These Christian creeds fall far short of defining God, because, for one
thing, they fail to recognize what is unique in each of the Divine Persons
Who combine to reveal the One God. Only in acknowledging the relationships
within the Divine can we start to get anything like an accurate picture of
the Divine Dynamics revealed in Scripture. To illustrate what I'm talking
about I'm going to focus on the Father and the Son in one important example.
I am no Arian. Since I believe the Scriptures I believe in the Divinity of
Messiah. The Scripture clearly attributes Divinity to the Son, in verses
such as these:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made."
John 1:1-3
""I and the Father are One."" John 10:30
"[Messiah] who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
all creation. For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on
the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created
through him, and for him." Colossians 1:15-16
"But of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The
scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom." Hebrews
1:8-9
What confuses people here are the many verses which seem not to agree with
the above verses. That is, verses showing Messiah to be in submission to the
Father, in their minds meaning Messiah must be something less than Divine.
Here are a few examples:
"Yeshua said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me,
and to accomplish his work." John 4:34
"I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is
righteous; because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father
who sent me." John 5:30
"[Messiah prayed] saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup
from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." Luke 22:42
The Romans saw authority as a Divine attribute, while, in their eyes,
submission was simply a characteristic of the weak. That's probably why the
Roman Church and all of her daughters never saw submission as a Divine
Characteristic.
When viewed from the Roman perspective of submission as weakness, these
verses seem to diminish the status of the Son as something less than Divine.
However, when we realize that the earlier passages above affirm the Divine
Nature of Messiah, then we must view the submission of the Son to the Father
as a Divine perfection of Character in the Son. While the world chafes at
the thought of submission, Yeshua manifested both love and joy in His
submission to His Father.
These two Divine Characteristics in God require two Divine Persons to make
them manifest. This is the relationship of the Father and the Son. In this
instance we have the Father manifesting Divine Authority and the Son
manifesting Divine Submission. In this example we have one Divine Nature
being made manifest through two Divine Persons, the Father and the Son.
What we are actually seeing here is a Divine Dynamic manifesting the Divine
Character. "Divine Dynamic" is a term I've coined for Divine
perfections of Character that can only be manifest between two Persons - one
Person alone can't manifest this. In other words, they are characteristics
that can only be seen in functioning relationships between Persons. Any
consideration of the Divine Characteristic of Authority must include a
consideration of the Divine Characteristic of Submission, because these are
inherently linked to one another. Consider these words of the apostle John:
"That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that
which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands
touched, concerning the Word of Life (and the Life was revealed, and we
have seen, and testify, and declare to you the Life, the eternal Life,
which was with the Father, and was revealed to us); that which we have
seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with
us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Yeshua
the Messiah. And we write these things to you, that our joy may be
fulfilled." 1 John 1:1-4
It took the entire Bible to adequately reveal God to us because He can only
be adequately seen through the lens of fellowship in which Divine
Dynamics exist. This Authority/Submission Divine Dynamic seen in the
fellowship of the Father and the Son reveals both the perfection of
authority and the perfection of submission to be eternal attributes that
originate in the eternal nature of God. Seeing only authority as Divine
gives us only half the picture, which comes off a bit scary and harsh. When
we see the loving submission of the Son to the Father, we get the rest of
the picture - perfection of submission that fills out and completes this
Authority/Submission Dynamic, paving the way for the children of God to
enter into the Divine fellowship.
This Divine Dynamic is also the model of social order that issues from God,
as in these verses:
"But I would have you know that the head of every man is Messiah, and
the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is God." 1
Corinthians 11:3
"Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife, and Messiah also is the head of the
assembly, being himself the savior of the body. But as the assembly is
subject to Messiah, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in
everything." Ephesians 5:22-24
It is sobering to realize that modern norms paint wives who display the
God-like quality of submission as oppressed and perhaps a bit stupid, when
in fact, they are too good for this world, being living examples of the
servant heart of Messiah.
Tonight Abigail will be live-streaming her next episode of Messiah's
Praiseworthy Women,
entitled: Serving Like Messiah. This live stream will begin at
Tsiyon.Net at 8 PM,
Central. While this topic involves a discussion among women, men will also
be encouraged by what these godly women are thinking on this topic.
Eliyahu
Tsiyon.Org
