William Burkitt's Expository Notes

1 Corinthians 8:5

Here the apostle tells them, that although the heathen idolaters acknowledged. plurality of gods, some in heaven, as the sun, moon, and stars; some on earth, as men and beasts, they having their celestial and terrestrial gods and lords; but these were only called gods, that is, gods in name, not in nature, not in reality.

Yet, says he, we Christians do own and acknowledge but one living and true God, one in nature, not one in person, to whom all our prayers must be directed; and one Mediator, by whom all our prayers are to be offered: To us there is but one God, the Father.

This text the Arians, Socinians, and Unitarians, exceedingly boast of, as if it expressly confined the Deity to the Father, as distinct from Christ and the Holy Ghost.

Thus they argue:--"He who says there is one emperor, to wit, Cesar, says in effect there is no other emperor but Cesar: so when St. Paul saith, there is one God the Father, he doth (say they) in effect declare that there is no other God besides the Father."

To this the orthodox answer, 1. "That God the Father is often put in scripture for the whole deity, comprehending the three persons; he being Fons Deitatis, and Fundamentum Trinitatis, as the schoolmen speak. So that the application of the word God here unto the Father, doth not exclude the Son from being God, but only from being the Fountain of the Deity, as the Father is.

Christ says,. am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Revelation 1:17

Will any conclude thence, that God the Father is not Alpha and Omega? Is not he the first and the last, as well as Christ?

Again, We call our Lord Jesus the only Saviour: do we therefore exclude God the Father from being. Saviour: Is he not styled the Saviour of all men? 1 Timothy 4:10

Again, God the Father is called the Creator of all things: yet it is asserted that all things were created by Christ, the Word, John 1:2.

In short, we assert as well as they, the unity of the Godhead, and that Christ is not another God, but only another person from the Father.

We answer, 2. Their own argument may be thus retorted upon themselves: As the apostle says here, there is but one God the Father, so he adds in the next words, there is but one Lord Jesus Christ.

Now if the saying that there is but one God, doth exclude Christ from being God,, then the saying that there is but one Lord, doth exclude God the Father from being Lord; and if it be blasphemy to exclude God the Father from being Lord; it is no less to exclude Christ the Son from being God."

Know then, that as Christians have in all ages of the church acknowledged one God only, even God the Father, so have they also owned that Jesus Christ was truly God, of the substance of the Father, God of God, very God of very God. The Lord keep us stedfast in this faith! seeing he that honoureth the Son honoureth the Father that hath sent him; but he that denieth the Son denieth the Father also.

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William Burkitt's Expository Notes

1 Corinthians 8:5

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