Yahweh our God, Yahweh is One!
That much is manifestly clear throughout Scripture! Even though, in the Fullness of Time, the Father was revealed through His Son & the Church in its infancy was comforted by the Holy Spirit of God ( Yahweh ), we confess One God! Trinitarian doctrine, while teaching the existence of three Persons within the God-head ( Colossians 2:9 ), confesses that these three Persons are yet One God.
We have previously, if the reader is at all familiar with the work within these pages, discussed the notion that it was for eschatological purpose that our Heavenly Father was thus revealed! This eschatological separation within the God-head was made, we might argue, that Yahweh might take upon Himself the form of humanity & suffer the ingloriousness of a fleshly existence. When Jesus returned to the Right Hand of the Father ( Matthew 22:44 ( Psalm 110:1 ) Matthew 25:34 ( 19:28 ), His Body, according to the apostle Paul ( Ephesians 1:23 ), remained on earth!
The argument presented in this small article is that we, the Body of Christ, or the Offspring of the Marriage of Heaven & Earth ( however you choose to look at it ), have become the Son of God! Although this may seem to be an incendiary statement to some, you can be assured that it is not without Scriptural support or precedent! When Yahweh spoke to Moses before send him to lead His congregation out of Egypt, He told him to relay this message to the Pharaoh, 'Israel is My son, My firstborn'. Using this same theme, Matthew, in his record of the Gospel, quoted from the prophet Hosea ( 11:1 ) when he spoke of the Christ, 'Out of Egypt I called My Son' ( Matthew 2:15 ) Luke, in his record of the Gospel, called Adam 'the son of God' ( Luke 3:38-the interesting thing here is that the rest of Luke's genealogy is speaking, not of spiritual, but of natural generation )!
Since we, as the Body of Christ, are the Son of God ( corporately ), does that mean that we now occupy the same office that Jesus occupied in the first century, that of, as some suppose & teach, the Second Person of the Trinity? Are we now part of the God-head? Are we ourselves gods ( deity )? In at least one place, the Scriptures say that we are 'elohiym' ( Psalm 82:6 ) This is not to say that we are the Creator ( of the universe ), but we ARE the Judges of the Earth; as David wrote ( Psalm 115:16 ), 'the earth He has given to the children of men'. Jesus told His disciples, 'Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel' ( Matthew 19:28 )!
What more need be said; what more can be said?!
To be truthful, there is no doubt much more that could be said, but as our purpose here is to get people to think for themselves, and not to lay it all out for them, we will conclude our argument with Jesus' words in John 14:23; 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him'. The Scriptures have made exceedingly & abundantly clear that we are ( corporately ) the Temple of the Holy Spirit ( Yahweh - I Corinthians 6:19 ( 3:16 ) Paul also told the congregation ( In the wilderness-Ephesians 2:22 ), 'you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit'. As the Temple of God, which, incidentally is also what Jesus represented ( 'For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily'-Colossians 2:9 ), we are the Body through which His Will on earth is done ( Matthew 6:10 )!
Again; we are not 'elohiym' in the same sense as our Heavenly Father is, we did not create ( form ) all that exists, or even ourselves ( though, in a sense, by our own choices, we do 'shape' ourselves into what we become, physically speaking, anyway )! We are simply His Firstborn Son & 'the apple of His eye' ( Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8 ( Psalm 17:8, Song of Solomon 7:8 )!
What shall we do with this glorious fact; how should we then live?
Work, Rest & Recreate!
Charles Haddon Shank
No comments:
Post a Comment