Who Is Jesus Christ?

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

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One would think after 2,000 years of church history there would be no question about who Jesus Christ is. Yet even today there are arguments about Christ—whether or not He is the Father in another form; or whether there are three coequal Gods, as in the doctrine of the Trinity.

I am not writing as a theologian but as a disciple who has pursued the Lord for more than sixty years. Some aspects of this problem, at least, seem to be clear in my mind.

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In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son. This is established.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This is established.
Jesus Christ is the Heir of all things. This is established.
God made the universe through Jesus Christ. This is established.
Jesus Christ is the Radiance of God’s Glory. This is established.
Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God’s Being. This is established.
Jesus Christ upholds all things by His powerful word. This is established.
Jesus Christ provided purification for our sin by dying on the cross. This is established.
Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of God in Heaven. This is established.
Jesus Christ is much superior to the angels. This is established.
The name Jesus Christ has inherited is much superior to theirs. This is established.

If one believes in the full inspiration of the Bible, the above eleven facts cannot be denied. Before we discuss them, let’s think a little bit about what a god is.

God has made Jesus Christ our God. We are to worship the Father and the Son.

The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord. (Psalms 45:11)

What is a god?

A god is a person, a thing, or a circumstance we worship.

What does it mean to worship?

To worship a person, a thing, or a circumstance is to look to him, her, or it for joy; for fulfillment; for protection; for wisdom and understanding; for life itself. We honor and bow down before our god. We are obedient to our god. We serve our god. We think about our god constantly. We sacrifice ourselves for our god. We want to possess our god, to make him, or her, or it part of ourselves; to immerse ourselves in our god. We place our god before all else. We love our god with all our heart. We are jealous of anyone who has more of our god than we do.

We may say the Father and the Son are our God. But our God is who or what we actually worship.

Perhaps the chief god of the Western nations is money.

We look to money for joy, for fulfillment for protection, for life itself. We are obedient to money. We think about money constantly. We sacrifice ourselves and our family for money. We want to possess money, to make it part of ourselves, to immerse ourselves in money. We love money with all our heart. We are jealous of someone who has more money than we do.

We may come to church and praise the Father and the Son in song. But money comes first. If we have to choose between serving God and making more money, we will choose money.

We say the Father and the Son are our god. But our god is money.

The same can be said of physical lust, of entertainment, of material possessions, of our own selves.

We Americans talk much about romantic love. Romantic love often is the worship of a person of the opposite sex.

Who or what we worship tends to make us in his, her, or its image.

The person who worships money becomes a Scrooge, a selfish, self-seeking individual who worships himself. In the spirit realm he or she is a dwarf.

The person who worships physical lust becomes indecisive and weak in character. In the spirit realm he or she is seen as a slobbering ghoul.

The person who worships entertainment becomes silly and frivolous in character. In the spirit realm he or she is seen as without weight, immature, an undependable child.

The person who worships material possessions is spiritually dead. In the spirit realm he or she is seen as lifeless.

God wants us in His image.

God becomes jealous when we worship any other god. He desires and deserves our worship.

What we worship transforms us. God is all that is worthy, majestic, wholesome, lovely, holy, courageous, wise, generous, thoughtful, powerful, righteous. As we look to God constantly and adore Him we ourselves become worthy, majestic, wholesome, lovely, holy courageous, wise, generous, thoughtful, powerful, righteous.

As we gaze upon God we are transformed into his image, just as when we gaze upon lesser persons, things, and circumstances we become transformed into their image.

God has commanded us to worship Jesus. How can God safely command us to worship another than Himself? God can command us to worship Jesus because Jesus worships God and is the express image of God. So when we worship Jesus we are transformed into the image that God desires, the image of the sons of God.

The worship of any god other than the Father brings us into slavery to that other god. All sin is a product of the worship of false gods. Whoever commits sin is a slave of that sin. We always are a slave of our gods, whether lesser gods or the true God.

Christ sets us free from false gods so we are able to worship the one supreme God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we are willing to make Jesus Christ our God we find we are being lifted up to the supreme God, the Father.

