is God. There is none else
beside him."+ And in Deut. 6:4 we read: +"Hear O Israel: Jehovah
our God is one Jehovah."+ Turning to the New Testament in 1 Tim.
2:5 we read: +"There is one God, one mediator also between God and
man, himself man, Christ Jesus."+ And in Mark 12:29 our Lord Jesus
Himself says: +"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."+
But we must bear in mind the character of the Divine Unity. It is
clearly revealed in the Bible that in this Divine Unity, in this one
Godhead, there is a multiplicity of persons. This comes out in a
variety of ways.
1. First of all, _the Hebrew word translated "One" in these various
passages given denotes a compound unity_, not a simple unity. (Cf. 1
Cor. 3:6-8; 1 Cor. 12:13; John 17:22, 23; Gal. 3:28.)
2. In the second place, _the Old Testament word most frequently used
for God is a plural noun_. The Hebrew grammarians and lexicographers
tried to explain this by saying that it was the "pluralis majestatis,"
but the very simple explanation is that the Hebrews, in spite of their
intense monotheism, used a plural name for God because there is a
plurality of persons in the one Godhead.
3. More striking yet, as a proof of the plurality of persons in the one
Godhead, is the fact that God Himself uses plural pronouns in speaking
of Himself. For example, in the first chapter of the Bible, Gen. 1:26,
we read that God said: +"Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness."+ And in Gen. 11:7, He is further recorded as saying:
+"Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they
cannot understand one another's speech."+ In Gen. 3:22 we read:
+"And Jehovah God said, Behold, man is become as one of us to know
good and evil."+ And in that wonderful vision to which reference has
already been made, in which Isaiah saw Jehovah, we read this statement
of Isaiah's in Isa. 6:8: +"And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send
me."+
4. Another illustration of the plurality of persons in the one Godhead
in the Old Testament conception of God is found in Zech. 2:10, 11;
where Jehovah speaks of Himself _as sent by Jehovah_ in these words:
+"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. (11) And many nations shall
join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and shall be my people and I
will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that Jehovah of
hosts hath sent me unto thee."+ Here Jehovah clearly speaks of
himself as _sent by Jehovah_, thus clearly indicating two persons in
the Deity.
5. Another indication of the plurality of persons in the Godhead in the
Old Testament conception of God is found in the fact that "The Angel of
Jehovah" in the Old Testament is at the same time distinguished from
and identified with Jehovah.
6. This same thought of the plurality of persons in the one Godhead
is brought out in John 1:1, where we reach the very climax of this
thought. Here we are told in so many words: +"In the beginning was
the word and the word was with God and the word was God."+ We
shall see later, when we come to study the Deity of Christ and the
Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord Jesus and the
Holy Spirit are clearly designated as divine beings and at the same
time distinguished from one another, and from God the Father. So it is
clear that in the Christian conception of God while there is but one
God there is a multiplicity of persons in the one Godhead.
In these two sermons on "The Christian Conception of God" we have
very inadequately stated that conception. This conception of God
runs through the whole Bible from the first chapter of the book of
Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation, and this is one of the
many marvellous illustrations of the divine unity of the Book. How
wonderful is that Book, in that there is this unity of thought on
this very profound doctrine pervading the whole book! It is a clear
indication that the Bible is the Word of God. There is in the Bible a
profounder philosophy than is found in any human philosophy, ancient or
modern, and the only way to account for it is that God Himself is the
author of this incomparable philosophy. What a wondrous God we have!
How we ought to meditate upon His person! With what awe and at the same
time with what delight we should come into His presence and bow before
Him in adoring contemplation of the wonder and beauty and majesty and
glory of His being!