Today, God can be described in two primary ways— as Creator and Savior. There was a time when He was neither. He was just, God. There was a time when He was only Creator. There was never a time when He was only Savior. Being a Creator preceded Him being a Savior. But, today, He is both.
Becoming a Creator and, subsequently, a Savior, did not alter Who God was, is, and ever shall be. God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. But, in each new role, God assumed a new dimension, while remaining the same. It’s similar to what happens to us, as humans, when we become parents. We haven’t really changed in person or nature, but we take on a new role.
It’s important to understand that becoming Creator and Savior was not a new development in the mind of God.
In God’s case, He foreknew from eternity past that He would become a Creator and Savior. It was His plan from the foundation of the world. (It may, perhaps, be better understood from the fact that God inhabits eternity, though that concept is still a bit large for our minds.) So, because of His foreknowledge, we can say there really was never anything new related to God. Everything that has transpired has done so according to His pre-determined counsel, to borrow some theology from Peter on the Day of Pentecost. He has always known all things and always will. All of eternity, past, present, and future was, and is, known to Him. What hasn’t transpired for us yet is still fully realized by God.
Our Creator and Savior is one Person, Jesus Christ. This is understood in the following way:
According to Genesis 1:1, God created all things. He, thus, became the Creator. In a similar way, if I begin tomorrow to build a house, I would be a builder, though I will not have changed one iota from who I have always been.
Because of sin, we were lost to God— separated from Him by the direst circumstances, impossible for us to change. We could aptly be said to be children of the wicked one, that old serpent, the devil, who deceived Adam and Eve and, by whom, we lost our first estate (Ephesians 2:1-3). Consequently, our future home would only be the Lake of Fire. Our Creator moved to change that. He became our Savior through incarnation— becoming one of us in the Person of Jesus Christ in order to die for our sins (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; 53). Jesus was, literally, the great I am in human form (e.g., John 8:58). Seeing Christ was seeing the Father (John 10-:30-33; 12:45; 14:9-10). This is what we celebrate at the Christmas season— our Creator becoming one of us through a virgin birth so as to be untainted by human sin in order to live a perfect life and be a suitable sacrifice for our sins on His cross. Three days later, Christ rose from the grave, securing our salvation. That is what we celebrate at Easter. Forty days after that, Jesus ascended to heaven and, ten days later, He poured out the Holy Ghost on those close followers who had gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem and also on some three thousand spectators. This is what we celebrate as Pentecost. The whole of Christianity is summed up by the triad, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. No part of the salvation trio can be left out.
Had there been no sin, our Creator would have remained in His previous role as Creator. But redemption of our lost race added a new activity of God and, therefore, a new dimension of God. Becoming our Savior did not alter God. It only altered His dealings with humanity. He chose to assume a new and needed role if we were to have a future with Him, one as our Savior.
As Creator, God was known as Jehovah. As Savior, He is known as Jesus, which means, Jehovah has become salvation. Though there was an addition to His form, taking on our nature, there was no change in His Person (Philippians 2:6-10). He was, as prophesied, the Mighty God, our everlasting Father, and Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6). The High Priestly, mediatorial role needed to save mankind involved two manifestations, Spirit and flesh.
The facts we have presented thus far could be summarized in this way:
Jesus is our God and Savior. God is one and His name is one. The Apostle Paul says so much (Romans 9:5; Titus 2:10-14; 1Timothy 3:16; Colossians 2:9-10; etc.).
But, to reach that theological conclusion, a revelation is required. Jesus said so (Luke 10:22). ESV
21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
(Two revelations of the Godhead are required— this and a previous, where people come to believe that Jesus is the true Jewish Messiah Matthew 16:17. That revelation has met with wide acceptance.)
Trinitarians arrive at three persons in the Godhead because they simply count. They count what they perceive as individual persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, while clinging to the Bible’s teaching that there is only one God. The trinitarian doctrine is a hypothesis of how these things can be reconciled.
Those who believe in the Oneness position (only one person in the Godhead) receive a revelation from God. That is in accordance with the will of Christ, according to Jesus in the selected verse (…whom the Son chooses to reveal Him).
Revelation is necessary, too, because all the verses regarding the Godhead can’t be explained well from either position. There are difficulties due to the complex nature of the incarnation and redemption that require special enlightenment from God (e.g., Luke 24:45). Mere counting perceived personalities and human reasoning is not revelation. God must show a person how He is One.
The difficulty for trinitarians is with Sonship. They don’t understand the incarnation of God. But a simple beginning for them would be to acknowledge what Jesus taught for salvation in the Christian era, i.e., what He gave His Apostles to give to the world after His ascension. That is what they revealed to the world for salvation on the Day of Pentecost, namely, Acts 2:38.
An important sequence
A person will come to know Christ as Savior before he can understand Him as God. If a person doesn’t obey Him as Savior, he won’t receive His revelation needed to rightly understand the Godhead. That’s because Jesus is the One Who provides the important revelation, as He declared in our pertinent text. And Jesus will give the revelation to those who obey Him. (Similar to the statement of Acts 5:32. See also Matthew 13:12.) Revelation follows obedience, while resistance to the Christ-inspired saving message of Acts 2:38, which is the most vital need of every fallen member of Adam’s race, will withhold further revelation. (How would revelation of the Godhead be suitable for someone who doesn’t want the most vital and necessary thing Christ has to offer?)
If a person will obey Acts 2:38, which was delivered by Christ’s Apostles on the Day of Pentecost for all time (Acts 2:39; Jude 3), he will receive the revelation.
🔺By obeying Acts 2:38, …
1/ you will be obeying what Peter was authorized to preach for salvation (Matthew 16:19).
2/ You will be obeying what thousands obeyed and received on the Day of Pentecost.
3/ You will be obeying what Paul received for salvation (Acts 9; 22:16).
4/ You will obeying what Paul preached for salvation (Acts 19:1-6).
5/ You will be obeying what Apollos, who only had faith in Christ, received when Aquila and Priscilla instructed him in the way of the Lord more perfectly (Acts 18:24-28). (If you deny that Apollos received Acts 2:38, which is the only theological and reasonable conclusion, you must still admit that faith alone, which he had in abundance, was not sufficient.)
6/ You will be obeying what the charter members of the Ephesian Church, who simply had faith in Christ for about 20 years or more, received when Paul met them in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-6).
7/ You will be obeying what every saved Jew, Samaritan, and Gentile (every class of people) received in the book of Acts (Acts 2,8,10).
Many refuse to obey Acts 2:38 because they falsely believe faith alone negates the need for it. Actually, the exact opposite is the case, as we see in the examples herein provided. Mere faith in Christ must be followed by the Acts 2:38 experience. Nothing supersedes Acts 2:38. It is the first and main imperative of the Christian era.