To worship the Father is to be His slave, for we humans have to be in slavery to someone or something. When we refuse to be the slave of God, we become the slaves of ourselves. This is the way we have been created. We will be a slave of God, or of some other person, or of some thing or some circumstance, or ourselves. This is inescapable.

Whoever chooses to become a slave of Jesus Christ automatically becomes a slave of God, because Christ always gives all that is of Himself to the Father.

Whoever decides to be the slave of Jesus Christ becomes the slave of righteousness and is free from sin.

Only God the Father acting through the Lord Jesus Christ can bring us lasting joy, personal fulfillment, perfect protection, universal wisdom and understanding, and eternal life. Whenever we seek these treasures somewhere other than in Christ we become the slaves of that lesser god and never find the desires of our heart.

The true God always seeks our perfect joy, and that perfect joy can be obtained only as we bow down in worship before Him.

All lesser gods care only for themselves. Satan and his angels care only for themselves. Therefore when we choose a god other than the true God we bringing ourselves into captivity to that which seeks its own, and we are left in rags, in misery, and sometimes in torment.

The wise individual, the one who desires eternal life, eternal joy, eternal peace, will worship the true God through Jesus Christ. The foolish person will serve a false god and will never experience eternal life, eternal joy, or eternal peace.

And now to the eleven things spoken concerning Christ, in the first chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son.

A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” (Luke 9:35)

I understand intelligent, devout scholars have advanced the doctrine that Jesus Christ is an expression of the Father, such that Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit actually are the same Person although in different manifestations.

I understand also that equally intelligent, devout scholars have maintained that God is a union of three Persons who are coequal and coeternal. This Personage is referred to as the Trinity.

From my point of view, both of these positions are confusing, somewhat destructive in terms of what God is doing today, and unscriptural.

The Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. This to me is so simple. If the Lord Jesus actually is God’s Son, then both of the positions I mentioned previously are incorrect.

For instance, if Jesus really is God’s Son, then He is not the Father in another manifestation. What son is the same person as his father? To say that Jesus and the Father are the same Person defies numerous passages of the New Testament.

To maintain that Jesus is a Person equal to the Father also defies numerous passages of the New Testament. The New Testament clearly states that Jesus is God’s Son and is obedient to His Father in Heaven, to whom He prays.

If the New Testament states that Jesus is God’s Son, then two facts are evident: Jesus is not the Father; and Jesus is not equal to the Father.

Jesus Himself said, “The Father is greater than I.”

You heard me say, “I am going away and I am coming back to you.” If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (John 14:28)

One time I heard a complicated explanation of why John 14:28 does not mean what it says.

You know what? I do not accept explanations that remove the plain meaning of the Scriptures.

God wrote His Bible so ordinary people can understand it. We do not need priests or theologians to tell us what the Bible means. If we have a question, we can go to the Lord in prayer and He will give us wisdom.

I notice that some versions of the New Testament have footnotes that employ the Greek language to prove the passage does not mean what the ordinary person would understand it to mean. I think this whole business of denying plain meaning on the basis of Greek grammar or linguistics is suspect. I am persuaded those Greek or Hebrews scholars have an agenda—something they are trying to prove. I think this is apparent also in some of the newer translations, although all the translations I have seen are helpful in one passage or another.

It is important that we do not attempt to make the Bible understandable by adding words or arranging the syntax in order to fit the current traditions. We are discovering some of our most venerable traditions are not scriptural. This is because God is adding to us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

We understand, for example, that when the Lord said He would come again to receive us to Himself, He does not mean He is going to take us to Heaven. Rather, it means what it says. He is coming today in the spirit realm to draw us closer to Himself. The remainder of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John bears this out. Some of the translations are implying that the Lord Jesus wants to bring us “home” to Heaven. This does not fit the context of the chapter, which has to do with the Father dwelling in Christ, and Christ and the Father making Their home in us.

Jesus is God’s Son. There is a reason the Holy Spirit has placed this simple relationship in the Scripture. We all know what a son is. A son is not his father in another form, although he may be just like his father and his father may have assigned all his possessions to his son. He may look like his father. He may act like his father. But he is not his father. A son obeys his father.

