What is the Godhead?

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True Bible Answers · Accepted Answer

The word "Godhead" appears three times in the New Testament, each translating a different Greek word. Together they unfold the essential nature of God as He has revealed Himself. The Three Greek Words Morrish's Bible Dictionary distinguishes them precisely: 1. θεῖος, that which is 'divine:' it is not like gold, silver, or stone, etc. Acts 17:29. The word is translated 'divine' in 2 Peter 1:3-4. 2. θειότης, that which is characteristic of God, namely, 'divinity.' Rom. 1:20. 3. θεότης, Deity or Godhead; in Christ 'dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' Col. 2:9. Morrish's Bible Dictionary These form an ascending scale: divine nature in a general sense (Acts 17:29), divinity as displayed in creation (Romans 1:20), and full Deity — the totality of what God is — dwelling bodily in Christ (Colossians 2:9). Three Distinct, Related, Divine Persons Scripture reveals the Godhead not as a single undifferentiated Person, but as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three Persons in one divine glory. J.G. Bellett addresses this with great care: We are baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19). This carries with it the formal declaration of the mystery of the Godhead; the Son being a divine Person (in the recognition or declaration of this sentence), as is the Father, and as is the Holy Ghost. He then confronts two errors head-on — that there is only one Person wearing different masks, and that the Persons are unrelated: Can I be satisfied with the unbelieving thought, that there are not Persons in the Godhead, and that Father, Son, and Spirit are only different lights in which the One Person is presented? The substance of the gospel would be destroyed by such a thought, and can I be satisfied with the unbelieving thought that these Persons are not related? The love of the gospel would be dimmed by such a thought. If there are Persons in the Godhead, as we know there are, are we not to know also that there are relationships between them?... The Persons in that glory are not independent, but related. Nor is it beyond our measure to say that the great archetype of love, the blessed model or original of all relative affection, is found in that relationship. The Word — Eternal, Distinct, and Divine F.B. Hole traces four truths about the Word in John 1:1-2 that establish His place in the Godhead: In that moment of "beginning" the Word "was," that is, existed. He did not begin then; He existed then. His eternal Being is proclaimed... Further He was "with God."... a special, distinctive place is definitely stated. "the Word was God." Essential Deity was His.... the word translated "God" is a strong one, denoting proper and absolute Deity; and had it stated that the Word was the God, it would have confined Deity to the Word and excluded therefrom the other Persons of the Godhead. The words are chosen with Divine exactitude. This distinct Personality which characterizes the Word is not something assumed at some subsequent point of time. Eternal Personality was His. In the beginning He was thus "with God," for this distinction of Personality lies in the very essence of the Godhead. Thus we have had four things stated of the Word. His eternal Being; His distinct Personality; His essential Deity; His eternal Personality. F.B. Hole Hamilton Smith crystallises this: In the fewest and plainest words the Spirit of God in these opening verses has presented the Godhead glory of our Lord. The Word is an eternal Person, a distinct Person in the Godhead, a divine Person, and an eternally distinct Person. Hamilton Smith All the Fulness of the Godhead — Bodily A.J. Pollock brings it to its climax in the Person of Christ: Right through Scripture the Godhead of Jesus is maintained. He is the Eternal Son in the Unity of the Godhead — Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God, blessed forever. He claimed equality with the Father. He received unquestioned the worship of His disciples. His omnipotence proclaimed His Godhead. He was "made like unto the Son of God." Then the Son of God existed before Melchizedek was made like to Him. What a proof of the Son as eternal in the unity of the Godhead — Father, Son and Spirit, one God, inscrutable but most blessed mystery, filling the heart of the believer with adoring worship. A.J. Pollock The Son — Eternally in the Godhead J.G. Bellett presses the point that the Son was not merely called a Son at His incarnation, but is eternally Son in the Godhead: The Holy Ghost then proceeded from Him, and in that way became the Spirit. But will it be thought that He was not "the Spirit" in the Godhead before? Never, by a saint. And so the Son. He was born of the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and so became Son of God; but, in like manner, shall that affect the thought that He was "the Son" in the Godhead before? The Son is of the glory of the Godhead, as is the Father, and as is the Holy Ghost. J.G. Bellett He then quotes the hymn that has expressed this truth for generations: "Thou art the everlasting Word, The Father's only Son; God manifest, God seen and heard, The Heaven's beloved One. In Thee, most perfectly expressed, The Father's self doth shine; Fulness of Godhead, too; the Blest, Eternally divine." The Godhead, then, is the full essential Deity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three distinct, eternal Persons sharing one divine glory. They are not independent, but related: the Father and the Son in the intimacy of "the Father's bosom" from all eternity, the Spirit proceeding from and witnessing to both. In Christ, this Godhead is not partially represented but fully present — "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). To know the Godhead is to know the Father through the Son, by the Spirit — and to recognise that the love at the heart of the gospel flows from those eternal, related Persons who share one glory.

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