God Talks to God but Not to Himself
by Terry Wane Benton
How can God talk to God but not be talking to Himself? God is triune (three in one), which is what He revealed about Himself. In the beginning, God said, “Let Us (plural) make man in Our (plural) image (singular)” (Genesis 1:26). Who was God talking to? And why is the image singular? There is a oneness, a singularity about God as well as a plurality about Him. Now, that may be hard to grasp, admittedly. Still, as we examine the whole of what God has revealed about Himself, we find that the One true God is composed of three individuals who bear an inseparable unity, meaning that they share the same eternal attributes (all-knowing, all powerful, omnipresence, deity, divine nature, and do not differ in mindset, holiness, and redemptive mission for us).
Three persons in one, but not three Gods. How can that be? When you talk about “gods” (plural), they are distinct from each other in what they can do, what they have the power to do. For example, each of the pagan gods is limited in power. Ra, the god of the Sun, does not possess the same power and attributes as “Diana of the Ephesians”, the goddess of fertility. One god differs from another in power and sphere of influence, in what they can do and control.
Therefore, you have to speak of them as different gods (Paul says these are not really gods, but pretend gods). However, you still need to discuss plural gods when referring to beings with distinct powers and characteristics. But when you speak of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the Jewish prophets and Christian believers, you don’t have three gods with separate powers and separate characteristics.
Since all three have the same powers, the same characteristics, and the same mindset, and share an inseparable unity, then we will have to speak of the singularity in some contexts, and the plurality within that singularity in other contexts. They are not different gods, but one God composed of three beings perfectly united, a perfect unit.
To demonstrate that this concept was not invented by Christians, but was embedded in the Jews’ own book, the Old Testament, we can see Hebrews 1 quoting the Old Testament to make the point that the Father is “God” and the Son (Jesus) is “God.” Jesus was far greater than the angels, and the Old Testament substantiates this point. Psalm 2:7 said of the Father speaking to the Son, “You are My Son.” “You” is not “Me” (same being talking to Himself), but "you" and "me" are two beings who share a unique relationship.
In Hebrews 1:6, the Father says, “Let all the angels worship Him” (Jesus). Worship belongs only to a deity, a divine being. We are forbidden to worship created beings, even as high as angels, but Jesus is “the express image of His (the Father’s) person” (Hebrews 1:3). So, worship belongs to Jesus as much as to the Father because there is an inseparable unity here. To worship one is to worship the other. There is no competition for glory. Since there is perfect singularity in the three beings and no competition for glory, we have to think in terms of the unit, not three separate and uniquely limited gods. The true God is triune, three in union, or three in the one unit.
The Hebrew writer then went on to quote the Old Testament scriptures from Psalms 45. The chief musician writes “my composition concerning the King” (Psalms 45:1). He says, “God has blessed You forever” (Psalms 45:2) and calls the blessed one “O Mighty One” (Psalms 45:3), and then in Psalms 45:6 says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” He is called “God” and the “Mighty One” by God. So, God (the Father) blesses Jesus as “God” and the “Mighty One.” That is two persons, both of whom are referred to as “God,” and one blesses the other.
To cap it off, Psalms 45:7 says, “Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You.” God blesses God, but it is not one being blessing Himself. There are clearly two beings that are involved in the singular state of Godhood in this passage of scripture. Godhood includes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), but anything other or different does not possess true godhood and therefore is not God, and is not really even worthy of the term “god” at all.
Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit being sent from the Father when Jesus leaves the disciples. So, the Holy Spirit is not Jesus and is not the Father that sent Him (John 14-16). Jesus said, “I (one person) will pray the Father (second person), and He (second person) will give you another Helper…even the Spirit of truth (third person)" (John 14:16-17). In Acts 5, Peter confronted Ananias with “lying to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5:3) and called it “lying to God” (v.4). The Holy Spirit is God, too. There was perfect agreement among the three to fill different roles, and they were in full agreement. The Holy Spirit would be the revealer of truth, the Father would fill the role of Father above, and the Son would become the Son who gave His life, all perfectly the same in image and purpose, but for redemption’s sake, filling three different roles.
So, the Holy Spirit had David write Psalms 110, where the Father says to David’s Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Hebrews 1:13). The Old Testament speaks to the plural nature of God. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God (John 1:1-14). God can be with God when you understand the triune nature of the one true and living God. If you don’t believe what God says about Himself, you don’t believe in the same God that the Bible reveals.
