Understanding The Godhead
( Romans 1:20 )

A student of the Bible should remember the difference between a simile and an analogy, in " rightly dividing the word of truth, " because God uses both.

Simile:
A figure of speech expressing comparison or likeness by the use of such terms as like, as, so. This is to be distinguished from analogy and comparison proper.
The simile carries its note of comparison on the surface, in the words like, so, and as. " God is like a rock " is a simile.

Metaphor:
For all practical purposes, a metaphor is the same as an analogy. " God is a rock" is a metaphor: it is also an analogy.
Analogy:
(1) Anything analogous to something else.
(2) A figure.

Understanding a thing is to arrive at a simile or an analogy/metaphor for that thing by substituting something more familiar to us. The feeling of familiarity is the feeling of understanding.
I. God:
The One-In-Three-In-One
DEUTERONOMY 6:4 - Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Analogy:
Space is one space.
1 JOHN 5:7 - For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Analogy:
There are three things that are space; height, width, and depth: and these three are one space.

1. THERE IS A ABSOLUTE THREE-NESS.

A. There are no more and no less than Three Persons in the GODHEAD ( 1 John 5:7. )
Analogy:
There are no more and no less than three dimensions in space.
B. The tri-unity of God means Three things which He Is:
THREE WAYS OF BEING GOD.
[1] - God is the Father.
EPHESIANS 4:6 - One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
[2] - God is the Word, begotten (made flesh) by the Holy Ghost in space-matter-time as the Son.
JOHN 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
V:2 - The same was in the beginning with God.
V:3 - All things were made by him; and without him was nothing made that was made.
V:4 - And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, ( and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, ) full of grace and truth.
MATTHEW 1:18 - Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
[3] - God is the Holy Ghost/Spirit.
ACTS 5:3 - But Peter said to Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land ? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own ? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power ? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart ? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
Analogy:
The tri-unity of space means three things which it is:
three ways of being space.
[a] - Space is three dimensions in one space.
[b] - Each one of the three dimensions is space.
[c] - Each one of the three dimensions is the whole of space.
[1] - Each of the three dimensions is represented AS space, not part of space.
[a] - Height fills all of space.
[1] - Picture an infinite number of imaginary lines running up and down through space.
[2] - these lines which represent height touch every point in space.
[3] - Height is the whole.
[b] - Length fills all of space.
[1] - Picture imaginary lines running from side to side through space.
[2] - These lines which represent length touch every point in space.
[3] - Length is the whole of space.
[c] - Width fills all of space.
[1] - Picture imaginary lines running back and forth through space.
[2] - These lines which represent width touch every point in space.
[3] - Width is the whole of space.
[d] - No one of the three dimensions can possibly be any of the others.
[e] - No one of the three can exist without the others.
[1] - Take away height, then length and width become a plane surface, which is imaginary.
[2] - Take away length or width, and the same thing happens.
[3] - To give existence to any one of the three dimensions, all three are necessary. ABSOLUTE THREENESS.

2. THERE IS ABSOLUTE ONE-NESS.

A. God is Three in ONE.
B. Each One of the three IS God.
C. Each One is the WHOLE of God.
[1] - Each of the Three is represented AS God, not part of God.
[2] - No One of the Three can possibly be any of the Others.
[3] - No One of the Three can exist without the Others.

3. THE TRIUNE GOD IS ETERNAL.

Scripture presents God the Father first, God the Word/Son second, and God the Holy Ghost/Spirit third in a logical, causal, order.
A. The Eternal Father is the Source.
[1] - He is unseen.
JOHN 6:46 - Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
[2] - He reveals Himself in the Word.
JOHN 1:14 - And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us...
JOHN 1:18 - No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
MATTHEW 8:8 - The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
B. The Eternal Father wills.
C. The Eternal Word proceeds from the Father, eternally decreeing His will.
PSALMS 119:89 - For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
PSALMS 119:152 - Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
MATTHEW 24:35 - Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
JOHN 1:14 - And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, ( and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, ) full of grace and truth.
JOHN 16:28 - I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
COLOSSIANS 1:15 - Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. V:16 - For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him.
[1] - The Eternal Word decrees/declares the will of God.
[a] - He creates.
GENESIS 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
PSALMS 33:9 - For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
[b] - He sustains and upholds.
COLOSSIANS 1:17 - And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
HEBREWS 1:3 - Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power...
[c] - He becomes man. ( JOHN 1:1-3,14 )
[d] - He raises the dead.
[1] - Jairus' daughter ( MATTHEW 9:18-19,23-26; MARK 5:35-43; LUKE 8:41-42, 49-56. )
[2] - Son of the widow of Nain ( LUKE 7:11-17 .)
[3] - Lazarus ( JOHN 11:1-46. )
[e] - He dies.
JOHN 19:30 - When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
[f] - He rises from death.
ACTS 2:24 - Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
JOHN 10:17 - Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. V:18 - No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
D. The Eternal Holy Ghost/Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father through the Word/Son.
JOHN 15:26 - But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
ACTS 2:32 - This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. V:33 - Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
[1] - He, like the Father, is unseen.
JOHN 3:6 - That which is born of the flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. V:8 - The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
JOHN 14:17 - Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
[2] - He reveals the Word/Son.
JOHN 16:13 - Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. V:14 - He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
[3] - He reveals the Father in the Son.
JOHN 14:9 - Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father ? V:10 - Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me ? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father which dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
[4] - He works unseen in man.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16 - Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ?
1 PETER 3:4 - But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptable, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

