The Revelation of God Lesson 10 God Revealed Himself in Reality Lesson Text Matthew 1:23 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. II Corinthians 5:19 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Colossians 1:15 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Colossians 2:9 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. I Timothy 3:16 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. John 1:1-2, 14 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God...... 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. Focus Verse John 14:9-10 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. Focus Thought Jesus is the full revelation of the one, true, supreme God. Culture Connection Jesus The Ultimate Reality Star by Dorsey Burk
My younger grandchildren like to pretend. They have a box of dress-up clothes in the basement. Sometimes they are beautiful princesses and a handsome knight. Sometimes they are actors and put on plays for my wife and me, their captive audience. Sometimes they play house or school or church. The other day they took playing Barbie to a new level. Using masking tape, they marked out designated living areas on the basement carpet, including stalls for their ponies and parking spaces for the cars. Psychologists tell us that pretending is healthy for children. The danger arises when the child cannot separate pretend from reality. It becomes worse when an adult continues to live in an imaginary world filled with phony dreams and a warped concept of life. Christians should not live in the make-believe world promoted by glitz and glamour of the media or the popular theories espoused by modern social scientists or theologians. We need to face reality life as it really is with its good and bad. The best starting point is to face the reality that almighty God took on the form of man and provided atonement for sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When our view of Jesus Christ is real, then our vision of other aspects of life becomes clearer. Lesson Outline I. ONE GOD II. GOD MANIFESTED IN FLESH III. GOD REVEALED HIMSELF TO HUMANITY Contemplating the Topic Like exploring for buried treasure or digging diamonds in a mine, the revelation of the Oneness of God is a truth to be desired and sought after by all mankind. God revealed Himself progressively in the Scriptures to each generation in various ways; for instance, we know Him as the Father in creation, the Son in redemption, and the Holy Spirit in regeneration spiritually infilling and empowering believers. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:1-3). This lesson will explore the biblical basis for belief in one God and in His relationship to His creation as the Son of God. Searching the Scriptures I. ONE GOD Polytheism is the belief in more than one god. Monotheism is the belief in one God. Of the world s religions, only Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are monotheistic. Further, all three of them trace their roots back to Abraham. Trinitarianism, which
confesses that the Godhead is comprised of three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, pushes at the boundaries of monotheism. God called Abraham to separate himself from the idolatrous religions of the world. He announced to Abraham, I am the Almighty God; walk before me (Genesis 17:1). God desired to use Abraham and his family to declare to the world there is but one God. This revelation to Abraham of the one true God is the historic position of Judaism found in Deuteronomy 6:4: Sh ma, Yisra el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, Isra el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one] (Complete Jewish Bible). Transparency 1 Transparency 1 quotes a portion of Isaiah 43:3. Oneness believers view of God agrees with the exclusive, strictly monotheistic interpretation of passages in the Old Testament. Several passages in Isaiah accentuate this position and firmly refute any multiplicity of deity: Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11). Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any (Isaiah 44:8). I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me (Isaiah 46:9). David Bernard, in his book Essentials of Oneness Theology, states, No Old Testament passage explicitly enunciates trinitarian doctrine; one cannot derive it from an exegesis of Old Testament texts alone. If threeness is an essential part of God s nature, He did not reveal it to His chosen people. If correct, trinitarianism stands alone as a key aspect of God s nature totally unknown in the Old Testament but revealed in the New Testament. If God is a trinity, then Abraham, the father of the faithful of all ages, did not comprehend the nature of the deity he worshiped. At no time does the scriptural record refer to God as they or them. God declared from the beginning, I am he (Deuteronomy 32:39, et. al.). What God did in creation He did alone. Further, God said He did it by Himself (Isaiah 44:24). The Scriptures refer to God as the holy One forty-eight times and never as the holy Persons or the holy Trinity. Trinitarians often challenge believers of the Oneness view and use scriptural texts such as Genesis 1:26 to try to substantiate their position that God is more than one. However, the plural pronoun us in the text Let us make man is the Hebrew idiomatic way of expressing deliberation...; or it is the plural of Majesty, royal commands being conveyed in the first person plural, as in Ezra 4:18 (J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Hebrew Text, English Translation, and Commentary, 2nd ed. [1974], 5; as quoted in David S. Norris, I AM: A Oneness Pentecostal Theology, Hazelwood, MO: WAP Academic [2009], 249, note 19). The next verse in Genesis uses the singular pronoun exclusively. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Genesis 1:27). Verse 26 is the creative thought and verse 27 is the creative act. God did it by Himself (Genesis 2:7). The Old Testament prophet Micaiah saw the Lord sitting on His throne, surrounded by the heavenly host. A careful reading of I Kings 22:19 reveals no mention of any other divine person(s) sitting with Him. On the Isle of Patmos the apostle John
