The Strand Study Bible

JOHN

JOHN

1722

Godhead: FATHER ( Heb 12:9) SON ( I Pet 1:11 ) HOLY SPIRIT - ( Gen 1:2 and Heb 9:14 ) Of the three methods by which Scripture endeavors to portray the fundamental essence of the Divine Being ( light , love , and spirit ), by far, the most broad and far-reaching metaphor used to articulate the essence of God is the expression “ spirit .” God is Spirit, that is, He is an infinite, intelligent, intangible, immaterial, invisible, and incorruptible Being. Everything else “that is” pales in comparison, for everything else “that is” is finite, limited in intelligence, concrete, relevant, visible, and confined to some kind of body that is corruptible. If God were not spirit, He could not be an eternal, immaterial, ghost-like, imperishable Being, whose fundamental nature is truly divine. Which means: Before Jesus entered the womb of Mary He, like the Father and the Holy Spirit, was in “spirit” form for all eternity past. Thus, the think about that for a moment. The thing that separates humans from God is His divine essence; His intellectual, moral, and metaphysical nature. No creation of God can compare to His infinite, intelligent, intangible, immaterial, invisible, and incorruptible nature. This, of course, is what makes Jesus’ sacrifice for us on Calvary so incredible. Jesus voluntarily gave up a part of His eternal past that He had shared with the other two Persons of the Triune Godhead in order to provide us with an eternal future that was promising. That is, He gave up certain aspects of His eternal authority with the other two Persons of Deity because of His great love for humanity ( Mt 27:46 , I Cor 15:28 , Mk 15:34 and Phil 2:6 c ). As humans, we could never ascend to God and bridge the gap that needed to be bridged between Him and us. However, God descended and came down to us (Eph 4:7-10, Phil 2:5-8 and I Tim 2:5-6), thus bridging the gap that needed to be bridged. What the SECOND PERSON of the Triune Godhead chose to do for us in order to save us was beyond belief. He voluntarily stepped out of eternity and stepped into time, took on a body so that He could identify with his creation and never looked back. That is, He willingly gave up the immaterial part of His spirit being for all eternity future in order to lock in a promising eternal future for us. He will keep that body in resurrected form for all eternity future. Yes, God loved us enough to do that for us. No wonder the other two Persons of the Triune Godhead are so enthralled with Jesus ( Phil 2: 5- 9 ). Mind you, Jesus didn’t give up his light (all of His intelligence) or his love (His moral attributes), just the immaterial part of His spirit being for all eternity future. For the rest of eternity our Lord will be confined to a body, a resurrected body, but still a body. Speechless! 4:24 b According to Jesus, worship is not a recommended elective; it is an imperitive. Those who truly worship God must be willing to give Him the “worth-ship” that is due to Him. Christ reminded us here that true worship can never be measured by the “where” or the “how” (vs 20-21), but by the “ W H O ” (vs 23). The “place” of worship and/or the “procedure” in which we worship are always secondary and subordinate to the PE RS ON of worship. Interestingly enough, the first time worship is ever mentioned in the Bible there is no mention of a church, of music, or even of singing (Gen 22:5). According to both the Old Testament (Exo 20:3-5) and the New Testament (Jn 4:24), there are two ingredients necessary for genuine worship to occur: 1. We must be willing to worship God in “spirit” Define who God is and you can worship Him. That’s what it means to worship God in spirit . It means to recognize who God is. Is God “one” in number or “one” in unity (referring to the plurality and nature of God as a Trinity - Deut 6:4 )? To worship God in spirit means to understand the spiritual essence of His being (who He really is). The essence of anything equals its being (substance) plus its attributes. M. Anderson in The Trinity notes: In trying to explain the essence of God we are trying to express the inexpressible. Let us simulate or try to appreciate the difficulty by moving down instead of moving up. Imagine a tree trying to comprehend the nature of man, and you will begin to realize the problems human beings have in trying to understand the nature of God.

To begin with a tree cannot see humans. To a tree man is completely unknown. He can move around the tree without the tree being aware of his existence. He can cut it down, without the tree taking any evasive action. A tree does not distinguish between an old man or a young man. Man can destroy a tree by many different means. He can poison it or he can cut it down. The tree has no ability to defend itself against man. Man is in total control over the tree. The tree cannot make any prediction about, avoid, or defend itself against man, because a tree cannot see man. In the world of trees it could be said that man does not exist because he cannot be seen by the tree. All that can be known about man is what can be experienced by his influence. This in a way is as much as men naturally perceive of God. 1

Both Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Vol. V) 2 and The Pulpit Commentary (Vol. 17) 3 agree that worshipping God in spirit has nothing to do with “where” you serve God (locality - be it at Jerusalem or Samaria - Jn 4:20-21) or “how” you serve God (law keeping – be it those ceremonial observances and external rites with which the Jewish nation served God or Christian traditions), but “WHOM” you serve. True worship is always measured by the “WHOM” (vs 23), not the “where” or the “how” (vs 20-21). Meaning, we must recognize WHOM God is and bow down to Him in reverence and adoration (Gen 24:50-52), if we are “ to worship Him in spirit .” According to the Bible, one cannot worship God without bowing down to who He is (Exo 20:3-5). So, who is God? God ( Elohim ) is a Trinity and exists as three distinct co-eternal persons called the Godhead (I Jn 5:7, Rom 1:20, Colo 2:9 and Acts 17:29). To deny the Triune nature of God is to misunderstand the spiritual essence of His being. The Apostle Paul agrees. He said in Philippians 3:1-3:

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision (religious Jews). For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit , and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh .