IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE BIBLE THAT PUZZLES YOU?
If so please EMail us with your question and we will do our best to give you a satisfactory answer.EMailus. (But preferably not from aol.com, for some reason they do not deliver our messages).
FREE Scholarly verse by verse commentaries on the Bible.
THE PENTATEUCH --- GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS --- NUMBERS --- DEUTERONOMY --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- SAMUEL --- KINGS --- PSALMS 1-50--- ECCLESIASTES--- SONG OF SOLOMON --- ISAIAH --- JEREMIAH --- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL --- --- HOSEA --- --- JOEL ------ AMOS --- --- OBADIAH --- --- JONAH --- --- MICAH --- --- NAHUM --- --- HABAKKUK--- --- ZEPHANIAH --- --- HAGGAI --- ZECHARIAH --- --- MALACHI --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- READINGS IN ROMANS --- 1 CORINTHIANS --- 2 CORINTHIANS ---GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS--- PHILIPPIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS --- JAMES --- 1 & 2 PETER --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- JUDE --- REVELATION --- THE GOSPELS & ACTS
If so please EMail us with your question to jonpartin@tiscali.co.uk and we will do our best to give you a satisfactory answer. EMailus.
a). In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke)
In the Gospels Jesus always speaks of ‘my Father’ or ‘the Father’ when referring to Himself, in contrast to when He speaks to the disciples of ‘your Father’. By this He makes it very clear that God is not their Father in the way that He is the Father of Jesus Himself. This comes out strongly when we look at verses where Jesus speaks of ‘my Father’ or ‘the Father’, for these demonstrate the uniqueness that Jesus was claiming. They bring out, among other things, the special sway He has with His Father, the unique authority given to Him by His Father and the deep personal relationship He has with Him. It is true that they were claims to Messiahship, for He wanted men to know that He was the expected One sent from God, but they went further than that, for they revealed a unique relationship with God which was never suggested of the Messiah.
In the first of these verses He stresses that it is not the outward submission to Himself that matters, important though that is, but the genuine carrying out of the will of the Father. If we acknowledge Him it must go to the very roots of our lives in obedience to the Father. ‘Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the _________________________, but he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven’ (Matthew 7.21). He is concerned to bring about His Father’s purposes. It is thus not outward profession that makes a man acceptable to Christ, but inward submission to His Father’s will. Yet such is His status that He does claim to be able to affect the decisions of His Father, although only as a consequence of their behaviour. ‘Whoever will confess me _______________, him will I confess before my Father in Heaven. But whoever will deny me before men, him will I _____ before my Father in Heaven’ (Matthew 10.32-33). Where men genuinely declare that they are His, and demonstrate it by their lives, He promises to intervene for them with His Father, and the implication is that His intervention will ensure their acceptance. His very use of ‘My’ here demonstrates that He sees Himself on the divine side of things.
He takes matters even further when He declares, ‘All things are delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, neither knows ____________ the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son will reveal Him’ (Matthew 11.27). Here He is stating that all things have been put under His authority by His Father, that in His Sonship He is basically unknowable to man so that only the Father can appreciate and understand Him, that He alone truly knows the Father, and that no one else can know the Father unless He receives that knowledge through Jesus’ mediation. This goes far beyond a claim to Messiahship. He is claiming to be the unique channel between God and man in such a way that the Father will only act through Him. When considered carefully this unquestionably indicates His full divinity. Who else could claim sole rights to the revelation of the mystery of God. Notice the change from ‘My Father’ to the unvarnished terms ‘the Son’ and ‘the Father’. Now He is speaking, not so much of His relationship to His Father, as of the unique distinctiveness of the Godhead.
He then indicates that it is His heavenly rather than His earthly relationships that are significant to His mission. The only relationship that counts is with His Father Who is in Heaven. Earthly relatives have no hold on Him. Thus those who would claim relationship to Him must demonstrate it by showing that they are true children of God, and they do this by doing the will of His Father. It is they whom He will accept as His relatives. ‘Whoever will do the will of my Father who is in Heaven, the same is my brother ______________ and mother’ (Matthew 12.50).
Furthermore He makes clear that He can only be truly known by those to whom His Father makes the truth plain. ‘Flesh and blood has not _______________ this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven’ (Matthew 16.17). So His Father and He are working in the closest union, and His Father is at work in making Him known, just as He previously has claimed to make His Father known. Then, finally, one day, He will return to earth in His Father’s glory, with angels as His followers, as the rewarder of those who do the will of His Father. ‘The Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his holy angels, and then he will ________ every man according to his works’ (Matthew 16.27). Here is One Who has angels at His command and the authority to judge the world. He is on the divine side of reality.
He then goes on to reveal His knowledge of Heavenly affairs. ‘Be careful that you do not despise one of these __________________, for I say to you that in Heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in Heaven’ (Matthew 18.10, compare the deliberate contrast of ‘your Father’ in 18.14). And He reveals His knowledge of what His Father will do to those who will not forgive others. ‘In the same way that is what my heavenly Father will do to you as well, if you do not from your hearts___________ every one his brother their sins’ (Matthew 18.35). So He speaks the mind of the Father with authority. Again we notice how personal all this is. He speaks, not as a declarer of some theological point, but as someone Who is personally involved.
He points out that certain aspects of His destiny are in the hands of His Father, and, by not refuting that He will one day take His throne, implicitly acknowledges His Messiahship. ‘And He said to them, ‘You shall indeed drink of my ______, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father’ (Matthew 20.23).
In the parable of the vineyard He contrasts Himself with the prophets as being ‘the beloved Son’ (Mark 12.6), the one sent finally to give Israel (the vineyard) its last chance. Once that is rejected the vineyard is given to others.
And He once again demonstrates His uniqueness as higher and more knowledgeable in the affairs of God than the angels, although at the same time declaring that during His humiliation on earth certain things are unknown to Him. Here He uses the distinctive and bare title ‘the Son’ in parallel with ‘the Father’ and this time as over against the angels, demonstrating His preeminent status. ‘But of that ___________ hour knows no one, not even the angels of Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only’ (Mark 13.32).
Looking ahead to that day He acknowledges His Messianic status as King, but gives it a new significance as He reveals Himself as the great final judge of all. ‘Then shall the King say unto those on his right hand, Come, you who are blessed of my Father, __________ the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (Matthew 25.34). And He promises that His Father’s kingdom is open to all who follow Him. ‘But I say to you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of ____________, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom’ (Matthew 26.29).
His unique intimacy with His Father continues as He approaches His final agony. ‘And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let _______________ pass from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what you will’. (Matthew 26.39). ‘He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, your will be done’ (Matthew 26.42). And claims that because of this relationship the angels are at His command. ‘Do you not think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?’ (Matthew 26.53).
Many of the above passages could be repeated from Mark and Luke, however we will limit ourselves to considering the distinctive ones. In Mark’s Gospel Jesus again speaks of His future coming in glory when He will come in His Father’s glory, with the angels at His command. ‘Whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this ____________ and sinful generation, of him also will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’ (Mark 8.38). Again we see Him as unique and divine. Thus in Luke we learn that even when He was a child He was aware of His unique relationship with His Father, speaking of Him as ‘My Father’. ‘And Jesus said to them, ‘why did you look for me? Did you not realise that I must be dealing with my Father’s concerns?’ (Luke 2.49). So even as a child He saw Himself as set apart for a work that only He could do. And He also speaks of the kingdom appointed to Him by His Father. ‘And I appoint to you a kingdom, as my Father has appointed to me’ (Luke 22.29). In all these verses He clearly distinguishes Himself as One in contrast with all others. This comes out especially in that He claims to have the authority Himself to send the Holy Spirit of God, another claim to deity. ‘And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are _________ with power from above’ (Luke 24.49).
We can summarise by saying that in these passages we have glimpses of His having accepted a state of humiliation in cooperation with His Father, of His being His Father’s Son as the Messiah and even more than the Messiah, for His claims go beyond anything mooted of the Messiah, and of His position as the unique ‘Son’.
b). In John’s Gospel.
