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The Lord Jesus Part 2
John R Gavazzoni
Thousand Oaks, CA
Could it be possible that the Son of God, God's eternal Word, the Christ, have fully, without qualification, without modification, become the man, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, stepson of Joseph? The Bible presents to us what seems to be an unfathomable intersection of personhood. On one hand, we have what theologians call, "The Cosmic Christ." They use the term, "Cosmic," in this case, as referring to the whole of creation, the universe, and the solid biblical basis for such a description of the Anointed One, is the Epistle to the Colossians, chapter one, verses sixteen and seventeen.
There, Paul presents One, who in the context is referred to as "His (God's) beloved Son," also as "Christ," also as "Jesus Christ," and also as "our Lord Jesus Christ." It is important to note that the name, the description and the title all clearly refer to the same Person. This Person, the apostle exclaims, is the One IN whom all things were created. Please note, contrary to some misleadingly nuanced translations, "in" is clearly how the Greek preposition ought to be translated, and not as "by."
There might be, in certain grammatical settings, some warrant to translate the Greek preposition "en" as "with" or "by," but not in this setting. For the translator to choose "by" in this case, rather than, "in," ought to raise the most fervent protest from anyone who has read the first chapter carefully, noting the consistency by which even the most conventional translations render the preposition as "in," over and over as the chapter proceeds, including verse seventeen where we are told that "in Him all things consist (hold together.")
Why translators would have the sufficient boldness to affirm all things being held together in Christ, but be too timid to affirm that all things were created in Him, is baffling. I can only conclude that somehow they consider all things being held together in Christ less threatening to conventional orthodoxy than all things being created in Him.
So we have on one hand, the Cosmic Christ, but on the other hand, Jesus, the Nazarene; Jesus, born of a woman, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, but then risen. Could the One in whom all things were created, in whom all things hold together, in whom all fulness dwells (vs.19) be, at the
same time, the Galilean, Mary's and Joseph's Boy?
Well, it's so. It is, it is, bless God, hallelujah!God sent His Son to us in the Person of the historical Jesus.. Get the simplicity of that. Nothing was lost, nothing was essentially modified, nothing had to be left behind, nothing diluted, nothing trimmed off to make Him fit into space-time when "out of the ivory palaces, into a world of woe" came the the beloved Son, the Christ, the Word. Subjected, indeed, to all that we, his brethren are, but that subjection in no way rendered Him less than He is, less than the "I AM" that He affirmed of Himself.
Surely there was more to Him than met the eye, for concealment was a part of what His Father's wisdom planned for Him during His aeonion journey. We all, those who were present, those who had died, those yet to be born, were all in Him. God actually reduced the whole of the universe down to that lone figure, but the reduction was not one of diluting essence, but of extracting from the universe its essence, and having It walk among men, as a Man.
Catch the wonderment of John as he testifies in his first epistle. He wants us to know, to get the full impact of the fact that they beheld, and their hands handled "what was from the beginning." (vss one and two of the first chapter.) He goes on in verse three to identify that from which the Word of life came, and Who the Word of life is: "and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."
I have a compulsion laid upon me to explain clearly that the One who sits at the right hand of the Majesty on High, the One, in/by/with we have been made to jointly sit, is Jesus. The historical Jesus was no shadow of, no something-less-than, no not-quite-everything that the Christ is.
It is of the essence of the administration of God, to take that which is eternal, make it into that which is temporal, put it through the "baptism with which (He) was baptised," so that the glory of God, in that crucible, might draw forth from its depths, a radiance that otherwise would never have been manifested.
Understand this: The anointing on Jesus was not "something" added temporarily to His Person. As the Anointed One, the anointing that was upon Him came out from who He was within. The nature of the anointing is the nature of the Father in the Son, the nature of the Father in His Seed. The anointing has its source in the loins of God. This is a matter of Being, not merely a matter of empowering.
Every time Jesus did something by the anointing, who He was, was put on display, and who His Father was, was being displayed. The anointing is first a quality of life, a quality of life that knows the Father, before it issues forth as that which "breaks the yoke."
Stay tuned for future serious, seminal samplings.
John Gavazzoni
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To contact John send email to: John R. Gavazzoni For more writings by John : Click Here...For His Web SiteOr you can write by (snail mail) to:
John R Gavazzoni
758 N. Woodlawn Dr.,
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360.
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