It also is true that a man’s son is not another person as old as the man; neither does he have the wisdom of his father. Ordinarily he is subject to his father. This especially is true in the case of Jesus and His Father. All that Jesus has was given to Him by His Father. He is His Father’s Heir. Therefore to maintain that Jesus is another person on the same level as His Father is not defensible. The Scripture does not state or imply this. It states and implies in many instances that Jesus is subject to the Father.

For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so God may be all in all. (I Corinthians 15:27,28)

The above verse shows that Jesus Christ is a different Person from the Father and also that He is subject to the Father. To teach otherwise is to deny the infallibility of the Scriptures.

One problem that arises in the discussion of the Godhead is the trap of thinking of “God” as a proper name. “God” is not God’s name. It is a title. We do not know what God’s name is. Personally I doubt if the Father has a name. Actually He is too great and profound to have a name. The Father had no parents, no one to assign a name to Him.

When John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, it does not mean the Word was or is the Father. It means both the Father and the Son are exalted as Gods. This is because the Father has called His Son, God.

Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. (Psalms 45:6,7)

It is God who has named His Son, God, meaning Jesus is to be worshiped as God. God has assigned this to Jesus. The Scriptures are absolutely clear on this point. The Lord Jesus created us, as the Father worked in Him, and is to be worshiped. He is God in His own right. But He is not the same Person as His Father.

So there is no need to be confused about the issue of whether Jesus is God. Of course He is God. John referred to Him as God. But Jesus is not the Father. The Father is the Father. The Son is the Son. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit.

The problem with making the Godhead an abstraction we cannot comprehend is that it greatly hinders a clear understanding of what God is doing today in His churches. God’s plan today for His church is to bring forth more sons; and not only that, but to incorporate them into the Divine family.

Have I in any manner detracted from the Lordship of Christ? Absolutely not! All I am doing is pointing to the clear statements of the Scriptures—statements that can be understood by the average believer who has no knowledge of the linguistics, grammar, or construction of the Hebrew or Greek languages.

There are several excellent interlinear Hebrews and Greek texts that will enable the average believer to arrive at the exact meaning of the Scriptures. Footnotes that explain away the apparent sense are not necessary and serve only to perpetuate the current errors.

One of the main purposes of the writer of the Book of Hebrews was to reveal the greatness of Christ and the superiority of the new covenant; and in so doing to point us toward the full extent of our salvation.

It is apparent from the text of Hebrews that these Jewish believers had been saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, persecuted, and then had withdrawn from the pursuit of the rest of God, of that place of full inheritance in the center of God’s Person and will. For instance, they had to be reminded to assemble on a consistent basis.

The writer is emphasizing the greatness of Christ’s position as Son, and then goes on to stress that we have been called to this same position. It is not enough to be saved and filled with the Spirit. This is merely the beginning. Our goal is to press into the rest of God, into that place where we are living as Jesus always does—in the perfect Center of God’s will. Also, we are to bear the fruit of righteous behavior.

We are destined to govern the works of God’s hands, along with our elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It bears repeating that to postulate a complex, abstract and unapproachable Godhead may prevent us from coming into the kind of close relationship with God that He desires to have with His sons and heirs. Christ coequal with God becomes so far above us that the idea of our being His brother is unrealistic and foolish. How can creatures of dust be a brother of One who is coequal with the Father!

But when we realize that Christ is the first of many sons (which in no manner detracts from His rank as Lord of all), and that His Father is our Father, His God is our God, then we are encouraged to press into full sonship and brotherhood.

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17)

So the traditional exalting of Christ to the level of the Father, while intended to be an expression of our reverence, is actually destructive of the Father’s intention to make His elect an integral part of the Divine family. We are called to be one in Christ in the Father—an integral part of that Oneness which will be known to the members of the saved nations as God.

We always produce chaos when we depart from the Scriptures no matter how pious we may be or how blameless our intentions.

This is the burden of the Book of Hebrews, and is to be brought to the understanding of God’s people in the day in which we live. Otherwise we will settle back on the fact that we have been saved and filled with the Spirit and continue to neglect our great salvation. We are to press on! press on! press on to the fullness of God!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

The fact that Jesus Christ came forth from God, and is of God’s Nature and Substance, makes Him an integral part of the Deity. In addition God dwells in Him and He in God.