Jesus’ words as recorded in John’s Gospel amplify some of what is said above, and demonstrate quite clearly the uniqueness of His Sonship. Here He continually stresses that God is His own Father. He also declares that He is uniquely ‘the Son’ (compare Matthew 11.27; Mark 13.32; Luke 10.22). The former was clearly recognised by His enemies. ‘Jesus answered them, “My Father ________ up to now, and I am working”. That is why the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was his own Father, making himself equal with God’ (John 5.17-18). While there are those today who try to play with the original languages to suit their purpose, it is clear what those who spoke the languages as their mother tongue understood Him to mean.
It is important, however, to distinguish between when Jesus says ‘My Father’, stressing His personal nearness to, and His special relationship with, the Father, and ‘the Father’ when He has in mind the exalted ‘God the Father’ as seen from man’s viewpoint, although the two do overlap. ‘The Father’ is ‘His’ Father in a unique sense.
Among other things He makes clear:
So Jesus is revealed as the life-giver and judge of all men, both prerogatives of God, and is such that not to honour Him in the same way as they honour the Father, is not to honour the Father.
This power to give new life is derived from the Father. ‘For as the Father has life in himself, so has he ________ to the Son to have life in himself’ (John 5.26). So are His decisions in judgment, for He seeks only the Father’s will. ‘I can do nothing of myself, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not______ my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me’ (John 5.30).
The work He has come to do testifies to the fact that He is uniquely sent by the Father. ‘But I have greater witness than that of John, for the ________ which the Father has given me to bring about, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me’ (John 5.36). Furthermore there is another witness. The Father Himself had borne witness to Him at His baptism, when the voice of God testified from Heaven and the Holy Spirit visibly descended on Him. In contrast those who try to condemn Him have never even heard the voice of God or seen God in any way. ‘And the Father himself, who ______ me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form’ (John 5.37 see John 1.32; Mark 1.10-11).
He is thus the One on Whom the Father has set His seal, guaranteeing His genuineness, and He has come as God’s gift to satisfy men’s spiritual hunger and thirst. ‘Do not labour for food which perishes, but for that food which _________ to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you, for he is the one whom God the Father has sealed’ (John 6.27) ‘My Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that bread which comes down from Heaven and gives ______ to the world’ (John 6.32). ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes on me will never thirst’ (John 6.35). So He Himself is the lifegiver, the One on Whom God has set His seal, the One Who has come down from Heaven as His own Father’s gift to men, the One Who can satisfy men’s spiritual hunger when they come to Him and put their trust in Him.
Those who are to find life will be those who are given to Him by the Father, and He will not reject them under any circumstances. ‘All whom the Father gives to me will come to me; and he who ________ to me I will not cast out for any reason whatsoever’ (John 6.37). For it is the Father’s will that none of those who are His, given to Him by His Father, should be lost. ‘And this is the Father's will who has sent me, that of all whom he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day’ (John 6.39). This brings out how closely the Father is involved in the work of salvation. ‘No man can come to me, unless the Father who has _____ me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day’ (John 6.44). For it is the Father Himself Who will teach them. As ‘it is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore who has heard, and has learned from the Father, comes to me’ (John 6.45). That is why He said, ‘Therefore I told you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given to him of the Father’ (John 6.65). So men come to Him as a result of the Father’s will. It is the Father Who is at work through Him.
But this does not mean that such people actually know the Father apart from Jesus. Indeed He is the only One Who truly knows the Father for He alone has seen Him. ‘Not that any man has seen the Father, except he who is from God, he has seen the Father’ (John 6.46). Thus it is through Him that others can know the Father, ‘As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that _____ me (by coming to me, compare 6.35), even he shall live by me’ (John 6.57). He has been sent by the Father and shares His life, and mediates that life to others. Those who come to Him and respond to Him can also find that life through Him.
He stresses that His judgments can be totally relied on because He makes them jointly with the Father, ‘And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me’ (John 8.16). And it is the Father Who bears witness to Who He is, ‘I am one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who ______ me also bears witness of me’ (John 8.18). His claim to bear witness of Himself demonstrates His unique authority, especially as paralleled with the witness of the Father. This causes His enemies to ask, ‘Where is your Father?’ Jesus replies, ‘You neither know me, nor my Father, if you had known me, you would know my Father also’ (John 8.19). So they should have recognised the Father in Him, for He and His Father are one in all Their ways. Their failure to recognise Him for what He is demonstrates that they do not actually know the Father.