II. God Reveals Himself As Triune in The Triune Creation

1. The statement.
ROMANS 1:20 - For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
2. The analogy:
A. We reflect our image in a mirror.
B. The image is not us, but covers the same points.
C. The image is true, but the substance is different.
3. Prior to the creation of our space-matter-time reality, existed God; boundless in size, knowledge, and wisdom; an incomprehensible, self-contained, perfect being, without beginning or end.
GENESIS 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
A. The " beginning " signifies the beginning of a space- matter-time cosmos.
B. The " beginning " is the start of time as we know it.
C. Where there is space and matter, time is born.
D. Time is the successiveness of motion in space.
E. " The heaven " is space.
F. "The earth" is matter.
4. The Cosmos Is a Tri-Unity Consisting of Space, Matter and Time.
A. Space:
[1] - We have learned in chapter one that it is three dimensions in one space and one space in three dimensions.
[2] - Space is not empty.
[a] - By its very definition, space cannot be empty.
Space noun [ ]
1.a ) the boundless expanse within which all things are contained 1.b )
same as outer space 2.a )
distance, area, etc. between or within things 2b ) [b] - Space is not filled with " ether " as some believe, for ether, as substance, to fill the criteria must be dense as lead, yet elastic and penetrable.
[c] - Sir Oliver Lodge, a well known occultist, has come close to the truth when he stated: " Ether is not to be explained in terms of matter. Ether has been spoken of as absolute space. An electric charge must be composed of it. Ether is the seat of prodigious energies - energies beyond anything as yet accessible to man. All we know of energy is but the faint trace or shadow of its mighty being. Hidden away in its constitution is a fundamental and absolute speed. "
These are terms applicable only to the omni-present power of God.
[d] - Space is the bridge between the Creator and the physical universe. By it we see His creative power outspread into the dimensions which we know as space, and passing through energy into motion, and so into all the phenomena of a physical universe.
II PETER 3:10 - But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. V:11 - Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, V:12 - Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
5. The Tri-Unity of God is Reflected in the Tri-Unity of Matter: Energy, Motion, Phenomena.
A. Matter Is An Absolute Three-ness:
[1] - Energy.
[a] - What Energy Is Not.
[1] - Energy is not motion.
[a] - Energy is the source, the potentiality of motion, the cause of motion.
[b] - Energy can pass into motion and does so, but it is not itself motion.
[2] - Energy is not phenomena.
[a] - Energy is firmly established as being unseen, while phenomena by their very nature are visible, audible, tangible.
[b] - Energy issues through motion into phenomena, but is not itself phenomena.
[b] - What Energy Is: Energy is Primary.
[1] - There is motion coming out of energy; motion of waves, of electrons: motion everywhere.
[a] - While energy is not dependent upon motion as its cause, energy apparently cannot exist without begetting motion and therefore, through motion, phenomena.
[b] - It is the nature of energy to pass into motion.
[c] - If it never begets motion, it is not really energy.
[2] - There is motion coming out of energy and there are pheneomena, through which motion in its varying velocities, touches the senses as light, sound, heat, hardness, and flavor - all the many impacts of motion upon sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Phenomena are in themselves varying speeds of motion, existing wholly apart from human senses, touching us a light, sound, heat, and texture.
[2] - Motion:
[a] - What Motion Is Not.
[1] - Motion is not the same as energy.
[2] - Motion contains energy and embodies energy, but it is not the same as energy.
3> Motion is not the same as phenomena.
4> Motion shows itself IN phenomena. Its identification with them is close, but when we say " motion " we do not mean the same thing as phenomena.
[5] - The idea is different because the thing is different.
[b] - What Motion Is.
[1] - Motion is a movement from one place to another.
[2] - Motion is energy at work. It cannot exist without energy behind it.
[3] - Neither can it take place without phenomena issuing from it.
[4] - It can hardly be motion without definite kinds of motion, and that means phenomena.
[3] - Phenomena
[a] - What Phenomena Are Not.
[1] - They are not motion - they issue from motion.
[2] - They are not energy - the primary thing - they are the result of energy in motion.
[b] - What Phenomena Are.
[1] - Phenomena make up the physical universe.
[2] - We have never seen, felt, heard, smelled, or tasted anything that is not phenomena.
[3] - Everything around us - light, color, heat, pressure, texture, odor, sound -is phenomena.
[4] - We find by our senses, or by instruments, an entire universe of phenomena.
[4] - NO ONE OF THESE THREE - ENERGY, MOTION, AND PHENOMENA - CAN BE PUT ASIDE, AS BEING SO MUCH THE SAME AS THE OTHERS THAT WE DO NOT NEED TO GIVE IT A SEPARATE NAME.
[5] - THE ENERGY-MOTION-PHENOMENA SUBSTANCE OF THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WE CALL MATTER, CAN BE NEITHER MORE NOR LESS THAN THREE.
[6] - A WORLD OF ENERGY WHICH NEVER BEGETS MOTION CANNOT BE A WORLD AT ALL.
[7] - IN TURN, PHENOMENA CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT MOTION.
[8] - NO TWO CAN EXIST WITHOUT THE THIRD.
B. Matter Is An Absolute Oneness.
[1] - THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE CONSISTS ENTIRELY OF MOTION APPEARING TO US AS PHENOMENA.
[2] - AN EQUALLY ABSOLUTE TRUTH IS THAT THE MOTION CONSISTS ENTIRELY OF ENERGY AT WORK, AND THAT THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE CONSISTS ENTIRELY OF ENERGY.
[3] - PHENOMENA-MOTION-ENERGY, EACH ONE IS IN TURN THE WHOLE. THEY ARE THREE THINGS WHICH IT IS. IT IS A UNITY IN WHICH EACH ONE IS THE WHOLE.
6. More About Matter
A. God is a Spirit, and His power is first of all spiritual.
[1] - How does that Divine power become physical ?
[2] - God's power is not only power to think, but power to move.
[3] - As power to move, that outspread Divine power becomes energy which is the power of physical motion.
[4] - Nothing is inactive in the universe as we know it- not even space.
[5] - Energy may take the form of light, heat, sound, electric currents, moving bodies, or radiation, yet in all of these it is still energy.
[6] - We can perceive it as solid, yet it is still energy in motion.
[a] - Solidity is an impact made upon our senses by energy in motion.
[b] - Greater solidity is simply a greater proportion of particles of energy, of number of electrons in each atom making an impact upon our senses.
[7] - Matter consists essentially of atoms. There are millions of atoms in the smallest visible particles of matter.
[a] - They are moving at a tremendous rate of speed.
[b] - The substance clearly grows less with analysis BUT THE MOTION AND ENERGY INCREASE.
[c] - Atoms consist largely of space, but within that space are a whirling galaxy of electrons.
[d] - They are so small that it is estimated that one of them isn't more that one-hundredth of a trillionth the size of the atom.
[e] - Their speed is reckoned at 12,000 miles per second.
[f] - They revolve around the nucleus of the atom 10 to the 14th power per second.
[g] - The principle is clear. The substance ceases and the energy becomes inconceivably great.
[h] - Under close examination, the electron appears out of a wave of motion becoming the phenomenon of an electron, then disappears into a wave of motion becoming unseen again, only to reappear.
[i] - The physicist says the electron is a particle of energy, and that it has no mass except its electric field.
[j] - The electron can be weighed by its impact upon a screen, but this simply means that its impact can be measured.
[k] - The impact is enough to lift one-hundred pounds one foot in one second. It is an impact of an incredibly minute particle of inconceivable energy.
[l] - Electrons revolve around a proton or group of protons at the heart of an atom.
[m] - The proton is only one-thousandth of the size of the electron which it holds in orbit around it, yet it is of more inconceivable energy - about 2,000 times the energy of an electron.
[n] - The particle grows immeasurably less! The power grows incredibly more !
[o] - The proton is a particle of positive energy or electricity and the electron is a particle of negative electricity or energy.
[p] - They are both complimentary manifestations of energy.
[q] - An atom is simply a balanced number of particles or charges of electricity or energy. It is all energy.
[r] - The electron in its inconceivable whirl about the nucleus emits other units of energy when it shifts from one orbit to another, or drops from one energy level to another, or is stopped in motion.
[s] - Because this proportion is constant and because these are always units, they are called "quanta."
[t] - Quanta are the smallest units of energy that we " KNOW " in the physical universe. They are units of pure energy.
[u] - The analysis of matter by modern physics carries us far beyond substance into atomic regions where all is energy and power.
[v] - Science has come to regard matter as consisting wholly of energy or power in motion, in a universe of impulses and innumerable waves of "INTERWOVEN" power.
[w] - The whole tendency of physics leads us where we see on every hand Omnipresent power and energy passing into a tangible universe of immeasurable motion.
B. God's power is exactly as the principle of Tri-Unity in the physical universe. It is omnipresent, primal, outspread power passing from space, through energy into physical motion which includes both the activities and the substance of phenomena which we call the tangible world.
7. The Tri-Unity of God is Reflected in the Tri-Unity of Time: Past, Present, Future.
A. The essential nature of time in the physical universe is consecutiveness or successiveness.
B. In eternity things may be, in a way which we really cannot understand, largely simultaneous.
C. Here in this time-world, thoughts, motions, or actions are one after another. THEY ARE SUCCESSIVE or CONSECUTIVE - AND THAT IS TIME.
D. In the physical universe, time is the successiveness of motion in space.
E. Motion in space occupies one location after another, for each successive location of the motion is later then those before it.
F. Time then proceeds from motion.
[1] - Motion involves space.
[2] - It proceeds from space. Successiveness, which means time, is inevitable in motion.
G. Space produces motion, and space and motion produce time.
H. IN THE THREE IN ONE, the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Word/Son.
[1] - In the universal reflections of triunity in matter, phenomena come from energy through motion.
[2] - In the reflection in the triunity of time, the past comes from the future through the present.
I. Space, the omnipresent outspreading of creative power, emerges into energy.
[1] - Energy passes into motion.
[2] - Motion becomes phenomena, waves of sound, of light, of color, of all the infinite variety of the universe.
[3] - Phenomena consist of successive vibrations, fast or slow.
[4] - That fastness or slowness is time.
[5] - Everything we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell is known to us by the time length of its vibrations.
J. TIME is past, present and future in ONE TIME, yet each one of the three is the whole.
[1] - No one of the three can be any of the others.
[2] - No two of the three can exist without the others.
[a] - If there was no past - time has never existed until this instant, which will soon be over and will never have existed.