The Father has referred to Jesus as Lord and Christ. He also has set Him above His companions, anointing Him with the oil of joy. The Father has declared that Jesus is God and that His Throne will endure throughout eternity.

Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. (Psalms 45:6,7)

Who the “companions” of Christ were, or are, is unknown to me.

The term is referring either to personages in the spirit realm who were with Christ after He created them, or else to people who are members of the Kingdom of God.

I lean toward the idea that the companions were spirit personages whom Christ created and with whom He associated during the eons of time prior to the period when Christ created the physical universe.

We see for example:

One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. (Job 1:6)

The word translated “angels” in the NIV should be “sons of God.” The Hebrew term is sons, not angels.

I understand Jesus Christ is different from the angels in that He has the name “Son.” So the sons of God, who presented themselves before the Lord, were personages God had created through Christ, but they were not sons in the same sense as Jesus.

But they may have been companions of Christ, their creator. While this may seem odd, it seems the most reasonable explanation to me.

At some point the Father made the decision that Jesus Christ, more than any other, loved righteousness and hated wickedness. On this basis the Father anointed Him with the oil of joy, that is, with strength above that of His companions. It is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.

The Father has stated that the heavens and the earth are the works of Christ’s hands, and that they shall perish but the years of Christ will never end.

Christ has experienced death on behalf of others, and has been made perfect through sufferings. Though He is God’s Son, He learned obedience through suffering.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Author of salvation for the many other sons whom God is bringing to glory. This is one of the main emphases of the Book of Hebrews—that we should move forward to perfection as sons of God. Making the Lord Jesus an unapproachable Deity is not in harmony with the program emphasized in Hebrews.

The Lord Jesus refers to us as His brothers, for we have the same Father.

We see, then, that Jesus is Son of God and Son of Man. He is fully of Deity and fully of man, having been born of a human woman. He is our Lord and we worship Him. We are of His great Body, and members of the Wife of the Lamb.

We are not bringing down the Lord Jesus from His position at the right hand of God. Rather we are encouraging all believers to press into the fullness of their inheritance as sons of God.

Jesus Christ is the Heir of all things.

I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalms 2:7,8)
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (Matthew 28:18)

The term “inheritance” (above) is interesting. We know from the Scripture that Jesus created the nations and the earth. Why does He have to pray to God to inherit and possess them?

The answer is as follows: A carpenter who is working for a developer may build many houses. But he does not inherit or possess them.

God through Jesus created all things. But that does not mean Jesus inherits or possesses them.

In order to inherit the nations and possess the earth, Jesus had to suffer and die. There was no other way.

It is true of us also. The Bible says that the believer who gains victory over all that comes against him or her will inherit all that God has made new in Christ. But in order to gain this inheritance, to be a coheir with Christ, we have to partake of the sufferings of Christ. We have to fill up that which still is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions.

Only those who share Christ’s sufferings will receive the inheritance with Christ.

Can you see that if we are to enter into the program that is making us coheirs with Christ we have to understand that He is not an unapproachable Deity? He is one with us in gaining the inheritance. We overcome just as He overcame. He makes it possible for us to overcome. He is our older Brother. Think of it!

Again, the fact that He is our older Brother does not diminish in any manner His rank as Lord of all. He is King over God’s kings and Lord over God’s lords.

God made the universe through Jesus Christ.

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)

Before Jesus Christ was born of Mary, God through Him created every thing and creature in Heaven and every thing and creature of the physical world. God created all this to bring joy to His Son. Now God is adding to these treasures a Bride.

When you think of it, it is a simple picture. God is a Father. Christ is His Firstborn Son. God is creating a Bride for His Son so He won’t be alone. It is not good for a man to be alone, God has said. At the same time, God is bringing forth a company of sons as companions for His Son. In addition, God is creating a living Temple for Himself.

The Bride, the brothers, the sons, the temple, are all the same people, just different ways of expressing relationships and roles.

Again, we can see the importance of the simple, direct explanation of the Father and the Son that the New Testament presents.

