When we read Matt 28 baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit, most of us see three distinct beings. And most of us are not aware that name in this text is a singular word. He didnt say, in the names of .. but in the name of .. Three in one.
And that is as clear a statement of the three as we get. Look to Isa 9:6. Prince of peace, comforter, everlasting father -------- all terms used to describe the incarnate Christ. It is not that Christ IS all three as the Oneness Doctrine proclaims. Rather, it is that He is the incarnation of the three. In Christ , we have all of God revealed (if you have seen me , you have seen the Father) and this combining, if you will, is accomplished with the same proclaiming of Messiah. That is the message of Peter. Christ was Messiah while in the flesh. Peter makes it clear that He was also YHWH -- at the same time.
Doesnt the statement of Job 25 play into this discussion? How then can a man be just with God? Or , how can he be clean who is born of woman? If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in His sight, how much less man, [than] maggot, and the son of man [than] worm? (vv 4-6.)
It seems to me that the use of son of Man as applied to Christ is not just an indicative proclaiming the reconciliation of man to God in Christ, but an acceptance, on the part of Christ, of the very predicament Debbie has mentioned. As son of Mankind, He shares in the same declared predicament as is common to all of us. The very question found in Psalms 8: 5 , What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of mankind, that Thou dost care for Him? is a question that mirrors this human predicament. The writer is simply asking, Because man is who man is - how could God poss ibly be thoughtful of him , or the son of man[kind] that God would even care for him?
Again, in Psalm 144:3-4, we see that the use of son of man is not to be separated from the lowliness of man, his ungodly distinction that separates him form God -- Man is like a mere breath, his days are a like a passing breath (Ps 144: 4.).
God and man simultaneously gives me the impression that the distinctives which provide for the Christ to be what He was [is] are NOT distinctive as we view Christ. And because of that fact, we argue about who He is. Christ, as I understand Him, is not God and Man but God/man. Until Christ, God and mans predicament have been irreconcilable -- opposing realities that forced man to seek an intercessor. In Christ, the combining is so thorough as to be indistinguishable but wholly effective as the same time.
When we look to Isa 9:6, we see the combining of all that is God in the Christ -- brought into this world as a child (born of a woman -- how can He be clean if born of a woman). All of this - man and his predicament and God with His manifested realities - are brought together in Jesus. And, just as I am not thought of in terms of parts, neither is the Christ.
SIMULTANEOUS is, indeed, is the word for the day, Lance.
jd
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From: "Lance Muir" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jesus is neither unambiguously human with our humanity nor unambiguously God with God's divinity. This would make Jesus some 'third thing'. (Arianism)Sometimes you will hear people say 'Jesus is human all right but, he's more than human. That which is more than human isn't human. That which is less than God isn't God. So, said the Arians, Jesus is more than human but less than God.JESUS IS WHOLLY GOD AND WHOLLY HUMAN SIMULTANEOUSLY.
