Who is God?
God the Trinity
Understanding the Trinity - God the Father
He is the Spiritual aspect of God. He has no physical form.
“And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.” (Deu 4:12 KJV)
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (Jhn 5:37 KJV)
“And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.” (Jhn 5:37 KJV)
God the Father does not ever take a physical form. He is the one who has “begotten” the Son, as explained in John 3:16, “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.”
The term in the Greek interpreted as “begotten” is monogenēs, which means “single of its kind, only”. It is only used of Jesus. It implies “created”, but is different from the creation God did when He made Adam. In that instance, the Hebrew term used is āśâ, which means, to do, fashion, accomplish or make. This term is used to describe a number of creations of God.
The terms used by God to describe the three aspects of His image include first, “the Father”, followed by “the Son” and finally, “the Holy Spirit”. Their is a notable father-son relationship between the Father and the Son. This implies the Son came from the Father. The term “begotten” does also. Biologically speaking, the father has to come before the son.
The way we think of it to make it relatable to the everyday reader is, to think of the Father as the eternal, multi-dimensional God, that exists outside of time and space. God chooses to create a physical universe so that He can create beings (us) that He can be in a loving relationship with. To do this, God wants to enter His creation. God has to create a way for Him to relate to us that is different from the way He is outside time and space. We cannot relate to that, so, He forms a physical way to relate to us. It is still God, just in physical form. That is the Son.
As you can see, it is not possible to clearly describe one aspect of the Trinity, without describing the others along with it. The Father is the eternal aspect that is non-physical and yet, personable and relatable. He is the Righteous, perfect God that cannot be in the presence of sin spiritually (see our study on Sin). This is why God tells Adam that if he eats of the fruit f the Tree of knowledge, that day you will surely die. Adam did not drop dead that day. He went on to have many children and live 930 years. What God was telling Adam is that he would suffer spiritual death that day, which he did. At that point in time, Adam realized “he was naked”, meaning separated from God spiritually.
God the Father wanted this physical universe to create beings that would be in a loving relationship with Hi. To do this, sin was a necessary option in order for there to be the possibility of true love. See our studies on Why Did God Create the Universe and on Free Will and Sin for more information.
Next, we will look at God the Son.
