The Gospel of God, the Gospel of Christ

Scripture is taken from the KJV.

The Bible is clear on two things: Jesus Christ is God, and He is not the Father. The Father has sent the Son; the Son has made prayer to the Father; and the Holy Spirit is of a piece with both yet apart from them. The Oneness view runs counter to this by making of Jesus the Father in some other mode.

While 1 Timothy 4:1–2 does not call out Oneness by name, it is a warning against those who will leave the faith for “seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” To upend what the Bible says time and again about the Father, the Son and the Spirit is no minor thing. It is a matter of the gospel itself.

I. A Study of the Text

A. One Gospel, but a Distinction in Scripture

We are given one saving message, whether we call it the gospel of God or of Christ. Romans 1:1 has Paul set apart “unto the gospel of God,” and in verse 3 he tells us it is “concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” Verse 9 puts it as “the gospel of his Son.” You don’t have to read much into it: the gospel of God is about His Son.

Were Jesus the Father, you would be left with the odd notion of the Father having a gospel about Himself as a son. The text doesn’t support that.

B. The Sending of the Son

In John 17:3, eternal life is defined as knowing “thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Here, the Son is talking to the Father and acknowledging the one who sent Him. Galatians 4:4 and 1 John 4:14 are to the same effect: “God sent forth his Son” to be the world’s Saviour. This is more than a single Person putting on a different hat; there is a divide between the sender and the one sent.

C. All Three in View

Look at the baptism in Mark 1:9–11. You have Jesus in the Jordan, the Spirit coming down like a dove, and the voice of the Father from on high, “Thou art my beloved Son.” It is hard to make of that a single Person. The one in the water is not the one speaking from the sky. And when Jesus in John 14:16 speaks of the Father giving “another Comforter,” the use of “another” is telling. The Holy Spirit is of the same nature as Christ, but not the same Person.

D. The Mediator

1 Timothy 2:5 is plain: “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” It is the Son who has become man, who died and is now in intercession for His own. If you make of Jesus the Father, you take the edge off of that. The prayers and the obedience of the Son to the Father then become a form of self-talk. That is not how the Bible lays out the work of salvation.

E. Glory to the Father

Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4 refers to “the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.” And in Philippians 2:11, every knee will bow to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is due the same honor as the Father, but He is the Son who makes the Father known. When we confess the Son, the Father is made to shine. Oneness doctrine muddies that line.

F. The Warning of 1 Timothy 4:1–2

The apostle Paul put a word to us in First Timothy 4:1: some will be led astray from the faith by “seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” It is not a matter of semantics. What is at stake is whether one has strayed from the faith as it was handed down by the apostles.

Oneness theology makes this kind of departure when it erases the eternal divide between the Father and the Son. In doing so, it puts its own spin on the Father’s sending of the Son, their fellowship, and the role of Christ as our mediator. That is why it has to be put aside as a matter of serious error.

II. A Theological Overview

Put simply, the Bible presents one God in three Persons who are distinct and have always been so: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are not three deities here. Each is fully God, and yet none is the other.

The good news we have is of the Father, made real by the Son, and put into effect in the life of the believer by the Spirit. The Father is the one who sent; the Son is the one who gave Himself for our transgressions; the Spirit is the one who makes us alive. This is what the gospel is.

III. Some Key Terms

Gospel is just another way of saying good news. Whether you read “gospel of God” or “gospel of Christ,” it is the same message with the same source and subject.

When we speak of the Son, we are not talking about a label for the Father in human form. The Scriptures show the Son as the one the Father has loved, raised, and glorified. And the Father is the one the Son prays to and is sent from.

Then there is the phrase “doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1). It is a hard term for a hard reality: any teaching that is a product of spiritual deceit and takes one away from the truth of the apostles.

IV. Context in History and Scripture

Paul wrote to Timothy to put a stop to false teachers who were turning their backs on the faith. He gives examples like those who would ban marriage or put rules on food. But the point is broader: all doctrine has to be measured against what God and Christ have revealed.

You won’t find Oneness named in 1 Timothy 4, but it is subject to the very same test. And when it comes to the relationship between the Father and the Son as we see it in the Word, it does not hold up.

V. Where We Stand

We can’t be soft on the truth of who Jesus is. He is the eternal Son, the Creator and our Lord. Every knee will bow to Him.

But we must not make of Him the Father where the text makes a clear line. We are brought to the Father only through the Son. As John 14:6 has it, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The gospel doesn’t muddle the two; it shows us the Father in the person of the Son.

What we have in salvation is a relationship with the Father, by grace, in the Son. And in that moment of faith, the Holy Spirit moves in to regenerate and sanctify, to lead and guide the one who is now His.

VI. References

• Mark 1:1, 9–11, 14
• John 1:1–3, 14, 18
• John 14:6, 16
• John 17:3, 5
• Romans 1:1–4, 9, 16
• 1 Corinthians 8:6
• 2 Corinthians 4:4; 13:14
• Galatians 4:4–6
• Philippians 2:5–11
• 1 Thessalonians 3:2
• 1 Timothy 2:5; 4:1–2
• 1 John 4:9–10, 14

In Conclusion

There is one gospel, and the Bible is unambiguous in how it sets apart the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The plan is the Father’s, the work is the Son’s, and the application is the Spirit’s.

That is the beauty of it. The text never blurs these Persons together. What we see instead is their unity in the business of our redemption.

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