A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
Table of Contents
1 The Triune God
2 What Is the Deity of Christ?
3 Does the Bible Teach the Deity of Christ?
4 The Sermon on the Mount
5 What Jesus Said about Himself
6 The Supernatural Christ
7 Did Christ Rise from the Dead?
Summary
Chapter 1: The Triune God
This series of radio talks will start by discussing what the Bible says about God. Scripture says that God is the Creator and Ruler of the world, and that he is holy, free, independent, and eternal. We cannot simply ignore truth and theology, because loving God depends in part on our knowledge of him. We can only love God because he first loved us, and we can only love him if we know him to be worthy of love. There is no true communion with God apart from knowing him through his revelation. Since God is real, there are things that are true about him; conversely, this means that we can also believe things about God that are false. In order to know the truth about God we need to accept the teaching of the Bible. The Westminster Shorter Catechism has a helpful and accurate summary: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” God is unlimited by constraints of time and space. He is not simply bigger than the universe, but rather he is equally near to every point of space. For God there is no past or future: every moment is equally present.
We must accept these truths rather than trying to make God into our own image. Many of the attributes of God may seem anthropomorphic, but that is because God has made us in his image. He is not an abstract being but a personal one, and the Bible speaks of him as being tender and compassionate. One of the truths about God—found only in Scripture—is that he is Triune. There are hints of this doctrine in the Old Testament, but it is clearly taught in the New. Even then, the doctrine is rarely considered as a whole, but is rather the necessary conclusion derived from examining various parts of New Testament revelation. In many passages, the doctrine is assumed rather than explicated. The absolute monotheism of the Old Testament is retained in the New, but the one God is seen to exist in three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God—not aspects of God—and they have real personal relationships with one another. . . .
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