Is the Lord Jesus the Son of God or God Himself?
Question: The Bible clearly states that the Lord Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and we believers all acknowledge that the Lord Jesus is Christ, the Son of God. Yet you’ve testified that the incarnate Christ is the appearance of God, is God Himself. That the Lord Jesus is God Himself and Almighty God is also God Himself, this is quite mysterious to us and differs from our previous understanding. So is the incarnate Christ God Himself or God’s Son? Both situations seem reasonable to us, and both accord with the Bible. So which understanding is correct?
Answer: This
is precisely the question that most believers have trouble
understanding. Ever since the incarnate Lord Jesus came to do the
work of redemption of mankind, God became the Son of man, appearing
and doing work among men. He not only opened the Age of Grace but
also initiated a new age in which God came personally into the human
world to live alongside man. With great adoration, man called the
Lord Jesus as Christ, the Son of God. At that time, the Holy
Spirit also
bore witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus is the beloved Son of
God, and the Lord Jesus called God of heaven Father. As such, man
believed that the Lord Jesus was God’s Son. In this way, the notion
of this “Father-Son relationship” was formed. Now let’s think
for a moment. Does God say anywhere in Genesis that He has a son? No!
Now during the Age of Law, did Jehovah God ever said that He had a
son? He did not! This proves that there is only one God, there is no
Father-Son relationship to speak of. Now some people may ask: During
the Age of Grace, why did the Lord Jesus say that He was God’s Son?
Was the Lord Jesus
Christ God’s
Son or God Himself? This is a question that believers have debated
about throughout the ages. People sense the contradiction inherent in
this issue, but they don’t know how to explain it. The Lord Jesus
is God but is also God’s Son, so is there also a God the Father?
People are even less capable of explaining this issue. Over the past
two millennia, there have been very few that recognized that the Lord
Jesus Christ is God Himself, is the appearance of God. Actually,
there is clear record of this in the Bible. In John 14:8, Philip
asked of the Lord Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it suffises
us.” Now, at that time, how did the Lord Jesus respond to Philip?
He said to Philip, “Have
I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip?
he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show
us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the
Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself:
but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that
I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the
very works’ sake”
(John 14:9-11). Here, the Lord Jesus
said very
clearly, “he
that has seen me has seen the Father.”
As we can see, the Lord Jesus is the appearance of God Himself. The
Lord Jesus did not say here that He and God have a Father-Son
relationship. He just said, “I
am in the Father, and the Father in me.”
“I
and my Father are one.”
Now, according to the Lord Jesus’ words, can we not confirm that
the Lord Jesus is God Himself, there is only one God and there is no
Father-Son relationship to speak of?
Some
ask, “If the Lord Jesus is God Himself, then why is it that when
the Lord Jesus prays, He still prays to God the Father?” There is
truly mystery to the Lord Jesus calling God of heaven Father in His
prayers. When God is incarnated in the flesh, God’s Spirit is
hidden within the flesh, the flesh itself is unaware of the Spirit’s
presence. Just as man cannot feel his spirit within him. What’s
more, God’s Spirit did not do anything supernatural within His
flesh. So, even though the Lord Jesus was God become flesh, if God’s
Spirit had not spoken and testified to God Himself, the Lord Jesus
could not have known that He was God’s incarnation. So, in the
Bible it is said, “neither
the Son, but the Father.”
Before the Lord Jesus performed His ministry, He lived within normal
humanity. He really didn’t know that He was the incarnation of God
because God’s Spirit within the flesh did not work in a
supernatural way, He worked within normal confines just like any
other human. So, naturally, the Lord Jesus would pray to
the heavenly Father, which is to say, from within His normal
humanity, the Lord Jesus prayed to God’s Spirit. This makes
complete sense. When the Lord Jesus formally performed His ministry,
the Holy Spirit began to speak and proclaim, bearing witness that He
was the incarnate God. Only then did the Lord Jesus realize His true
identity that He had come to do the work of redemption. But when He
was to be nailed to the cross, He still prayed to God the Father.
This shows that Christ’s substance is completely obedient to God.
Let’s read another two passages of Almighty God’s
word to
clarify our understanding of this issue.
Almighty
God says, “When
Jesus called God in heaven by the name of Father as He prayed, this
was done only from the perspective of a created man, only because the
Spirit of God had clothed Himself as an ordinary and normal man and
had the exterior cover of a created being. Even if within Him was the
Spirit of God, His exterior appearance was still that of an ordinary
man; in other words, He had become the ‘Son of man’ of which all
men, including Jesus Himself, spoke. Given that He is called the Son
of man, He is a person (whether man or woman, in any case one with
the exterior shell of a human being) born into a normal family of
ordinary people. Therefore, Jesus calling God in heaven by the name
of Father was the same as how you at first called Him Father; He did
so from the perspective of a man of creation. Do you still remember
the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught you to memorize? ‘Our Father
in heaven….’ He asked all man to call God in heaven by the name
of Father. And since He too called Him Father, He did so from the
perspective of one who stands on an equal footing with you all. Since
you called God in heaven by the name of Father, this shows that Jesus
saw Himself to be on equal footing with you, and as a man on earth
chosen by God (that is, the Son of God). If you call God ‘Father,’
is this not because you are a created being? However great the
authority of Jesus on earth, prior to the crucifixion, He was merely
a Son of man, governed by the Holy Spirit (that is, God), and one of
the earth’s created beings, for He had yet to complete His work.
