Quote:
Originally Posted by Civbert  I know the terminology. One essence. But the essence is spiritual - therefore the essence is not divisible into parts. But the persons are unique. And each is required. You can not have Jesus is as just God alone, he is God the Son and he is begotten of the Father. You can not call Jesus God apart from the relationship he has to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Just as you can not call a single molecule of H2O a solid or a gas or a liquid, because those are not simple states of existence, but relationships to other molecules. If you subtract out the Father, or the Holy Spirit, and leave Jesus you have removed any sense to the meaning of to Jesus is God. But Jesus is not the Father, and not the Spirit. He is one in substance with the Father and Spirit. |
You: "One essence. But the essence is spiritual - therefore, the essence is not divisible into parts."
Right. Though I think it would be better to use "spirit" instead of "spiritual".
You: "The persons are unique. And each is required."
Right.
You: "You cannot have Jesus as God alone, He is God the Son..."
Well, this statement could be read as meaning that Jesus's essence as deity is dependent on His relationship with another Person of the Trinity. That would not be correct. His essence as God is not dependent on His inter-trinitarian relationships.
You: "...and He is begotten of the Father."
Thinks:
not gonna go there, not gonna go there [*bites tongue*]
You: "You cannot call Jesus God apart from the relationship He has to the Father and the Holy Spirit."
As I said above, Jesus's essence as deity is not dependent on His inter-trinitarian relationships. All three Persons are fully and completely God - with no qualifications necessary. This is the basic, rock-bottom fact about God's trinitarian nature: God
is three eternal Persons. The Persons are distinguishable as Persons, but they are all the
same God.