July 29, 2025 • 9 mins
If you have seen me, you haven't seen my brother or my father. In this world, we could never say that; even identical twins can't say that! And yet Jesus said this about His Father.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Second point under this concept that God is one,
god's attributes not just theperson's, but now I'm talking
about his attributes aremutually exhaustive of one
another as well.
What do I mean by this?
I mean that God is entirelylove and his love penetrates
entirely his justice and hisjustice penetrates entirely his
(00:33):
omnipotence.
And so what I'm saying here isthat when we think of the
attributes of God, we're notsupposed to think of it again
like a pie, where God is partlove, part, just part, sovereign
part, righteous part,omniscient part, omnipresent,
part, omnipotent.
And if we get all these partstogether, the end conclusion
will be God.
That again is not what God islike, because the attributes are
(00:58):
mutually exhaustive of oneanother.
You know the liberal loves toset up the idea that in the old
testament god was just righteousbig meanie.
In the new testament he's a godof love.
And he would like to.
The liberal would like to saythat you know the god of the old
testament, contradiction to thegod of the new testament.
That is a simple fallacy ofparting god's attributes out, as
(01:25):
we're describing here, and notseeing them as mutually
exhaustive of one another.
God's justice is loving.
His love is sovereign, his loveis omniscient love.
His love is omnipotent love.
His omnipotence is expressed injustice.
(01:46):
These are mutually exhaustiveof one another, aren't they?
So that's why you can saysomething like this If someone
said to you what is God like andyou answered God is love, your
answer would be 100% correct,just as if you answered God is
(02:07):
love.
Your answer would be 100%correct, just as if you answered
God is righteous.
That answer is 100% correctbecause God is entirely
righteous and the Bible saysthese things right God is love,
god is righteous, he issovereign.
So here's the thing now.
If we think about what weexperience down here, if we, as
(02:28):
humans, experience love, why dowe experience love?
Why is that a human quality orcharacteristic that we
experience?
Because first he is love.
That's why why do we experiencejustice or have a concept of
justice down here amongstourselves?
(02:51):
Because, first of all, he isjust right.
How do we get a concept ofpower and control, that we have
control or power over a certainsegment or sphere, in our job,
in our marriage, whatever?
Where does that even come from?
It comes from the fact that Godis sovereign, and so down here,
(03:14):
we have finite derivatives thatwe experience.
Why?
Well, because first he wasthese things, he is these things
.
So that's the first conceptthat God is one and his persons
are mutually exhaustive of oneanother, as well as his
attributes.
He's not pieces put togetherlike a puzzle.
Second point is that God isthree.
(03:34):
And you say, now wait a minute.
You just said God is one, yeah,but he is one and he's in three
.
He's also three and he'sabsolutely one and he's
absolutely three and also threeand he's absolutely one and he's
absolutely three.
And you say but I don'tunderstand well that there's
nothing in creation that we havethat corresponds to this.
So you don't have any finiteexperience of it.
(03:56):
So it's not a category we haveright.
That doesn't mean it doesn'texist.
So let's talk about this one.
First of all, god is three.
He's not two or four or eight.
Some actually posited.
Years ago I got part of a groupcalled Christianity Not
Christianity, but Christianityand it posited the idea that if
(04:18):
God were four persons in one,what would the universe be like?
Would it be the same as it isnow or would it be different?
After years and years ofdiscussion in a discussion board
in the late 90s, they basicallyconcluded that the world would
be a different place than it isnow.
It wouldn't be the same.
But it was just an interestingthought experiment with the
(04:41):
Bible.
But the point here is that Godis three, okay, and he has what
we call an aggregative nature.
What do we mean by aggregative?
Clustered, okay, clustered.
Now you can tell there aredistinctions in this cluster of
(05:02):
who God is, right, you can tellthere's distinctions of person.
Why?
Well, it's very easy.
You read the Bible and it'stalking about the Father and
then it talks about the Son.
So you know there'sdistinctions inside his
aggregate nature.
Otherwise the Bible couldn'tsay Father and Son, it would
just be God, right, therewouldn't be any distinctions of
person.
But the Bible very obviouslyspeaks in terms of distinctions
(05:26):
of person as well as attributes.
So, for example, we look atJohn 14.1.
Look at this and I'm going toshow you some interesting verses
today, very, very interestingdescriptions of God and what
he's like.
