Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)
It might be hard for us to fully grasp the significance of Deuteronomy 6:4. After all, as monotheists (mono – one; theos – God) we take for granted that there is only one God. As products of a Judeo-Christian culture our worldviews have been shaped from the day we were born to accept that there isn’t a pantheon of gods out there swarming around the heavens, but for the peoples of the ancient world this was as significant of a revelation as there is. When all the nations worshipped an array of deities, Israel stood alone as the people of the one and only God of the universe. As they prepared to cross into their promised land, it was imperative that they understood that there is but one God and that Israel owed its exclusive loyalty to him (Deut 5:9; 6:5). Jesus himself even affirmed this to be the greatest command of them all, to love the one God with all of your being (Mark 12:29).
Jesus also helps us to understand what God’s oneness entails. While the purpose of Deuteronomy 6:4 was to establish once and for all in the collective consciousness of Yahweh’s people that he alone is God, Jesus came to show us what the one God is like within his nature. He is not a single person, like you or me. He is a plurality of persons who together are one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As central as monotheism was to Israel’s identity and life, so is the triunity of God to us as the church of Jesus Christ. God is three Persons who together are one in nature. Holy, holy, holy is he!
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