Okay, I believe that God created all things. I believe that includes me, and that he cares for me even now. But, since there is one God, there might be many gods…right?
Q: Are there more gods than one?
A: No, there is only one God.
(Deuteronomy 6:4; Jeremiah 10:10; Mark 12:29; Acts 17:22–31)
The Shema was the central confession of faith for believing Israel. Shema is the Hebrew word for “hear” or “listen” that we find at the beginning of Deuteronomy 6:4. This passage of Scripture was memorized and recited daily for centuries before the incarnation of Jesus, and it continues to be memorized and recited today. It begins, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The central confession of faith of believing Israel before the coming of Jesus, and of the Christian church today, is that there is only one God. Yahweh is the only God. Yahweh is one. Whatever else we are going to say about God in the rest of our studies, we can’t deny the unique character of our God, and still claim to believe the Bible. This passage teaches as clearly that there is only one God as clearly as any passage of the Bible teaches anything at all.
This isn’t to say that there are no others who falsely claim to be god. Certainly, there are. God, through the prophet Jeremiah exposes their faulty claims though. In Jeremiah 10 we see that Yahweh is the true, living, and everlasting God. These other so-called gods did not create the heavens and the earth, and they all die. First, a god who did not create all things is nothing more than a creature, part of the created order, and no true god at all. Second, any god that is made is not living. This barb was aimed primarily at the idols of the day, and those who would worship them. Yahweh is alive, while idols are just dumb wood, stone, or metal. But this extends to our idols too. Neither money, nor pleasure, nor self, nor other people have life in themselves. No one and nothing causes God to have life, he has life in himself. Who or what else can this possibly be said about? Third, a god that perishes “from the earth and from under the heavens” is no god at all, for God is everlasting.
Tomorrow I plan to discuss the Lord Jesus’ relationship with the one being who is God. However, for today, it is important for us to understand that the Lord Jesus himself taught there is only one God. In Mark 12:29, when Jesus is questioned about the greatest commandment, he begins his response with the Shema. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6 and in effect is saying that the command to love God totally with your whole being, is because there is only one God to love. (If you are reading this and thinking “But, Jesus is God!”, please be patient, we will get to that in future studies, if the Lord wills.)
Our last passage for today is Acts 17:22–31. In this section, we read about Paul addressing the Areopagus. This area, also called Mars’ Hill, was where the Athenian council met. Now, the Athenians were a very “religious” people. Their city, Athens, was filled with idols. And they were a very philosophical people. As Luke (the author of Acts) puts it, “Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21). Paul takes advantage of this and speaks to this council. When he does, he proclaims the one, true, and living God. Sounding very much like Isaiah or Jeremiah, Paul contrasts the numerous false gods to whom they have erected idols, with the God they describe as “unknown”. He says that the One God now “commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
This ought to give us pause. What are your “objects of worship”? To whom, or to what are you bowing down and giving glory, if only in your heart? Is it this One God? If not, please understand there is a day that is fixed, that this one God alone knows, where he will judge the world, and each person in it according to their allegiance to him. Allegiance to this One God is through allegiance to the one who died for our worship of false gods, the Lord Jesus Christ. This one, we may have assurance has the One God’s approval, because he alone has been raised from the dead.
This means that no other god can lay claim to your allegiance. No other god can command you. This is truly freeing! Anyone who would claim that you “ought to” or “should” do something, had better be able to point to where the one God has said it in his Word. If they can’t, there is a good chance, they are demanding that you give your allegiance to their false god. What freedom to serve only the One God.
But perhaps you think, “Wouldn’t no gods be more free?” NO! First, we cannot escape the existence of the one, true, and living God, Yahweh of hosts. Second, you will serve someone or something. You cannot escape this fact. Even if that which you serve is your own desires, you have simply replaced the one God with a false one. One that is less good, more demanding, and often self-contradictory. You don’t want this. The worship of the One God is infinitely better, because he is infinitely better.
Yours in Christ,