wrote of his vision of the Lord. He also saw one sitting on the throne (Revelation 4:2) surrounded by the elders and worshiped by four living creatures who said, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come (Revelation 4:8). II. GOD MANIFESTED IN FLESH The Gospel of John was the last of the four Gospels to be written. Unlike the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), which were written to document the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, John wrote in defense of the absolute deity of the Son of God. At the close of the first century, numerous false doctrines had begun to invade the church. One such doctrine taught that Jesus was human and not divine. In John s introduction to his Gospel, he emphatically stated, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1: 1, 14). (See also I Timothy 3:16; I John 4:2-3; II John 7.) The expression only begotten Son reminds us that if there is a begotten one, there must be a begetter. Jesus was begotten in time, not in eternity. The writer of Hebrews, quoting from Psalm 2:7, noted that a Son was begotten by God on a certain day. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? (Hebrews 1:5). The Scriptures declare that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and she gave birth to the Son of God. It was not until this significant moment that God became the Father. And at this moment God incarnated Himself in the child forming in Mary s womb. God the Father did not send forth God the Son. Transparency 2 Transparency 2 depicts Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus and quotes a portion of I Timothy 3:16. Paul said, Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16). The mystery of God in human flesh should not and cannot be found in persons. It is found in how God became a man; how Jesus could be wholly and completely human, yet still be wholly and completely God. We believe it, but we cannot really comprehend it. The apostle Paul explained the mediatorial role of the sonship when he declared, For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Timothy 2:5). The flesh of the Son of God sacrificed on Calvary paid the debt for the sins of all humanity. In the Old Testament the Spirit did not have blood to offer to satisfy the conditions of a sinless substitute demanded by the Law. Therefore, the writer of Hebrews quoted the passage in Psalm 40:6-8 in reference to God s purpose in the sonship: Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me (Hebrews 10:5). Paul said that God purchased the New Testament church with His own blood (Acts 20:28). The only place this sinless blood could be obtained was by and through the virgin-born son of Mary.
The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot exist without the deity of the Son of God. He is both fully human and fully God. He is not, as some have assumed, a man who became God, but God who became man. The very God of glory created the Son of God first as one microscopic cell implanted in the virgin womb of Mary, in whom He would dwell for the purpose of redeeming the human race from eternal death. This everlasting Father willingly became the Son of whom Isaiah prophesied: For 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, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Yet, God did not vacate His place of Sovereignty and oversight of the entire universe. This wonderful truth is beautifully illustrated in William E. Booth- Clibborn s song Down from His Glory. Down from His glory, ever living story, My God and Saviour came, and Jesus was His Name. Born in a manger, to His own a stranger, A Man of sorrows, tears and agony. O how I love Him! How I adore Him! My breath, my sunshine, my all in all. The great Creator became my Saviour, And all God s fullness dwelleth in Him. What condescension, bringing us redemption; That in the dead of night, not one faint hope in sight, God, gracious, tender, laid aside His splendour, Stooping to woo, to win, to save my soul. The dual nature of Jesus Christ means He could be limited as a man and unlimited as God at the same time. As man He felt tired and slept, was hungry and ate food. He had limited knowledge, for He said, But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father (Mark 13:32). He was subject to death, but the Father the Spirit of God within Him was unlimited and eternal. God did not die at Calvary. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost (Luke 23:46). God experienced death only by way of the flesh of Jesus Christ. As a man, Jesus Christ did not do the miraculous works; it was the Spirit in Him that did the works (John 14:10; Matthew 9:6; Mark 13:32). Therefore, the term Son of God as used in Scripture relates to the works of the Spirit accomplished through the flesh of Jesus Christ. The work of the Son in the earth was as John the Baptist declared it to be, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The doctrine of the Trinity rests on the term God the Son or the eternal sonship. Trinitarians believe God the Son existed in eternity with God the Father before His birth in Bethlehem, and it was this Son whom God sent to earth to be manifested in the flesh of Jesus Christ. These terms and these concepts do not exist in either the Old Testament or the New Testament. In reality, the sonship existed only in the mind of God before Bethlehem. He knew His fallen human creation would need a Savior, and He planned to
manifest Himself in flesh to become the sacrificial Lamb. Thus the Bible says the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). (See also Hebrews 4:3; I Peter 1:20.) If Christ were literally crucified in eternity, His physical body would have had to exist before His birth in Bethlehem, and even Trinitarian theologians do not hold to this view. When God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, the first man Adam was a figure of him that was to come (Romans 5:14). Paul used the contrast between Adam and Jesus Christ to explain that Adam brought death to all mankind, but Christ brought life to all mankind. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (I Corinthians 15:22). Paul wrote, God [sent] his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). The sonship began in time, not in eternity, and the mediatorial work and reign of the Son will end in time (I Corinthians 15:28). God is not a prisoner of time; He is the creator of time. As God, He stands outside of time and sees the end from the beginning as a continuum (Isaiah 46:10). He proactively prepared for our propitiation by way of Calvary in eternity before the foundation of the world. But only in Bethlehem was the plan finally activated. God provided for the Son of God to be born to enact His preexisting plan at the most advantageous time in human history. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Galatians 4:4). Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11). The humiliation and death of the Son of God brought glory to the Father. During the Last Supper Jesus told the disciples, Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once (John 13:31-32, NIV). Therefore, God has highly exalted Him, giving Him a name ( Jehovah is salvation ) before which all mankind will bow and confess He alone is Lord. God said in Isaiah 45:21-23 that every knee will bow and every tongue shall swear that He alone is the Savior. The Spirit of God was glorified when Jesus manifested God s fundamental nature of love, truth, and righteousness to the world. The Son was glorified when His death and resurrection revealed to the world that He was their Savior. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3).
