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FAQ # 215

QUESTION  215 :  Is Jesus in the Godhead or is the Godhead in Jesus? With either answer by a oneness apostolic definition, does it mean we are the Godhead too – John 14:20?

To the first question, the word “in” is not often used in these context to mean a literal 'in'; for instance, “in the cup there is water.” But rather, it is identifying with someone. With Jesus, it is not a separation of persons - one being in the other. But rather, identifying that Jesus is simply the Godhead. The Father is in Me, and I am in the Father (John 10:38). That is, selfsame person. Seeing that the Father is the Godhead and he is in Jesus and Jesus in Father, it makes Jesus the Godhead. That's the reason "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9).

Now they are other verses that uses the word “in” with relation to us, however, the context has to be taken into account. For instance, referring to unity, I could say Mr. McQuick (street evangelist) and his church brethren (street evangelists) are lovers, which is completely different from me saying Mr. McQuick (husband) and Mrs. McQuick (wife) are lovers. But isn’t the word lovers used here twice in a similar way, but means something different when different subjects/titles are involved? With his wife it is intimate, with his church brethren it is platonic.

Therefore, when it speaks of Jesus being in the father or the father being in Jesus, it means the oneness of God - selfsame person in different manifestations (1 Tim 3:16). That is, the one God who is spirit (John 4:24), deemed father, is enfleshed as Christ the Son, “neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matt 11:27). When it speaks of us being in Jesus or the father or both, it denotes a united oneness; though we share in the glory of the Sonship role.

Robert A. Sabin adds, “The word Godhead, 'theotokos' in Greek, actually means 'the deity'. No one can be in the Godhead. There is nothing in scripture to support this. There is everything in scripture to support the truth that God is one, alone in his category. In Trinitarian thinking, and even in Oneness thinking carried over from Trinitarianism, the word Godhead is made to seem as a corporate term. The Godhead is thought of as being some sort of a panel, board, or composite of persons. We determine to put God [s] and man in the Godhead in a certain way. Only God is the Godhead. Nothing can be in the Godhead and only God is Divine. To say that someone or something is in the Godhead is inappropriate and unscriptural terminology.”

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