Some of the most transparently simple propositions of the New Testament have become complex and confusing because of post-biblical traditions and creeds. Jesus and Paul were Jews who subscribed to the beautiful and simple creed of Israel:
“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord...To you it has been shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; that there is no other beside him” (Deut. 6:4; 4:35).
Jesus quoted and confirmed the creed of Israel when he declared:
“The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is One Lord” (Mark 12:28ff.).
Paul, as the leading Christian apostle, confirmed his Jewish understanding of who God is with these words:
“There is no God but One. 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 [Christians] there is One God, the Father…” (I Cor. 8:4-6).
Paul provides here the perfect definition of monotheism, belief in One God only. “There is One God, the Father….” “The Father,” as grammarians say, stands in apposition to the One God: “There is One God, the Father, and that One God is the Father…” Combining Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 8:4 and 6 we have this vital information:
“There is no God but One…There is One God, the Father.”
Paul then acknowledged Jesus Christ as the One Lord, closely associated with the One God, the Father, but distinguished from Him. Readers should pay close attention to what Paul meant by “Lord” as the title for Jesus, the Messiah. The answer was provided in our first issue (October, 1998) in an article dealing with the all-important Psalm 110:1. Psalm 110:1 is the key to the title “Lord” as applied constantly to Jesus. Please write for a copy of that issue if you do not have it.
3 comments:
I was just thinking that Paul and the apostles maybe had an advantage in that previously they were Jews. They knew the truth- God was one God. What they preached was a continuation of what they had grown up with. Maybe Jewish converts today would also find the truth that there is only one God, a lot easier to accept. Compare this which your average church-goer who has had a solid diet of Trinity, lots of New Testament with very little Old Testament, and being told they will go to heaven when they die. No wonder it is hard to convince them!
Thankfully, we have the help of Jahweh and his son Jesus, or the job would never get done!
It behooves us then to preach "the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ" [Acts 8.12]. Doesn't it?
As refreshing as the waters of a sweet spring
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