God: Being, not Becoming

To be within time is to become.

Orthodox Christianity holds that God is not within time, and does not become, but is. However, as Jesus Christ, he entered into time and made himself subject to becoming. This is illustrated in the beginning of John's Gospel, which, literally translated, runs something like this (note what is said to be, and what is said to become):

In the beginning, the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word had the nature of God. That one was, in the beginning, with God.

Through him all things became; without him nothing became that became. In him was life, and that life was the light of people. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not absorbed it.

There became a man sent by God; his name, John. That one came as a witness to testify about the light, so that through him everyone might believe. That one was not the light, but [came] in order to testify about the light. [This] was the true light, that which lights every person, coming into the world.

In the world he was, and the world became through him, and the world did not know him. He came to [that which was] his own, and [those who were] his own did not receive him. Those who did receive him, he gave to them authority to become the children of God, those who believed into his name; those born not from blood, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of a husband, but from God.

And the Word became flesh, and camped in our midst (and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son of the Father), full of grace and truth.

John testifies about him, and cries out, saying, "This was the one about whom I said, 'The one coming after me has become in front of me; in that he was earlier than I.'"

So that from his fulness we have received everything, and grace upon grace; in that the law was given through Moses, grace and truth became through Jesus Christ.

God nobody has seen, ever; the only Son, the one who is in the embrace of the Father, this one has interpreted him.

Back to main Index page

Back to Index of Digressions

Mail me - but don't spam me.

I love . Do you? Click here.

You are visitor number to this page since 29 November 1997.