Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
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Only the God of the Bible is able to be eternally loving because He is the only god to forever have someone to love, even before He created anything or anyone.
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy
God's threeness again. Here let's talk about the ontological Trinity. Now, this is not talking about God in relation to creation. We just saw that in Ephesians 1. Salvation is something that occurs inside creation. So it's God's relationship to us in terms of salvation in creation. But what about God and his relationship within himself, independent of any creation? I mean, God was there before it says in the very first of the Bible that he created, there was simply God. God in three persons, right? And so we call this the ontological Trinity. It is concerned with God within himself as both a unity and a diversity. A unity as one God, a diversity in the three persons. And he could express himself entirely as such without any creation there.
So God the Son, for example, we always call him the Son, and we always call the Father the Father. But did God the Son become the Son at His Incarnation? Well, if He did, then that would mean that the Father became the Father at the Incarnation, too, right? Because you can't have a Father without a Son. And so, no, this is an these are eternal distinctions, Father and Son. He's eternally the Father, and the Son is eternally the Son. They didn't become these things. In himself before the creation of the world, there was Father and Son. So we are looking at God ontologically without respect to any creation. And he is who he is, whether or not there is even a creation, right? The attribute you we we, one of the attributes you we use to explain this is we say God is immutable. Meaning what? That he never changes, right? Now, if God the Son became the Son, then there would be an essential change in God, would there not? And if God the Father became the Father, then again you would have an essential change in who God is. So, no, they didn't become Father and Son, they have always been.
One of the attributes not commonly discussed, but one we'll mention now, is called asseyety, or for short, some people just call it ase. They say God is asse, or the asseety of God. And what this means is that God is self-contained, meaning he doesn't need anything outside of himself. He's wholly complete within himself, and it can express himself completely just within himself. For example, in Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17, he's asking the Father to restore him to his glory, to his presence, that he may love him as he loved him before the foundation of the world. So one of the attributes of God is love, right? Could God express that before there was even a creation? The answer on the basis of John 17 is that yes, he could. God the Father, forever in eternity past, loved God the Son. He had an object. The Father had an object of his love, and that love was his son.
Now take another concept of God from Islam, where we have a solitary monotheistic God named Allah. In other words, there's no diversity of person within Allah. It's just Allah. Now, does Allah have an object in which to love before Allah created? Well, if he's just a solitary person, there's no other person there, then he cannot express this attribute of love. Meaning that in order for Allah to love, he has to create an object for him to love. This means that Allah is not self-contained. I'm just pointing out a flaw in a concept of God. Allah is limited. Allah has to create if he's going to be able to exercise a quality that he supposedly possesses, which is love. But of course, that characteristic is not very predominant in the concept of Allah, is it? Look at the terror. Look at the hate. There's not a lot of love in Islam. And many Muslims that come to Christ, the reason they come to Christ is because they realize that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. And so for them, it's it's realizing that one true God is actually a God of love and Allah is a false God. So it's interesting to think about God in this sense that He's wholly complete in Himself or self-contained. We call that a sayity.
We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.
