Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 3/12/2004

Question
When Jesus was here, was the Trinity without Him?
Or was He in heaven and here at the same time?  

Answer
John 3:11-13
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (KJV)

Because of the feebleness of our mind, God has to teach us using what is called anthromorphisms or man shapes or forms. That is how He can teach us heavenly things by using and explaining earthly things. All good teachers take you from what you know and lead you into what you do not know.

Jesus, the Son, second person of the Godhead did become a man and to us that would seem like that He lost His omnipresence.  After all, a person can only be in one place at one time.  Yet, the passage clearly indiciates the He did not lose this part of His divine attributes.

We have seen too many movies showing an noncorporeal being turning into what looks like a steam cloud and then entering into a body or a bottle.  We limit the noncorporeal to size and shape because we are that way.

However, we must remember that God fills the universe.  He exists outside of it and in it.  Just as oxygen peremeates our cells and yet exists outside us so also in a greater sense God exists in relation to His creation.  

How big is God?  Unimaginable.  So how does God take residence in a body?  He fills it like the rest of His universe.  Again, a poor human illustration would be a glove. When you put one on are you in it?  Yes, but not all of you.  Then imagine God putting His finger in a body.  He is in the body but not all of Him "physically."  Yet, because God is only one cell so to speak everything that is Him is in that body unlike our finger in the glove which is only an appendage and part of our cell structure and being.  

Therefore since God transcends His creation, by taking on a body He comes down from Heaven but because He is God He is still in Heaven since He fills it as well as transcends it.  

Yet, in a way not understandable to us The Father was able to turn away from the Son when wrath was poured out on the Cross.  In that moment, the Trinity was "without" one of the personalities and yet still one because the essence of God cannot be changed or divided.  That is why the deep and secret things belong to Him and we can know what deep things He chooses to reveal to us by the Spirit. (Dan 9:19-23;1 Cor 2:10-12)

When we get to Glory  the things He will reveal to us will be tremendous.  If He tried to tell us now our brains would explode trying to take in all the data.  Only in our glorified body will be be able to even start receiving all the download of data. It may take thousands of years for us to get half of it, but we will have eternity so it will seem like an instant.

Praise Him for His love and mercy to allow us what we know now and for redeeming us so that we can know HIM for all eternity!  

I hope this has been some help to you!  Blessings unto you and stay in the Book!