Jesus Christ is the Radiance of God’s Glory.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (II Corinthians 4:6)

In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light.” My own opinion is that the Person who said this was Christ, as the Father moved through Him.

It was the same then as it is now. Jesus Christ does nothing of Himself. It is His Father in Him who does the works.

There was no sun or moon for the first three days. Yet there were evenings and mornings. This tells us that the Light that made possible the difference between evening and morning was the Lord Jesus Himself.

During the new heaven and earth reign of Christ, the new Jerusalem will have no need of the sun or moon. The Lamb will be its Lamp. So great will be the splendor of the Glory of God shining through the Lamb, and shining through the saints (for the Glory God has given the Lamb, the Lamb has given to the saints), that the saints will give light to the nations living on the new earth.

As far as the holy city is concerned, there will be no evening and morning. There will be no night there. God in Christ in the Church will be the light of the world.

The holy city, the new Jerusalem, is the fullest expression of the Sabbath. There were six days of creation during which there were evenings and mornings. But on the seventh, the Sabbath, there was no evening or morning. Thus the new Jerusalem is the complete expression of the Sabbath, in which no one lives, moves, or has his being except as God moves through Him. God is All in all, and all things have been made new in Christ.

Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God’s Being.

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9)

It is the above verse that causes people to believe Jesus is the Father.

The reason Jesus said anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father is that He is the exact representation of God’s Being. Whoever has seen Christ has seen the Father, not because Christ is the Father, but because the Lord did nothing and said nothing except as the Father acted through Him and spoke through Him.

This sort of relationship was true of the Apostle Paul. Whoever saw Paul was seeing Christ, so to speak, for Christ was living in Paul.

This is the relationship that every one of us should seek. We are to be crucified with Christ, and Christ is to be living, moving, and having His being in us. This is the rest of God, the eternal Sabbath. We are to be the light of the world. People are to see Christ in us.

Jesus Christ upholds all things by His powerful word.

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. (Psalms 33:6)

There is no way in which we can grasp the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Recent scientific investigation concludes that our entire firmament is but one bubble on a larger firmament, and the larger firmament is bringing forth new bubbles.

Mass and energy on this scale is not comprehensible to us.

We find God has said the Lord Jesus shall fold up the physical universe and discard it, much as one would put dirty clothes in a hamper.

The New Testament teaches clearly that God shall do away with the present earth and heavens and bring forth a new sky and a new earth. There are some who stagger at this, saying God merely is going to renew the earth.

If God can speak the physical world into existence with a word, He can withdraw it with a word, and then bring forth a more glorious sky and earth.

It is my opinion that the new earth will be very much larger than the present earth. For one thing, there will be many more people on it because of those raised from the dead. Our present earth is not nearly large enough for the population that will be raised from the dead and brought into the new world of righteousness.

Another consideration is the size of the new Jerusalem. It appears to be a cube 1,400 miles high, or a pyramid 1,400 miles at its base and 1,400 miles high. I don’t believe our earth would be able to support a city 1,400 miles in height. I think it would throw the earth off balance in terms of its rotation on its axis.

Just as He removes the old and makes us a new creation, I believe God will fold up and remove the present physical creation, as the Book of Hebrews states, and bring into being a new physical creation that is surpassingly glorious.

I am glad for this. I am looking forward, not backward. The sooner the past is completely wiped out, the better as far as I am concerned. I think the Apostle Paul said this also.

We are staggered when the Lord said we could command a mountain and it would move. How He must have chuckled to Himself when He thought of the physical creation coming into being at His word, and being upheld by His word.

In these terms, telling a mountain to move is a very small matter!

Jesus Christ provided purification for our sin by dying on the cross.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—(Romans 3:25)

I would imagine that all believers realize Christ made an atonement for us by His death on the cross—the innocent on behalf of the guilty.

Those who have seen Him in glory say the nail prints can still be observed in His hands, although greatly glorified and embellished as precious stones.

May we never forget, as we forge ahead to the fullness of what God has for us, that all of the marvels to come have been made possible through the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The soul that sins shall die. The only reason God is so accepting of us is that Christ has made an atonement for mankind on the cross of Calvary.