I'm sure you've read, but maybewe don't always think about it
(05:50):
John 14.1, the end of that verseDo not let your heart be
troubled.
Believe in God, believe also inme.
Okay, same action, believe, buttwo different objects.
I mean you can see thedifference between God and me.
You know the Son.
You can see that, okay, butthere's an aggregate there
(06:13):
because there's the same actiontoward each one Believe, believe
in each one.
Same chapter.
Look at verse 26.
Verse 26.
Notice the distinctions in thiscluster.
But the helper, the Holy Spiritthere's one whom the Father
there's two will send in my name.
(06:35):
There's three, okay, but do yousee, they're all working
together in something.
The Father will send the Spiritand he'll do that in my name.
So there's an aggregate,there's a cluster involved, but
there's distinctions in thecluster.
You see, okay, there's moreverses here 15, 26, 16, 7
(06:57):
through 11.
You can do the same thing withthe attributes, just the fact
that in some passages itemphasizes God's righteousness,
in others it emphasizes hisomniscience.
The distinction of theattributes.
Yet a lot of times, as you readpassages that are very involved
with the attributes, they'reall clustered together in the
(07:19):
passages.
Like read Isaiah 40, anywherein the 40s A lot of attributes
of God, distinct attributes, butthey're clustered together, all
together, and that's showingthe aggregative nature of God
being three in one.
Okay, so there's a threeness toGod.
Now that's the second pointI've kind of talked about.
Yet all three persons andattributes are viewed as a unit
(07:42):
or cluster.
Okay, we're in John 14, solet's look at 9 through 11 for a
little bit more detail aboutthis.
Jesus said to Philip have I beenso long with you and yet you
have not come to know me?
Philip, this is weird.
He who has seen me has seen whothe Father.
(08:06):
Do you see how they're mutuallyexhaustive of one another, so
that if you saw one, you saw theother?
You say but I thought they weredistinct?
Well, they are in this verse,but they're also clustered and
mutually exhaustive of oneanother.
Strange, that's what I'm saying.
These expressions are odd.
(08:28):
We would never say if you'veseen me, you've seen somebody
else.
You can't say that in creationbecause we are only one, there's
no other.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in
(08:59):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Second point under this concept that God is one,
god's attributes not just theperson's, but now I'm talking
about his attributes aremutually exhaustive of one
another as well.
What do I mean by this?
I mean that God is entirelylove and his love penetrates
entirely his justice and hisjustice penetrates entirely his
(00:33):
omnipotence.
And so what I'm saying here isthat when we think of the
attributes of God, we're notsupposed to think of it again
like a pie, where God is partlove, part, just part, sovereign
part, righteous part,omniscient part, omnipresent,
part, omnipotent.
And if we get all these partstogether, the end conclusion
will be God.
That again is not what God islike, because the attributes are
(00:58):
mutually exhaustive of oneanother.
You know the liberal loves toset up the idea that in the old
testament god was just righteousbig meanie.
In the new testament he's a godof love.
And he would like to.
The liberal would like to saythat you know the god of the old
testament, contradiction to thegod of the new testament.
That is a simple fallacy ofparting god's attributes out, as
(01:25):
we're describing here, and notseeing them as mutually
exhaustive of one another.
God's justice is loving.
His love is sovereign, his loveis omniscient love.
His love is omnipotent love.
His omnipotence is expressed injustice.
(01:46):
These are mutually exhaustiveof one another, aren't they?
So that's why you can saysomething like this If someone
said to you what is God like andyou answered God is love, your
answer would be 100% correct,just as if you answered God is
(02:07):
love.
Your answer would be 100%correct, just as if you answered
God is righteous.
That answer is 100% correctbecause God is entirely
righteous and the Bible saysthese things right God is love,
god is righteous, he issovereign.
So here's the thing now.
If we think about what weexperience down here, if we, as
(02:28):
humans, experience love, why dowe experience love?
Why is that a human quality orcharacteristic that we
experience?
Because first he is love.
That's why why do we experiencejustice or have a concept of
justice down here amongstourselves?
(02:51):
Because, first of all, he isjust right.
How do we get a concept ofpower and control, that we have
control or power over a certainsegment or sphere, in our job,
in our marriage, whatever?
Where does that even come from?
