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God is Spirit
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Genesis 2:24  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) This verse shows that two human personalities can become one flesh. Why, then, can God not be one with two distinct personalities who work independently yet in complete harmony? Paul adds in I Corinthians 6:17, "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." If a human can be one with God and remain entirely distinct, why cannot another spirit being with a separate personality be one with Him? John W. Ritenbaugh God Is . . . What?

Matthew 1:18-21  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) "Ghost" in this passage, as elsewhere, is an unfortunate translation in the King James Version. It should rather be rendered "Spirit," as it is in most other translations of the Bible. Before Christ (the Logos) was conceived in Mary, He was not the "Son of God." He was one of the two original members of the God Kingdom. He, like the one who became the "Father," had existed eternally. But He is nowhere in God's Word referred to as a Son of God prior to His conception in Mary. His human birth was His first birth. He gave up the glory He had shared with the other divine Being, who became His "Father," in order to be born into the world as a human being, live a perfect life, and then give His life to pay the penalty of all the sins of mankind. Thus, Jesus was begotten within His human mother Mary. But unlike all other men, He was miraculously begotten by the One who became the Father, through the agency and power of the Spirit of God (Matthew 1:20; John 1:14—here is further proof the Spirit of God is not another person). Christ thus became the "Son" of God, and He called the other person of the God Kingdom His "Father." And so began the "Father-Son" relationship, which is a family relationship! What It Means to Be Born Again

John 1:1-4  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) In the very beginning, before all else, there existed two living Beings composed of Spirit, possessing supreme mind, intelligence, and power, and of perfect, righteous character. They are revealed in the biblical book of John, chapter one. One was named the Word (the Spokesman—the revelatory thought). The other was named God. The Word ultimately—almost 2,000 years ago—was born as Jesus. The Word also was God—the second personage of the God Family. As a human, Jesus was "God with us"—or God in human flesh, born of a virgin woman, but sired by God. "All things" were made by Him. In Ephesians 3:9, it is revealed that God created all things by Jesus Christ. The Word and God lived. What did they do? They created. How did they live—what was their "lifestyle"? They lived the way of their perfect character—the way of outflowing love. When Christ was baptized, God the Father said, "You are my beloved Son." God loved the Word. And the Word loved God—obeyed Him completely. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed (Amos 3:3). They were in total agreement and cooperation. Also two cannot walk together in continuous peace except one be the head, or leader, in control. God was leader. Their way of life produced perfect peace, cooperation, happiness, accomplishment. This way of life became a law. Law is a code of conduct, or relationship, between two or more. One might call the rules of a sports contest the "law" of the game. The presence of law requires a penalty for infraction. There can be no law without a penalty for its violation. The very fact of law presupposes government. Government is the administration and enforcement of law by one in authority over the law. This necessitates authoritative leadership—one in command. When the only conscious life-Beings existed, God was leader—in authoritative command. Thus, even when the only conscious life-Beings were God and the Word, there was government, with God in supreme command. Since they created other conscious thinking life-beings, this very fact of necessity put the government of God over all creation, with God supreme Ruler. Bear in mind the government of God is based on the law of God, which is the way of life of outflowing love, cooperation, concern for the good of the governed. And this law of God produces peace, happiness, cooperation through obedience. Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986) A World Held Captive

John 3:5-8  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) In connection with John 4:24, this verse implies that, since God is Spirit, if one is going to be born of the Spirit, he will be composed of exactly the same substance as God. To make it even clearer, Jesus gives an illustration in verse 8 so that no one would misunderstand His intention. Wind is invisible. When something gets moved by the wind, a person can see that object moving. He does not see the wind moving but the object. The wind, composed of air, is invisible to his eyes. This illustrates one who is born of the Spirit. Spirit is invisible but no less real than air. Nobody would argue that air, of which wind is composed, has no substance, for though it is invisible, it is made up of particles too small to be seen by the unaided eye. John W. Ritenbaugh Image and Likeness of God (Part 4)

John 4:24  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) This scripture plainly states that God is Spirit, but the verse does not define what "spirit" is in reference to God. It says nothing at all about form, shape, or composition. It states only this fact, and one must look elsewhere in the Bible to find information concerning His form and shape. The word spirit is translated in the Old Testament from the Hebrew ruach, and in the New Testament the Greeek pneuma. Both of these words have the same fundamental meaning and usage, "an invisible force or power." John W. Ritenbaugh Image and Likeness of God (Part 4)

