Jesus and His Father, Part 2

JESUS AND HIS FATHER, PART 2

By Dr. Stephen Jones: Aug 20, 2019

Blog Post Date:  8-27-2019

The law of imputation, which Paul uses in Romans 4 in regard to calling us righteous in a pre-existent way, is best summed up in Romans 4:17. The NASB reads, “God… calls into being that which does not exist.” The KJV reads, “God… calleth those things which be not as though they were.”

Perhaps The Emphatic Diaglott says it best: “God… calls things not in being, as though existing.”

Paul’s application of this law of imputation has to do with our righteousness, which we do not presently have in this body, and yet by law God considers it to be in existence already. The law is an expression of God’s character, and since God has the power and right to do anything consistent with His nature, He has the right to say things exist even though they are not yet manifested in the earth.

In fact, it cannot be that it does NOT exist, once He calls it into existence. The universe must obey His commands, for He is God. We have difficulty conceiving of such power, for it is beyond our experience and transcends our earthly nature. Yet the key is to understand that things exist in spirit form before they manifest in the earth.

Not only people but all historical events first exist (or “occur”) in the heavens before they occur on the earth. Predestination is rooted in the law of imputation. We ourselves pray and conduct spiritual warfare according to the same law, for it is only when conditions are changed in the second heavens that those changes are reflected afterward here on the earth.

And so, in the laws of spiritual warfare that are found in Deuteronomy 20, the priests’ duty was to inform the army that God was with them and that they had already been given the victory (Deuteronomy 20:4). The responsibility of the priests was to “perform the service” (Numbers 4:23) at the tabernacle. The Hebrew literally reads, “to war the warfare.” In other words, they were to win the spiritual battles in the heavens before the troops on earth engaged in warfare.

In the big picture, the Kingdom of God as a whole pre-existed in heaven as decreed by God Himself, and we have been given the authority to bear witness to His will and bring heaven to earth. Of course, none of our own prayers or faith would be effective if it were not for the breakthrough that Jesus made at the cross and in His resurrection and ascension to the throne. His work laid the foundations for our success. Our faith is subordinate to His faith. If He had been unable to complete His work, we ourselves would have no assurance of completing our own callings.

The Law of Double Witness

As I said earlier, every law is an expression of some aspect of the nature of God and is therefore a universal law. Every law has jurisdiction and power wherever God may be found. Moses was the first (in Scripture) to tell us that heaven and earth were two witnesses (Deuteronomy 4:26; 30:19). The first witness calls things into existence; the second establishes it in the earth.

The entire purpose of God in Genesis 1:1 is rooted in this law of the double witness. Earth was created to bear witness to all that is in heaven. The first witness is God Himself, who has called all things into existence by His own word (logos), but nothing was seen on earth until the second witness spoke what He heard His Father say.

Hence, the “one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6) remained true to Himself by bringing forth “the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:13). His purpose was to be the Creator’s double witness that would “establish” all things, speaking only what He heard His Father say, and doing only what He saw His Father do.

So Hebrews 1:5, 6 says,

⁵ For to which of the angels did He ever say, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee”? And again, “I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me”? ⁶ And when He again brings the First-born into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him.”

The angels were not begotten, nor are they called “sons.” The angels were to worship the First-born Son as God, for Hebrews 1:8, 9 continues, saying,

⁸ But of the Son He says, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. ⁹ Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions.”

The throne of the Son, then, and His scepter is above the angels, called “Thy companions.” Speaking of the Son Himself, we read, “God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness.” Here again, the Son Himself has a God who has the power to anoint Him, that is, to make Him the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One.

At the same time, Christ is called “God” in verse 8. Hence, it is proper to refer to Christ as “God,” though He is also recognized as having His Father-God above Him. To claim that Christ is “coeternal” and “coequal” with the Father is not a proper way of knowing Him. Hence, Jesus Himself spoke of His Father as being “the one and only God” (John 5:44) and in spite of His own highly exalted position, He said “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).

The Amen of God

In Revelation 3:14 Jesus gave a message to the church of Laodicea, saying,

¹⁴ And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this.”

Christ is the “Amen,” because He bore witness to His Father’s words and will at the time of creation. He was a “faithful” witness, because He fully believed what the Father said. He was a “true” witness, because He was an eyewitness and an earwitness to all that His Father was saying and doing. He was not simply repeating what others had heard or seen, nor was it just His opinion. He was a fully-qualified witness, called and anointed for that very purpose.

Hence, when the Father spoke “Light!” the Son said Amen, or “let it be so.” Genesis 1:3 records it as “Let there be light.” We are not told specifically whose logos was being spoken here, but the implication is that the Son was speaking in order to “establish” light by His double witness. At each stage of creation, the Son spoke what He heard His Father say.

