Who Is Jesus? (Part II)


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II. “What Relation Will Messiah Be To God?”
by Brother Nathan Bryant
Was Messiah supposed to be a third person of a trinity, or an eternal sonship, or God Himself manifested in flesh?
As we have already discovered in the first part of this study: the word ‘Immanuel’ (Isaiah 7:14) means “God with us”, and that He would be “The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6).
Before time began, before anything was created, there was just ‘the self-existing One’. He was Eternal, alone with His Thoughts. God is ‘one that is worshiped’, but there had been nothing created to worship Him.
JOHN 4:24
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
If “God is a Spirit” then He could not be seen, or touched. He was without form, yet He had attributes that He wanted to display. He was God, but there was nothing to worship Him. He was Father, but there were no sons or daughters of God. He was Savior, but there was no one to save. He was Healer, but there was no one to heal.
The first thing that He created was the Logos (or Pillar of Fire), which was a form that He could be seen in. The Logos was ‘the Son of God’ (a form that God could be seen in), because when Paul met the Pillar of Fire on the road He introduced Himself as Jesus.
ACTS 9:3-5a
“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
“And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”
God changed His form many times through history. Moses saw Him as the back part of a man*, Ezekiel saw Him as a “wheel in the middle of a wheel”**, but whenever He appeared in a form that we could behold Him in, It was not a separate person, but God Himself dwelling in a created Tabernacle. Not a second person, or a third person, but The Person.
* Exodus 33:18-23
** Ezekiel 1:16
EXODUS 33:20
“And He said, Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live.”
JOHN 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”
Please pay close attention to the following verses, which are all referring to The Lord Jesus.
HEBREWS 1:3a
“Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express Image of His person…”
COLOSSIANS 1:15-17
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
“For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him:
“And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”
Then if He (Jesus) created all things, and was before all things; Who was It that created all things and was before all things, but God Himself?
I JOHN 1:1
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.”
ST. JOHN 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
“The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”
ST. JOHN 1:10-11
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
“He came unto his own, and His own received Him not.”
ST. JOHN 1:14
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.”
HEBREWS 10:5
Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me:”
COLOSSIANS 1:19
“For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell;”
COLOSSIANS 2:9
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
Trinitarians believe that the Father is the first person, the Son is the second person, and the Holy Ghost is the third person of the trinity. Some believe that they are not actually three completely different ‘persons’, but rather three different ‘personalities’. Do we ascribe a personality disorder to God then? (God forbid)! They baptize in the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost because of their interpretation of St. Matthew 28:19.
MATTHEW 28:19
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
Jesus did not say to baptize them ‘in the names of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’, nor did He say to baptize them ‘in the name of the Father, and the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Ghost’ (as many quote it), but He said in The Name (singular).
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not names, but they are titles of God (just as Rose of Sharon, Lilly of the Valley, Prince of Peace, etc). I am a son, I am a husband, I am a father, I am a friend, I am an evangelist, but none of those are my name; they are titles.
ACTS 4:12
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Now if there are three separate persons of the trinity, and God the Father was Jesus’ Father (a separate person or personality), then what do we do with the following verses that plainly state that the Holy Ghost was His Father?
ST. MATTHEW 1:18
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost.”
ST. MATTHEW 1:20
“But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
In the light of these Scriptures we have to agree that God the Father, and The Holy Ghost are the same Person.
After receiving the knowledge of this Truth there are still many that claim there are ‘two lords’ (God the Father and Jesus Christ) because of their interpretation of the following verse from Psalms:
PSALM 110:1
The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
Through their interpretation of this Scripture they are separate God the Father to be ‘The Lord’ who says unto Jesus Christ (‘my Lord’) to sit on His right hand. However; if you take this verse back to the original Hebrew words it actually reads “Jehovah said unto Adonai”. So if we believe that Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New Testament, then the line of thinking in interpreting this verse as ‘two lords’ would be like ‘putting the cart before the horse’.
Remember that Abraham saw three men and said ‘my LORD’*, where Lot saw to of those same men and said ‘my lords’**. Abraham and Lot obviously had two very different revelations.
* Genesis 18:3
** Genesis 19:2
We must also make sure that our interpretation of a certain verse can match the entire canon of Scripture. Remember that Thomas not only called Jesus his Lord, but also his God.
ST. JOHN 20:28-29
“And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.
“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed”.
ST. JOHN 13:13
Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am”.
MATTHEW 6:24a
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”
DEUTERONOMY 6:4
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
ZECHARIAH 14:9
“And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and His name one.”
MARK 12:29
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.”
I CORINTHIANS 8:5-6
“For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him.”
Many try to use this verse to split God and Jesus into two separate Persons, but this verse is not saying ‘two Lords’ (in fact it plainly says ‘one Lord’), and it also saying that all things were ‘by Jesus’ and ‘of God’ (remember the verse from Colossians earlier in our study about all things being created by Jesus, and how He was before all things).
EPHESIANS 4:5
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
When you see my flesh you do not see my soul, or my spirit. The only way you could know me, see me, or recognize me is by seeing my body or hearing my voice (which the vocal chords are part of the body).
We (like God) are a triune being. I am not complete without all three (body, soul, and spirit). All three are separate attributes of who I am, but that does not make me three different persons (or personalities).
You could say that ‘Nathan is a spirit, and no man has seen Nathan’s spirit at any time, but Nathan’s entire spirit dwells in his body. His body is the express image of his person’.
He (Jesus) is the express Image (something we could see) in which the entire fullness of the Spirit of God (which no man could see) dwelt (a tabernacle, a body that we could touch) so that He could redeem us back from our fallen state.
God could not send an angel, or someone else and be just, He had to come Himself. We are not saved by Jewish blood or Gentile blood, but we are saved by the created Blood of God.
I would like to compare several Scriptures referring to Jesus (that were used in different areas of the study earlier) directly in line together for a short review, along with some additional verses:
GENESIS 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”.
COLOSSIANS 1:16-17
“For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him:
“And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”
I CORINTHIANS 8: 6
“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him.”
ST. JOHN 1: 3
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made”.
ST. JOHN 1:10
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
ST. JOHN 10:30
I and My Father are one.”
ST. JOHN 14:8-11
“Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
“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.
Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.”
I pray that this Scriptural study has helped you to see beyond a shadow of a doubt Who Jesus really is, or if you have already seen Him for Who He Is; that you can use these Scriptures as a witnessing tool to help others.
There is an empty tomb in Jerusalem today. He is not there for He is risen*, and is still the same yesterday, today, and forever**. He (and He alone) is worthy of all of our worship, and our praise. Blessed be His Holy Name!
– Brother Nathan Bryant
* Matthew 28:6
** Hebrews 13:8
*** The doctrines, and examples used in this study were gleaned from, and inspired by the ministry of Rev. William Branham. To learn more about Brother Branham’s ministry please visit: www.branham.org ***
© 2010 Nathan Bryant Ministries Inc. All rights reserved
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