John 4:24  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) The King James has wrongly translated this verse from the Greek. It really says "God is spirit," not "a" spirit—there is no indefinite article in the Greek. Basically, Jesus is saying that God is invisible and immaterial. This scripture directly refers to the Father. "Spirit" is used in the sense of composition. However, just because the Father and the Son are spirit does not mean they have no form. If they had no form, how could the Bible honestly say that humans were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26)? They do have form. Physically, we are in Their image. John W. Ritenbaugh The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part 1)

John 17:11  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Deuteronomy 6:4 states, "The LORD our Elohim is one LORD." In John 17:5, Jesus establishes that there was a time when He was alongside the Father, but now He says that He is with, alongside of, His disciples. He is not alongside of the Father, and in this context, He asks the Father, "that they [the apostles] may be one as we are." What kind of oneness is this, if it is not being "alongside of"? John 17:21 shows this unity is actually "inside of"! John W. Ritenbaugh The Nature of God: Elohim

Acts 1:8  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) "You shall receive power" - This occurred, as recorded in Acts 2. That power arrived like the sound of wind, a mighty, rushing wind, a great gust of air. Connect this with Genesis 2:7, where God breathed air into Adam. In that act, God was giving the man a spirit. When God gave His Holy Spirit to men, He duplicated it on a majestic scale, and the Spirit came to mankind like the sound of wind or air moving. Mankind, then, is given power, the Holy Spirit. Psalm 62:11 says, "Power belongs to God." The context deals with a person going through trials. We have a natural tendency to turn in every direction for help, to reach out to other people, to think up solutions, to grasp for the power to solve our problem, but the psalmist informs us that God is the source of salvation. In Him resides the power to save in a right and good way. Jeremiah 32:17 reads that "God creates by His power," and John 4:24 says that "God is a spirit." Putting these together, God is a creating spirit of the greatest power. When He creates, things of positive function and awesome beauty emerge. What a difference between man and God! By comparison, man in God's image creates destruction; almost everything man makes seems to produce negative results. But when God creates, God creates functional beauty. John W. Ritenbaugh The Right Use of Power

1 John 4:7-12  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) If we are going to be like Him, these verses are important to us because they tell us much about Him and our responsibilities. First, love is of God—He is its Source. This love the apostles write about comes from God and is not normally a part of man's nature. It is agape love. Human love apart from God is at its best a mere pale and vague reflection of what God is eternally. Next, John says "God is love." Sublime as this is, some have misunderstood it because it can be misleading. God is not just an abstraction like love. He is a living, dynamic, and powerful Being whose personality has multiple facets. He cannot be boxed, wrapped, and presented as merely being one attribute. John's statement literally reads, "The God is love." The Greeks used an emphatic form of writing, and here the emphasis is on the word "God." The syntax means the two words "God" and "love" are not interchangeable. "Love" describes God's nature. A good paraphrase would read, "God, as to His nature, is love." God is a loving God! This does not mean that loving is one of God's activities, but that every activity of God is loving. If He creates, He creates in love. If He rules, He rules in love. If He judges, He judges in love. Everything He does expresses His nature. God and His nature are manifested by what He does. By love God is revealed and known. The very existence of life in others besides Himself is an act of love. His love is revealed in His providence and care of His creation. Since we are not robots, free-moral agency is an act of His love. God, by a deliberate act of self-limitation, endowed us to respond with mind and emotion. We are not animals. God's love is the explanation for redemption and our hope of eternal life. Out of love, God has given us something to live for. Life is not just a matter of going through the paces. We do not live our lives in vain. God made humanity in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). But the Bible says, "God is Spirit," and "God is love." Man, though, is flesh, and the Bible describes us as carnal, self-centered, and deceitful. In practical fact, this means that man cannot be what he is meant to be until he loves as God loves. Only then will he truly be in the image of God because he will have the same nature as God. So, to achieve his potential, a person must love, but he must love with the love of God. John W. Ritenbaugh The Fruit of the Spirit: Love

 

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