[b] - If there was no present - there is never any instant in which time exists.
[c] - If there was no future - time ceases now, and indeed never began.
K. Time is a Tri-Unity - Absolute Oneness. [a] - All of time is or has been future.
[b] - All of time is or has been or will be present.
[c] - All of time is or will be past.
[d] - Past, present, future are three things which time is. Three modes of being.
[2] - The source of time is the future.
[a] - The human race passes from past through present into future.
[b] - We do not go with time. We continually meet it, moment by moment.
[c] - The future is logically first, but not chronologically.
[d] - The present has existed as long as time has existed.
[e] - Time acts through and in the present.
[f] - The future acts and reveals itself through the present.
[g] - It is through the present that the future enters into union with human life.
[h] - Time and humanity meet and unite in the present.
[i] - It is in the present that the future becomes a part of human life, and so is born, and lives and dies in human life.
[3] - The past, in turn, comes from the present.
[a] - It does not embody the present.
[b] - Time in issuing from the present into the past becomes invisible again, proceeding silently, endlessly, invisibly from it.
[c] - The present is not the source of the past which proceeds from it.
[d] - The future is the source of both the present and the past.
[e] - The past issues from the future and proceeds through the present.
L. The future is the source.
[1] - It perpetually begets the present.
[2] - The present comes out of the invisible future.
[3] - The present perpetually and ever-newly embodies the future in visible, audible, livable form.
[4] - The present then returns into invisible time in the past.
M. The Past Like the Future Is Unseen.
[1] - The past acts invisibly.
[2] - It continually influences us with regard to the present.
[3] - It casts light upon the present - that is its great function.
[4] - It helps us to live in the present which we know, and with reference to the future which we expect to see.
N. Time has revealed God, not in substance, but in principle.
[1] - Substitute God for the word time.
[2] - Substitute Father for future.
[a] - The Father is the source.
[b] - He is unseen except as He makes Himself known in and through the Word/Son.
[c] - The Father is logically first, but not chronologically, for the Word exists as long as God exists, and was in the absolute eternity of God. The Word has existed as long as God has existed.
[3] - Substitute Word/Son for present
[a] - The Word is what we see and hear and know.
[b] - He is ceaselessly embodying the Father, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment.
[c] - He is perpetually revealing the Father, otherwise invisible.
[d] - God acts in and through the Word/Son.
[e] - He makes Himself visible only in the Son.
[f] - It is through God the Son that God the Father becomes a part of human life, and so is born, and lives, and dies in human life. God and humanity unite in the Son.
[4] - Substitute Spirit for past.
[a] - The Spirit in turn comes from the Son.
[b] - We cannot say that He embodies the Son - on the contrary, God in issuing from the Son in the Spirit becomes invisible again.
[c] - The Spirit does not embody the Son, rather He proceeds silently, endlessly, invisibly from Him and reveals Him.
[d] - But the Son is not the source of the Spirit Who proceeds from Him.
[e] - The Father is the source of both the Son and the Spirit.
[f] - The Spirit issues in endless, invisible procession from the Son, but back of that, from the Father out of whom the Son comes.
[5] - The Son therefore comes out from the invisible Father. [7] - He then returns into invisible God in the Spirit.
[8] - The Spirit acts invisibly.
[9] - He continually influences us in regard to the Son. He casts light upon the Son - that is His great function.
10> He helps us to live in the Son whom we know, and with reference to the Father whom we expect to see when God is All in All.
III. The Tri-Unity of God is Reflected in the Tri-unity of Man.
Man is tri-partite in that he has a body, a soul, and a spirit. Perhaps, in Adam One before the fall and, surely, in Jesus Christ, these three were/are truly a tri-unity, but in fallen man that is not the case.
In Romans chapter 7, Paul states that the flesh has a mind of its own, called " sin, " and acts independently of the born-again spirit, as the soul helplessly looks on.
ROMANS 7:14 - For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. V:15 - For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. V:16 - If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. V:17 - Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. V:18 - For I know that in me ( that is, in my flesh, ) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. V:19 - For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. V:20 - Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. V:21 - I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. V:22 - For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. V:24 O' wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? V:25 - I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
This condition will not change until the Lord Jesus Christ raptures born-again believers out of this world. So, the - body, soul, and spirit cannot be said to be triune at this time. However, the tri-unity of God is reflected in man at this time as NATURE, PERSON, AND PERSONALITY.
1. God the Father is the NATURE of God.
A. God the Father is the source.
JOHNN 15:27 - For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. V:28 - I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
B. The Father is unseen.
JOHN 1:18 - No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
C. He reveals Himself in the Word/Son.
