The Master

From the theme "A Decision Made" What a thought to think that the omniscient, all-knowing God would need to do a search to find anything! But, alas, there had to be a redemption for what had happened in the garden with mankind.       In the time before time there existed the God, the Word, the Spirit and these existed as three-in-one. Before the time before time God existed. God has always existed with no beginning and He exists with no ending. The God, the Word, the Spirit exists not three-as-one, but three-in-one. This existence is referred to as being the Godhead. Jesus said to the woman at the well that God is Spirit. In the Gospel According to John we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." (John 1:1,2 (HCSB)). Also, John wrote: "The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14 (HCSB)). The Word became flesh and lived with the humanity He had created in the beginning. While Jesus lived here on earth, He was 100% man and 100% God always. He was never part God and then at times part man. He was always in every situation totally God and totally man. We have heard many evangelists try to divide when the human part of Jesus would be prominent and when the God part of Jesus was prominent. His nature was never split. He was always Godman. When He slept in the back of the boat on the Sea of Galilee it was due to His human form, not because He was in a nature state of being human. Likewise, when He stood up in a rocking boat that was being bombarded by fierce wind and crashing sea waves without it affecting His balance it was due to Him being God, the second person of the God-head, and not to an episode of a God-spirit over coming Him. He did not have a split nature. He was always God, and always man. That is the unique nature of Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul was writing about in his letter to the Philippians trying to explain to them the nature of our Savior. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God seeing that He was part of the fullness of the Godhead. But He accepted another form in order to be the Redeemer of Mankind. That was the form of human flesh, and the social level of a slave to redeem humanity from the bondage of sin, and to reconcile mankind back to a close personal relationship with the God. Jesus Christ did not have two natures, but He had one nature which was fully God and fully man. The process of the Incarnation is the result of the nature of the Second person of the Godhead becoming completely absorbed and assimilated into the nature of humanity with its limitations and with the nature of humanity becoming completely absorbed and assimilated in the nature of the Godhead with the Deity awareness and power. This was a miraculous work of the Godhead that goes beyond our comprehension.      The Apostle John wrote that the "Word" became flesh and "took up residence" with us. The Word which John is using in the text refers to an active, living word as opposed to a printed word. The Word which became flesh was the active word from the active mind of the God. It is what we consider as the living consciousness of the Living God. He was the active work in the creation of the universe. When the God said, "let there be light" He brought the light into existence. This is the Word which became flesh. The Word came to live with us. He came to us to experience our struggles and our limitations, and to show us these things can be overcome through His help. By emptying of Himself, He allowed the acceptance of our limitations and the feeling of our pain. He allowed the confusion of the temptations which make us wonder what the God is doing to us. He felt our confusion. He felt our pain. He felt our loneliness. He felt our grief and sorrow. He felt our lost. The Word who created all things allowed Himself to feel all things His created creatures go through just to make it from one day to the next. He became flesh in order to heal our loss.       Another reason for the Word becoming flesh was due to the law of the redeemer. The redeemer was, according to the law, to be a kinsman responsible for the family to redeem a brother's property to keep the family legacy intact. There had to be reasonable legal kin to make the redemption. [Check for reference-- “If a foreigner or temporary resident ⌊living⌋ among you prospers, but your brother ⌊living⌋ near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner living among you, or to a member of the foreigner’s clan, he has the right of redemption after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. His uncle or cousin may redeem him, or any of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him. If he prospers, he may redeem himself. (Leviticus 25:47-49 (HCSB)]. This redeemer brother did not need to be a direct relative, but he had to be in the family bloodline. In the case of the Redemption of Mankind the redeemer had to be in a unique relation to the property that needed to be redeemed. The property is in this case the soul that had to be redeemed. The fall in the garden created an estrangement and a dissolution of an intimate relationship between the Creator and the people He had created. This caused a unique obstacle which the Redeemer had to be able to reconcile for the redemption of the parties to be accomplished. For the Redeemer to redeem humanity from the fall the Redeemer had to be human. Also, for the Redeemer to represent and reconcile the Creator, who was also an injured party because of the fall, the Redeemer had to be part of the Godhead. The Redeemer had to be fully human and a full member of the Godhead. Because of this, Jesus was fully God and fully man all the time!     What a marvel, miraculous work wrapping the Second person of the Godhead, the Living Word, the Consciousness of the God, in the form of a human man completely making one nature with full characteristics that were compatible to each. Jesus, in His prayer requested that the Father glorify Him with the Glory of the Father Himself that was the same Glory the Godhead had before the universe began. This is what He meant in the fifth verse of John 17. The term "kosmos" refers to the universe as it is used here. Jesus is requesting that the Father glorify Him with the same Glory they experienced before the time of the universe began--in the "time before time."      In the time before time there existed the eternal Godhead with no beginning and no ending. A story of an old preacher remarking about the creation says that one day God said, "I'm lonely; I'll make me a world." But maybe it may have been more like this: The Godhead said, "I'm bored; I'll make a universe and fill with life both spiritual, celestial, and physical." With the help of the Lord let's try to investigate what the consultation may have been when the decision was made about the man. [This understanding observation is based on the recorded discussion in the first chapter of Genesis. (Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 (HCSB)). We must examine first some of the words used in this verse. The word for God here used is 'elohim' and has a strong inference on what we will present here.] The Strong's Exhaustive Concordance states: elohim--Plural of 'elowahh; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrate... So, we here understand the plurality of the term in the Scriptures for the God. Therefore, we are using the term "the God" when referring to the Godhead.