Now Jesus begins to reveal Himself even more plainly. ‘Then Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but _________ these things as the Father has taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I do always those things which _________ him”’ (John 8.28-29). ‘I speak the things which I have seen with the Father, and you also do the things you have heard from your father’ (John 8.38). Notice the contrast between Himself as One Who has seen the Father, and His antagonists who have only heard what they have heard and that from a doubtful source, for He adds, ‘you are of your father the Devil, and it is your will to do the desires of your father’ (John 8.44). Here Jesus claims that His words have come from the Father Who sent Him, and has never left Him because He unfailingly does the will of the Father. And He contrasts what He has seen with the Father with what they have heard from the Devil. This brings out further that He has come from above. As He has said earlier, ‘no man has ascended into Heaven except he who descended out of __________, even the Son of Man who is in Heaven’ (John 3.13).
What is more it is His Father Who continues to honour Him. ‘Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing, it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom ______ say that he is your God’ (John 8.54). This leads Him on to His final claim, ‘before Abraham existed, I am’ (John 8.58). ‘I am’ is the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses (Exodus 3.14). He has previously hinted at the fact that He is the ‘I am’ (John 8.24, 28) but now He makes it plain.
His knowledge of the Father parallels the Father’s knowledge of Him. ‘Even as the Father knows me, so I know the Father, and I ______________ my life for the sheep (John 10.15). This is a huge claim. He has total knowledge of the Father. Furthermore He and His Father are one in His laying down His life for His ‘sheep’, and His Father so appreciates it, that He loves Him for the sacrifice He is making. ‘That is why my Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order that I may take it again. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. This command I have received from my Father’ (John 10.17-18).
This makes His listeners ask, ‘Are you the Messiah? Tell us plainly’. He replies, ‘I told you and you do not believe. The ________ that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me’. (John 10.25). They should recognise through His works that He is the Messiah, and more than the Messiah. The very fact that Satan is defeated and bound by Him is sufficient proof of Who He is (Mark 3.23, 27-29). This was not something the expected Messiah could do, nor even the archangel Michael (Jude 1.9).
He now goes on to show that such is Their oneness of action that the sheep who are in His hand (10.28) are also in His Father’s hand. ‘My Father, who gave them to me is greater than all, and no man is able to _______ them out of my Father's hand’ (John 10.29). Then He adds ‘I and my Father are one’ (John 10.30). One in aim, one in action, one in purpose, one in being. This is sufficient to make them ready to stone Him for blasphemy. So He asks, ‘Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me? (John 10.32). And adds, ‘Do you say of him whom the Father has set apart for a holy purpose and sent into the world ‘you are blaspheming’ because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not do the _________ of my Father, do not believe me, but if I do, although you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him’ (John 10.36-38). The context has shown that this means more than just Messiahship. He is the all-powerful Son of God, dwelling in, and indwelt by, the Father.
He makes it clear that to serve Him is to be honoured by His Father. ‘If any man serve me, let him _________ me, and where I am, there my servant will be as well; if any man serve me, him will my Father honour’ (John 12.26).
As always His prayers to His Father are personal to Himself. ‘Now my soul is in distress, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from ___________ saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again” ’ (John 12.27-28).
He makes clear that what He speaks, He speaks as the Father has shown Him. ‘For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he instructed me what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his instruction is life everlasting. Whatever I speak therefore, even as the Father told me, so I speak (John 12.49-50).
In His last moments with His disciples He was aware of where He had come from, and where He was going. ‘Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God, and went to God’ (John 13.3). This comes out especially in the following chapter. Here He speaks of the future life beyond the grave and calls it ‘My Father’s house’, a personal description which makes clear the unique position He claims. That had been His own home, and that was where He was returning. But now His disciples too can be sure of a welcome there. And it is He Who will prepare their place for them there. ‘In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go in order to ___________ a place for you’ (John 14.2).
