The Redemption of the Father
By James B. Asbury

The Oneness of God is a beautiful truth that distinguishes Oneness Pentecostal believers from other Christian denominations. It is a belief in one God with no divisions in His nature, and that Jesus Christ is all the fullness of God incarnate. Even though the Scriptures clearly teach this (Deuteronomy 6:44; I Corinthians 8:4, 6; Galatians 3:20; I Timothy 3:16; Colossians 2:9-10), other Christian denominations adhere to belief in the trinity.

Trinitarians believe that God the Father sent “God the Son,’ a distinct personage of God, to come to earth, to become incarnate, and to die for sinful humanity. In contrast, the Bible teaches that Jesus, the Son of God, is the Father incarnate, the visible of the invisible God. “His name shall be called … The mighty God, The everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6). “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? … the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). The Son is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).

In Acts 20:28, the Bible says, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” I John 3:16 says, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.” The Lord of glory took on human flesh for our salvation! (See Hebrews 2:14-18.) As John 1:10 states, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” The belief that God through His Son gave Himself for us is clear, but trinitarians deny that these passages speak of the Father.

A common trinitarian argument is that the Father sent the Son from heaven. (See John 3:17; 5:30; I John 4:9, 14.) While God sent His Son into the world, the Bible makes clear that the Son was sent as a man on
earth, not as a preexistent “God the Son” from heaven. For example, Galatians 4:4 states, “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” In the same manner, John the Baptist was “a man sent from God” (John 1:6); John was sent, but he did not come from heaven. When praying to the Father, Jesus said, “As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world” (John 17:18). When Jesus spoke of His disciples, it is obvious they were not sent from heaven but were sent in the sense of a mission into the world.

The Scriptures also give additional information concerning the identity of the One whose blood was shed. I John 3:1 reads, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” This verse tells us that the One the world did not know was the Father. Verse 5 continues this thought without change of subject: “And ye know that he [the Father] was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” In other words, God the Father was manifested in His sinless Son to die for our sins.

In Ephesians 1:3-7, we find that God the Father is the author of our redemption: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” The Father reconciles us to Himself through Christ (Colossians 1:19-20).

As a person receives the understanding that God the Father was in Christ (Son of God, humanity), “reconciling the world unto himself’ (II Corinthians 5:19), he can discard the confusion inherent in the trinitarian theory for the clear understanding of Jesus Christ-God with US.

What a wonderful truth! God did not send a second person of deity to become incarnate, but God the Father Himself came to earth to live and to die through the humanity He took on. Truly, the great Creator has become our Savior, and by His blood we are saved.

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Brother Asbury is a member of the United Pentecostal Church in Ocala, Florida, pastored by C. Patton Williams.
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THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED BY THE PENTECOSTAL HERALD, DECEMBER, 1995, PAGES 6, 7. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.