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No.4.
The Only True God.
pp. 219 - 222
As we read the Scriptures we discover that: (1) Elohim is God. (2) El is God.
(3) Jehovah is God. (4) Adon is God. (5) Adonai is God. (6) Jah is God.
(7) El Shaddai is God. (8) The Father is God. (9) The Son is God.
Either these separate names and titles indicate separate Gods, which the Scriptures
categorically forbid, or they are separate names and titles of the one God, which Scripture
categorically affirms to be the truth. We have, in this series, demonstrated that the N.T.
reveals that the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah, the "One Lord" of the O.T. We must now
pursue our study a stage further to a stage that is represented in Scripture as the ultimate
and the final revelation of the nature of the Godhead. These are brave sounding words
and they are written with some trepidation. We stand on holy ground; we cannot yet
behold the glory of the Lord apart from the medium of a glass in which, confessedly, we
can only hope to see `darkly'; but at the same time, we are sure that what has been
written has been written for our learning, and so with expectant yet humbled hearts, we
once again `open the Book'.
"And this is life eternal, that (hina `in order that') they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17: 3).
We rejoice to know that God is `true', for it is revealed that `He cannot lie'. God is
true, in contrast with all the false gods of the heathen, but that lesson we are learning or
have already learned in this life. The language of John 17: 3 implies something more
than this, and something of the import of the word `true' emerges from a consideration of
the way John himself uses that term. Christ is set forth as `true' light (John 1: 9), not that
the light of the sun, or the Scriptures, or of John the Baptist was `false', but rather that all
other lights are but `figures of the True' the real, the Anti-typical. `True worshippers' in
John 4: 23 are not placed in contrast with idolators, but with that worship which had
Jerusalem as its centre; it was `in spirit and in truth' in contrast with the letter and with
type and shadow. Christ Himself recognized the reality of the manna which fed the
people during their wilderness wanderings, but nevertheless He declared `I am the true
bread' (John 6: 32) of which the manna was a very precious type. The epistle to the
Hebrews contains similar usage; there we read of `the true tabernacle' and some things
which were `the figures of the true' (Heb. 8: 2; 9: 24).
"The law (with its types and shadows) was given by Moses, but grace and truth (i.e.
true antitypical grace) came by Jesus Christ" (John 1: 17).
This revealing statement is immediately followed by the words already quoted "No
man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1: 18).