February 20 – LD 8, Day 2: God
is One Divine Essence
by Rev J. Kortering
Deut. 6:4, “Hear O
The first article of the Apostle’s Creed is “I believe in God”.
We noticed already that this God is the object of our faith. We make confession
to Him and about Him in the love of His friendship established with us.
Two things have to be said about this God as the object of our faith.
First, we confess that He is the ONLY God. This was demonstrated over and
over in the Old Covenant. The passage quoted above consists of the words of
Moses as he summarized for
Second, He is three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will see later
that even though God revealed Himself as three Persons, He nevertheless is ONE
God, not three. The catechism expresses it this way, “Why speakest
thou of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? A. Because God hath so revealed himself
in His Word, that these three distinct persons are the
one only true and eternal God.”
We speak of this one and only true and eternal God as a description of the
ESSENCE of God.
God’s nature or composition (so to speak) is that He possesses one mind, one
will, one heart as He relates to others. We can say this because God made man
in His image and we know the image of God is what distinguishes man from
animals or other creatures. Man thinks, man has feeling, man desires, man loves
and these things reflect His creator.
The Lord our God is ONE.
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