There are three questions that need to be answered here, not just one.
Is God male? Actually, the easiest way to answer this question is to accept what we find in the book of Genesis:
- Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
The text quite clearly states that man is made in the image of God, after their likeness, in their image. So in the image of God the man was created male and female.
Actually, the gender element is merely a physical distinction relegated to man, for the true image of God is Oneness; for God is One.
- Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; (Mark 12:29)
The Apostle Paul wrote that the gospel was a mystery, but he had been given the revelation, (Ephesians 3:3-9) and it concerned how two became one:
- For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.(Ephesians 5:31-33)
The Godhead is One, even though there are more than One, but they are One. As Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
Was Jesus’ humanity divine, or was his divinity separate from his humanity?
Jesus was God in human form.
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made (John 1-3 )
- 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 Word of God, The Son of God], though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,[a] being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.(Philippians 2:6-8)
- For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.(Colossians 2:9)
- Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me. (Hebrews 10:5)
Many people have difficulty understanding what the Bible actually states, so they develop theology that is not biblical, but extra-biblical—that is, dogmatic theology.
Biblical theology is what is stated in the Bible. Jesus was God and He came down and took on the soul of a man. In fact, many people hate the idea that the Bible states Jesus is the begotten Son, and the fact that He is called the beginning of God’s Creation (Revelation 3:14 ); the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15)—even the first born of the dead (Revelation 1:5). But this is what the Bible states. Lord Jesus Christ is God in human form and He and the Father are One.
Is Jesus in heaven as a human?
One of the greatest difficulties many people have is that they do not realize that being a human is not someone who is utterly wicked and depraved so that no good thing can be found in any human. Those who believe that all human beings have deceitful hearts have much difficulty in accepting what the Bible actually says. They have doctrines of men, otherwise known as dogma. But if they read the Bible, they would learn that humans are gods, not irrational creatures of instinct that do have the capacity to reason with the Lord God, in whose image humans have been created.
- I say, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you (Psalm 82:6)
- Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? (John 10:34)
Therefore, even though Jesus now possesses human form, He is still be God.
The difference between Jesus, who possesses the fullness of the Godhead, and ourselves is we have descended from created beings, and receive our created spirits from God Himself, when we are physically born, whereas Lord Jesus Christ was never created. Jesus was always the firstborn of Creation, then of a virgin, and finally from the dead. He now sits on the right hand of the invisible God on the Father’s throne.
Since the pre-existent Son of God took on human form as a man, not a woman, and since the Father and the Son are One, we can understand why the Bible teaches that God is to be referred to in the male form.
Expressed a little differently: the Divine Son of God inhabited the biological body of a human being as a male and took on a human soul, wherein He did not sin once—which means that sin is not a matter of being born human, but personally violating the faith our parents place in us to honor them; or the faith God places in us to honor Him; or the faith people place if us to honor them as we would expect them to honor us. When respect or honor is violated, so is faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment