Isaiah 44:9-20, The Unity of God (5)

The NT builds greatly on the doctrine of the unity of God.  We are not doing a deep study on the doctrine of the “Trinity.”  Again, we have done this in the past, and cannot take the time now.  But we do want to say this much: the “unity” of God means that our view of the Trinity must not be modalistic.  This is the view that, in one way or another, says there is one God who shows up sometimes as the Father, other times as the Son, and then as the Spirit.  That is heresy.  The term used often in theology is “compound unity.”  God is one, and manifests Himself in three persons.  So, here are some areas where God’s unity effects our lifestyle.

·       John 3:16; 1:18; 5:17-24; 10:30: These passages deal with the uniqueness of Jesus.  He is the “only begotten” or “one and only.” What is crucial is that Jesus proclaimed His oneness with the Father.  The Jews understood enough of this claim to threaten to kill Jesus for making Himself equal with God.  To them, at the least, this would mean there was a plurality of “Gods.” 

·       John 17:3: Knowing the “only true God” was the end result of Jesus’ ministry to the world.  This was what was promised in the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34).  “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me.”

·       Acts 4:12: Peter proclaimed that there was salvation in no other name than that of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  The uniqueness of Christ, who is God in the flesh, is essential.  There can be no other. 

·       1 Cor. 8:4-6; 10:14-22: The issue in 1 Cor. 8 had to do with Christians buying meat that had been part of the worship in the temples of idols.  Fundamental to Paul’s argument is that idols are nothing.  Since there is only one God, anything else you call “god” is not a god at all.  By the way, the OT prophets saw this the same way.  Even though they referred to the “gods” of the nations, these “gods” couldn’t hear or see or do anything because they were not truly “gods” (e.g. Isa. 44:9-20).  Having said that, in 1 Cor. 10 Paul notes that Satan and his demons are involved in idolatry.  Those who worship idols are in league with demons.  The demons try to bring the idol to life.

·       Eph. 4:4-6: In the list of unities, the final, summarizing truth is the unity of God: “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

·       1 Thess. 1:9: The gospel resulted in many former idolators putting their faith in Christ for salvation.  What they did was, “turn from idols to serve the living and true God.”  We today need to understand that when we come to Christ we also are turning from idols.  We may not be involved in the idol temple as the Thessalonians were.  We may not have a statue of our “god” in our house.  But as we will see tomorrow, the essence of idolatry is “covetousness” and in Christ we turn from trusting anything or anyone else for our lusts to trust in the true and living God for exactly what we need!