(Continued from p.340, Dec., 1931.)

Unitarians and others reject this essential article of belief. In this they are no whit in advance of the Jews who denied Jesus' claim of equality with the Father. They lack, however, the consistency of the Jews, who saw that if Jesus was not equal with God, then He was an impostor and an antichrist. Indeed, it was for this that they caused Him to be crucified. Modernists and all other present-day rejecters of the Deity of Christ, as in every sense equal with the Father (1:e., Personally considered), are illogical in their method of reasoning. Many of them allow that Jesus was a "good man," but in effect they make Him a liar. They virtually deny that He told the truth when He said, "I and My Father are One." A certain interpretation is given which satisfies them as to this; but it lacks that "sound speech which cannot be condemned." The Jews of His day delivered Jesus to Pilate, declaring to that ruler:"We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." They knew well what Jesus meant when He made this claim, and they would have been right in condemning Him as an impostor, of His claim had not been in the fullest sense true and valid.

He would be a bold and arrogant person who made claim that this sublime and glorious truth of the Trinity is one which can be fully grasped by the human mind. It would be like saying that the creature can comprehend the Infinite One! There must remain impenetrable mysteries concerning the Being of God, hidden forever from the gaze of the creature. God "dwells in the light unto which no one can approach, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting." The study of Psychology discloses the fact that man, as to his own being, is a mystery to himself. How much greater, then, must be the mystery of God.

While this is fully acknowledged, we are surely intended to avail ourselves of all that God has been pleased to reveal of Himself. When, therefore, the Lord spoke of His Father, as He did so constantly, we know that He was referring to a Person other than Himself, of whom He said:"I and My Father are one." In this wonderful declaration the Son distinguished between Himself and His Father. He did not confound Himself with the Father, so as to give the impression that He was the "Father." He declared that He was God, but He never declared that He was the Father, but, rather, the Son of the Father. Though distinguishing the Persons, He declared that there was a Unity between Himself and His Father which constituted them in the most essential sense one. The same is true in regard to the Holy Spirit in His relation to the Father and the Son. Scripture carefully distinguishes the Eternal Spirit, both as to His Personality and His office, from the Father and the Son. The Lord said to His disciples:"Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will" send Him unto you" (John 16:7). Here we have a divine Person (the Son) declaring that He was leaving the earth, in order that another divine Person (the Holy Spirit) might come in His place. It is not that He was not here already, as dwelling in the Son, but He could not come to the disciples as the Comforter, to indwell them, unless the Son returned to the Father.

When the Lord was replying to the Pharisees, who charged Him with bearing witness of Himself, and that therefore His witness was invalid, Jesus replied:"Though I bear record of Myself, yet My record is true; for 7 know whence I am, but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. … It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me" (John 8:13-19). This scripture is very important on this point. The Lord had declared Himself as "the light of the world," adding, "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." The Jews saw in this a claim of Deity, and charged Him with bearing witness of Himself. Note that the witness is to that of which none can testify except God, inasmuch as none but God can know Him in the absolute sense. If therefore the Son can bear witness, it is because He 'is God, 1:e., is one with the Father. Further, it is to be noted that unless there is the "testimony of two men," 1:e., the "two or three witnesses" demanded by the law, there could not be adequate witness at all to God. In other words, all deniers of the Deity of the Son (and likewise all who reject the Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit), make themselves responsible to show how God can make Himself known to man. For it is evident that if the law requires the "testimony of two or three witnesses," since this is a matter concerning which none less than God can testify, He is left without means to communicate the knowledge of Himself to man, unless it be true that the Son and the Spirit join with the Father in that revelation. Creation bears witness to God as Creator; all His works bear testimony to the power and wisdom of Him who made them; but if it be a question, as here it is, of the character and nature of God, He cannot be known personally, except by a personal manifestation, involving god as a Trinity.

"What else, then, can be the meaning of the Incarnation, but that God was seeking to reveal Himself to man? In the divine eternal counsels the Son was sent from the Father, as it is written:"And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory- glory as of an only-begotten with the Father-full of grace and truth. … No one has seen God at any time:the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." In connection with this, we have the confirmation given by the Father to the Son which was shown in various ways during the Son's visit to earth, and at Jordan and in the holy mount. We have also the Witness of the Holy Spirit joining with the Father and the Son in the Scriptures. To reject this threefold divine Witness is to leave the one so doing without hope of blessing, since it leaves Gad without further means of revealing Himself. Man cannot be saved, or be in a right and happy relationship with God, except through God personally making Himself known to him. We read that, "This is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."

From this we learn that there is not in man the will or desire to know God. Nevertheless, in infinite love, He who made man in His own image would have him brought back to Himself, and the means He has taken in redemption is the only way by which that can be wrought. Hence we hear the Lord Jesus declare Himself as the "Way, the Truth, and the Life," adding, "No one comes unto the Father, except by Me."

There have been many illustrations given of the trinity, as for example, the one body of light in the sun, made up of the three rays. There is the old illustration, said to have been used by St. Patrick, in the three-in-one leaf of the shamrock. Perhaps there is also, as often pointed out, the illustration of this sublime truth found in the constitution of man himself, as "spirit, and soul, and body."

The question has often been asked, "How can there be three Persons in the Godhead, and yet but one God?" We read in 1 Tim. 3:16:"Great is the mystery of godliness:god was manifested in flesh." It is the eternal Son in manhood who is before us here. And yet it is said that in Him, Jesus of Nazareth, god was visible. It is not only that the Son was here, as the second Person in the Godhead-that, of course, is true in a real and special manner-but God in all His fulness was here, manifested. The fulness of the Godhead was manifested in one Man, even as we read, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." And again we read, "For in Him all fulness was pleased to dwell" (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Here then we seen the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit manifested as One, in the one Man, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus spoke of the "Father that dwelleth in Me." The Holy Spirit too was there in Him in all His fulness, for He was given to Him "without measure." Thus god was seen as one in the Man who alone could "declare Him."

While the mystery of the Godhead lies forever beyond the gaze of the creature, how blessed to know that as to His heart of eternal love-yes, and also as to all that lies in His eternal counsels of grace-He has fully made Himself known. The Son brought to us all that is in the Father's heart; for He came Himself as the "exact expression" of His Father. The Spirit too is here to reveal to our wondering eyes the very "depths of God" as to those counsels of redeeming love, and we are told by the Son Himself that the "Father seeketh worshipers to worship Him." It is only in a personal knowledge of God that we can become worshipers, and none can reveal the Father to us but the Son.

That the great Comforter may be pleased to make these feeble lines a means of blessing to the reader, is the prayer of the writer. Wm. Huss