Defining Christ Part 4

An idea cannot be without an image or a word to represent it; and therefore God was never without His Word, nor was His Word without Him. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God;’ for a word is the idea expressed; and thus the “Word that was made flesh” became “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person”—so our Lord could say; “he that hath seen the Son, has seen the Father, also.”

We can define members of divinity by the roles, jobs, functions they have and do perform in the salvation of man. The phrase “Son of God” describes a temporal relation, like the phrase “the Word of God” denotes an eternal, un-originated relation. There WAS a Word of God from eternity, but the Son of God BEGAN to be in the days of Caesar Augustus. “Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee” was given only after the Son of God was by His resurrection from the dead declared to be the Son of God with a power and evidence extraordinary and divine. The Word incarnate or dwelling in human flesh, is the person called our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ; and while in the system of grace the Father is the ONE God, in all the supremacy of His glory, Jesus is the ONE LORD in all the divine fullness of sovereignty, supreme, and universal authority. The Lord of Japheth, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the God and the Lord of Christians; for “the Child” that has been born to us, and “the Son” that has been given, according to another Prophet, came from eternity: “His goings forth have been from of old from everlasting.” Such is the evangelical history of the author and finisher of the Christian system as to His previous nature and relation in the deity or godhead. But there is more!!

“He became.” One distinctive way of comprehending of whom this speaks is to determine which member of divinity who bears the nature called God, began to be something different than His original and continuing existence or person!! He became a true and proper “Son of Man,” yet no man could ever claim to be His Father, NOR was He the production of man!! “A body hast thou prepared Me.” But the “Me” was before “the body”!! The “Me” had dwelt and would again continue forever to dwell “in the bosom of the Father.” He had never begun nor would ever end in being, yet He took upon Himself human flesh so the blood He would shed could be the sin offering for His Bride, the Church of Christ,”God, the Father, so loved the world, the Church of Christ, that He, the Father, gave, freely sacrificed, for the Church, His eternal Word”.

It is said of Him: “I came forth from God,” I AM “the Incarnate Word.” From the presence of the Father, the Son withdrew, came to dwell on the Earth for thirty three years. Great beyond expression and “without controversy, great is the mystery—the secret of godliness.” For to come “forth from” and still “be in” while at the same time “to dwell among men” is something only the “eternal Word,” did!! This is another clear and proper distinction. “God was manifest in the flesh.” Another way to distinguish Father from Son is “He that has seen Me has seen the Father, also.” The Son of Man was and is the Son of God—Emanuel, God with us.” Adored be His name!! The one God in the person of the Father has commanded all men to worship and honor the one Lord, “the eternal Word,” —for He alone is to be reverend: for now in glorifying the Son, we glorify the Father that sent Him and that dwells in Him. “Know ye not that I Am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” our Lord declared!! Such is the distinctive difference and qualification of God, the Father and God, the Son, eternally know by the expression, which in fact He is, the “the Word”, while in covenant with the Father, called Jesus Christ!! At His feet “all men must bow, to the glory of God, the Father.”

Defining Christ Part 3

The relationships in the human family are limited to three: for while all the human nature was at one time originally and wholly in the person of Adam, it was afterwards found equally in the person of Eve; and again in the persons of their children. The way man came into being and the relationships between men, women and children there can only be three .Now, as to the way these relationships exist, they exist in only three dimensions: father-mother-children. Adam, himself at first had no relationship with any other human being for none existed. Eve’s relationship to Adam was derived from Adam; she came from him and was OF him. Their children were not OF Adam, they were OF Adam and Eve; and so the story of relationships began and ended in the human family and here the matter ends; for while Eve proceeded from Adam in one mode, and their children proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the residue of human nature exist without any new or other relation or mode of impartation. Let the atheist and monkey-oriented religionist explain why in all the years since Adam and Eve, there has not arisen another relation, mode, or defining of relationship among the human family, Now, as man is made in the image of God, we must conceive of Him as having plurality, relation, and society in himself—though far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature either is or can be fairly or fully exhibited by any resemblance or illustration drawn from angel or from man, or from any created thing!! Still, there is a resemblance between God and the sun that shines upon us—between God and an angel—between God and man; and even in the mode of His existence, and in the varieties of relation and personal manifestation, there is so much resemblance as to peremptorily forbid all dogmatism as to what is, or is not, compatible with the unity, spirituality, and immutability of God. But of this we will later examine and record.

God became a Son. “The holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” “Unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.” Again; “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” “No person has ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” (or whose abode in heaven is). “God so loved the world (church) that He gave His only begotten Son—the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” So speak the divine oracles of the supreme Deity and Excellency of the “author and finisher of our Faith.” “By Him and for Him all things were created and made; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” But, He became flesh! Who became flesh? That divine and glorious One that existed before the universe, who’s mysterious, sublime, and glorious designation was THE WORD OF GOD!! Before the Christian system, before the relation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit BEGAN TO BE, His rank in the divine nature was that of the WORD OF GOD. Wonderful name!! This intimate and dear name describes a relationship unappreciated!! The relation between a word and the idea which it represents is the nearest and closest of all relationships in the universe; for the idea is in the word, and the word is in the idea!! The idea cannot be without an image or a word to represent it; and therefore God WAS NEVER WITHOUT HIS WORD, nor was His Word without Him!! Again, the idea is invisible, inaudible, unintelligible, but in and by the Word, so, John describes Him as “The Word was with God, and the Word was God;” for a word is the idea expressed; and thus the “Word that was, was made flesh.” That Word is God!!