So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:6,

⁶ yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from [eis] whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by [dia, “through”] whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

All things come FROM the Father but they come THROUGH Jesus Christ. The subtle distinction in the wording shows that both Father and Son were involved in the creation. The Father created, but they were manifested through the witness of the Son by the law of the double witness. This is again declared in John 1:3,

³ All things came into being by [dia, “through”] Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Scripture is careful to distinguish between the One who Created and the One through whom all things came into being. All things came “from” the Creator in that they were created from God’s own substance—God particles—but it required a second witness by the First-born of creation to bring it into being. Hence, all things came into being through Christ—that is, through the witness of the Amen.

Jesus was a witness in the beginning, when the Father created all things. He therefore pre-existed His birth in Bethlehem and was a necessary component and participant in creation. The importance of this principle is seen in the fact that because of sin, there is also a new heaven and a new earth that is presently being created. It is a second creation, as it were, and once again, it is being created by God by means of the law of the double witness.

This time, however, Christ is not the lone Witness, as it was in the first creation. Christ now has a body who are also called as witnesses. The Head has done His part at the cross, and since that time He has been calling and training a body to be an Amen people like Himself. These are the ones who, like their Head, speak what they hear their Father say and do what they see their Father do. They know His will and agree with it.

In other words, they have learned to pray. Most of their prayer time is spent in listening and discerning, for they are intent on knowing the will of their Father so that they may bear witness to His will. They are not interested in telling God what to do or in advising God so that He knows how best to recreate heaven and earth. It is always “not my will but Thine be done.” Such are the Amen people, who are privileged to participate in this recreation and restoration of all things.

Relationship without Usurpation

Though Christ has been highly exalted, He never usurped the position of His Father but does all things for His glory. In the end, He will present the restored creation to the Father and take a subordinate throne, so that “God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

The same relationship is seen between Christ and His body. Christ is our Head, even as the Head of Christ is the Father-God (1 Corinthians 11:3). Even as He does not consider Himself to be equal with His Head, neither do we consider ourselves to be equal with Christ. After all, that is the essential meaning of the Head-body relationship.

In Philippians 2:1-11 Paul discusses the mind of Christ insofar as it relates to His position of authority in relation to God and man.  In Philippians 2:4-6 we read,

⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form [morphe, “shape, appearance”] of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped…

In other words, we are to put on the unselfish mind of Christ, looking out for the interests of others, rather than our own interests. Christ Himself is set forth as our Example in this, for He was interested in glorifying His Father, rather than doing His own will.

Verse 6 says that “He existed in the form of God.” The Greek word morphe is translated “form” here in the NASB. It comes from the root word meros, which means “a part, portion, one of the constituent parts of a whole.” So Gesenius’ Lexicon tells us that morphe means shape or form “through the idea of adjustment of parts.”

In other words, Christ was in the morphe of God, which is another way of saying that He was in the image of God. In that sense, He was a part or portion of God, but not the whole. Never did He attempt to grasp (or claim) equality with God, Paul says, even though the later church councils made that claim for Him. Philippians 2:7, 8 continues,

⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

In that Christ “emptied Himself,” it shows that He had something to leave behind. He left behind an exalted position and became a bond-servant. He left behind His position as God (second to His Father) and was “made in the likeness of men.” From a position of immortal Life, He became “obedient to the point of death.” Being willing to take all the sin of the world and its suffering upon Himself, He set forth the example of not looking out for His own personal interests “but also for the interests of others.”

For this reason, having proven Himself to be the absolute Image of the God of Love and for being the perfect Amen of God, He showed by actual example that He was worthy to be given a name which above every name and that every knee should bow to Him and every tongue confess (“profess”) that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).

Jesus and His Father Part 1

JESUS AND HIS FATHER, PART 1

By Dr. Stephen Jones: Aug 19, 2019

Blog Post Date: 8-25-2019

If we set aside, for the moment, what later church leaders said about Jesus, let us focus on what Jesus said about Himself in relation to His heavenly Father.

The Only True God

In Mark 12:29 Jesus affirmed the great Shema,

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord’.”

He gave no indication of a trinity or even of two Gods that included Himself. In John 5:43, 44 He said,

⁴³ I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me… ⁴⁴ … and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God.

 Here Jesus affirms “the one and only God,” while claiming only that “I have come in My Father’s name.” While many Jews may have disagreed with His claim to have come in the Father’s name, they would not have disagreed that there is only one God.

In John 17:1 Jesus began to pray for His disciples, beginning thus:

¹ … Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee.

Here Jesus recognizes His Father and declares His own position as the Son. As usual, it assumes two separate Persons. In John 17:3 Jesus continued,

³ And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

His prayer was that they would know both “the true God” AND “Jesus Christ” whom He had sent. In other words, “eternal life” is preconditioned upon a person knowing God and accepting Jesus as the Messiah who was “sent” by the “the only true God.” We read from 1 John 2:23 that…

²³ Whoever denies the Son [as the Christ] does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

Paul affirms that “God … is one” in Romans 3:30 and says again in Ephesians 4:5, 6,

⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

 Jesus is set forth as “one Lord,” while “one God and Father” is said to be “over all and through all and in all.” The title “Lord” presents some problems, because it has more than one meaning. The Jews used the word in place of Yahweh, in order to avoid disrespect, much like we today refer to our earthly fathers by titles rather than their actual names. The Septuagint translation of the Old Testament continues this tradition, rendering Yahweh as kurios, “Lord.” Most modern translations follow suit, normally writing it in all capital letters, “LORD.”

