Quotes About God

major emphasis in the NT is that the Spirit is now freely given by "God" and so is powerfully and regularly operative in the lives of believers individually and collectively. There is a rich variety of verbs used to describe the divine

how important it is that these convictions about Jesus and "God" found expression in devotional practices,

must underscore the importance of taking account of early Christian worship practice as highly significant evidence that the NT reflects major religious developments, including particularly developments in how "God" is understood.

But this central significance of Jesus is also retrojected through time, especially to the origins of the world, with Jesus (the "Logos" and "Son") depicted as the agent through whom God created all things (1 Cor 8:6; Heb 1:2; John 1:1-3). So, practically all of God's previous actions and self-disclosures can be retroactively understood in light of Jesus.

NT, "God" is so closely linked with Jesus and Jesus so closely linked with "God" that one cannot adequately identify the one without reference to the other. Jesus is the one through whom "God's" eschatological redemption is now bestowed and is to be consummated.

The most explicit such passage is, of course, Acts 2:14-21, which as previously noted includes an extended citation of a portion of Joel (2:28-32) that predicts that "in the last days" God will "pour out" the Spirit and that this will signal "the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.

in Philippians 2:9-11, Jesus' exaltation by "God" even involves him being given "the name that is above every name" (NRSV) and being designated as the one whom all of creation is to acclaim as "Lord.

Yet it also remains the case that typically NT authors can distinguish "God" and Jesus. Jesus never displaces "God" in the NT, and the two are never pictured as in tension or competition with each other.

Moreover, although Jesus is ascribed or is integrally involved in a number of "God's" attributes and actions, from creation through eschatological redemption and judgment, this never means that "God" fades or is diminished

is the "one mediator between God and men" (1 Tim 2:5; also Heb 8:1, 6; 9:15; 12:24).

briefly earlier, two things stand out: on the one hand the unprecedented and programmatic place of Jesus and on the other hand his clear functional subordination to "God the Father.

Paul's understanding of God was functionally Trinitarian."20 Indeed,

but a new kind of monotheistic devotional practice in which "God" is worshiped typically with reference to Jesus, and Jesus is reverenced in obedience to "God" and to the glory of this God.

The first of these is that in the NT "God's" Spirit is much more prominently mentioned than in the OT or the texts of Second Temple Judaism.29 One

Earliest Christians believed that they were experiencing the fulfillment of biblical prophecies of an eschatological outpouring of "God's" Spirit (e.g., Acts 2:14-33). So it is little wonder that in their religious discourse reference to the Spirit of "God" features prominently.

the oftused grace benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:13, which refers to "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit" (NRSV).

1 John 4:1-3: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" (NRSV). In yet another text, Revelation 19:10 declares that "the testimony of [or to] Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (NRSV).

Peter" in Acts 2:36, declaring that "God" has made Jesus "both Lord and Messiah/Christ," and the characterization of Paul's preaching in Damascus synagogues as focused on Jesus as Son of God (Acts 9:19-20).

repeatedly refers to believers as those who testify to and suffer for "the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Rev 1:2, 9; 6:9; 12:17; 19:10; 20:4). I trust that it is not necessary to illustrate the point further here.

Yet in all the various presentations of Jesus' significance, "God" holds the overarching and crucial place. "God" is certainly not thrust into the background or sidelined. Indeed, as I indicated in an earlier chapter, Jesus' significance is typically expressed with reference to "God," and all the christological titles and claims of the NT really boil down to the one claim that Jesus is truly the unique expression and agent of "God.

God" explicitly features in christological expressions such as "Son of God," "Image [eik?n] of God," "Lamb of God," God's "Servant [pais]"; and in some other titles "God" is obviously implicit, e.g., (God's) "Messiah/Christ," (God's) "Word," and "the Son.

Paul refers to "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6 NRSV). Colossians 1:19-20 (NRSV) asserts that "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" in Jesus and through him God works to "reconcile to himself all things." In a cluster of christological claims in Hebrews 1:1-4, Jesus is presented as the surpassing eschatological revelation of "God," as constituted by "God" to be "heir of all things,

that all creation will be required to acclaim ("Jesus Christ is Lord"), this acclamation in turn redounding to "the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:9-11).

this authority assigned to Jesus to dispense or send the Spirit is particularly important in reflecting what he calls a "divine christology," Jesus understood as in some real sense participating in the authority and roles of "God.