JOHN 14:7 - If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. V:8 - Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. V:9 - Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father ? V:10 - Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. V:11 - Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
Analogy:
In man, the nature, regenerate or unregenerate, is the source. The nature is unseen. It reveals itself in the person.
2. God the Word/Son is the PERSON of God.
A. God the Word/Son is the visible embodiment of the invisible Father.
B. God the Word eternally issues from the Father, eternally revealing Him.
[1] - In time, He has appeared as the Angel of the Lord.
[2] - In time, He was begotten, as God the Son.
Analog:
In triune man, the person is the visible embodiment of the invisible nature. The person issues continually from the nature, revealing it.
C. The Father reveals Himself in the Word/Son.
[1] JOHN 1:18 - No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
[2] JOHN 14:7 - If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. V:8 - Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. V:9 - Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father ?
Analogy:
The nature reveals itself in the person. No one has seen the nature by itself. The person issuing from the nature, reveals it. He who has really seen and known the person, has seen the nature.
D. The Word/Son is the visible embodiment of the whole Godhead, including both Father and Spirit.
COLOSSIANS 2:9 - For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Analogy:
The person is the visible embodiment of the whole being, including both nature and personality. In the person dwells the whole being bodily.
E. The Word/Son is the executive.
[1] - It is the Word/Son who distinctively acts. He brings to pass the will of the Father.
Analog:
In man, in finite life, it is the person who distinctively acts. The person is the executive of the nature. It brings to pass the will of the nature.
3. The Holy Spirit/Ghost is the PERSONALITY of God.
A. The Word/Son works by the Holy Spirit/Ghost.
[1] - But that is the Son Himself working, especially in other lives.
[2] - The Holy Spirit/Ghost is His other Self.
LUKE 4:1 - AND Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the spirit into the wilderness
JOHN 1:33 - And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
JOHN 7:39 - ( But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. ) JOHN 10:17 - Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. V:18 - No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
HEBREWS 9:14 - How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ?
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16 - Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
JOHN 14:23 - Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
COLOSSIANS 1:27 - To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
II CORINTHIANS 3:17 - Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
PHILIPPIANS 1:19 - For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
1 PETER 1:11 - Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify. when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1 PETER 3:18 - For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
1 JOHN 5:6 - This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
JOHN 14:6 - Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Analog:
The person works in certain ways, in other lives, by his personality. But that is also the person himself working in other lives. His personality is his other, unseen self in other lives.
B. The Holy Spirit/Ghost proceeds from the Word/Son.
[1] - The Holy Spirit/Ghost is not the embodiment of the Word/Son: on the contrary, the Spirit is invisible.
[2] - He is never seen but He is felt.
[3] - He works unseen in other beings.
[4] - He reveals the Word/Son.
Analog:
The personality proceeds from the person. The personality is not the embodiment of the person: on the contrary, the personality is invisible. It is never seen but is felt. It works unseen in other beings. It reveals the person.
C. The Holy Spirit/Ghost proceeds not only from the Word/Son, but from the Father, through the Word/Son.
JOHN 15:26 - But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Analog:
The personality proceeds not only from the person, it proceeds from the nature. It proceeds from the nature through the person.
D. The Word/Son sends the Holy Spirit/Ghost.
[1] - He sends Him from the Father.
Analog:
The person sends out his personality. He sends out his personality from his inner nature.
E. The Father sends out the Holy Spirit/Ghost in the name of the Word/Son.
Analog:
The nature sends out the personality with the name of the person upon it.
F. The Holy Spirit/Ghost reveals the Word/Son, but He just as truly reveals the Father in and through the Word/Son.
Analog:
The personality reveals the person, but it just as truly reveals the nature in and through the person.
4. In God There Is A Logical Causal Order
A. The Father is first. He is the source of all that God is.
B. The Word/Son is second. He perpetually issues from and embodies the Father.
C. The Holy Spirit/Ghost is third, proceeding from the Father through the Word/Son.
D. It is not that one is first, one second, and one third in Deity, for all are God. It is a logical causal order.
Analogy:
In man there is a logical causal order. Nature is first; it is the source of all that you are. Person is second, issuing from and embodying the nature. Personality is third, proceeding from the nature through the person. It is not that one is first, one second, and one third in identity, for all are you. Nor that one is first, one second, one last in time, for as early and as long as you exist, all three exist. It is a logical causal order.
5. This is surely an absolute likeness. It is identity, not of substance but, of pattern and structure.

~~~~~~~~~~ > < ~~~~~~~~~~