John 1:1-3, 14, “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. ...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” 1st John 4:2-3, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1st Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
Please
notice the important phrase in 1st Timothy 3:16b, “great is the mystery
of godliness.” Also, please read Colossians 2:2, “That their hearts
might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the
full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of
God, and of the Father, and of Christ;” The doctrine of the Godhead
(aka, Trinity) is not something easy to grasp. The Bible repeatedly calls is
a “MYSTERY.” We know that there is one true and living God
(Deuteronomy 6:4). We know that the one true and living God exists in the
three unique persons of: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20; Matthew 3:16-17).
I humble don't claim to understand the Godhead, anymore than any other man can grasp such amazing and astounding truths. I just know it is true. Where the Bible is silent, we should be silent. I know that Jesus is God almighty (John 10:33). Revelation 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Jesus is not the second person of the Godhead. I get tired of theologians calling Jesus that. The members of the Godhead are all equal. God is not divided. The Holy Spirit is not the “third” member of the Trinity. They are all equal parts of one being. The Godhead is a MYSTERY.
It is obvious to me that Jesus DID make several physical appearances in the Old Testament. I agree with the following Bible commentary by Dr. Bob McCabe in an article titled: “Who Is The Angel Of The Lord In The Old Testament”...
Since no one has ever seen God the Father (John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16) and since the Holy Spirit never takes on bodily form, this suggests that the supernatural Being to which this expression refers is the second member of the Trinity (also compare Exodus 3:14 with John 8:58). Therefore, the angel of the LORD was a temporary manifestation of the LORD Jesus Christ in a preincarnate form. It is important to make a distinction between Christ’s preincarnation and incarnation. His incarnation is a permanent union where God the Son took on full humanity becoming the God-man. His incarnation began with His miraculous conception and will continue throughout eternity. Christ’s preincarnate form was a transitory visible manifestation of God the Son. After His incarnation, Christ never appears again as the angel of the LORD. As we view the angel of the LORD, we can see how God through progressive revelation provided data in the Old Testament for the doctrine of the Trinity that is more completely elaborated upon in the New Testament.
SOURCE: Bob McCabe, “Who Is The Angel Of The Lord In The Old Testament”
There has been much debate on the internet and in churches today, concerning
whether Jesus always had a physical human body, even before the earth was
created. We know according to the Scriptures that Jesus was never created.
Jesus made “ALL THINGS” (John 1:3). John 1:3, “All things were made
by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Nearly
every modern Bible revision corrupts this passage, changing the preposition
“BY” to “THROUGH” Him. This blatant perversion of the Scriptures removes the
creative power from Jesus, and instead gives it to God the Father. The Bible
does NOT teach that God the Father created all things through the
Son. No, the Bible says that Jesus Christ created ALL THINGS by Himself.
This asserts Christ's deity!
The Word Of God Always Existed
Jesus Christ always existed. Even before God created time, Jesus always existed. Revelation 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, which has 22 characters (as compared to our English language which has 26 letters). Jesus created Lucifer. Jesus created “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Matthew 25:41). Jesus made ALL THINGS!
Hebrews 13:8-9, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” This Bible verse does not mean that Jesus always existed in a human body. It simply means that Jesus' character, holiness and divine attributes never changes. The Bible says in John 1:1-4 and 14 that the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That Word became incarnate (flesh). Obviously, Christ's form changed.
It is silly, in my humble opinion, for anyone to claim that Jesus possessed His physical earthly body before He was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:23). The Bible doesn't say that Jesus existed with God, it says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...” (John 1:1). Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Revelation 19:13, “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.” The Word of God became flesh. 1st Timothy 3:16b teaches “GOD WAS MANIFEST IN THE FLESH.” Jesus was 100% man and 100% God.
Since God, and not Joseph, was Jesus biological Father, the Lord's flesh
must also have been divine, not just His Spirit and soul. That in no way
meant that Jesus wasn't 100% human. Adam was formed directly by the Lord
(Jesus 2:7). Adam had no earthly father. Yet, Adam was a son of God by
creation (Luke 3:38). Christians are sons of God by adoption (John 1:12-14;
Romans 8:15). Jesus is God's only biological Son (John 3:16). Adam had no
earthly father, yet he was still 100% a man. Likewise, Christ Himself was
100% a man! Jesus was also 100% almighty God in every way.
Jesus Is 100% Man And 100% God
Jesus did NOT have an earthly father. I am 100% against the vile and wicked Jewish unholy book, The Talmud, which teaches that a Roman solider raped Mary, and he was the biological father of Jesus. The Talmud reveals the depth of hatred that unbelieving Jews have for their Messiah. God Himself was Jesus biological Father. That means Jesus' physical liquid blood was divine. It was God's blood (Acts 20:28). The book of Luke proves that Jesus was 100% a man, tracing his lineage through Mary back to Adam. God in His wisdom gave us this vital information in the Holy Bible, so that honest men could verify THE TRUTH. There is overwhelming PROOF that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, if any honest person examines the available evidence which history, archaeologists, science, the Bible itself provides. God is a good God, and He has given us a way to PROVE what is true or false.
