The Godhead

Text: Acts 17:29; Colossians 2:9

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Define the Godhead as one God subsisting in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. Explain why both modalism and tritheism are false to Scripture — and why the biblical doctrine steers between them.
3. Identify the deity of Christ from explicit New Testament testimony.
4. Describe the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit from Scripture — not a force or influence but a person.
5. Understand that the unity and distinction within the Godhead are not a contradiction but the revealed structure of the one God.

Thesis

The Godhead is one God subsisting in three distinct persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — each fully divine, none reducible to the others, and the whole neither tritheism nor modalism but the revealed truth of the one eternal God.

Burden

Paul at Athens declared that the Godhead is not gold or silver or stone, or an image formed by the thought of man (Acts 17:29). The idol-worshipper makes a god that fits in his hand. The rationalist makes a god that fits in his system. Neither will do. The Godhead is not the product of theological creativity; it is the self-disclosure of God. And the disclosure is this: one God, three persons. Not three gods. Not one person wearing three masks. Three persons, one God. The New Testament does not explain it — it reveals it. And a person who comes to the text prepared to accept what the text says will find it there, stated plainly, repeatedly, from Matthew to Revelation.

Introduction

The doctrine of the Godhead — what later theology would call the Trinity — is not a post-apostolic invention, a philosophical import, or a denominational construct. It is the testimony of the New Testament, drawn from the Old, and rooted in the earliest Christian confession. The outline treats it in four points: the existence of the Godhead, the deity of Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the unity and distinction within the three. This sermon follows that structure with attention to the specific heresies the doctrine rules out.

I. The Existence and Nature of the Godhead

A. The word "Godhead" appears three times in the New Testament.

1. Acts 17:29 — "the Divine Nature" (theion): Paul at Athens; the Godhead is not an image fashioned by man's art or thought.
2. Rom. 1:20 — "His eternal power and divine nature" (theiotes): seen in creation; the eternal power of God is plain to the careful observer.
3. Col. 2:9 — "the fullness of Deity" (theotētos): the totality of what it means to be God dwells in Christ bodily.

B. God is revealed in three persons, each addressed and described in personal terms.

1. The Father: the source of creation and redemption (1 Cor. 8:6; John 1:1).
2. The Son: through whom all things were made; by whom redemption came (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16-17).
3. The Holy Spirit: sent by the Father and the Son; given to the church (John 14:16-17; Acts 2:33).

C. The Godhead is not three gods (tritheism) nor one person playing three roles (modalism/Sabellianism).

1. At the baptism of Jesus: the Son is baptized, the Spirit descends as a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven — three distinct persons active simultaneously (Matt. 3:16-17). One person cannot be in three places at once.
2. The Great Commission: "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" — one name (onoma, singular), three persons (Matt. 28:19). The grammar rules out tritheism and modalism in a single phrase.

D. The unity is not an identity of persons but the unity of one divine nature, one will, one purpose.

II. The Deity of Christ

A. The New Testament makes explicit claims about the divine nature of Christ.

1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Three clauses: eternal pre-existence, distinction from the Father, full deity.
2. "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Col. 1:17). The present tense of sustaining existence and cosmic coherence.
3. "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Col. 2:9). Not a partial or delegated deity — the fullness, dwelling bodily in Jesus of Nazareth.

B. Christ Himself asserted deity.

1. "Before Abraham was born, I Am" (John 8:58) — the divine name of Exod. 3:14 used of Himself; the Jews understood it and took up stones.
2. "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30) — unity of nature, not merely of purpose; the Jews again understood and sought to stone Him for blasphemy (John 10:33).

C. The resurrection confirms the deity.

1. "Declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness" (Rom. 1:4).
2. Thomas's confession at the resurrection: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28) — Jesus does not correct him.

D. The implication: to diminish Christ's deity is not a modest scholarly position but a departure from the New Testament itself.

III. The Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit

A. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force, influence, or impersonal power.

