Godhead

It is simply one.

Everything, therefore, that is affirmed of the divine substance must be common to the three, and we can recognize what predicates may be affirmed of the substance of the Godhead by this sign, that all those which are affirmed of it may also be affirmed severally of each of the three combined into one.

For instance, if we say the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, then Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God.

if then their one godhead is one substance the name of god may with right be predicated substantially of the divinity similarly the father is truth the son is truth and the holy spirit is truth father son and holy spirit are not three truths but one truth if then they are one substance and one truth truth must of necessity be a substantial predicate so goodness immutability justice omnipotence and all the other predicates which we apply to the persons singly and collectively are plainly substantial predicates hence it appears that what may be predicated of each single one but not of all three is not a substantial predicate but of another kind of what kind i will examine presently for he who is father does not transmit this name to the son nor to the holy spirit hence it follows that this name is not attached to him as something substantial for if it were a substantial predicate as god truth justice or substance itself it would be affirmed of the other persons similarly the son alone receives this name nor does he associate it with the other persons as in the case of the titles god truth and the other predicates which i have already mentioned The Spirit, too, is not the same as the Father and the Son.

now this statement does not express clearly what he means however let us scrutinize his extravagance it is plain that this union took place either at the moment of conception or at the moment of resurrection but if it happened at the moment of conception eutyches seems to think that even before conception he had human flesh not taken from mary but prepared in some other way while the virgin mary was brought in to give birth to flesh that was not taken from her that this flesh which already existed was apart and separate from the substance of divinity but that when he was born of the virgin it was united to god so that the nature seemed to be made one or if this be not his opinion since he says that there were two natures before the union and one after supposing the union to be established by conception an alternative view may be that christ indeed took a body from mary but that before he took it the natures of godhead and manhood were different but the nature assumed became one with that of godhead into which it passed but if he thinks that this union was effected not by conception but by resurrection we shall have to assume that this too happened in one of two ways either christ was conceived and did not assume a body from mary or he did assume flesh from her and there were until indeed he rose two natures which became one after the resurrection from these alternatives a dilemma arises which we will examine as follows christ who was born of mary either did or did not take human flesh from her if eutyches does not admit that he took it from her then let him say what manhood he put on to come among us that which had fallen through sinful disobedience or another if it was the manhood of that man from whom all men descend what manhood did divinity invest for if that flesh in which he was born came not of the seed of abraham and of david and finally of mary let eutyches show from what man's flesh he descended since after the first man all human flesh is derived from human flesh but if he shall name any child of man besides mary the virgin as the cause of the conception of the saviour he will both be confounded by his own error and himself a dupe will stand accused of stamping with falsehood the very godhead for thus transferring to others the promise of these sacred oracles made to abraham and david that of their seed salvation should arise for all the world especially since if human flesh was taken it could not be taken from any other but him of whom it was begotten if therefore his human body was not taken from mary but from any other yet that was engendered through mary which had been corrupted by disobedience eutyches is confuted by the argument already stated but if christ did not put on that manhood which had endured death in punishment for sin it will result that of no man's seed could ever one have been born who should be like him without punishment for original sin therefore flesh like his was taken from no man whence it would appear to have been new formed for the purpose but did this flesh then either so appear to human eyes that the body was deemed human which was not really human because it was not subject to any primal penalty or was some new true human flesh formed as a makeshift not subject to the penalty for original sin if it was not a truly human body the godhead is plainly convicted of falsehood for displaying to men a body which was not real and thus deceived those who thought it real but if flesh had been formed new and real and not taken from man to what purpose was the tremendous tragedy of the conception where the value of his long passion i cannot but consider foolish even a human action that is useless and to what useful end shall we say this great humiliation of divinity was wrought if ruined man has not been saved by the conception and the passion of christ for they denied that he was taken into godhead once more then just as the error of eutyches took its rise from the same source as that of nestorius so it hastens to the same goal inasmuch as according to eutyches also the human race has not been saved since man who was sick and needed health and salvation was not taken into godhead yet this is the conclusion he seems to have drawn if he erred so deeply as to believe that christ's body was not taken really from man but from a source outside him and prepared for the purpose in heaven for he is believed to have ascended with it up into heaven which is the meaning of the text none hath ascended into heaven save him who came down from heaven Sixth, I think enough has been said on the supposition that we should believe that the body which Christ received was not taken from Mary.

But if it was taken from Mary, and the human and divine natures did not continue, each in its perfection, this may have happened in one of three ways.

Either Godhead was translated into manhood, or manhood into Godhead, or both were so modified and mingled that neither substance kept its proper form.

But if Godhead was translated into manhood... that has happened which piety forbids us to believe viz while the manhood continued in unchangeable substance godhead was changed and that which was by nature passable and mutable remained immutable while that which we believe to be by nature immutable and impassable was changed into a mutable thing this cannot happen on any show of reasoning But perchance the human nature may seem to be changed into Godhead.

Last week we looked at the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was a true man, made of the seed of David according to the flesh.

Now let us examine the fact that he was none other than Jehovah God, declared thus by the Godhead, and the declaration demonstrated and proved by the historical fact that his body was raised from the dead in the literal manner set forth in the Word.

The Bible is filled with witnesses to the resurrection of Christ.

Before looking at the facts which prove his deity, let us listen for a moment to the witnesses which attest his deity.

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Hear ye him.

The Holy Spirit also speaks of the Godhead of the Son.

The whole of his work in the Bible attests that Jesus Christ is God.

But I think that fundamentally those would be poor concepts.

We understand the Holy Spirit as a who, as a person, as an expression of the Godhead.

And when we talk about the Godhead, we talk about God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.

the very identity it is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Holy Spirit is a who and has actually different descriptors throughout Scripture.

And then there are things that the Holy Spirit does inside of our lives specifically.

So it's a who.

It is part of the Godhead.

Whatever is true in God must be true in his offspring.

Who are his offspring? We are the offspring of the Godhead.

Whatever is true in God must be true in us.

On that principle, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, if you were Abraham's children, you remember that verse? How does the verse end? You would do the works of Abraham.

And what you see in the Holy Spirit here is furioso.

The Godhead is going ballistic.

These torches were used for war.

You can go back and read Judges 7 or Nahum chapter 2.

It's the Holy Spirit.

the Godhead okay it's the Holy Spirit this is the father Jesus literally is the son of God so no one that Jesus often said in relations to his walkings of miracles he's always said the father me is the one who doeth the work okay so the free called the Holy Spirit the father in me and he also called Papa God the father in heaven okay Jesus has I mean I don't think there's any record of Jesus ever referencing Joseph as his father I mean even Joseph knew that he was only Jesus's nominal father So being born of the seed of the woman was very significant.

It meant that the same nature that was carried by the seed of every man, which is the sperm cells, it could not be reproduced in the Christ.

Jesus automatically became the second primordial man born of God.

Do not many live as if God were a myth and the service of God a sham? If God be God, serve him.

Service is the due of Godhead.

Then there were also enthusiastic expectants of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we've said that there was a tendency in some to fall into an unhealthy excitement, but the appetite, the eagerness, the expectation, the confidence, that is right.

So the statues of the Gentiles representing false gods were condemned because they were representations of demons.

And no one can make an image of the invisible, incorporeal, uncircumscribed Godhead.

But God, in His mercy for our salvation, was made true man.

Not just the appearance of a man, but true man in substance.