Good QuestionsWhile we are at Vision people often ask really good questions but the leaders don't always have time to answer or they don't know the answer. In this section of the website we put the questions that people ask and the answer that we have come up with. The answer will be from Gordon or from one of the leaders in the group.
If Jesus and God are the same, how is God the Father and Jesus the Son?
Hello thanks for your question, I’m not sure I completely understand what you are asking so if this answer is not what you are looking for, submit another question and we will try again.
The question you are asking concerns the doctrine (belief) of the Trinity that is that God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate persons and at the same time one person.
God has been around forever, there was never a time when God was not there and He has always been three and one, so although this belief we know of as the Trinity was not actually written down for us to learn about until the 8th century in something called the Athanasian creed, it has always been true about God. Some of these verses from the Old Testament might help us see that. Gen 1:26
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Isaiah 6:8
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Notice that when God refers to Himself He uses the word us.
In the New Testament we see this teaching even more, John 1:1 says
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In this verse Jesus is described as the Word and you can see that it says the Word was with God.
One of the best examples is Jesus baptism which we read about in Mark 1:10-11
As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
You can see here that Jesus is being baptised, the Spirit appears like a dove and the Father speaks saying He is well pleased with Jesus.
There are many other verses throughout the Bible which help us to understand this three in one nature of God, and it is important that there is because for this to be true the whole bible must support it.
However, the final thing to say is that it is a bit of a mystery. Our human minds cannot really understand it fully, but that’s OK. If we were able to understand God completely He would no longer be God because we would be the same as Him. So we accept this teaching with the promise that when we get to heaven God will help us to understand it completely.
Thanks again for a great question, as I said if this was not what you were asking feel free to hand in another one and we will get to it.
God Bless
Gordon |
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