1. He speaks: "The Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul'" (Acts 13:2). Forces do not speak.
2. He can be lied to (Acts 5:3), grieved (Eph. 4:30), blasphemed (Matt. 12:31), and resisted (Acts 7:51). Impersonal powers cannot be sinned against in these ways.
3. He uses the personal pronoun: "He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak" (John 16:13). The masculine pronoun (ekeinos) is used of the Spirit even though "spirit" (pneuma) is neuter in Greek — a deliberate grammatical marker of personality.

B. The Holy Spirit is divine.

1. "Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?'" — and two verses later: "You have not lied to men but to God" (Acts 5:3-4). Lying to the Holy Spirit = lying to God.
2. He searches the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10-11) — an attribute of omniscience applicable only to deity.
3. He is eternal (Heb. 9:14) — "the eternal Spirit."

C. The Holy Spirit's role in the Godhead is distinct from but coordinate with the Father and the Son.

1. He is sent by the Father (John 14:16) and by the Son (John 16:7).
2. He dwells in the believer as the presence of God in the new covenant age (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19-20).
3. He is included in the baptismal formula (Matt. 28:19) and the apostolic benediction (2 Cor. 13:14) as a co-equal member of the one Godhead.

IV. The Unity and Distinction — Orthodoxy Against Both Errors

A. Modalism (Sabellianism / "Oneness") is false.

1. Modalism teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three modes or manifestations of a single person — the same being appearing in different forms at different times.
2. The baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:16-17) demolishes this: the Son is present in the water, the Spirit is descending, the Father is speaking — all simultaneously. Three simultaneous presences require three persons.
3. Christ's prayers to the Father demolish it further: a person does not pray to himself. "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46) is either addressed to a distinct person or it is theater.

B. Tritheism is equally false.

1. Scripture is unambiguous: "The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" (Deut. 6:4). "There is no other God besides Me" (Isa. 45:5). "There is one God" (1 Tim. 2:5).
2. The Great Commission formula — one name, three persons — holds the unity and the distinction in a single breath.
3. The unity is not mere agreement or cooperation; it is the unity of the divine nature — one God, not a committee of three.

C. The orthodox position holds the tension without resolving it into one side or the other.

1. The tension is in the text; it is not the product of theological confusion but of divine self-disclosure.
2. We affirm what the text says: three persons, one God. We do not require a formula that makes it philosophically tidy.
3. The appropriate response to the Godhead is worship, not comprehension.

Application

This doctrine has practical consequences. If Christ is not fully God, His death cannot pay the full price for sin — a mere man's death covers a man's debt, not the debt of a world. If the Holy Spirit is not a person, He cannot be grieved, and you cannot grieve what you cannot offend — but you can, and you do, when you resist Him. If the Father is simply one mode of a single-person God, prayer becomes unclear. The Godhead as the New Testament reveals it is not a philosophical puzzle; it is the structure of the salvation that reaches you. A God who was rich became poor (2 Cor. 8:9) — that is a personal act, not a modality shift. Guard the doctrine.

Conclusion

The Godhead is one God subsisting in three persons. That is what the New Testament says, and no systematic pressure — from modalism or tritheism — can change it. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Yet there is one God. The baptism of Jesus shows all three present simultaneously. The Great Commission names all three in a single name. The Pauline benediction blesses in the name of all three. A person who receives the New Testament whole cannot avoid this conclusion; he can only decide whether to accept it or explain it away. The saints accepted it, worshipped, and were saved.

Invitation

If you have never obeyed the gospel — never been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38) — today is the day. The triune God has acted in history for your redemption: the Father sent the Son, the Son gave His life, the Spirit bears witness and convicts. Come and receive what that Godhead accomplished for you. Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized. If you are a Christian who has drifted from a clear understanding of who God is, come back to the text. Come as we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 68. Doctrinal audit: full Trinitarian framework — three persons, one God; modalism (Sabellianism/Oneness) explicitly named and refuted; tritheism explicitly named and refuted; deity of Christ from John 1:1, Col. 2:9, John 8:58; personality and deity of the Holy Spirit from Acts 5:3-4, John 14-16; Great Commission formula (Matt. 28:19) used to hold unity and distinction together. No denominational softening; no Calvinist implication in the section on Christ's deity. Invitation retains full obedient response (Matt. 28:19 + Acts 2:38).

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