Unity in the Godhead

When we try to understand the Trinity, we're stepping into deep theological waters. If we understood everything about the nature of God, we would be God – and we're not. But in today's passage, Jesus reveals something beautiful about the perfect unity that exists within the Godhead.

John 5:19-20 "Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the father doing; for whatever the father does, these things the son also does in like manner. For the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself is doing.'"

Sometimes we get this wrong idea about the Trinity – like God the Father is the angry judge and Jesus is the merciful one pleading, "Come on, Dad, give them another chance!" But that's not how it works. There's no bickering in the godhead.

Jesus says, "The Son can do nothing of himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing." What's He saying? They don't operate independently of each other. Whatever the Father does, the Son does. What Jesus does, God does. What God does, Jesus does. There's no independent action. They're not trying to reconcile their plans – the Son is always doing the Father's will.

One commentator puts it perfectly: "The close relationship between the Father and the Son is not meant to blur their distinctions. The Father is the Father and the Son is the Son, but their actions, wills, and purposes find perfect agreement between them."

But here's what really blows my mind – they're united in love. In 1 John we read that God IS love. But here's a question for you: If God is love, who did God love before there was anything or anyone else to love in the universe?

Jesus. The godhead operates in harmony, in total love for each other.

Now, this might sound complex, but here's why it matters: You need to understand that the foundational reason God sent His Son into the world wasn't primarily God's love for you – it was God's love for His Son and His desire to ransom and redeem a bride for His Son that would give His Son glory because of what He accomplished at the cross.

The primary reason Jesus came wasn't merely His love for you, but His mutual love for the Father and His desire to glorify the Father. There's this rebounding of love and desire to glorify each other in the godhead.

Turn to John 17 for a moment – it's one of the deepest passages in the New Testament. In Jesus's high priestly prayer, He says to the Father, "You loved me before the foundation of the world." God's love for His Son never had a beginning. And because God's love for His Son never had a beginning, neither did God's love for you.

Jesus says, "You have loved them even as you have loved me... so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."

Friends, you're not loved with some lesser version of divine love. You're loved with the same love the Father has for Jesus – a love that's eternal, unchanging, and perfect.

Stay dialed in.