God is one

"There is only one God", "God is one, not three",  etc. These are popular bumper stickers one encounters quite often on the streets of Lagos. They seem like a poke in the eye of some entity that always tries to project God as being multiple. 

For a Christian, this truly could present confusion! The first explicit mention of a possibility of multi-theism was projected by Jesus himself. In Matthew 28:19 (New Living Translation) He said, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit". To an ordinary observer this seems like an unabashed admission of more than one God. Three precisely.

However, the Christian church has always projected from its beginnings that the Trinity is but a trifold manifestation of one supreme being.

For dogma's sake this seems a pretty tidy catechism. A Father in heaven who then manifested as the Son,  saviour of mankind,  and who then manifests today in the hearts of believers as the Holy Spirit.
In practice though things could get slightly tricky. We are to direct our prayers to the Father, in line with the leading of the Holy Spirit, in the Name of the Son.  This clearly posits that all three are simultaneously present when we pray! Wow!!!

With the awareness of this, it takes faith to still connect one God with three Persons performing different functions.

I was reading a passage the other day.

Rev 22:16 NLT
"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star."

This is mind blowing!  Here Jesus acknowledges Himself (God) as playing 2 different roles at once.  He says he is the source (origin, beginning,  root,  Father) of King David, and at the same time He is David' heir (successor, product, result,  Son). In other words he is both the producer and product. Human thinking can find that possibility hard to grasp.

But why must we humans attempt to shoehorn God into our perception of a uni-tasking entity like ourselves?  In theory we agree God is omnipotent and omniscient, but in practice we refuse to believe in the possibility.

All over the old testament God manifested himself as various things to various people. A rock, a voice, a burning bush. None of these inhibited His role as the Supreme creator.

What Christ explained In the passage was a simple truism. There is only one God.

The story of salvation becomes much simpler. God in heaven created mankind, but mankind fell astray necessitating death as a punishment. God, preferring to reduce himself than allow his creation (his own image) to die, is then born into the world as a human. He pays the ultimate price even though innocent of sin and dies so that through his death,  all sinners might no longer get what they deserve (death), but receive the grace of eternal life. He then rises from the dead to signify to all who accept his salvation that we can all be victorious over sin by dying to it just as Christ died,  and being born anew into Abundant  life in God's Kingdom.