Kindly said, Pastor John MacArthur teaches that Jesus DIDN'T have divine blood. I was sad to read that. Dr. MacArthur errantly says that Jesus DIDN'T have God's blood flowing in His veins. MacArthur's rational is that if Jesus were 100% a man, then He could not have had God's blood, which would have made Him something else. No, Jesus was both 100% a man and 100% God. We don't need to understand it, we simply need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God biologically. That is, literally God's offspring physically. God DIDN'T have carnal knowledge with Mary, as perverse minded Mormons claim, to justify their own perverted religious history within their bizarre sex cult. In Mormon theology, he who has the most wives wins! If you study their bizarre beliefs, you learn that behind the superficial pretense of being a legitimate Bible-believing church, they are something more comparable to The Outer Limits.
In His resurrected body, Jesus is still 100% a man. He is the first fruits of the resurrection, showing us what we can also expect, an immortal human body (Philippians 3:21; 1st Corinthians 15:52-58). 1st Corinthians 15:23, “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.” I do not know what type of body the Lord appeared in several places in the Old Testament, but I am totally convinced that it could not have been His human body. I believe this for a few reasons:
- It is strange to think that Jesus would have had to destroy any preexisting human body, in order to take on another body through a virgin birth. That would be a strange doctrine.
- If God required the use of a virgin woman to provide a human vessel to conceive His only begotten Son, where would a preexisting human body have come from?
- Jesus is the only “begotten” Son of God. That means He had to be born. I don't see any way that Christ could have possessed the same earthly human body in the Old Testament, without having been born yet. In fact, it is downright absurd!
- The Bible does not teach that Jesus always had a human body. It is wild speculation at best and should never be preached as sound doctrine.
- John 1:1-3 and 14 teaches that the Word of God became incarnate, by means of a virgin birth. Clearly, the Word of God had not yet become incarnate (in the flesh) in the Old Testament. So whatever physical appearances the Lord made in the Old Testament, it could not have been his earthly human body conceived through Mary. The Bible even warns us about not following strange doctrines, right after mentioning Jesus always being the same. Hebrews 13:8-9, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines...”
There is no debate that the idea of Jesus always existing in his earthly human body is strange doctrine. Before the virgin birth, Jesus existed, but not in His earthly body. How do we explain Hebrews1:8, “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.” This passage is a quote from the Old Testament. How could the Son sit on a throne without a body? Again, I cannot answer this question. Where the Bible is silent we ought to be silent. I don't know what type of body the Lord made appearances in during the Old Testament.
And to clarify, Jesus' lived His entire life here on earth (during His 33 years of life) while still in the Old Testament. The New Testament didn't go into effect until Jesus died. Hebrews 9:17, “For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” So the issue is not about Old Testament versus New Testament, but of establishing whether Jesus had the same earthly physical body conceived by Mary, before he came down from Heaven to be born. Humbly, I do NOT believe that He did.
It wouldn't have made any sense, if the Messiah already occupied an earthly body, to be born into the world of a virgin. No, Jesus needed to be born, just like any other human child did, so He could learn, suffer, grow and be able to relate to our pain and suffering (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Jesus is the one MEDIATOR between God and men. 1st
Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in
due time.” Since
God is holy and cannot fellowship with unholy men, Jesus as our sinless
Savior can. As God the Son, Jesus can communicate with God the Father. And
as a man, Jesus can communicate with unholy men. That is why Jesus is the
one MEDIATOR between God and men. Only Jesus has the nail-scared hands and
feet.
Modalism Is False Doctrine
Modalism teaches that God enters into different modes, kind of like changing different hats. Modalists deny the Godhead (aka, Trinity). Modalists believe that when a believe gets to Heaven, all you will see is God the Father. They do not believe that Jesus has His own physical body. They think God and the Son are merely different MODES of God. Dear friend, that is some strange doctrine!
The Bible teaches that Jesus physically resurrected from the dead, and that
He was seen by over 500 brethren at one time (1st Corinthians 15:6). Jesus
sat and ate on multiple occasions in His glorified body with the disciples.
Jesus ascended into heaven in a physical, visible, tangible body into the
clouds (Acts 1:9-11). The angels asserted that THIS SAME JESUS shall return
someday IN LIKE MANNER. Acts 1:11, “Which
also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in
like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Colossians
3:1 teaches us that Jesus sits on the right-hand of the Father on HIS
THRONE. You need a body to sit on a throne. The Bible teaches that THIS SAME
JESUS Who ascended and left the earth 2,000 years ago, is now seated on
God's the Father's right side, interceding as every believer's High Priest
(Romans 8:34; Hebrews 4:14-16).
Jesus Is The Son Of God, The Christ—BELIEVE IT!!!
1st John 4:2-3, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” I believe this refers to Christ's deity. A Christian doesn't believe Jesus was a mere man who lived and died; but rather, we believe that Jesus was the Son of God, the Christ. The very same Apostle John said this in John 20:31, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” John 11:27, “She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” Now 1st John 4:2-3 makes plain sense. It was a matter of prophesy being fulfilled. The promised Messiah had come!
