Page 181 - Bible Writers Theology Original

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Christology ♦ 165 Siven me are of thee..^nd have known surely that I came out from
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they have believed that thou didst send me"(John 17:7-8).
believeinChrist'sdivineoriginjustastheapostlesdid. We careful not to take the "Word" as a second divine person, or "the
third person. Nor can we equate "the Word" with, t e Son. What Jesus declared about Himself and what the disciples
leved was that the Word of God was made flesh, that God the Father was incarnated in His own flesh (I Timothy 3:16).
Word or Spirit, Jesus Christ has no beginning, but as flesh He had But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among
ousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from ever-
them up, until the time that she which tra- b r o u g h t forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto
Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the
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a^de: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth" (Micah 5:2-4).
"majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall
, sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto e fathers by the prophets. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
be hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person... (Hebrews 1:1-3). In verse 2, the phrase, "by whom also he made the worlds," does not refer to the Son as a separate eternal divine per son. ItratherindicatesthatthecreatormadetheworldsbyHisWord.
But since God and His word cannot be separated in distinct persons or essence, the best definition of the Word of God is God the Father Himself, who is Word and Spirit, as described by the scriptures. It must be under stood then that the pre-existing God was not God the son but God the Father only. The Father revealed Himself in His own flesh (I Timothy 3.16).Sincethesocalled,Godtheson, isnotexistingfrometernityasGod the son (Isaiah 43:10-11; 44:6-8), it is not biblical to say the eternal Son
incarnate. Thevirginbirth,exemplifiedasdryground,isnecessaryforour understanding of the incarnation of the Father. God the Father prepared His own Word to be flesh and took to Himself that genuine, heavenly nature to be the express image of His person (Hebrews 1:3).
John adds that, "we beheld his glory, theglory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."John 1,14. In this same verse, the word "glory" was mentioned in this assertion, which seems to echo Christ's own word: "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him" (John 12:41). Indeed, from a careful examination of verses 38-40 of the twelfthchapterofJohn,weunderstandthatthisgloryisattributedto the
2rm of God," who, when he revealed Himself to the apostles, was none