It comes from the fact that Godis sovereign, and so down here,
(03:14):
we have finite derivatives thatwe experience.
Why?
Well, because first he wasthese things, he is these things
.
So that's the first conceptthat God is one and his persons
are mutually exhaustive of oneanother, as well as his
attributes.
He's not pieces put togetherlike a puzzle.
Second point is that God isthree.
(03:34):
And you say, now wait a minute.
You just said God is one, yeah,but he is one and he's in three
.
He's also three and he'sabsolutely one and he's
absolutely three and also threeand he's absolutely one and he's
absolutely three.
And you say but I don'tunderstand well that there's
nothing in creation that we havethat corresponds to this.
So you don't have any finiteexperience of it.
(03:56):
So it's not a category we haveright.
That doesn't mean it doesn'texist.
So let's talk about this one.
First of all, god is three.
He's not two or four or eight.
Some actually posited.
Years ago I got part of a groupcalled Christianity Not
Christianity, but Christianityand it posited the idea that if
(04:18):
God were four persons in one,what would the universe be like?
Would it be the same as it isnow or would it be different?
After years and years ofdiscussion in a discussion board
in the late 90s, they basicallyconcluded that the world would
be a different place than it isnow.
It wouldn't be the same.
But it was just an interestingthought experiment with the
(04:41):
Bible.
But the point here is that Godis three, okay, and he has what
we call an aggregative nature.
What do we mean by aggregative?
Clustered, okay, clustered.
Now you can tell there aredistinctions in this cluster of
(05:02):
who God is, right, you can tellthere's distinctions of person.
Why?
Well, it's very easy.
You read the Bible and it'stalking about the Father and
then it talks about the Son.
So you know there'sdistinctions inside his
aggregate nature.
Otherwise the Bible couldn'tsay Father and Son, it would
just be God, right, therewouldn't be any distinctions of
person.
But the Bible very obviouslyspeaks in terms of distinctions
(05:26):
of person as well as attributes.
So, for example, we look atJohn 14.1.
Look at this and I'm going toshow you some interesting verses
today, very, very interestingdescriptions of God and what
he's like.
I'm sure you've read, but maybewe don't always think about it
(05:50):
John 14.1, the end of that verseDo not let your heart be
troubled.
Believe in God, believe also inme.
Okay, same action, believe, buttwo different objects.
I mean you can see thedifference between God and me.
You know the Son.
You can see that, okay, butthere's an aggregate there
(06:13):
because there's the same actiontoward each one Believe, believe
in each one.
Same chapter.
Look at verse 26.
Verse 26.
Notice the distinctions in thiscluster.
But the helper, the Holy Spiritthere's one whom the Father
there's two will send in my name.
(06:35):
There's three, okay, but do yousee, they're all working
together in something.
The Father will send the Spiritand he'll do that in my name.
So there's an aggregate,there's a cluster involved, but
there's distinctions in thecluster.
You see, okay, there's moreverses here 15, 26, 16, 7
(06:57):
through 11.
You can do the same thing withthe attributes, just the fact
that in some passages itemphasizes God's righteousness,
in others it emphasizes hisomniscience.
The distinction of theattributes.
Yet a lot of times, as you readpassages that are very involved
with the attributes, they'reall clustered together in the
(07:19):
passages.
Like read Isaiah 40, anywherein the 40s A lot of attributes
of God, distinct attributes, butthey're clustered together, all
together, and that's showingthe aggregative nature of God
being three in one.
Okay, so there's a threeness toGod.
Now that's the second pointI've kind of talked about.
Yet all three persons andattributes are viewed as a unit
(07:42):
or cluster.
Okay, we're in John 14, solet's look at 9 through 11 for a
little bit more detail aboutthis.
Jesus said to Philip have I beenso long with you and yet you
have not come to know me?
Philip, this is weird.
He who has seen me has seen whothe Father.
(08:06):
Do you see how they're mutuallyexhaustive of one another, so
that if you saw one, you saw theother?
You say but I thought they weredistinct?
Well, they are in this verse,but they're also clustered and
mutually exhaustive of oneanother.
Strange, that's what I'm saying.
These expressions are odd.
(08:28):
We would never say if you'veseen me, you've seen somebody
else.
You can't say that in creationbecause we are only one, there's
no other.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in
(08:59):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.
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