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Written by Stuart Pattico

 

© 2007 Stuart Pattico.  All rights reserved.  No part of this document may be produced or transmitted in any form without prior permission from the author.

 

All Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.

 

 

The One God we worship is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

 

7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. (1 John 5:7)

 

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

 

19 Go therefore^[c] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)

 

 

Each of these three is called ‘God’ in the Bible:

 

The Father is called God:

 

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father” (Romans 1:7)

 

The Son is called God:

 

“13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)

 

“6 For unto us a Child is born,
      Unto us a Son is given;
      And the government will be upon His shoulder.
      And His name will be called
      Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God…” (Isaiah 9:6)

 

The Holy Spirit is called God

 

3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4)

 

To help us understand God’s threefold nature, He created us in His own image - threefold.

 

23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

 

Our soul is like God the Father.  Our body is like the Son.  Our spirit is like the Holy Spirit.

 

 

Our soul is like God the Father

 

 7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7, KJV)

 

We are living souls.  We are not spirits or bodies; we are souls.  We have spirits, and we have bodies, but we are living souls.  The soul is often said to consist of our mind, will and emotions.   It is the part of us that make the decisions.  Our flesh may feel hungry, but it is our soul that decides to eat.  Our spirit may feel impressed to pray, but it is our soul that decides to pray.

 

Even so, God is the Father.  This is ultimately who God is.  The Father is like the soul of God (please note, this is not meant in a literal sense, but just as an analogy).  Even as our soul is ultimately who we are, the Father is ultimately who God is.

 

“yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things” (1 Corinthians 8:6)

 

For this reason, the title ‘God’ is applied more frequently to the Father than to the Son or to the Holy Spirit.  The word ‘God’ appears 1,194 times in the New Testament (KJV).  Of those 1,194 occurrences, at least 1,184 refer to the Father.  That is 99%!  So, 99% of the time we find the word ‘God’ in the New Testament, it is talking about the Father.

 

 

Our body is like the Son

 

As we have seen, we are living souls.  However, a soul is invisible.  In order for us to be seen, we need to have a physical body.  When I stand in front of you, you can see me clearly, however it is not really me (my soul) that you are seeing, for you are seeing my body.

 

Even so, God the Father is invisible.  He reveals Himself to His creation through the Son – Jesus Christ.

 

“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son,^[f] who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (John 1:18)

 

Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father”?’ ” (John 14v6-9)

 

The Son exists to reveal the Father.  The Son is the perfect revelation of the Father:

 

3 [Jesus is] the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person (Hebrews 1:3)

 

Because the Son is the perfect revelation of the Father, the Son is God, just as much as the Father is God, otherwise He would not be the perfect revelation of the Father. For example, if you wanted me to have a perfect understanding of what a football looked like, you could not show me a basketball; you would have to show me a real football.  Even so, because Jesus perfectly reveals the one true God, He must be the one true God.

 

Our spirit is like the Holy Spirit

 

Our spirit is the part of us that knows everything about us:

 

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11)

 

The Holy Spirit knows everything about God:

 

Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11)

 

This is why it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us the things of God (John 14:26).

 

We have seen that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit correspond of our souls, bodies and spirits.  I trust that this shows us that though they are three, they are one God.  Let us now look further at their distinctive roles.

 

 

Roles of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

 

The Father has the most senior position within the Godhead.  The Son is subject to the Father, and the Father is the head of Christ.

 

3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

 

The Father is the originator of everything God does.  However, He does all things through the Son.

 

“yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” (1 Corinthians 8v6)

 

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

 

The Father has given the Son all authority.  The Father has made the Son Lord of all, and has made Him head of the church.

 

36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36)

 

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. (Ephesians 1:22)

 

The Holy Spirit manifests the presence of the Father and the Son, and it is by the Spirit’s power that all things are done.

 

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
         Or where can I flee from Your presence? (Psalm 139:7)

 

13 By His Spirit He adorned the heavens;
      His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. (Job 26:13)

 

30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
         And You renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)

 

 

So the Father does all things through the Son, and by the Spirit’s power.  This can be illustrated by the following diagram:

 

The Father à through the Son à by the Holy Spirit

 

 

 

 

How does this affect our worship?

 

We saw earlier this pattern:

 

Father à through the Son à by the Holy Spirit

 

Our worship and relationship with God takes place in the reverse order:

 

We worship by the Spirit à through the Son à to the Father

 

Jesus said that we are to worship in Spirit (John 4:23).  In other words, the Spirit is the inspirer of true worship seeing as He knows everything about God.

 

Jesus said that He is the way to the Father. 

 

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

 

Therefore we worship God in the name of Jesus, taking the blood of the Lamb as our right to approach the Throne.

 

18 For through Him [Jesus] we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:18)

20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20)

When we worship the Father, we must also acknowledge that He has given all authority to Jesus and made Him Lord of all.  Therefore, as part of our worshipping the Father, we must worship the Son.

 

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:11)

 

all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. (John 5:23)

 

In the Bible, the objects of worship are the Father and Son.  The Spirit is the one who inspires and enables us to worship the Father and the Son.

 

23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

 

“no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

 

 

Conclusion

 

In order to engage in true worship, we must embrace and seek the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, setting our mind on the Father and the Son.  All three are the true God, and it is important that we understand their respective roles in order to grow in fellowship with Him.

 

God’s peace be with you all.