Just a caution and disclaimer here.
Recently I have been looking at the doctrine of blood atonement and I am seeing (for now) that this POV is wrongly taught. In essence for this time I am seeing the possibility of Jesus not being God incarnate but rather a Prophet Extraordinaire, divinely used of the Father and in whom the Father lived out fully His Nature of Unconditional Love. I am not saying this is the full truth but I am exploring this and scripture from this angle now. This does challenge the tenants of the Christian faith but I believe we are to seek out and ask these questions and not merely accept that which we have seen and heard as truth.
2Ti 2:15 Study earnestly to present yourself approved to God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
The more I study, the more I am seeing the focus of our faith should be on the Father and not Jesus. Jesus is the doorWAY and not the destination. We are to enter in.
I do not see the Son being equal to the Father but subject to the Father, I see the Father as the ONE TRUE GOD. The active work of the Holy Spirit I do not deny as I have experienced and experience it. My faith does not require me to see the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a three-in-one triangle.
All I ask is have an open mind in this next series. I am continuously searching deeper things of the Lord.
John 7:1-18
This is something I never noticed before.
Joh 7:1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for He did not desire to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.
Joh 7:2 And the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.
Joh 7:3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, Move away from here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see the works that You do.
Joh 7:4 For no one does anything in secret, while he himself seeks to be in public. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.
Joh 7:5 For His brothers did not believe in Him. Here it is clear Jesus had brothers now whether they were biological or not, it would appear that they were close to Him.
Obviously they had witnessed some of His works and reading between the lines, why would they make a statement like:
If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.
Surely, if Jesus was the incarnate Son of God as described in Matthew, virgin birth and all, why would Jesus' brothers not know of this miracle? Surely a family would discuss matters like this?
Galilee was Jesus' home turf and by inference, He was here alone with his family and friends and not one of His disciples were around? It is interesting that the brothers, lets assume they were his biological brothers, then James allegedly Jesus' brother was not even mentioned in John. So possibly James came to believe later. Alternatively, John was not the beloved John as is commonly believed.
Although, Jesus' immaculate conception is no show stopper for me, the fact His Deity was unknown to His brothers is strange. We know He said:
Mar 6:4 But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house. If Jesus was merely a prophet and also a model for us, if we look at the prophets before Him, they too did miracles.
Clearly his brothers had seen some works and did not believe but must have somehow realised He had something special. Why would they say to Him to reveal Himself to the world?
1. They were much like the rest and thought honor would come from it
2. They believed in His works but not in who He claimed to be.
By this we can see Jesus did impact many, but when He deferred recognition to the Father as He always did, this was probably not in line with religious thinking of the day.
Joh 7:6 Then Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
Joh 7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its works are evil.
Joh 7:8 You go up to this feast; I am not yet going up to this feast; for My time is not yet fulfilled.
Joh 7:9 And having said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. Twice Jesus speaks of His time not yet come or fulfilled and He says He is hated as He exposes the works of the world as evil.
We need to decipher here what world and works mean. I would hazard a guess, that world related to the Jews and the works their religion. As I have mentioned many times, Jesus came to remove the shackles of religion, I have posted that we can make Jesus an idol and if you really think about it, that is what Christendom does today. Staying with this, the Father always gets the credit and even if what Jesus taught was merely a revelation though the Holy Spirit, it got under the skins of all the religious. His disciples were simple folk but not dumb and He hung out with the rejected of the day. This I believe showed immensely the Love the Father has for His creation.
Joh 7:10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as in secret.
Joh 7:11 Then the Jews sought Him at the feast and said, Where is He?
Joh 7:12 And there was much murmuring among the crowd concerning Him, for some said, He is a good man; others said, No, but he deceives the crowd.
Joh 7:13 However, no one spoke openly of Him, because of the fear of the Jews. Strange here that Jesus had decided not to go then goes in secret. The red bits strangely shows exactly what we that believe in CU are confronted with and we see the fear of the religious authority today just like back then.
Joh 7:14 Now about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. We have a decision not to go, then going in secret and now teaching in the temple. This really is not conducive of someone being a fleshly Deity led by the Holy Spirit. I would say that in this account it shows Jesus to be a fallible man with doubts just as we have today. His obedience however to go, would indicate that He had a mission to do and needed to teach.
Joh 7:15 And the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man know letters, not being taught?
Joh 7:16 Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.
Joh 7:17 If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or I speak from Myself.
Joh 7:18 He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. What is interesting here, although the preceding verses show fear of the Jews, the Jews marvelled at His teaching. It is clear that the reference to letters means He did use their scriptures and read from them, this is accounted for elsewhere in the synoptics. However, what is interesting is what He said in verse 16.
My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. Here Jesus again acknowledges the Father as we are to assume His refers to the Father. The Strong's only has the word sent as a reference.
Followed by the desire to do His will. Let us look at this in more detail.
Joh 7:17 If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or I speak from Myself. There is clearly an element of choice here. Wanting to do the Father's will we are told we shall know of the doctrine. Jesus goes onto lay down a challenge of testing what He was saying. Sadly here we do not know what He said and I wonder if this may have been purposely omitted seeing the Jews were all amazed?
Joh 7:18 He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. I think many read this to mean Jesus justifying His Deity but I see it as a universal truth. Let us break this verse down.
He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory.
This can be seen as an admonition to the religious or it could well be speaking of God. I think it should rather be rendered:
He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory.
(GW) Those who speak their own thoughts are looking for their own glory. But the man who wants to bring glory to the one who sent him is a true teacher and doesn't have dishonest motives.
(WNT) The man whose teaching originates with himself aims at his own glory. He who aims at the glory of Him who sent him teaches the truth, and there is no deception in him.
and no unrighteousness is in Him
Does that mean that when we seek to do the Father's will, we are not unrighteous? I do not think so.
The no unrighteousness refers to the Father and not to the one doing or seeking to do the will of the Father.
Mat 19:17 And He said to him, Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. It is often texts like these that go unnoticed. I believe the humility Jesus demonstrated many times, shows He was no more a servant to righteousness than anyone of us are or can be. Simply believing in His salvation, dying for our sins as we have been taught is not enough. We need to seek out His will for our lives.
Now I know we have many texts that can be quoted to prove Jesus is/was the Son of God. Put that aside for now and consider, if Jesus was merely a prophet and if His death was not for our sins, how would that alter what He taught?
I am not denying His Sonship. Yet I have to examine our sonship too. We all talk of the manifestation of sons and was Jesus not the model? Are we not told He is our brother?
Maybe the church was too successful making Jesus God that His nature is unattainable by us. If He was merely a pattern/model for us to follow, the Father still remains who He is. The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope that the Jews did not have.
I believe, the Father has always had reconciliation as His agenda. His "second son" Jesus, whether immaculate or not, does not take away the fact that He (Jesus) has been delegated all authority. Did Jesus not give us the same authority?
It took Jesus to show us the way. It took Paul to exemplify the way.
Blessings |
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