A HEART OF UNDERSTANDING

 THE HEART OF UNDERSTANDING

                “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him,”Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.”  Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, “Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”

                This conversation between Yeshua and Philip is like a volcanic earthquake splitting the world in two. Here Yeshua’s words are either the most blasphemous words of all time, or Yeshua was who He said He was. There is no in between. In hundreds of statements throughout His life on earth, Jesus threw down the gauntlet. He was either God in human flesh, or he was the devil pretending to be God.

                We cannot be ambivalent then about our choice in either receiving Him as our Savior and King, or rejecting Him as an imposter. But it goes even deeper than that. According to both Yeshua and Scripture, the Father was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself so to reject Yeshua is to reject His Father as well.

                And it is pointless to argue as to who was the greatest, Yeshua or His Father. As the Son of Man, He remained subservient to His Father, but as the Son of God, He was equal with the Father, for indeed it was the Father in Him that made Him God Almighty in human flesh.

                I recently saw a comment by a man on another web site. HE said, “I don’t have a problem with Jesus, but I do have a problem with His Dad.”

                In this he shows his ignorance of scripture. There is a misconception that the God of the Old Covenant was God the Father, while the God of the New Testament is Jesus Christ His Son. But if the father was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, then no such distinction is possible. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods as we would describe it in human terms. There is only one God. We can understand this more clearly in the Sanctuary’s diagram of a man. We are created in God’s image and we are triune beings made up of spirit, soul and body. Our three parts make up one man, even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One… even though like us, our three parts carry out three offices. Our spirit conceives a plan, our soul speaks it forth and our body carries it out. Likewise eh Father conceives of a plan, The Son speaks it forth and the Holy Spirit carries it out.

                Even though we are three part beings, we do not say,”Jim and his spirit and his soul and his body went out to build a house. We just say that Jim built the house.

                This is how Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long and yet you do not know Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.

                Throughout all of eternity God has functioned in this way. The Father is omnipresent and invisible. He fills the entire universe and everything beyond the universe. Yeshua is God’s focal point, His mouthpiece, His face so to speak. Everything God has done HE has done through the Son, the Son is His agent. God conceives of the plan and Jesus, as the Word of God speaks the plan out and the Holy Spirit of God carries the words out.

                Likewise with salvation:

1.       God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.

2.       Jesus, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

3.       Then He sent down His Holy Spirit to replicate His life in us

                In order to understand the Old Covenant verses the New Covenant, we need to understand that god was establishing a physical template upon which His Spiritual Kingdom would be established in the earth. This is true in creation as well. The bible tells us that the things that are seen were made out of things that connate be seen. IN a sense then, for every tree that we can see, there is an invisible template upon which that tree is built. The tree simply grows up into the template until it comes into the fullness of the spiritual templet.

                Likewise, when we are born again, we begin to fill up the spiritual templet which is Christ until we come into the “to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13… and then on a greater scale, we are altogether being built into a temple of the living God… into the Body of Christ.

                This is a subject in which we do not even pretend to know all that there is to know about God, but if we put together all that scripture has to say on the matter, we can gain some knowledge of just who God is and what are His plans and purposes for the human race.

                Rightly dividing the word of truth, among other things means that we come to rightly under the role that the Old Covenant plays… and the role that the Law plays as a supportive foundation for the Spiritual Kingdom of God that Jesus Christ brought to us after having paid with His very life and blood for our redemption.

                These Covenants are not a series of mistakes or experiments that God kept doing until He got it right. Each covenant continues to build an airtight case against sin and against Satan’s form of government so that God will win in the courts of law and justice for eternity. Sin will never rise again and we who have been saved will become the agents or guardians of this truth forever. We are His witnesses. We are His ambassadors. We have not been incorporated into Christ’s government by vote… we have been adopted as sons and daughters… as royal priests and kings in the household of God.

                This is why we will sing the song of Moses and the Lamb (Old Testament and New Testament) when we stand on the Sea of Glass singing:

                “Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God the Almighty; Righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; for all the nations will come and worship before Thee, for Thy righteous acts have been revealed.” Rev. 15:3

                This is also why the New Jerusalem will be founded upon the Apostles of the New Testament and the Gates of the Old Testament. God’s eternal kingdom is built upon a foundation of the apostles and the prophets.

                When we stumble over these things, it is because we make God too small. We limit Him to our own capability to understand. This is why we must look at the broad strokes of God’s eternal plans. If we focus only upon the minute details and argue and fuss as to whether the elephant has a tail or a trunk, we will get lost in our own short sightedness. The Word of God has many details to be sure, but these many details also paint a very big picture for us, for which reason we need to stand back and see the whole.

                Everything is summed up in the Person of Jesus Christ. HE is God’s plan. He is the big picture into which all of the small pieces fit. He created the world. He gave the Law on Mt. Sinai. He became flesh and welt among us. HE paid the ransom for our sins. He went back to heaven where He was glorified with the glory that he ever had before the world began. He then sent down His very Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to replicate His life in us. And when we have become His Bride without spot or wrinkle, He will return and take us to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then He will return with His saints to rule the nations for 1000 years during which time HE will restore all things. Then when all things have been placed under His feet, He will forever destroy the devil and his works and He will create a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells and we will reign with Him forever.

                Then we will enter fully into the plans and purposes for which we were originally created and we have not been given much detail, but I would bet that it will make Star Trek look like antiquated child’s play. Ask the Holy Spirit for a heart of understanding. Selah.