Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Clearly, textually, Jesus IS God. "The Word, which was with God, and which was God, became flesh and dwelt among us." Pretty clear and definitive. My thesis, however, includes the premise that the Word, the LOGOS, is operationally God, not essentially God. Therefore we can have simultaneously have the monotheistic "One God of Israel" dwelling in heaven, and we also have the accompanying "Jesus is God incarnate" without any need to say "Jesus the Son, the LOGOS therefore is the Father".
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Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Notice that it says "one God and Father of all", it doesn't say "one God and Lord of all". It uses the appelation "God" next to the Father, not next to the Lord, or the faith, or the baptism. It doesn't say "one God and Spirit". The only conjunctive phrase of "God and..." is with the Father. Nowhere else. There is one God and Father of all. One God.
However, for all practical purposes, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. When you see the Lord Jesus you see the Father. That's what Jesus said to Thomas, who said, "Show us the Father." When the Lord speaks it is the Father speaking. The Lord said, "What I do, is what I see the Father doing." So the Lord's doing is the Father's doing. The Lord said, "I came to do the Father's will." So the Father's will is clearly manifested in the Son. All of this can be said without confusing the two. The Son can do all that the Father has willed for us, without being the Father God. Jesus is God, operationally, functionally, and yes IS God to us, but Jesus and the Father are not to be confused.
And likewise the Spirit brings us the Son. The Spirit of the Son presents us with the Son, and to the Son. The Spirit indeed speaks what the LOGOS is speaking to the churches. But if we try to worship this speaking Spirit, it says, "Don't do that! I am your fellow servant! Worship God." So we still are monotheistic. There is one God and Father of all. But operationally the Son is God to us. And likewise the spirit is indeed the conveying Spirit of Jesus Christ. This Spirit conveys, leads us into all the reality. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you"; this prepared place is reachable by our hearing, receiving, and obeying the sent Spirit.