Bible Question: "How can God and Jesus be the same person? God calls him his son. Jesus said the Father is greater than I. But Jesus also said, the Father and I are one. What am I missing?"

Bible Answer: This seems to be one of those famous "contradictions" in the Bible that unbelievers like to talk about.

Indeed, Jesus did say the Father is greater than He is, while also saying that He and the Father are one, or the same.

But it's not a contradiction, just one of those great Bible truths that is far too deep for any human mind like ours to fully grasp.

The lady who sent in this question added that she had listened to Rev. Dr. Charles Stanley, the pastor of Atlanta First Baptist, preach an entire hour on this topic and is still confused.

I don't presume to be a greater expert than Charles Stanley on this topic, but I will attempt to give a simple answer that will have to by necessity be quite a bit shorter than an hour sermon.

The basic doctrine were discussing here is the Trinity, which makes this even more complicated. Basically it says that not only are Jesus and God the Father one and the same, but also the Holy Spirit is one and the same, also, sort of like three into one.

The word Trinity is not itself in the Bible, but there are many Scriptures that refer to the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as all being one and same person, but also as separate persons. When all three are referred to at once, it's usually as the Godhead.

"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," Paul writes in Colossians 2:9, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul also says of the Lord Jesus Christ in Col. 1:15 that "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."

God the Father is therefore invisible, and in order to make Himself visible to us, His Son was born into a human body.

The best way I have understood the Trinity doctrine is comparing the three Persons of Father, Son and Spirit, to us.

Genesis 1:26 says "Then God said, 'Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.'"

As God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three parts, yet one; we are three parts, yet one.

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

We are all made up of three parts, our body, soul and spirit, yet we are still just one person. Our body is our physical being, our spirit is our reasoning being or our mind, and our soul is our emotional being, or our heart. Only death separates the soul and spirit from the body, and all will be reunited in the resurrection.

We speak in those terms all the time, as in being divided by our head and heart over some matter, or being between our flesh and our spirit, as in "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

I can't explain how we can be three separate and different parts of the same person, while all being the same person, but there it is. And that's who the Godhead is, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons, yet all three are one.

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)