Like Father, Like Son

The other day I received an email from someone with the following content:

Hello André,

I am studying the doctrine of the Trinity – or rather, how it actually is. At a certain point I run into something I cannot figure out, and I am curious how you see it.

There is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s Son, His Image, His Form, the Effulgence of His glory, and the Emblem of His assumption. He is the One who appeared in the Old Testament to Abraham and Moses, among others, and said that His name is YHWH. And then I no longer understand it, because YHWH is God, isn’t He? So suddenly there are two Gods. Or is the Father called YHWH and the Son not? Or both?

Then something else. In the article about the Trinity you write: “In prayer we address God the Father. Not Jesus or the Spirit. Through Christ Jesus. That is the ever-recurring formula in Scripture.” I agree that this is an ever-recurring formula. But then what are we to do with Acts 8:22, where Peter tells Simon that he must beseech the Lord for forgiveness?

In any case, I would also like to say that I find your website very interesting, and I wish you much wisdom in understanding the Bible correctly.

Greetings,
D.

My answer:

Dear D.,

Thank you very much for your kind message. From your words I gather that you see that the conception of the Trinity is not correct, but naturally you want to know how it actually is. Perhaps I can point you in the right direction.

Your first question is: Is the Father called YHWH, or the Son? Or perhaps both?
In my view, you already give the answer yourself by referring to Hebrews 1:3, where we read of the Son…

Who, being the Effulgence of His glory and Emblem of His assumption…

God and His Son relate as the sun does to its effulgence. And as an emblem does to the original. These are comparisons the Bible itself gives us. And we can learn much from them. On the one hand, we can distinguish between a source of light and the light it radiates. The sun is not the same as the sunshine. On the other hand, we can perceive the sun only through the light it gives off. When the sun is high in the summer sky, we cannot possibly look at the sun. What we see are the sun’s rays. Yet in everyday speech we hardly make that distinction. On the beach I lie in the sun. It is perfectly normal to say it that way. Even though, strictly speaking, it is not correct. I am not lying on the beach in the sun but in the sunlight. But in ordinary speech we identify the two. Just as the Bible often identifies the Son and the Father. Whoever sees the Son has seen the Father (John 14:9).

The second comparison in Hebrews 1:3 – that of an emblem and the original – brings us to a similar thought. If I have a coin in my hand, I can point to it and say: that is Queen Beatrix. That is entirely correct, but remember: it is figurative speech. For what I see on the coin is of course not Queen Beatrix herself; it is an image of her (cf. Matthew 22:20). In the same way, “the Son of His love” is called the “IMAGE of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). God Himself may be the Invisible One, yet we do see Him. Through Him, namely, who is called His Image, Emblem, Effulgence, and Form. It is perfectly biblical to say that Christ is God. The Bible itself does so in many places. But do not forget: it is, rightly, figurative language. Whoever takes this figurative language literally turns an everyday figure of speech into an incomprehensible mystery and gets bogged down in formulations utterly foreign to biblical language. There is “one God, the Father” (1 Corinthians 8:6). He is the invisible God. And His Son, “Firstborn of every creature,” is the Image and the Form of the Deity. He makes God known to us (John 1:18).

As for the second question – whom we actually pray to – the following. The consistent line in the Bible is that we pray to God the Father. But also: we approach Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. So in practice, here too, we often see the identification of Father and Son. For example, in Acts 8:22, which you mention.
Finally, a few Bible texts in which you find the above truth expressed:

…do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God, the Father, through Him!
Colossians 3:17

…to the ONLY GOD, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority…
Jude 25

For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and mankind, a Man, Christ Jesus…
1 Timothy 2:5

Dear D., I hope these considerations are of some use to you.
May God give us “the eyes of our heart enlightened”!
– André Piet –

Share: