The Good Of The Father (Like Father Like Son) #1962

 

I and the Father, we are one

Johns Account 10: 30, Concordant New Testament 

The question has come up this week concerning the presence of Jesus in the Father.  Has Jesus ever claimed to be God?  Well, in the eyes of the Jewish Pharisees who prosecuted Him, simply proclaiming that "I and the Father, We are one" was enough to charge Him with blasphemy {Johns Account 10:30}.  But we today are not the Pharisees, and Jesus is not on trial here.  And the question remains, is Jesus akin to God?  Is He, in all respects, the same as God?  Are there indeed scripture references to back up this claim if true?  Besides the fact that Jesus Himself has proclaimed that He and the Father are indeed one, Jesus has also declared His union with ourselves and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}.  As He proclaims, "I in my Father, you in Me and I in you."  Is Jesus in the Father in a hereditary sense, like I am a part of my parents?  Or, is there something deeper in play here?  Does Jesus share in the same attributes of God?  The author of Hebrews proclaims that Jesus is "The effulgence of His glory and the emblem of His assumption" {To the Hebrews 1:3}.  That is, Jesus is the exact representation of the nature of the Father.  But does this exact representation qualify Him as God?  Does a representative qualify as the original?  Has God declared that He and the Son are alike?  Indeed, God has declared "I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me {Isaiah 45:5 NKJV}.  Does this include His one and only Son as well?  I believe that it does.  For if the Father had intended that the Son would be akin to Him, He would have declared just that.  Instead, we see that Jesus is the "Exact representation" of the Fathers nature.  I'm afraid that this falls short of making Jesus as God.  Remember, it is Lucifer who once aspired to "Exalt my throne above the stars of God {Isaiah 14:13}.  Jesus has never staked Himself to such a claim.  What He has done is speak to the truth that He and the Father are indeed one.  What Jesus has done is to speak to the truth that we live in union with He and the Father.  As Jesus is in union with God, so are we as well.  Like Father, like son.  

And the word became flesh and tabernacles among us, and we gaze at His glory, a glory as of a only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth

Johns Account 1: 14, Concordant New Testament 

To say that I dodged a bullet is an understatement.  For if I were to proclaim that Jesus was indeed God, the modern day Pharisees may surely come for me as well.  Instead, I go by the words of the Father and of the Son.  That the Father dispatched His only-begotten Son for the eonian life of mankind {Johns Account 3:16-17}.  That all who believe in the Son shall not perish in the Fathers eyes.  That all who place their trust in His Son will be saved {Paul to the Romans 10:9-10}.  So it is that God CHOSE to send His Son, His exact representation, as the innocent sacrifice for our sin {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}.  The truth we find spoken in the evangel of the apostle Paul is that we live in union with Jesus {Paul to the Galatians 2:20}.  We are in union with He and the Father, yet we are not, nor will we ever be, God Himself.  I believe that this truth goes a long way in explaining the truth of Jesus in the Father as well.  He is His representation, not God.  Growing up in the mainstream church, the very idea that I could ever be in union with Christ was never spoken to.  To this day, the church does not address this truth.  Of course, this is why it has taken so many years for my own eyes to be opened to the truth of my life in the Father.  This is the part of the radical evangel of Paul which speaks to our life in Christ Jesus.  Perhaps it is why Paul referred to it as the "Secret among the nations" {Paul to the Colossians 1:27}.  That is, Christ Jesus among us, our hope of glory. 

~Scott~