Is it possible to understand the Godhead Part? 04

[jame...@btinternet.com]

Is it possible to understand the Godhead?
PART FOUR
"I and My Father Are One"
Let us look at a few examples. In John 10:30 we read "I and [my] Father
are one." He did not say "I and my Father are two"?
None of us would ever think of putting ourselves before Our Heavenly
Father in this way, but He did. Jesus said, "My Father and I are one."
As individuals we would never talk the way He did about God. A human
person would never dare to say, "Me and God," or "I and the Father,"
when speaking of God, because he is only human. He therefore speaks of
God first, i.e., "God and I." That is the proper language for a human
person to adopt. But Jesus did not hesitate to say, "I and My
Father . . . " placing Himself first. That day He therefore spoke out
of the depths of His divine consciousness as God.
We read in Matthew 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a
loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? "Here we find from the same lips a
terrible cry that seems to stand in open opposition to what He formerly
claimed. Jesus, as He was being crucified, cried out, "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?" These two statements may appear to be hard
to harmonise: "I and my Father are one," and "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?"
We must understand, however, that God did not desert or actually
forsake the Lord Jesus Christ. He explained this in John 16:32 "Behold,
the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every
man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone,
because the Father is with me."
We know because we are told about His sacrifice in Hebrews 9:14 "How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?" The Holy Ghost was resident in the body
of Jesus until the breath left His body, never leaving Him until He had
offered the full and satisfactory sacrifice for our sins. He was not
forsaken by God.
Why then did He cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
The answer is simple. We read in Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face
from you, that he will not hear." Until that moment on the tree, Jesus
did not have sin. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sin. He did no sin, He knew no sin, and in Him was no sin. Until that
moment He did not know what sin upon Him was, but at Calvary He became
the sin-bearer. Our sins were placed upon Him, and He, because He was a
man bearing sin, had to feel as any man feels under sin, that is, God-
forsaken.
He was human enough to feel God-forsaken. He felt God-forsaken the
moment that sin touched His mortal flesh, but actually He was not God-
forsaken. He only felt that way because He was human. When Jesus
said, "I and my Father are one," He spoke as God. When He said, "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He spoke as a man. He was man
in a genuine sense, even to the extent of being able to feel God-
forsaken under certain circumstances. The dual nature of the Lord Jesus
Christ explains and even harmonises what on the surface seems to be a
contradiction.
I also can identify myself with this human side of His Nature. I had a
nervous breakdown and had to spend six weeks is a Psychiatric ward.
During that period I felt desolate. The only things that enabled me to
go regardless of how I felt, was the knowledge I could not be desolate
because Psalm 34:22 states, "The LORD redeemeth the soul of his
servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate."
Scripture told me I could not possibly be desolate. This feeling of
desolation was increased by a drug intended to relax me.
Jesus Was More Than Two Thousand Years Old
John 8:56-19, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw
[it], and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty
years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up
stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." This is an
excellent example of Christ’s dual nature. After He said Abraham had
seen His day, the Jews responded, "Thou art not yet fifty years old,
and hast thou seen Abraham?" The Jews challenged Jesus about His age,
saying, "Jesus, you are not yet fifty." He answered them, "Before
Abraham was, I am." This is wonderful because when Yahweh or Jehovah
identified Himself as "the Self-Existent One" to Moses He said in
Exodus 3:14 "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto
you."
The Adam Clarke Commentary on Exodus 3:14 PP1 states:
[I AM THAT I AM] ‘ehªyeh (heb 1961) ‘ªsher (heb 834) ‘ehªyeh (heb
1961). These words have been variously understood. The Vulgate
translates EGO SUM QUI SUM, "I am who am." The Septuagint has: Egoo
(grk 1473) eimi (grk 1510) ho (grk 3588) Oon (grk 5607), "I am He who
exists." The Syriac, the Persic, and the Chaldee preserve the original
words without any gloss. The Arabic paraphrases them, "The Eternal,"
who passes not away; which is the same interpretation given by Abul
Farajius, who also preserves the original words, and gives the above as
their interpretation. The Targum of Jonathan, and the Jerusalem Targum
paraphrase the words thus: "He who spake, and the world was; who spake,
and all things existed." As the original words literally signify, "I
will be what I will be," some have supposed that God simply designed to
inform Moses, that what he had been to his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, he would be to him and the Israelites; and that he would perform
the promises he had made to his fathers, by giving their descendants
the promised land. It is difficult to put a meaning on the words, they
seem intended to point out the eternity and self-existence of God.
Plato, in his Parmenides, where he treats sublimely of the nature of
God, says, Oud’ (grk 3761) ara (grk 686) onoma (grk 3686) estin (grk
2076) autoo (grk 846), nothing can express his nature; therefore no
name can be attributed to him. See the conclusion of this chapter, and
on the word "Jehovah" (Yahweh) <Exo.
Jesus here declared that He was more than two thousand years of age,
for Abraham had died about two thousand years previously. We can now
ask whether the Jews or Jesus were right about this? The Jews convinced
that they were took up stones to stone Him, and were unable to do so
because as God Jesus "going through the midst of them, and so passed
by."
The interesting reply to this question is that they were both right.
The Jews were right that day when they said that Jesus was not fifty
years of age, because as to His humanity He was not. But Jesus was also
right when He declared that He was older than Abraham, for He was
speaking of His deity. As God, He was the Mighty God and Eternal
Father; as man, when the Jews spoke to Him, He was not yet fifty years
of age. All the Biblical testimony of Jesus is harmonised when we
remember His dual nature, and ask ourselves whether He is speaking as
God or as man..
The Father Is in the Son
This third example is difficult for many to understand. It is another
classic example of how a grasp of the dual nature of the Lord
harmonises apparently contradictory passages in the Bible concerning
His person. Jesus was speaking to Philip in John 14:8-11, "Philip saith
unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith
unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how
sayest thou [then], Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I
speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the
works. Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or
else believe me for the very works’ sake. Notice the import of these
words of Jesus here, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and
the Father in me?" It is very important that we always exalt the Lord
Jesus and never make Him less than God.
No one has any problem here and we all agree. We do not believe that
the Father is the Son, because this is not what the Bible teaches.
However we do believe that the Father is in the Son. In John 14:9,
Jesus said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Jesus claimed
that the Father was in Him; therefore to see just Him was to see the
Father. Seeing Him made the invisible God visible. END OF PART FOUR

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