God is a Spirit and therefore is invisible (John 4:24; Luke 24:39). Since He is God s image, Jesus could say, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John 14:9). Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:15). (See Colossians 2:9.) In Heaven, we will only see Jesus. The resurrected, glorified body of Jesus Christ will always be the final visible image of the invisible God. John saw only one on the throne in Heaven (Revelation 4:2). III. GOD REVEALED HIMSELF TO HUMANITY The name of Jesus was first spoken by the angel Gabriel: Thou shalt call his name Jesus (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is the English equivalent of the Greek transliteration of Yehoshua, or later Yeshua in Hebrew. In the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), the word Yehoshua is rendered as Jesus, the closest Greek pronunciation of the Aramaic Yeshua (3443 Strong s Old Testament). Jesus is what His name means, Jehovah is salvation. The term Christ is a descriptive title for the mission of Jesus on earth. Christos is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning the anointed one. John declared, 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 1:18). The mission of the Son was to reveal the Father to the world. Jesus pointed to the Father as the source of all of His power and work. He received no glory personally from men but deferred it all to His heavenly Father (John 14:7-11). Jesus identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He claimed, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:56-59). A Trinitarian might apply this to the argument that the Son preexisted with the Father; however, one must understand the statement in view of the Jewish perspective. They saw His statement as a claim to be God, and they took up stones to execute Jesus for blasphemy. In Matthew 22:41-46, Jesus asked the Pharisees what they thought about the Messiah. They all knew the Christ would be the son of David but they could not answer Jesus quote in verse 44 from Psalm 110:1. Jesus wanted them to explain how the Christ could be David s son and yet David addressed Him as his Lord. The Lord [Jehovah] said unto my Lord [David s son, Christ in His humanity], Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool (Psalm 110:1). Christ in His deity was David s God, but in humanity He was David s son as He was born to his lineage. Jesus was the Father of David and also the son of David. Jesus Christ is Jehovah God in flesh. Transparency 3 Transparency 3 states that Jesus Christ is Jehovah God in flesh. When the Pharisees heard Jesus tell a man who was sick with palsy that his sins were forgiven, they reasoned among themselves, Who can forgive sins but God only? (Mark 2:7). Jesus knew their thoughts, exposed them, and said, Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house (Mark 2:9-11).
The Pharisees were more than willing to accept the healing work of Jesus ministry, but He crossed a line in their minds when He forgave sin. They could not see Jesus as anything more than a man. Jesus was dealing with sin, the root cause of the illness. Three times Jesus forgave sins in His ministry. Each time He addressed the real issue in the person forgiveness of sin not healing, although the people had not asked to be forgiven (Matthew 9:2; Luke 7:47-48; John 8:10-11). This was a true picture of why He came to earth to seek and to save that which was lost. Internalizing the Message Jesus said in John 8:56 that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and he saw it and was glad. What did Abraham see? He rejoiced at the promise of God that through his family all nations of the world would be blessed. He rejoiced at the miraculous birth of his son Isaac and saw the birth of the Messiah. He rejoiced at the symbolic death and rebirth of Isaac after he in faith sacrificed him and saw in it the sacrifice of the Son of God (Hebrews 11:17-19). In the same way God gave him a vision of the future city; by faith Abraham embraced the vision, and also by faith he saw the day of the Messiah (Hebrews 11:10, 13-16). The statement of Jesus found in John 8:58 can be translated, Before Abraham came into being, I AM. This was another affirmation of His divinity, and the Jewish leaders received it as such. He had once again made Himself equal with God (John 5:18), and they thought this was the sin of blasphemy, worthy of death (Leviticus 24:16). Jesus was divinely protected and walked away. W. A. Criswell, in his book Expository Sermons on Revelation, volume one (page 145-146), commented on Revelation 1:12: I often wonder at people who think that in heaven they are going to see three Gods. If you ever see three Gods, then what the Mohammedan says about you is true and what the Jewish neighbor says about you is true. You are not a monotheist, you are a polytheist.... The true Christian is a monotheist. There is one God. Reflections Discuss the statement Jesus made in John 10:30: I and my Father are one. Discuss how the only begotten Son of God was begotten in time, not in eternity. Discuss Jesus statement, Before Abraham was, I AM. Discuss the dual nature of Jesus Christ as fully human and fully God. Discuss reasons why the doctrine of the eternal sonship is an unbiblical concept. Discuss reasons why the deity of Jesus Christ is essential to Christian doctrine.