This item of faith digs even deeper into our understanding of Christianity. Item one stated that God is eternal and, consequently, so is His Son, Jesus.
Jesus is the visible person of the Godhead---virtually everything we know about God, we know through Him. Notice that statements of faith seldom have a paragraph titled "Father". This is partly because, when Philip said, "Show us the Father", Jesus responded, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." John 14:6.
Jesus took human flesh in Palestine during the reign of Herod, but He appeared, visibly, on numerous occasions in the Old Testament. These "theophanies" make fascinating reading. For example, when Joshua was about to attack Jericho, a man appeared with a drawn sword in his hand and said, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." Joshua 5:13-15.
Going back further, three visitors came to Abraham when he was camped near the great trees of Mamre, and one of them was Jehovah (Genesis 18:10, "the LORD"). And near the beginning, Adam and Eve "heard the sound of the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) as he was walking in the garden." Genesis 3:8.
We believe that man was Jesus. And it was for this reason, among many others, that Jesus could say to the Jews, "Before Abraham was born, I AM!" John 8:58.
No comments:
Post a Comment