Elohim is the Hebrew word for God that appears in the very first sentence of the Bible. When we pray to Elohim, we remember that he is the one who began it all, creating the heavens and the earth and separating light from darkness, water from dry land, night from day. This ancient name for God contains the idea of God’s creative power as well as his authority and sovereignty. Jesus used a form of the name in his agonized prayer from the cross. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
About God the father
Elohim (e-lo-HEEM) is the plural form of El or Eloah, one of the oldest designations for divinity in the world. The Hebrews borrowed the term El from the Canaanites. It can refer either to the true God or to pagan gods. Though El is used more than 200 times in the Hebrew Bible, Elohim is used more than 2,500 times. Its plural form is used not to indicate a belief in many gods but to emphasize the majesty of the one true God. He is the God of gods, the highest of all. Christians may recognize in this plural form a hint of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Elohim occurs thirty-two times in the first chapter of Genesis. After that the name Yahweh appears as well and is often paired with Elohim and, in the NIV, the two together are translated “the LORD God.”
About Jesus
Propterea sicut per unum hominem in hunc mundum peccatum intravit et per peccatum mors et ita in omnes homines mors pertransiit in quo omnes peccaverunt. Sic enim dilexit Deus mundum ut Filium suum unigenitum daret ut omnis qui credit in eum non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam. In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram.
About Man
Nothing is more invisible than a thought.
You don’t know what I am thinking nor can I tell what you are thinking. But let a man speak and his words reveal his thoughts. Take the deepest thought and clothe it in words, and it will be visible to millions. Consider the plays of Shakespeare. They are but the thoughts of Shakespeare made visible through his words.
Jesus reveals God to us.
How fitting that Jesus should be called “the Word” for he communicates the very nature of God to us. John 1:18 reminds us that no one has seen the essence of God the Father, but the Son has “declared him” or “made him known” or “explained him” or “revealed him.” The underlying Greek has the idea of unfolding a truth step by step.
Jesus makes known what we would never discover on our own.
Without Jesus we would never know the fulness of God. We would know him as Creator and Designer of all things (Romans 1:19–20), but we would never know the depth of his compassion toward sinners.
Jesus is the key to the universe for “all things have been created through him” (Colossians 1:16).
About Salvation
Discover Your God-Given Worth
What happens when you long for your mother’s love, but your sister is the only one loved? What happens when you long for a gift, but your sister is the only one given a gift? What happens when you long to be held on your mother’s lap, but your sister is the only one held on your mother’s lap? Ask Dorie Van Stone. Dorie would personally tell you that repeated rejection is the breeding ground for low self-worth.1 Because she was not wanted by her mother, in the eyes of her mother, she was always ugly.
Dorie never received the love and affection her heart so deeply craved. However, what a comfort for Dorie (and for all the male and female Dories in the world) to come to know this truth . . .
“The Lord does not look at the things man
looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks at the heart.”
(1 Samuel 16:7)
As a child did Dorie have any concept of “self-worth”? How could she? As a continually rejected child, how could she personally feel any sense of significance . . . of value . . . of worth? Even more basic than that, how do you determine the worth of something or someone? How do you know your own worth? Do you look to yourself or others in order to grasp your value? If you look anywhere other than to God—the God who created you with a purpose and a plan—your view of your own value is in grave danger of being distorted. Before you were ever born, God established your real worth by creating you! Even you were worth God’s creating you and more so: God chose you! So give your heart to Jesus. That is Salvation. You have got everything in it.
HOLY SPIRIT
Jesus put a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit. He was the subject of intense prayer: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you” (Jn 14:16-17). The Lord mentions two points: the Holy Spirit was already real and He was about to come. At that time, the Spirit dwelled with the disciples, but they lacked having Him in them. If the Spirit of God was so important to the life of Jesus, how much more so for the lives of the believers!