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God is one - one in number, the only God, and single in mind, emotions and purpose. This truth is stated repeatedly throughout the scriptures, but its clearest statement is found in God's first and greatest commandment:
Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one: 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 12:29b-30, restating Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (WEB)
In this commandment, God's unity is posited as the reason we should give him undivided love. Because there is only one God, we should not divide our love between him and any other god. Moreover, because God is one, united in himself, we should love him undividedly, with all of our being.
That there is only one God and there is no other follows logically from his self-existence and creatorhood. Paul declares that:
For though there are things that are called "gods," whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many "gods" and many "lords;" yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.
I Corinthians 8:5-6 (WEB)
Likewise, Isaiah explains:
For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn't create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited: "I am Yahweh; and there is no other."
Isaiah 45:18 (WEB), compare Isaiah 40:21-28, 44:24; Jeremiah 10:6-16.
God is one, but men recognize many impostors. In I Corinthians 8:5-6, quoted above, Paul recognizes that there are many "gods" and many "lords." Numerous passages condemn, and even mock, the foolishness of men who make worthless idols in the form of created things. Some of these passages primarily contrast the power of the one true God to the impotence of the idols men make - objects of wood, stone and metal which are unable to see, hear, speak or do anything. Leviticus 26:1; I Chronicles 16:26; Psalm 96:4-6; Psalm 97:6-7; Psalm 115:2-8; Psalm 135:13-18; Isaiah 31:7; Isaiah 40:18-25; Isaiah 41:1-7; Isaiah 41:21-24; Isaiah 44:6-23; Isaiah 46:3-7; Jeremiah 10:1-16; Habakkuk 2:18-20.
Others primarily emphasize the futility of the purpose for which men make idols: to make it possible for them to ignore what they know about the one true God so that they will be free to serve their own evil desires, to do as they please. Romans 1:18-32; Exodus 20:4-6; Ezekiel 6:9; Ezekiel 14:1-7; Ezekiel 20:13-38; Hosea 13:1-9; Zechariah 10:1-2. These scriptures further show that men set up idols for themselves; an idol does not exist for a person unless that person sets up that idol in his own heart. All of these scriptures also speak of the judgment of God on idols and those who worship them.
There is, however, an evil spiritual reality behind idols. When Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he put the words of the serpent before those of God. Genesis 2:16-17 & 3:4-6. He set up the serpent as his idol and worshipped him, seeking to be independent, "to be like God, knowing good and evil." Instead of freedom, however, Adam brought himself and his descendants into bondage - bondage to sin and to the serpent himself, satan, the god of this world, who to this day blinds the minds of unbelievers and leads the world astray. Romans 6:16-18; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9.
Thus, while idols are only wood or stone, the sacrifices people offer to them are offered to demons - the demons which the worshippers obey. Psalm 106:36-37; I Corinthians 10:20. The demon is not in the idol, but in the idol worshipper. Compare, I Corinthians 8:7-13. Moreover, the demons must marvel at the gullibility of sinful man, who is so easily seduced to serve them when they themselves know that they are not true gods:
You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.
James 2:19 (WEB)
God's oneness is critical to his work with his people. From the beginning of his dealings with Israel, he defended, forgave and provided for them "that all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else." I Kings 8:60; accord, Exodus 7:5. Similarly, God demonstrated his unity in giving the Law to Moses - after the people begged that God no longer speak to them directly, he made Moses mediator between himself and the people. Exodus 20:18-19; Deuteronomy 5:2-5. The New Testament enlarges upon this by teaching that the Law was put into effect by angels through a mediator, and then states that the mediator must have represented both God and men to each other, not God only, because "a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." Galatians 3:19-20.
Likewise, what is the means through which eternal life is available in the present age? "This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ." John 17:3. As the condemning Law was given by the one God through a temporary mediator, so now eternal life is given by the one God through an eternal mediator: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." I Timothy 2:5. Jesus is the mediator of the new and better covenant, "so that we may serve the living God." Hebrews 9:14-15 and 12:24.
Just as God is one, his will and purpose are also one. God cannot change. Hebrews 1:10-12, 6:17-18, 13:8; Psalm 33:11; Malachi 3:6. God created the universe by speaking his word, and now upholds all things by the word of his power. Genesis 1; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16-17. Every word of God is pure, and God honors his word above his name. Psalm 12:6, 119:89 & 138:2; Proverbs 30:5; Romans 11:28-29. Once God speaks his will, it cannot change. God's word is truth. John 8:31-32, 14:6 & 17:17. God cannot lie or change his mind. Numbers 23:19-20; I Samuel 15:29.
Because God is above time, existing simultaneously throughout it, his thoughts are unified and his will is forever one, from the beginning God knew both every choice that would be made by every person who would ever live and the manner in which those choices and their consequences would be fit into his own will. Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 48:3-11; for a few of many examples, see Genesis 50:20; Deuteronomy 28:1-30:20; I Chronicles 28:9; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Psalms 105-107. The scriptures are clear that God has complete foreknowledge of future events, as we see time (although from his perspective he simply knows). Isaiah 42:9, 44: 6-8, 46:9-10; Acts 15:17-18. Yet the scriptures are also clear that God gave men freedom to choose their own course and even to choose sin and destruction. Deuteronomy 30:19-20; John 3:16-21; Acts 2:37-41; Acts 18:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12.
However, these seemingly contradictory lines of scripture may be reconciled without asserting that God makes us sin if it is observed that none of the passages which directly discuss God's predetermination of events on their faces assert that God foreordains sin or evil. See, Romans 8:28-30, Ephesians 1:4-12. Rather, as will be discussed at more length in a later chapter, God is said to foreordain or predestine good things. For instance, God is said to predestine his elect to be conformed to the image of his Son. Romans 8:28-30. Further, he chose us and predestined us to adoption as sons and to be holy and blameless before him, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1: 4-6, 11-12; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.
Yet, in a manner which is possible only because of his place above time, the scriptures affirm that, although God chose us in him before the creation of the world and at that time predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son, he chose us according to his foreknowledge and we were included in Christ when we heard the Gospel and believed. Ephesians 1:4-13; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; I Peter 1:1-2. God, who from before the creation of the world knew both our faith and everything that would happen in our world, predestined us from before creation to be like Jesus. Even today he makes all things work together to bring to pass his "good" determined purpose in our lives. Romans 8:28-30.
Indeed, God's unchanging will for us is good. He has said:
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
James 1:17-18 (WEB)
God is not good and evil, light and darkness. His purposes and actions toward us are not good and bad, sometimes constructive and sometimes destructive. God is one, and that one is good.
� 1996, 1998 by Ian Bruce Johnson.Next Page: Chapter 3. God is love
Selection of books on the unity and Trinity of God, written by others.
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