How then can we understand and explain the distinction between God the Father and the Son of God while believing that Jesus is the express image of God the Father’s Person (Hebrews 1:3)? The writers of the New Testament clearly spoke of God the Father.
Grammatically, Jesus is not identified with God in most passages of scripture which speak of God and Christ. Yet as we have already shown, the apostles and prophets clearly identified Jesus as “the mighty God” and “Everlasting Father” (See Isaiah 9:6; John 14:5-9; John 21:27- 28; 1 John 5:20; Revelation 1:8).
Since the scriptures speak of two: One God and One Man, Christians must believe that these two modes of God’s existence are not two Gods, nor two separate and distinct divine Persons called God; but rather, One God who is Spirit and one man who is God’s only incarnation as a man in flesh.
For “in Him dwells all the fullness of the deity in bodily form (Colossians 2:8-12).” The divine essence of God’s Person or Being remains absolutely one even though He has manifested Himself in a completely different mode of existence in order to save us from our sins.
Since God truly became a man in every sense of the word, He did not pretend to be tempted, nor did He pretend to pray; but as a man He really was tempted and as a man He really did need to pray as all men do. However, these human experiences do not detract from His true identity as Emmanuel, God with us as a man.
If God had merely stepped into an external shell of human flesh in the physical body of Jesus Christ then it could not be said that Jesus was a man at all. Even Trinitarian theology has to admit that God became a man in every sense of the word in order to pray and be tempted by the devil.
Trinitarian theology also has to admit that a second divine spirit person could not abandon His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence in order to become a man without violating Malachi 3:6 which states, “I AM YAHWEH, I CHANGE NOT.”
If Jesus were a second divine person called God who is coequal with God the Father then His essential characteristics of deity would remain unchanged (as a heavenly divine person) such as His omnipresence (being everywhere present) and almighty power.
A God who can lose His divine qualities as God cannot be called a true God at all. The only way that the deity of Jesus can “fill heaven and earth” is as the Holy Spirit of God the Father. Although God became a man He never had to abandon His essential qualities of deity as God the Father.
Yet Trinitarians allege that a second divine person who is equally almighty and powerful as God the Father had to abandon His essential qualities of deity in order to become a man. Yet if an alleged second divine person called “God the Son” could lose His essential divine attributes such as omnipresence [Everywhere Present] and omniscience [All knowingness] then how could Malachi 3:6 be true which states “I AM YAHWEH, I CHANGE NOT?”
Trinitarians ought to ask how an alleged second divine person called God can be a true God if His Person or Being loses His Almighty Power, His All-Knowingness, and His ability to be everywhere present.
But if Jesus is God the Father Himself manifested to us as a man then we can see how God the Father retained His immortal qualities as God, who fills heaven and earth, while manifesting Himself as Jesus the Messiah on earth.
Unlike mankind, God’s Eternal Spirit fills the heavens and the earth. And unlike mankind, God can manifest His presence and speak in many different places all at the same time without becoming morethan one person.
SOME THINGS ABOUT GOD ARE PAST FINDING OUT
The Trinitarian position has some of the same difficulties with understanding the incarnation as the Oneness position. Jesus could not have prayed as God praying to God, He had to pray as a man. Nor was Jesus tempted as God because the Bible says that God cannot be “tempted by evil (James 1:13).”
Therefore we know that Jesus had to be completely human in order to pray and be tempted by the devil. Exactly how this is so is mysterious and extremely difficult for our finite minds to comprehend.
That is why 1 Timothy 3:16 states, “Great is the MYSTERY of godliness, GOD WAS MANIFEST IN THE FLESH …” How the Almighty God can be made manifest in human flesh as a man is perhaps the most miraculous mystery of all times. How can finite men know all of the ways and wonders of the infinite God?
As finite men we must humbly admit that there are some things about the infinite God that are just to “unsearchable” for us to fully comprehend. The apostle Paul accurately describes the inability of our finite minds to fully understand the infinite God when he wrote in Romans 11:33: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.” Although both Trinitarian and Oneness Theologians believe that the scriptures state that Jesus is fully God and fully man, most Trinitarian and Oneness teachers are not able to sufficiently explain to their audiences exactly how this paradox can be true.
The Bible never gives us all of the details, nor does the Bible ever give us the mechanics by which God became a man. We must simply believe in God and in His miraculous ability to become “the man Christ Jesus” as our Savior and Redeemer.
Both Oneness and Trinitarian Christians must also admit that there are many questions that arise about the incarnation of God in Christ Jesus that are very difficult to explain. There are just some things that are just too deep about God to be fully comprehended by finite men.
Yet all Christians must be careful that they are obedient to God by not adding or detracting from God’s Words. Most Apostolic Faith Pentecostals are very careful not to add to God’s Word when they try to explain God’s plural self-revelations of His Being. In contradistinction, most Trinitarians do not fear to carelessly use the non-Biblical terminology that was developed by the Roman Catholic Church many centuries ago.