When the disciples declare that they do not know the way there He tells them, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father, __________ by me’ (John 14.6). Again He claims to be the only way to the Father. Others have brought truth but He is the truth. In Him all truth about God is centred. He is the life. No one can find eternal life apart from Him, for that life is in Him. So the way to the Father is through knowing the truth fully by knowing Him and receiving from Him eternal life. Then He adds, ‘If you had known me, you would have known my Father as well, and from now on you _______ him, and have seen him’. (John 14.7). Notice the switch from ‘the Father’ to ‘My Father’. Once again He is stressing His unique and personal relationship with the Father. It is such that whoever knows Him does know the Father. Furthermore they have not only known the Father, but have seen Him.
The almost incredible nature of this claim is emphasised by His reply to Philip’s question. Philip says ‘Lord, show us the Father, and that will be sufficient for us’. He is aware that no man has ever seen God, and now he asks for this unique experience. Jesus replies that he has already, unknowingly, had that unique experience. Jesus replies, ‘Have I been with you so long a time, and yet have you not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how then do you say, “Show us the Father?”. Do you not ___________ I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak of myself, but the Father who dwells in me, he carries out 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 is an unquestionable claim to deity. There can be no doubt of the meaning of His words. Philip has asked for a unique vision of God. Jesus says He is the unique vision of God. To have seen Him is to have seen the essence of the Father. No vision of the Father could be more complete than this. The Father dwells in Him in a unique way, and carries out His works through Him, in a way that He does not do through anyone else. So He reveals the essence of God in such a way that to have seen Him is to have seen God.
It is true that in a secondary way He will promise that His disciples will experience the indwelling of the Father, and indeed of Himself (14.20, 23), and that the Father will carry out His works through them. But there is no way that that can be seen as parallel to this. They will be able to experience that because of Who He is. But in no way could it be said of them that to have seen them is to have actually seen the Father, and that is exactly what Jesus claims about Himself. In their case if they love Him, and receive and respond to His words, they will be loved by the Father and will experience an indwelling of both Father and Son (14.23). Again this goes well beyond Messiahship. He is putting Himself on an equality with the Father. ‘Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If a man loves me, he will keep my _________, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our dwelling place with him. The one who does not love me does not receive and respond to my sayings, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me’ (John 14.23-24).
The fact is that they can look forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit in a new way as their companion and helper because He will pray the Father to send Him (14.16). Indeed He will be sent in Jesus’ name (14.26), and be sent by Jesus Himself from the Father (15.26).
His disciples are troubled by all these words about Jesus’ departure, so Jesus reminds them of the fact of His present humiliation. He has left Heaven and humbled Himself. He has taken on Himself manhood, and become like a servant. He has emptied Himself of His equality with God (Philippians 2.6-8). Thus at this present time His Father is in a greater position than He. But now He is to be restored to His former glory, so they should be pleased for Him and should be glad, for once more He will share His Father’s glory. ‘You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come to you. If you loved me, you would have ____________, because I go to the Father, for my Father is greater than I’ (John 14.28).
Those who reject Him and His works demonstrate by doing so that they hate not only Him, but His Father as well, for as He has previously said, they are His Father’s works. ‘He who hates me, hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works which no other man has ever done, they had not had sin, but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father (John 15.23-24). So even His enemies have seen the Father because they have seen Him. And through the same hatred they will also persecute the disciples ‘And these things will they do to you (put out of the synagogue and even kill), because they have not known the Father, nor me (John 16.3).
However they will not face their difficulties alone. ‘But when the Helper and Companion is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will ________ of me (John 15.26). So the Spirit of truth is to be sent by Jesus and yet proceeds from the Father, such is His status with the Father. He will ‘convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe in me, of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged’ (John 16.8-11). Thus the Holy Spirit will replace Him as the revealer of righteousness to men because He is going to His Father, and it is Jesus Who will send Him.