Defining Christ Part 2

When speaking of the great I Am, the Scriptures speak of His divinity. Divinity is a description of His nature, power, might, and strength. When speaking of His being He is always referred to as spiritual. Spiritual beings are the only beings before creation and are completely unique and rare in the vastness of thought and construction; they had no limits or barriers, nor did they lack anything-they were complete and whole in themselves and equal in all the ways by which man can measure domain. Also, they are eternal-never in any imagination or thought, description of entity nor inference of reality was it ever conceived that divine beings were described as anything but present, being, existing, never having begun even IF they never had anything from which to begin!! We have not much said upon this incomprehensible theme; for who by searching can find out God, or know the Almighty to perfection? “The knowledge of Him is as high as the heavens: what canst thou do? Deeper than hell: what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” Job 11:7-10

Paul and Peter indeed speak of the divine nature in the abstract (they are conceptual rather than concrete—hence there is no real way, in man’s experiences of life, to describe them), or in a way that attempts to describe the divinity or godhead. These are the most abstract terms found in the Bible. Eternity and divinity are, however, equally abstract and almost equally rare in the Holy Book. Still, they are necessarily found in the divine volume; because we must abstract nature from person before we can understand the remedial system- we relegate each a ROLE-PLAYING identity to understand which member did what!! For the divine nature may be communicated or imparted in some sense; and, indeed, while it is essentially and necessarily singular, it is certainly plural in its personal manifestations of the three that have this type nature. That is why they are named the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Though they are equally divine, they are personally-individually distinct from each other. We have, in fact, but one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit; yet these are equally possessed of one and the same divine nature.

Some conceive of God as a mathematical unit; one in three. As a mathematical unit, some religious groups have thought it impossible these three cannot exist as one—separate, distinct, totally independent of each other. We often consider the unities that exist in a happily married couple!! Man has thought a Being with the nature of God cannot be both mathematically singular and plural—one and three, at the same time and in the same sense, they have denied the true and proper divinity of the Son of God and the Spirit of God. Yet, they seem to understand marriage!! They reason not in harmony with the sacred style of inspiration. But why should we imagine that there cannot be a plurality of personal manifestations in the divine nature any more that in the angelic or human; especially as man was created in the image of God?? Or in another way of expressing this truth; as man is multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, and multi-definable (father, man, son, husband, head, and on and on), so can God. As man cannot be cross-dimensional neither can God—that is, Christ cannot at the same time be both His own Father and Himself as some try to think when they struggle with the “one in the Godhead” idea. How could Jesus pray to His Father and be praying to Himself?? Why should we imagine that there cannot be a plurality of personal manifestations- roles- functions participated in by those of the divine nature any more than in the angelic or human, especially as man was created in the image of God?? Why would that not be considered a likeness??

Defining Christ

     The Bible is a book of facts, not of opinions, theories, abstract generalities, nor verbal definitions.  It is a book of awful facts, grand and sublime beyond description.  These facts reveal God and man, and contain within them the reasons of all piety and righteousness, or what is commonly called religion and morality.  The meaning of the Bible facts is the true biblical doctrine.  History has, we say, to do with facts—religion springs from them.  Hence, the history of the past, and the anticipations of the future, or what are usually called history and prophecy, make up most of all the volumes of inspiration.  Of all the books written, there is only One book written describing, explaining, and revealing the ONE BEING with whom all who have ever existed or will exist will deal, GOD!!  He cries in the beginning of inspiration—“I Am that I Am.” 

     “I lift up My hand to heaven and say, “I live forever.”    “The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of His understanding.”  “Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord.”  “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”  ‘I beseech thee show me thy glory; and He said, I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”  “And the Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and in truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that by no means acquits the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation”—“and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.”  “O Lord God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone; thou hast made heaven and earth.  Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our Aleim is one Jehovah—the Lord our God is one Lord.”  “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints.”  “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou alone art holy?”  “He is our Rock: His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity: just and right is He.”  “Glorious in holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders.”

     Such are a few—a specimen of the Divine declarations concerning God, repeated and re-echoed by the purest and most intellectual beings in heaven and earth!!  It is from His word and His works we learn the being and perfections of God.  As we form a character of man from what he says and what he does, so learn we the Divine character.  “The heaven declare His glory, and the firmament His handiwork; day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.”  Creation reveals the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God—-Providence proclaims also His justice, truth, and holiness.  Redemption develops His mercy, condescension, and love; and all those proclaim that God is infinite, eternal, and immutable.  God appears before the universe of intellectuals in the threefold attitude of Creator, Law giver, and Redeemer; and, although each of these involves and reveals many of His Excellencies, still in each department three are most conspicuous; Creator, Lawgiver and Redeemer.  In each and all of which departments He is infinite, immutable, and eternal.