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FAQ # 212
QUESTION 212
: “If we accept that the verse
should be translated ‘the express image of His substance,’ it still proves
that one is the ‘image’ and one is the ‘substance’. That makes two because
an image is not the same as a substance.” Is it? (bible.ca)
That came in response to this exert, “Then why did
Jesus say to Philip, 'He that has seen me hath seen the Father' (John
14:9)? Because Jesus is the express image of God's person' Hebrews 1:3.
The Greek word for person in this verse literally means 'substance.'"
How could this still make two? When you look into the
mirror, you see an image of you or your physical substance. Does that
make two of you? It would get even bizarre if you were in front of parallel
mirrors on each side, 5, 10, and 15 of you. Get the picture? Your flesh
is not you, the real you is your spirit (soul). That’s why your flesh
dies when your spirit (soul) departs; it is the image your spirit (soul)
worked through. Similarly, Jesus is God (SPIRIT) in an earthly image (MAN).
Like our spirits (souls) need a flesh to be a man, God who is a spirit,
needed a flesh to be man (the image of our invisible spirit). Therefore,
it is a fact that a live human FLESH is simply our SOUL as MAN. When the
flesh is taken away you see the real you, no more image. That is why Christ
said in the resurrection we shall be like the angels (Matt 22:30).
Angels are spirits, so you will not necessarily need the flesh anymore
as an image, your real you will shine forth. This verse makes it plain,
“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He
Himself likewise shared in the same” (Heb 2:14-15) – that is, God
became flesh and blood too, not a separate being but the same God the
father. He being “the God of all spirits of all flesh” (Num 27:16).
The said person later refuted, “Jesus was ‘the express
image of’ the Father, not the Father (Hebrews 1:3).”
Now we earlier saw that the real you is the spirit
(soul), so if the spirit that is in the flesh of Jesus is the same God
the father, then doesn’t that make him the father in a flesh (image)?
Spirit = Him
Humanity (seen by the flesh) = Express image.
That’s why the scripture said, "For in him dwelleth
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9). “Bodily” here refers
to the enfleshment of the spirit; the one divine spirit, that is God,
took on a bodily form. That bodily form is named Jesus Christ and called
the Son of God for us to understand the mystery of it. That explains why
“he possesses all the prerogatives the Father possesses.”
The man Jesus was simply the 'image of God', not another
God or Person; one verse states, "But if our gospel be hid, it is
hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God…" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
Now, many have come to think that the physical literal
flesh is the son. The physical flesh is not the son but the composite
makes the son, his Spirit and Flesh, which makes him human or God become
human. When it states that “it please the father that in him all fullness
should dwell,” means, it please the father that in the flesh or humanity
should God dwell. In other words, it pleases the father to dwell as a
human, making the human (Jesus) God, because his spirit is God. The spirit
alone is the one God that exists from all eternity. When Apostolics for
a lack of sophisticate words give some sort of reference that the son
is the flesh, simply mean that God (Spirit) coming in Flesh makes him
the son. Without the flesh he wouldn't have become that prophesied lamb
that was slain from the foundation of the world; which to us is call the
Son of God. Therefore, they don't mean human tissue and red & white
blood cells is the son or that two spirits occupied Christ, but rather
what makes the son is his humanity. Similarly, when our flesh is taken
off, our humanity is gone, thus we become like the angels (Mark 12:25) - spirits. That was the whole deal
with Christ, God the Father who is spirit taking on human flesh, not another
spirit or another person or a member of a unit acting like one person
(trinity), but the one God that exists throughout all eternity.
“Defining 'the Son' to mean the 'flesh' creates obvious
difficulties in unequivocally proclaiming 'the Son' to be God, rather
than a human 'tabernacle' or 'shell' in which God dwelt” (thriceholy) — Sort of CORRECT; the composite
is called the “Son of God” for the purpose of explaining the mystery of
his coming to save man - flesh alone is not human, but spirit and flesh.
The difference with Christ is that the spirit (soul) in him is God the
father.
Part 2
The more important truth to him being the "express
image" is that he is the quintessential of how he made man to be.
He created man in his image (Gen 1:27), but they lost it. Hence, Adam,
at first was an express image of God; that's why the devil hated him.
This is also why Christ is called the Second or "Last Adam"
(1 Cor 15:45); the only other human who ever posses the image of God and
also came to make others posses that image as well - we. The only difference
with us and Christ is that Christ is literally God in a body, hence his
humanity has the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9), while we have
a measure of his spirit (Eph 4:7, Rom 12:3, John 3:34).
Adam birthed humans in the earth without a connected
spirit to God. However, the second Adam, Christ, came and birthed living
souls (1 Cor 15:21 & 45). Souls that when regenerated will be revived
as Adam was and pre-enjoy some of its qualities (Acts 9:40, Acts 5:15,
Acts 28:8).
Jesus Christ (quickening spirit) came to be an example
for us and to give us the power to overcome death, hell and the grave.
He came to set the captives (Humanity) free. Through him, we can all become
like Adam and fear death no longer but inherit the resurrection power,
with a unique fellowship with God. The image of God in man would have
been revived!
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