In Exodus chapter 33 when Moses
cries out to know God, the Lord responds by proclaiming His name. We considered
before that knowing God is the one all-encompassing purpose of life, it is the
reason for our existence. And there are many ways we can come to know Him
deeper. One way to know Him in a deeper and more intimate way is to take up a
study of His many names and titles as revealed in the Scriptures. God has
revealed Himself in His Word through several hundred names and titles. Just
from the sheer number we begin to get the idea that this must be a worthwhile
study. But why does God have so many names and titles, and how does learning
these names and titles help us to know Him?
Our relationship with God is similar to our relationship
with any other person. Our relationships with one another usually begin with an
introduction. We begin by telling each other our names. You don't often get to
know someone in any meaningful way unless you first learn their name. So
perhaps in coming to know God it is also a good idea to begin with His names.
And names are not merely the starting point in our relationships, but a name is
inseparably tied to the person who possesses it. For instance when we hear the
name of a famous person immediately their face will come to mind and you'll
begin to think of all that you know of them. So when we hear the name George
Washington, for example, immediately we begin to picture him in our minds. And
rather subconsciously we'll begin to scroll through all that we know of him,
facts concerning his life, his faith in God, his military leadership, and on
the list goes. All that was mentioned was a simple name, but the mere mention
of his name causes us to think about all that he did and the significant impact
that he had on the beginnings of this nation. So a name carries with it a person’s
character, because their name is inseparably tied to their person.
Sometimes you can even see a picture of someone, but their picture means basically nothing to you until you hear their name. I was teaching this to a group of kids this past summer and to illustrate this point I showed them a picture of someone but I didn't tell them who it was. I asked what they knew about the man but they couldn't tell me anything about him because they didn't know who it was. When I told them that his name was Dr. Seuss they were all able to tell me a lot about him. And my point was that a name carries with it a lot of information. They saw exactly what this guy looked like but they could tell me nothing about him until they heard his name, and the mere mention of his name brought to mind a lot of information about him.
Sometimes you can even see a picture of someone, but their picture means basically nothing to you until you hear their name. I was teaching this to a group of kids this past summer and to illustrate this point I showed them a picture of someone but I didn't tell them who it was. I asked what they knew about the man but they couldn't tell me anything about him because they didn't know who it was. When I told them that his name was Dr. Seuss they were all able to tell me a lot about him. And my point was that a name carries with it a lot of information. They saw exactly what this guy looked like but they could tell me nothing about him until they heard his name, and the mere mention of his name brought to mind a lot of information about him.
So when we come to our goal in life, namely to know God, the logical place to begin is with His name.
Now, when considering the names of God it's important that
we remember that God is triune, three in one. There are some names given in the
Bible that are unique to one member of the godhead. Others are used of all
three. So just by way of introduction I want to re-establish in our minds the
tri-unity of God.
The
fact that the Lord our God is one Lord, and yet 3 persons is a truth
communicated all throughout the Scriptures. Many professing Christians don't
believe in the tri-unity of God simply because they cannot understand it. The
human mind cannot comprehend the Trinity, but that doesn't give us grounds to
reject it. The fact that we can't comprehend the Trinity simply proves that God
is bigger and smarter than us. If we could understand everything about Him we
would be at least as smart if not smarter than Him, and therefore He would not
be worth serving. There are a lot of truths in the Bible that don't make sense
to me, but I choose to believe them because the Bible teaches them. The truth
of the trinity does not make sense to us but this is the infinite God we're
dealing with, and this is what He tells us about Himself in His word. So let’s
look at some passages of Scripture that bear out this truth.
-God
is one-
Deuteronomy 6:4 - "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" There is one God. Paul says in his first epistle to the Corinthians - "there is no God but one." And also in First Timothy 2 he says - "For there is one God." These are only a few of the many verses we could look at. When the Lord Jesus sent His disciples into the world to preach the gospel this is what He said to them - "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Notice, He doesn't say "in the names of..." He says "in the name of..." So, there is one God.
Deuteronomy 6:4 - "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" There is one God. Paul says in his first epistle to the Corinthians - "there is no God but one." And also in First Timothy 2 he says - "For there is one God." These are only a few of the many verses we could look at. When the Lord Jesus sent His disciples into the world to preach the gospel this is what He said to them - "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Notice, He doesn't say "in the names of..." He says "in the name of..." So, there is one God.
-The
Father is God-
John 8:54 - "Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’."" In verse 41 of this same chapter the Jews said "We have one Father: God." The Lord Jesus would often pray to the Father, and when He modeled prayer for us in Matthew 6:9 He taught us to pray "Our Father who art in heaven..." The Father is God.
John 8:54 - "Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’."" In verse 41 of this same chapter the Jews said "We have one Father: God." The Lord Jesus would often pray to the Father, and when He modeled prayer for us in Matthew 6:9 He taught us to pray "Our Father who art in heaven..." The Father is God.