Today we may think God just forgives and forgets our sins. This is not true. The only reason our sins are forgiven and forgotten is because Someone died as a result of our transgressions. They were not just overlooked. The full price was paid.

The soul that sins shall die. This Divine law is irrevocable. Christ died. He paid the price. This is why we can be forgiven so readily. Even little children are forgiven for His name’s sake, as the Apostle John tells us.

We overcome by the blood of the Lamb because the accuser, Satan, cannot condemn those who are trusting in the blood to redeem them, and who also are bearing a true testimony and loving not their lives to the point of death.

The blood is our basic righteousness. Once we have been justified through our faith in the blood, we then can press forward in the Lord until with His help we actually have become righteous in behavior. All was, is, and shall be made possible because Jesus Christ was willing to die in our place. His death, His shed blood, satisfied the Father’s sense of justice so totally that all things now are possible to us as we walk hand in hand with the Lord Jesus.

Hallelujah for the blood!

Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of God in Heaven.

But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God. (Luke 22:69)

To those who teach that Christ is the Father in another form, I ask, “How can He be the Father and then be seated at the Father’s right hand?” In fact, the Lord Jesus never claimed to be the Father!

We also are seated with Him and in Him at the Father’s right hand.

If there is no Father but Jesus, how then can Jesus we be at the Father’s right hand? Is Jesus at His own right hand? This makes sense?

I think if we will just walk with Christ, He will reveal the Father to us. Then we will know the Father for ourselves and not be confused by theological positions.

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)
On that day you will realize I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” (John 14:20,21)

When we first are saved we learn of Jesus and of His atoning blood.

After we are saved through the blood, the Holy Spirit becomes real to us. We receive wisdom and strength from the Spirit so we can live a holy life and so we can bear witness of the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The blood and the Spirit bring us to the Father. The issue in knowing the Father is obedience. We are to learn strict, stern obedience to the Father.

When all have been brought under subjection to Jesus Christ, then Christ Himself will be subject to the Father that God may be All and in all.

Such is the Kingdom of God—the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven.

Jesus Christ is much superior to the angels.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:16,17)

Perhaps the Jews who received the letter to the Hebrews were astonished that Jesus, the carpenter’s Son, is greater than the angels.

But no angel has come forth from God as Jesus has.
God did not bring forth the creation through an angel.
No angel is the dwelling place of God.
No angel died on the cross to make an atonement for our sins.
No angel sits at the right hand of the Father.
No angel has been given all authority in Heaven and upon the earth.

Yes indeed! The Lord Jesus Christ created the angels in the beginning and is infinitely greater than the greatest of them.

When we see some of the mightiest of the angels we will be utterly amazed at their size, strength, wisdom, and glory.

But on the highest throne of all sits a Man with nail prints in His hands. If we will live a victorious life, as He did, we will be seated there with Him—far above all other authority and power in the universe. This is the decision of the Father and it cannot be revoked.

The name Jesus Christ has inherited is much superior to theirs.

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21,22)

God has a Son. His name is Jesus. God has given to Him His Glory, and all else as an inheritance. Now God is bringing forth more sons who will be brothers to the Firstborn.

The angels are to worship the Firstborn, and they serve as ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation.

It was in the light of the incredible inheritance that God is offering us through Christ that the writer of Hebrews warned: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

This applies to us today. There is a multitude of distractions that seek to divert us from the one important goal in life. It is a time of extraordinary opportunity as well as extraordinary danger.

It may be true that sin is more available to us in the Western nations than has been the case for any people in any previous era of history. We need to be careful. Some outstanding Christians of our day have fallen through deception in spite of the fact that there is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resting on the churches today. The New Testament is becoming increasingly understandable. The relationship of Christ to the Father is one such “mystery” that now has become as plain as day.

So let us press on to the fullness. The highest thrones are waiting for those who care enough to walk with Christ through the tumult of today’s cultures.

There are many unsaved people who will be fine fruit for the Master’s table, and a rich inheritance for those who choose to turn away from the siren call of money, entertainment, and technology, and focus their attention and energies on Jesus Christ instead.

Will you be one who chooses wisely during these momentous days?

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:1-4)

Declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen and amen.

(“Who Is Jesus Christ?”, 3907-1)