But Adonai and Adoni were also translated as “Lord,” the first being reserved as a title for the one God and the latter referring to men as “my lord.” So we read in 1 Peter 3:6 that “Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord” (kurios). That reference is from Genesis 18:12.

When Paul spoke of Jesus as “Lord” (kurios) in Ephesians 4:5, it is a translation of Adoni, not Yahweh, because in the same verse Yahweh obviously was “one God and Father of all.”

The LORD Said to My Lord

Perhaps the most striking example of this is when Jesus challenged the Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-45,

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “the son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, ⁴⁴ ‘The Lord said to My Lord, “Sit at My right hand, until I put Thine enemies beneath Thy feet”’? ⁴⁵ If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”

Jesus’ question was taken from Psalm 110:1, which says,

¹ The LORD [Yahweh] says to my Lord [Adoni]: “Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.”

It prophesied of the Messiah’s exaltation to the right hand of the Father during the process of subduing the earth. Adoni was to remain at the right hand of Yahweh until His enemies had been subdued, that is, put under His feet. In Genesis 1:28 Adam was called to “subdue” the earth. His sin, however, created “enemies,” which then had to be subdued at the end of time. Unfortunately, Adam himself became part of the problem, and he could only reproduce corruptible mortals who were born in the enemy camp.

The calling itself remained intact, awaiting the Messiah who would fulfill it. Psalm 8:4-6 says,

⁴ What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him? ⁵ Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God [Elohim], and dost crown him with glory and majesty! ⁶ Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou has put all things under his feet.

This was first a description of Adam, but secondly, it was a prophecy of the last Adam, Jesus Christ. Hence, this passage is Paul’s favorite, and he quotes or refers to it more than any other in the Old Testament. David, too, refers to it in Psalm 110:1 (quoted earlier), when speaking of Yahweh putting all things under the feet of the exalted Adoni.

Paul referred to Psalm 8:6 saying in 1 Corinthians 15:25-28,

²⁶ For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy that will be abolished is death. ²⁷ For He has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. ²⁸ And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.

Obviously, Paul interprets Psalm 8:6 in light of Psalm 110:1, maintaining the distinction between Yahweh and Adoni. God said to put all things in subjection to the Son. The Son must reign, seated at the right hand of the Father, until this is fully accomplished. When the last enemy (death) is subdued, then the Son Himself will present the fully-restored creation to the Father, “that God may be all in all.”

Nowhere in this passage are we given the impression that Christ is the same as the One who has put all things under His feet. In other words, Yahweh and Adoni remain distinct, and Adoni remains subordinate to Yahweh. Or, as Psalm 8:5 puts it, “Thou hast made Him a little lower than Elohim.” We know that Adam was made lower than God, but Paul makes no change here in regard to Christ’s position. God puts all things except Himself under the feet of the Son. and in the end, “the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him.”

Paul confirms his view of Christ many times. For example, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 says,

⁴ … there is no God but one. ⁵ For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, ⁶ yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from [eis] whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by [dia, “through”] whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

This is perhaps the clearest statement from Paul on the relationship between “one God the Father” and “one Lord, Jesus Christ.” It would be difficult here to insist that they are the same individuals. Certainly, they are in agreement and in full unity of purpose.

The Law of Unity

We read in John 10:29, 30,

²⁹ My Father, who has given them [the sheep] to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

Because Christ came in the name of the Father, the principles of Identification and Unity are seen clearly here. To try to snatch sheep out of the hands of Christ is to try to take them from the Father as well. Why? Because, legally speaking, they were one, even as Adam and Eve were to be one (Genesis 2:24), and we ourselves are to be one with Christ (John 17:23).

This principle is clearly seen in the teaching that we are to be one with Christ, even as Christ is one with the Father. But this does not mean any of us is actually Christ or that Christ is actually the Father. It is a principle of the biblical law of unity. By not understanding this law, many have thought that Christ is same as the Father, and some have even taught that we are Christ.

Jesus, however, never usurped the position of the Father. Instead, He said in John 14:28, “the Father is greater than I.” Even after His resurrection, when He had received a glorified body, He to Mary in John 20:17,

¹⁷ “… go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”

Having finished His first work, He was ready to ascend to the throne, for He was being summoned to take his seat at the right hand of His Father, as prophesied in Psalm 110:1,

¹ Yahweh says to my [i.e., David’s] Adoni: “Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.”

There are, of course, many other disputed passages, which we have yet to discuss. These ought to be interpreted in a way that does not contradict Jesus’ own plain statements.

In any quest to interpret the Scriptures, we must start with the plain statements and then interpret more obscure passages to fit with the plain statements. If we start with the obscure statements and then force the plain statements to conform to our interpretation of that which is obscure, we will inevitably run into difficulty.