Who is Our God?

Deuteronomy 17-18 

Psalm 28 

Mark 12

– Devotion by Pastor Haroon Yacoob Masihi

From Tom Siderius from Church of God Blanchard, Michigan – Pastor Masihi is the chairman of the Unitarian Mission of Pakistan and is very active and vigorous in his teaching of One God truth and Unitarian belief there.  I have been privileged to help with teaching there via zoom as has Jon Welch, Jerry Wierwille,  and others from  COG churches.  I asked him for a sermon that he has given there in Urdu which could be adapted to a Seek Grow Love devotion for us to read.  I have edited it for structure but the content is his.  Please read with him and pray for their mission there and the fellowship that we can have with them.

Hello brothers and sisters,  very important topic of who our God is. For hundreds of years the teaching of the Trinity that God is three persons in one: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; has been seen as a core belief within Christianity.

Yet this teaching has been assumed to be taught in the scriptures, not directly taught. What does God’s word show about Himself? Is the teaching of the trinity true? Who is the God of the Bible? I hope to answer these questions today.

Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, Yahweh, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,” — Isaiah 44:24

Whoever God is, he is the only God. There are not multiples. There is only one and He has revealed Himself by a name, this name is Yahweh, and He alone is God.

And God furthermore said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name from generation to generation. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I indeed care about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.— Exodus 3:15-16

When God revealed Himself to Moses, He identified Himself to be the God that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob believed in. These men were the ancestors of the Israelites. The God of the Bible is the same as their God.

“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as phylacteries between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”— Deuteronomy 6:4-9

This passage is at the core of the Jewish faith. In a world where many people have said there are many gods, Yahweh God revealed himself to all of Israel as the one true God. This is the one God that they taught their children and who is the creator of us all.

“And when one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, he recognized that He had answered them well and asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’”— Mark 12:28-30

Jesus, who is a Jew, held to the same God as his ancestors. He said this is the most important commandment of all to love this one and only true God. This is the God of Jesus. The Trinity teaches that Jesus is God or a part of God, yet Jesus acknowledges he has a God.

“Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”— John 4:21-23

There have been claims that Jesus came to reveal and teach the God of the Trinity. That Israel did not fully understand God. But is that true? Jesus here acknowledges that the Jews knew God, and that their God was the true God. Israel did not believe in a trinity. They understood who God was because he had revealed Himself to them.

“For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”— 1 Corinthians 8:5-6

Paul confirms his belief in one God, also called the Father. He believes in this one God and in the one Lord, Jesus. If this God of the Trinity was revealed by Jesus then why does Paul not acknowledge that? Paul acknowledges the one true God and the son that God sent, Jesus.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”— Ephesians 4:4-6 

There is only one faith and this faith is in this one God, the Father. There is no mention of three beings of a trinity God. Only the Father, He alone is God.

Jesus also confirms this is his God and the only true one.

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” — John 17:3

Jesus says our salvation is dependent on knowing the true God, and to also know His Messiah, Jesus. Jesus does not put himself as that true God, but that we have to believe in his God.

“Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” — John 20:17

Our God and Father is Jesus’s God and Father. There was not a revealing of a new God or a new understanding of that God. But the same God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed in is the same God that our Lord Jesus believes in and serves.

“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and he will never go out from it anymore. And I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” — Revelation 3:12 

Here, Jesus is now in heaven at the right hand of God. And he still speaks of his God. Again, the teaching of the Trinity is not revealed, but only the one God, the same God of Jesus.

This is the God that Jesus pleased when he was a child

And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. — Luke 2:52

This is the God that brought about Jesus through His power upon Mary at the right time according to Gods plan.

The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.— Luke 1:35

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. — Galatians 4:4-5

God brought about Jesus and it was the same God that Jesus worshipped. God did not come down or become man, He chose a man with a very special job.

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” — Acts 2:22-24

Often it is questioned then, who is Jesus? If he is not God or a part of God, then who is he? Peter shows who he is. He is a man chosen by God. God gave great power to and a very special role to this man, Jesus. It was not God who came down to do this mission, but a man like you and me who was chosen for this mission.

“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”— Acts 17:30-31

God is using this man and showed everyone by raising him from the dead. This was not God who died, because God cannot die, or God who raised himself, but a man who was raised by God to eternal life. And it is this man who is in heaven with our God and his God.

“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the witness for this proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” — 1 Timothy 2:3-7

There is only one true God. Jesus is a man who mediates between us and this one true God. Jesus could not meditate between God and men if he himself was God. He represented God to us, and represents us to God.

So what does God’s word show about Himself? Is the teaching of the trinity true?

God has revealed Himself in His word as the only true God. He has given us His name as Yahweh, the God that Abraham and all Israel believed in. The God from the beginning is the same God Jesus worships.

The god of the trinity is not revealed in scripture. The trinity is a teaching that does not hear the words of our savior Jesus who has shown the only true God. So let us all praise and worship the one true God and Father of us all, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Reflection Questions

1. Whether you are hearing these thoughts for the first time, or you have spent your whole life believing them, or somewhere in the middle – what makes sense to you today about these verses from Scripture? What do you currently have questions about?
2. What do you love about Jehovah God? What does He reveal about Himself in Scripture?
3. What do you love about the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Messiah? What do we learn about him in Scripture?

Prayer:

My heartfelt prayer is that Jehovah God will reveal His truth to all Christians. And that all Christians will know the one God Jehovah the Heavenly Father and the Son of the Father, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Blessings, Your brother in Christ, a servant, Pastor Haroon Yaqoob Masihi