-The
Son is God-
In that same passage quoted above, the Lord Jesus makes a remarkable statement. John 8:54-59 - "Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple." There in verse 58 when Jesus said "before Abraham was born, I am." Jesus wasn't using bad grammar, I don't they would've tried to stone Him for that. He was claiming to be the I AM, God, the one who talked with Moses in the burning bush. And because He was claiming to be God the Jews picked up stones to stone Him.
There are many other verses also that attest to the fact that Jesus is God. In Acts 20:28 Paul is speaking to the elders of the Ephesian church, and he says to them - "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." Does God have blood? God is Spirit, and yet we were purchased with His blood. In order to have blood, God had to have taken on human flesh, and that's exactly what He did in the person of Jesus Christ the Son.
Hebrews 1:8 says - "But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM." This is a quotation from Psalm 45. In Psalm 45 this statement is speaking about God, Jehovah. And here the writer to the Hebrews tells us that this verse is speaking of God the Son. The Son is God.
In that same passage quoted above, the Lord Jesus makes a remarkable statement. John 8:54-59 - "Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple." There in verse 58 when Jesus said "before Abraham was born, I am." Jesus wasn't using bad grammar, I don't they would've tried to stone Him for that. He was claiming to be the I AM, God, the one who talked with Moses in the burning bush. And because He was claiming to be God the Jews picked up stones to stone Him.
There are many other verses also that attest to the fact that Jesus is God. In Acts 20:28 Paul is speaking to the elders of the Ephesian church, and he says to them - "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." Does God have blood? God is Spirit, and yet we were purchased with His blood. In order to have blood, God had to have taken on human flesh, and that's exactly what He did in the person of Jesus Christ the Son.
Hebrews 1:8 says - "But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM." This is a quotation from Psalm 45. In Psalm 45 this statement is speaking about God, Jehovah. And here the writer to the Hebrews tells us that this verse is speaking of God the Son. The Son is God.
-The
Holy Spirit is God-
Acts 5:3-4 - "But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” In verse 3 Peter says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, and in verse 4 he says that he lied to God. They are one and the same.
Acts 5:3-4 - "But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” In verse 3 Peter says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, and in verse 4 he says that he lied to God. They are one and the same.
When
Mary was told that she was going to conceive and give birth to the Son of God
in Luke 1:35 this is what it says - "The angel answered and said to her,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of
God." The Holy Spirit was going to come upon Mary, and for this reason the
Child would be called the Son of God. The Holy Spirit is God.
Each
person within the Godhead is an individual, distinct from the other two. They
are all equally and fully God, and each perfectly fulfills their own role
within the Godhead.
-The Son is not the Father-
In John
12:49 the Lord Jesus says - "For I did not speak
on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a
commandment as to what to say and what to speak." The Lord Jesus
makes a distinction here between Himself and the Father. He essentially says,
“I didn’t come up with what to say, I say what the Father tells Me to.” If He
were the Father He could not have said “I don’t speak on My own initiative. The
Son is not the Father.
-The
Son is not the Spirit-
In
John 14:16-17 The Lord Jesus says - "I will ask
the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you
forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and
will be in you." The Lord Jesus says that after He leaves He’s
going to send the Holy Spirit to be with the disciples. And He says that the
world hasn’t seen the Holy Spirit. They saw Jesus, so the Son is not the
Holy Spirit.
-The
Father is not the Holy Spirit-
John
14:26 - "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all that I said to you." The Lord Jesus says that the
Father is going to send the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t say that the Father will
send Himself. So the Father is not the Holy Spirit.
Obviously from the way the Lord Jesus is talking, these are
not just three different sides of one God, but three individual persons
eternally three in one.
We could browse through the Word of God and look at many
verses that mention all three persons of the Godhead. We could go through the
Bible and see how each member of the trinity is involved in every act of God.
The creation is attributed to all three. Our salvation is attributed to all
three. The atonement and our sanctification are attributed to all three.
The Scriptures are clear. God is three in one, triune, one
God three persons. Again, I can't understand this. Perhaps the reason God chose
to reveal this aspect of His character to us was merely so that we would
recognize how much greater He is than us. He is so awesome that He can tell us
in His Word exactly what He's like, and we could spend the rest of our lives
thinking about this aspect of God’s character and never come any closer to
being able to make sense of the Trinity. I'm glad that I serve a God who is so
much greater than my mind can comprehend.
Okay, so, our goal is to know God. Who are we getting to Know, the Father, Son or Holy Spirit? All three. You can’t get to know one member of the Godhead without getting to know the other members. They’re inseparably connected. And as we center in on one and focus on the unique names of one member of the Godhead we will be drawing closer to all three.
2 Corinthians 13:14 - "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all."
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