At various places in the first book of the Bible, God expresses himself in the plural (see also meditation 18):
• In Genesis 1:26 God speaks in the plural when he decides to create man: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...’” (see also meditation 18).
• Again, God refers to himself in the plural after Adam and Eve start to rebel against him: “And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil...”
(Genesis 3:22)
• When rebellious men want to deify themselves and build a godlike society (tower of Babel), God speaks of himself in the plural when he responds with judgment: “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other” (Genesis 11:7).
It is especially in the New Testament that God (who is one) starts to make himself known as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
The apostle John writes in his first letter: “There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word [i.e. Jesus Christ] and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7).
The New Testament often mentions God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit even in one verse. Here are three examples:
• The evening before Jesus dies, he promises his disciples that he will send the Holy Spirit to them once he is back in heaven after his resurrection: “When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me” (John 15:26).
• When Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is stoned we read of him: “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand” (Acts 7:55).
• The apostle Paul finishes his second letter to the Christians in the Greek town of Corinth with the following prayer: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
We just read in Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...’”
Furthermore, the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae (modern Turkey): “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).
Finally, Jesus himself said: “When you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me” (John 12:45) .
So, we must not guess how God the Holy Spirit looks like. The last three Bible verses lead us to an overwhelming discovery. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit look like Jesus!
The Bible verses Acts 7:55, Colossians 1:15 and John 12:45 are quoted from the ‘New Living Translation’. 1 John 5:7 is a quotation from the New King James Version’. All other texts are quotes of the ‘New International Version’.
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