Matthew 3:16-17 "16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Now many people get hung up on this verse, they disregard all the other verses in the Bible that clearly state that God is one and that Jesus is His Son, and they say here is God the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. But let's read again what it says, not what we think it should say to fit in with the perspective of a trinity.
Matthew 3:16 "... and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God ..."
So who's Spirit did Jesus see? God's Spirit. If this was the third person of the Godhead then it should read "God the Holy Spirit", but it says "God's Spirit" – there a big difference. And when we look at the translation for this word in the Greek it's "pneuma" again, which literally means breath - we saw this at the beginning of the study that when God's Spirit hovered over the water at creation the original translation was "ruach" in Hebrew, meaning breath or wind. So here was the Spirit of God, His Father:
Matthew 3:16-17 "16 ... descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
God here says "My" (singular) beloved Son. It's so simple - the Father confirming that this is His beloved Son. There are only the two of them. You will never find "God the Son" in the Bible or "God the Holy Spirit" because there is one God, one Son, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from God, His breath, His being, His character, it's part of God, it's who He is. We will look at this more shortly.
But for now let's continue to look at the Son of God. Here Jesus is talking to the man that he had just healed that had been blind...
John 9:35-37 "35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee."
Here Jesus confirms Himself as God's Son. Let's now move to the transfiguration...
Matthew 17:5 "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."
Again we have God speaking and again declaring Jesus as His Son.
John 3:16-17 "16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
John 12:28 "Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."
Only three times do we find the Father speaking in the New Testament - at His Son's baptism, at the transfiguration and in the garden of Gethsemane - each time to His Son, just the two of them. Notice all of the verses speak of "I", "Me", "My", "Your". There is no plurality here because God is one. One God, one Son.
Let's look at a few more...
1 Corinthians 11:3 "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."
Only two.
John 20:17 "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."
Only two. Jesus is going back to heaven to His Father, no one else is in the Godhead, just Himself and His Father. God has given everything to His son...
Colossians 1:19 "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;"
John 14:10 "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."
How does the Father dwell in Christ? Through his Spirit. And this same Spirit dwells in us...
Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Here we see plainly that it is God's Spirit that dwells in us. God's Spirit flows from Him, to His Son, to us - wonderful. There is no third party. The Bible is so clear and it is sad that people twist it and change it to try and line it up with the trinity teaching that is clearly not in the Bible. The word trinity does not appear in the Bible, the words "God the Son" or "God the Holy Spirit" do not appear, the "three of us" does not appear, throughout the Old or New Testament. There are only two, God the Father and His beloved Son Jesus.
Here are a few more verses that are so clear, and there are many more that space will not permit us to look at, but you can do your own study on this.
1 Corinthians 3:16 "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
2 Corinthians 6:16 "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Colossians 1:27 "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:"
Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Galatians 4:6 "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
Ephesians 3:16-17 "16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,"
1 Peter 1:11 "Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."
1 John 4:12-15 "12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God."
Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
John 17:3 "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Just two - the Father and the Son. And to know them is to have eternal life. If there was a third person in the Godhead then surely God would have made that abundantly clear if our eternal salvation depended on it.
Do you see how wonderfully clear God's word is when we just read what He says, when we take the weight of evidence in His word?
Page 10 - Who Is Our Comforter?
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