He will also ‘glorify me, for he will take of mine and will declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine, that is why I said that he will take of mine, and shall show it to you’. (John 16.14-15). Here we have another clear claim to equality. Everything the Father has is His. Nothing is withheld from Him. And this is what the Spirit will make known in order to glorify Jesus. It is especially noteworthy that the Spirit takes what is of the Father in order to glorify, not the Father, but Jesus (although of course to glorify Jesus is to glorify the Father).
So Jesus, Who came forth from the Father will now return to the Father. ‘ I came out from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the ________, and go to the Father (John 16.28). His time of humiliation on earth is about to be over. It is no wonder that Thomas says to Him ‘My Lord and my God’ (John 20.28).
We have concentrated up to now on Jesus’ revelation about Himself in respect of His relationship with the Father. Now we will turn to the witness of the New Testament writers. John is quite clear about that relationship. He speaks of Jesus as ‘the Word’ Who existed in the beginning with God and was Himself of the essence of the Godhead. ‘In the beginning the Word was already in existence, and the Word was face to face with God in personal communion (pros ton theon), and what God was, the Word was’ (John 1.1). He was also the Creator. ‘All things were made by Him, and without Him was not __________ made that was made’ (John 1.3). And although He was the ‘only begotten of the Father’ He also became man. ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we __________ His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1.14). So Jesus is the ‘only begotten’, not adopted as were Israel’s kings, the only One of the same nature (monogenes) with the Father. Furthermore, as the only begotten Son, He has made God known. ‘No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed him’ (John 1.18).
Paul also makes clear Jesus’ relationship with the Father. ‘Who, being in the form of God, did not think equality with God a thing to be held on to, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men’ (Philippians 2.6-7). The One Who had been in the form of God now took the form of a servant, so that He could die on the cross. But in the end ‘God highly exalted Him and gave Him the Name above every name’ (Philippians 2.9). The Name above every name was the name that was so sacred that no Jew would dare to pronounce it, the name of Yahweh (the One Who is). So Jesus is declared to be Yahweh, the ‘I am’ (compare John 8.58) Who appeared to Moses (Exodus 3.14; 6.3). That is why ‘every tongue will confess that ‘Jesus Christ is LORD’ to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2.11). The word LORD translates the Greek kurios, and kurios was the Greek word used in the Greek Old Testament to translate the name Yahweh. So God the Father is glorified when Jesus Christ is declared to be Yahweh, of One essence with the Father.
This is why Paul’s favourite greeting is ‘from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’ (always in greetings or as a farewell - Romans 1.7; 1 Corinthians 1.3; 2 Corinthians 1.2; Galatians 1.3; Ephesians 1.2; Ephesians 6.23 (a farewell); Philippians 1.2; Colossians 1.2; 1 Thessalonians 1.1; 2 Thessalonians 1.1; 1.2; 1 Timothy 1.2; 2 Timothy 1.2; Titus 1.4; Philemon 1.3; 2 John 1.3 (adding ‘the Son of the Father’) ). And he can speak of our being ‘in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 1.1). Furthermore in Titus 2.13 he speaks of ‘the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ’, which we can compare with ‘the righteousness of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1.1). To him GOD the Father and the LORD Jesus Christ are of equal importance in the scheme of things.
IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE BIBLE THAT PUZZLES YOU?
If so please EMail us with your question and we will do our best to give you a satisfactory answer.EMailus. (But preferably not from aol.com, for some reason they do not deliver our messages).
FREE Scholarly verse by verse commentaries on the Bible.
THE PENTATEUCH --- GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS --- NUMBERS --- DEUTERONOMY --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- SAMUEL --- KINGS --- PSALMS 1-50--- ECCLESIASTES--- SONG OF SOLOMON --- ISAIAH --- JEREMIAH --- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL --- --- HOSEA --- --- JOEL ------ AMOS --- --- OBADIAH --- --- JONAH --- --- MICAH --- --- NAHUM --- --- HABAKKUK--- --- ZEPHANIAH --- --- HAGGAI --- ZECHARIAH --- --- MALACHI --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- READINGS IN ROMANS --- 1 CORINTHIANS --- 2 CORINTHIANS ---GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS--- PHILIPPIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS --- JAMES --- 1 & 2 PETER --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- JUDE --- REVELATION --- THE GOSPELS & ACTS