How can Jesus be God if Deuteronomy 6:4 says God is one?

"Hear, O Israel ! The LORD our God is one LORD." Much has been made of this verse by orthodox Jews, who reverence it greatly. They call it the "Shema" after the first word "Hear." It is often used by Jews and Unitarians to deny the three persons of the Godhead. The Hebrew word "echod" (one), however, excludes forever such a denial, for it means a compound unity. The Hebrew has another word which expresses exactly what Jews and Unitarians, who reject the three persons in the Godhead, believe. It is the word "yochid"; this has the meaning of a single one.

This is a most arresting feature of Hebrew grammar. God, who gave speech to our first parents, must have designed this special plural for a very definite purpose. We can trace this most plainly in the verse we have just quoted. Bearing this in mind the verse reads thus: “Hear O Israel: The LORD [Jehovah, singular] our God [Elohim, plural] is one LORD [Jehovah, singular].” Here is an arresting statement of the Oneness of God, yet along with it care is equally taken to give a very clear and unmistakable intimation of the truth of the Holy Trinity,—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One in Three, and Three in One, ONE GOD.

One of Mr. Roberts’ proof texts for the theory that the only Person who can claim Deity is God, the Father, denying it to the Son and the Spirit, is rather unfortunately chosen by him, for the proof is all the other way. He quotes on page 93, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). Mr. Roberts emphasizes that there is only one God, and so does this Scripture in the most emphatic manner.

But that does not shut out the teaching of Scripture that there are three Persons in the Godhead; God the Father; God the Son; God the Holy Spirit; yet ONE God. In the verses in question it reads thus, “Hear O Israel, the LORD [Jehovah, singular] our God [Elohim, plural] is one LORD [Jehovah, singular] and thou shalt love the LORD [Jehovah, singular] thy God [Elohim, plural].”

The Old Testament emphasised that there is one God and that beside Him there is no God (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 44:6). The New Testament presses the same truth: ‘For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Tim. 2:5). Christians do not believe in three Gods, as is sometimes alleged, but that the one true God is triune in His being. The full truth concerning the Trinity is revealed in the New Testament though there are verses in the Old Testament that hint at it (e.g. Gen. 1:1, 26; 11:7).

At least one of the scribes was more honorable than those who had sought to trap the Lord. He realizes the wisdom of the Lord's answers, and comes with a question that was manifestly honest. When asking which is the first commandment, he evidently has in mind that which is first in importance. The Lord's answer is from Deuteronomy 6:5. Notice, however, how vital to the whole matter are the first words here, "Hear, 0 Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." This is basic to all obedience on man's part. If the unity of the Godhead is not confessed, the very spirit of obedience is lacking. This is consistent with the words of the Lord Jesus, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). This involves therefore the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one indivisible God.

The point then for the Jew was the one true God. "Jehovah God that has brought thee out of the land of Egypt" — He was the only God. To what were they always inclined? Setting up other gods in the wilderness. Accordingly this is the solemn and central truth that is brought in here. "Hear, O Israel." They were about to go into the land to enjoy it; but "Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one. And thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children;" and they were to bind them for a sign; they were to make much of them at all points — outside the house and inside, and always. And this is enforced in the very words which our Saviour employed. "Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name." It was to be a real fealty: it was not merely a dogma pure and simple, but to be known as a fact. It was revealed as the great operative truth, continually impressed on Israel — their one true God.

We have here presented to us that great cardinal truth which the nation of Israel was specially responsible to hold fast and confess, namely, the unity of the Godhead. This truth lay at the very foundation of the Jewish economy. It was the grand centre round which the people were to rally. So long as they maintained this, they were a happy, prosperous, fruitful people; but when it was let go, all was gone. It was their great national bulwark, and that which was to mark them off from all the nations of the east. They were called to confess this glorious truth in the face of an idolatrous world, with "its gods many, and lords many." It was Israel's high privilege and holy responsibility to bear a steady witness to the truth contained in that one weighty sentence, "The Lord our God is one Lord," in marked opposition to the false gods innumerable of the heathen around. Their father Abraham had been called out from the very midst of heathen idolatry, to be a witness to the one true and living God, to trust Him; to walk with Him; to lean on Him; and to obey Him.

"Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah." (Deut. 6:4.) This was the great central truth enforced by the Lawgiver on Israel. Round it circled all other. There could be one object of love alone, this one Jehovah, to whom every affection should flow (v. 5), and but one object of worship and service (v. 13) quoted by our Lord in answer to Satan. This great truth was in contrast to the idols of the heathen - gods formed out of the imagination of the heart, in reality demons, to whom every unholy desire and evil passion were consecrated, and who were worshipped according to the varied passions, lusts, or fears that moved the human heart.

Thus step by step the Evangelist leads on his readers in teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. The first step none who believe in a personal God can reasonably question. The others follow in suited order. And now we have the last of them: "The same was in the beginning with God." Hence the distinct and separate personality of the Word from eternity is asserted. So, when the heaven and the earth were created, the Word was, and was with God, and was God. Yet though there is but one God (Deut. 6:4), and no other (Isa. 43:10), there are distinct Persons in the Godhead. This truth, not unknown in the Old Testament, where we read (Gen. 19:24), "The Lord [i.e. Jehovah] rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord [i.e. Jehovah] out of heaven," was only doctrinally taught in the New after the Incarnation. Yet other scriptures involved it, as New Testament teaching makes plain — e.g. Ps. 45; 102; 110, and Daniel 7:13, quoted by the Lord, and acknowledged by the high priest and others to refer to a Divine Person (Matt. 26:64-66; Luke 22:69-71).

"We are One," ἕν, neuter. It is not one in will or purpose only, for this in the case of Jesus might still be frustrated, but that will and power coalesce in the person of the Speaker. In these verses the distinction of Persons and unity of Nature alike come out. See, further, John 12:45, John 14:9 f., John 17:21, and cf. Heb. 1:3. The Sabellian and Patripassian (Swedenborgian) theory breaks down when faced with the words: the Father and JESUS are not one "Person", whilst the one nature contradicts Arians (Socinians). The contemporary Jews understood the Lord's statement, whilst their descendants and "Unitarians" miss its meaning.