26/01/14

Who is He, what is His Name and His Son's Name?

Proverbs 30:4 -
Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?
Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?
Who hath bound the waters in a garment?
Who hath established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son's name,
if thou canst tell?


The Lord wants to continue on the topic of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ for the knowledge of this is power and eternal life (lets us have eternal life John 17:3). Today I may take some strong meat but will try to make it as easy as I can (worked on it since 2 days trying to simplify it).

People do not give due attention to scriptures therefore do not know who Lord Jesus Christ truly is. Christians are not very clear on the Godhead / Trinity and some so called Christians think it is supposed to be a mystery forever therefore they avoid taking the pain to try to understand. Even people who passed Bible colleges and done multiple PhD's on it sadly lack this knowledge.

Most Christians who have converted to Islam have done so mostly on this one factor of 'Trinity', 3 God's in one and the role of Jesus in it (note Mohammad though Trinity means God the Father, Mary the mother and Jesus the son). Most Christians make the prime mistake of putting the man Jesus as part of the Godhead.

I was just a few minutes back in a FB group where Christians debate with Muslims; one Christian said Jesus is God and another said Jesus is not God. To this the Muslims took advantage and tried to prey of the weak Christians.

The Gospel of John is the best book to know Jesus and we see in this book Jesus claims to be 'I AM' (God) and at the same time 'Son of Man' and also 'Son of God'. He goes on further to say because He is Son of Man the Father gave Him authority to sit on the Judgement seat.

People have problems placing the Lord Jesus Christ as God, Son of God and Son of Man. Firstly their confusion starts due to not differentiating between God (The Son) and a Son of God, they think both are the same; that is why they use the term 'beloved' (as in John 1:18) even though the Greek word means just 'only' (this was of the main factors that made a great theologian like Bart Ehrman into an atheist).

Today's message attends to all three identities of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The first sentence "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?" speaks of the Man (Son of Man) - Jesus Christ.

If one sees, after Jesus died and resurrected He had yet not completed all the sacrifices for the salvation of man. By His resurrection He had broken the curse of Hell but He yet had to perform some of the sacrifices and most important among them was the last one of sprinkling of the blood on Throne of the Holy of Holies; that is why after His resurrection He did not allow Mary the Magdalene to touch Him. He told her not to touch Him since He had not yet ascended to the Father, but later in the evening (after his walk) when He met His disciples He asked Thomas to feel the wounds in His hands. We see by the evening of the day of His resurrection Jesus Christ has finished all the sacrifices including one in which He walks into the wilderness, which also was part of the sacrifices needed for the salvation of man according to the book of Moses (that is where He met the two people, Cleopas and his friend, and broke bread with them). So we see Jesus Christ had ascended to Heaven and descended after His resurrection on the same day and then again ascended after spending 40days with His disciples.

As Son of Man and due to His righteousness He is set to sit on the Throne of Judgment of His flock (of those who believe in Him), to separate those who did not keep His Father's Will from those who did (those who do not believe in Him are already judged). We need to note in His mercy the Father allowed man (Son of Man) to judge man, for had it been God judging man none would have survived. But since no man was worthy to sit on the Throne of Judgment God the Son came as man and fulfilled all conditions to be worthy. After judgment He covers those who kept His Father's Will with His righteousness (blood) and makes them worthy to come before the Father (enter Heaven).

Coming to the God part, of the Lord Jesus Christ, we read in second last sentence "What is His name, and what is His Son's name".

Where people mostly get confused is that they do not realize God the Father and Son are one yet both are unique individuals. Picturing this according to worldly ways is not possible. Muslims ask is God man to have a son?

Jesus attends to this factor very well in the Gospel of John. In John 1:18 He states 'no one has seen the Father at any time other than the (only) Son who was declared from the bosom of the Father'. The Greek word translated as bosom literately means creek. It is only when we take John 15:26 and John 16:28 into consideration we can understand John 1:18.

In John 15:26 and John 16:28 Jesus states the Son (God the Son) 'proceeded from the Father', 'came forth from the Father' and in John 1:18 He projects God the Father as a mountain and the Son as a part existing within the Father as one and yet being an individual.

God is Spirit and the word translated as Son is not to be understood as a product as natural man reproduces. It means 'of' or part of. Human man is produced / reproduced by birth but spirit man is part of (connected to) the human father's spirit and takes birth in the womb of its mother. That is why we find scriptures as Abraham's seeds being in his lion even when he had no natural children or in Genesis 5:1-2 God cursing all the generations of Adam with the nature of Adam by calling all of them Adam. Our seeds include not just our immediate children but also grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on.

God the Son is part of God the Father and being part of the Father they have the same Spirit that is why we read at times 'Spirit of the Father' and sometimes 'Spirit of the Son' (Lord Jesus Christ) even though they refer to the same Spirit.

The most complicated part of Jesus Christ, is understanding His identity as 'Son of God'. This is not because it is difficult to understand but because man has distorted it so much due his lack of understanding.

I will not be able to take this in detail here for this message will become many times its length (which is already long). But in simple words I will put the term 'Son of God' is to do with the image of God. That is why we see Angels are referred as Sons of God and even man before he sinned was called Son of God and we read Jesus came to make us into Sons of God (John 1:12). That simply means Jesus came to restore the image of God back into man, as to what it was before man sinned. Jesus does that by first taking away the sin by His sacrifice (playing the price) and by His Spirit getting man to overcome the sinful Adam nature (by grafting us into His Nature - growing of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit).

Let us remember, when we declare the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ we are not just declaring the Saviour but God (The Son) who humbled Himself (Son of God) and came as man Jesus (Son of Man). He overcame sin as man and by His sacrifice took away our sins, by His righteousness He restores our relation with God and by His Spirit make us back into Sons of God.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, You are a Magnificent God. You are a God of prosperity. You are always creating better things and growing in glory. Your wisdom can not be comprehended and your ways and not the ways of man. In your Mercy You uplift us as You grow from glory to glory. Lord we pray more and more may know You and have power in knowing You...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
John 1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

John 5:25-27
25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

John 6:61-69
61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

John 20:17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

Luke 24:13-15
13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

John 20:27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

John1:18 - No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

John 17:1-3, 9, 11-12, 21-24
1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

Genesis 5:1-2
1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)