Question:
“Would you please help me to understand this thinking? I can see that there are two, but God the Father, having an offspring makes another God, does it not? Then how do we say that there is only one God, since the Father and the Son are distinct and individual beings? The two are one in mind, purpose, Spirit, but two in beings.”
Answer:
You bring up some good points. It is true that Jesus is the offspring of God the Father, and by very nature Jesus is God. However, when the Bible uses terms like “Most High God,” “only true God,” “one God,” it is always speaking of the Father and not His Son. The phrase “one God” is used seven times in the Bible. Two times it makes it very clear who is being referred to. “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6) “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:6)
The Father and Son are both God by very nature, yet the Bible refers to the Son as the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and the “image of God”(2 Corinthians 4:4), and “the express image of his person.” (Hebrews 1:3) An image is a likeness of the original. The original and true God is the Father. His Son is a distinct and separate individual who is God by nature, yet He is not the original, or true, God. (The Greek word that was translated “true” “contrasts realities with their resemblances.” — Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. See also Hebrews 8:2.)