Therefore, His calling God in heaven Father was solely His humility
and obedience. His addressing God (that is, the Spirit in heaven) in
such a manner, however, cannot prove that He is the Son of the Spirit
of God in heaven. Rather, it is simply that His perspective is
different, not that He is a different person. The existence of
distinct persons is a fallacy! Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus was a
Son of man bound by the limitations of the flesh, and He did not
fully possess the authority of the Spirit. That is why He could only
seek the will of God the Father from the perspective of a created
being. It is as He thrice prayed in Gethsemane: ‘Not as I will, but
as you will.’ Before He was laid on the cross, He was but the King
of the Jews; He was Christ, the Son of man, and not a body of glory.
That is why, from the standpoint of a created being, He called God
Father.”
“There
are still those who say, did not God expressly state that Jesus was
His beloved Son? ‘Jesus is the beloved Son of God, in whom He is
well pleased’ was certainly spoken by God Himself. That was God
bearing witness to Himself, but merely from a different perspective,
that of the Spirit in heaven bearing witness to His own incarnation.
Jesus is His incarnation, not His Son in heaven. Do you understand?
Do not the words of Jesus, ‘The Father is in Me and I am in the
Father,’ indicate that They are one Spirit? And is it not because
of the incarnation that They were separated between heaven and earth?
In reality, They are still one; no matter what, it is simply God
bearing witness to Himself. Owing to the change in ages, requirements
of the work, and the differing stages of His management plan, the
name by which man calls Him also differs. When He came to carry out
the first stage of work, He could only be called Jehovah, shepherd of
the Israelites. In the second stage, the incarnate God could only be
called Lord, and Christ. But at that time, the Spirit in heaven
stated only that He was the beloved Son of God, and made no mention
of His being the only Son of God. This simply did not happen. How
could God have an only child? Then would God not have become man?
Because He was the incarnation, He was called the beloved Son of God,
and, from this, came the relationship between Father and Son. It was
simply because of the separation between heaven and earth.”
Almighty
God has expressed things so clearly. When the Lord Jesus was working
among men, it was actually God’s Spirit clothed in flesh as a man
working and appearing to man. No matter how the Lord Jesus was
expressing His word or praying to God the Father, His substance was
divinity, not humanity. God is Spirit, invisible to man. When God
becomes clothed in flesh, man sees only flesh, he cannot see God’s
Spirit. If the Holy Spirit had directly bore witness to the fact that
the incarnate Lord Jesus was God, man wouldn’t have accepted it.
Because, at the time, no one even knew what it meant for God to be
incarnated. They just came into contact with God’s incarnation and
had very little understanding. They never imagined that this regular
Son of man would be the embodiment of the Spirit of God, that is, the
appearance of God in the flesh. Even though the Lord Jesus expressed
much of His word in the course of His work, brought man the way,
“Repent:
for the
kingdom of heaven is
at hand,”
and manifested many miracles, fully revealing God’s authority and
power, man failed to recognize from the Lord Jesus’ word and work
that the Lord Jesus was God Himself, that is, was the appearance of
God. So what kind of understanding did man have of the Lord Jesus at
that time? Some said that He was John the Baptist, some said He was
Elijah. Others even called Him Master. Man just failed to recognize
that the Lord Jesus is God Himself. So, God just worked according to
the stature of people at that time, He didn’t make it hard for
them. The Holy Spirit could only testify within the understanding of
the people at that time, so He called the Lord Jesus God’s beloved
Son, temporarily allowing man to think of the Lord Jesus as God’s
Son. This way fit in better with people’s conceptions and was
easier to accept, because at that time the Lord Jesus was only doing
the work of redemption. No matter how people called the Lord Jesus,
the important thing was that they accepted that the Lord Jesus was
the Savior, had their sins remitted, and were thus qualified to enjoy
God’s grace. So, God’s Spirit bore witness to the Lord Jesus in
this way because it was more suitable to the stature of the people at
that time. This completely fulfills the Lord Jesus’ word, “I
have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you
into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he
shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come”
(John 16:12-13).
Despite
the fact that we can’t see God’s Spirit, when God’s Spirit
becomes clothed in flesh, God’s disposition, all that He has and
is, His almightiness and wisdom are all expressed through His flesh.
From the Lord Jesus Christ’s word and work and the disposition
which He expresses, we can be entirely sure that the Lord Jesus is
God Himself. The Lord Jesus’ word and work are full of authority
and power. What He says becomes true, what He demands is realized. As
soon as He speaks, His words become reality. Just as one word from
the Lord Jesus was enough to forgive man his sinfulness and bring the
dead back to life. One word calmed the wind and the sea, and so on.
From the Lord Jesus’ word and work, can we not see God’s
authority and power, which rule over all things? Have we not seen
God’s almightiness, wisdom, and wondrous works? The Lord Jesus
expressed the way in His words, “Repent:
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
He initiated the Age of Grace, concluding the Age of Law, expressed
God’s compassionate and loving disposition and completed the work
of mankind’s redemption. So did the Lord Jesus do the work of God
Himself? The Lord Jesus’ word and work are the direct expression of
the Spirit of God. Is it not proof that God’s Spirit came in the
flesh to speak to and work for man, to appear to them? Could it
possibly be that no matter how God’s Spirit speaks and works in the
flesh, man is incapable of recognizing Him? Can this outer shell of
the flesh really prevent people from recognizing the divine substance
of Christ? Could it be that, when God’s Spirit becomes clothed in
flesh to speak and do work, no matter how much man experiences, he
would still be incapable of recognizing God’s appearance and work?
If this is the case, then man is far too thick-headed in his belief.
How else may man attain God’s commendation?
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