Identifying the Legitimate to Avoid the Counterfeit

I have heard stories that the best way to teach someone to identify a counterfeit $100 bill is to have them study authentic bills. A website suggests a check list to discover deviations from what real bills look like. Once familiarity with the authentic is established it is difficult to sneak a fraud past them. I see a parallel between counterfeit currency and fictional support for doctrine. It is for that reason that I am going to discuss Biblical foundations for the nature of God and Jesus.

Christians need a detective’s approach when evaluating doctrine, asking questions e.g. Is this consistent with the Word of God? Are there contradictions in this teaching with the Bible; Is this true? The apostle Paul exhorts us many times in his epistles but three such instances apply to this discussion:

1 Th 5:19-22 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.

2 Ti 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Php 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

I believe Paul tells us not to be so skeptical of all new understandings that we refuse to listen. This narrowmindedness would create the risk of missing out on a potential revelation from God. On the other hand, do not be gullible so that you accept every interpretation, and welcome every storyteller that comes along without testing it against scripture.  

The Amplified Bible sheds light 2 Timothy 2:15-19 partially mentioned above: “Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth. 16 But avoid all empty (vain, useless, idle) talk, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. 17 And their teaching [will devour; it] will eat its way like cancer or spread like gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 Who have missed the mark and swerved from the truth by arguing that the resurrection has already taken place. They are undermining the faith of some. 19 But the firm foundation of (laid by) God stands, sure and unshaken, bearing this seal (inscription): The Lord knows those who are His, and, Let everyone who names [himself by] the name of the Lord give up all iniquity and stand aloof from it.”

Hymenaeus and Philetus were contradicting Paul’s teaching on the resurrection. Paul tells Timothy that the firm foundation of God stands sure and unshaken. False doctrine will always exist, more so in the last days (2 Ti 4:3). We have a responsibility to stand on the firm foundation of God and resist being drawn into teachings with shaky foundations.

To set a firm foundation of God in the mind of the reader, I will lay out the truths of the Bible in this chapter.

There is only one God. God is the only God and he is alone as God. There is no other God next to him, with him, or in addition to him. Angels are with God; they interact with God but are not equal to Him.

In the earlier section titled “Principles of Bible Interpretation,” I used an illustration of a balance beam on a triangle with the left side showing the effect of “Over 10,000 Bible texts that either implicitly or explicitly proclaim the solitary nature of God. I explained how each time God refers to himself using singular pronouns (I, me, his, he), adjectives (one, alone, none) or verbs, he is affirming his solitary nature. Those verses implicitly reveal God making his nature known to mankind. I also referred to verses that clearly state that God is one and alone in His sovereignty but provided only two verses to support my position.

Ge 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Trinitarians attempt to exert influence in the opening scenes of creation; they would have you believe that the Spirit of God hovering over the waters is God, the Spirit, 3^rd person of the Trinity. Even the word “hovering” causes them to allude to connotations of a bird hovering over the nest as they perceive the 3^rd person of the Trinity as a dove. The Hebrew word for “spirit” here is ruwach (roo’-akh), Strong’s OT: 7307 definition: spirit, wind, breath. You cannot see breath unless you are in Minnesota in the winter. You cannot grasp the wind or a cloud with your hand.

E. Vine lists nine possible applications of ruwach, excerpted here:

1. “This word means “breath,” air for breathing, air that is being breathed…. 2. This word can be used with emphasis on the invisible, intangible, fleeting quality of “air….” 3. Ruach can mean “wind….” 4. The wind represents direction…. 5. Ruach frequently represents the element of life in a man, his natural “spirit….” 6. Ruach is often used of a man’s mind-set, disposition, or “temper….” 7. See below. 8. The non-material beings (angels) in heaven are sometimes called “spirits….” 9. The “spirit” may also be used of that which enables a man to do a particular job or that which represents the essence of a quality of man.”[1]

All definitions presented in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words for the word “spirit” OT 7307 were quoted in part except for number 7. Definition number 7 is quoted below in entirety:

“The Bible often speaks of God’s “Spirit,” the third person of the Trinity. This is the use of the word in its first biblical occurrence: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” Gen 1:2. Isa 63:10-11 and Ps 51:12 specifically speak of the “holy or free Spirit.”[2]

The conclusion that the word “spirit” (ruwach, OT 7307) describes a person of the godhead contradicts the general truth of the Bible, disregards the foundational tenet of monotheism of Judaism, and makes no common sense. It amounts to molding the Word of God to fit a formulated doctrine resulting from confusion about what the Bible was really saying, rather than shaping one’s doctrine from the Word of God.

The following quote is a translation of Genesis 1:1-2 from a Jewish commentary:

When God began to create the heaven and the earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water…[3]

The translation cited above remains true to the meaning of the word “ruwach” and is faithful to the monotheism of the Bible and God by not attempting to insert doctrinal positions into the translation.

God used “ruwach” twelve times to refer to “my spirit” in the KJV Old Testament:

Genesis 6:3 And Y^ehovah’ said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

Isaiah 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith Y^ehovah’, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.

Isaiah 42:1 [Y^ehovah’ speaking, see verse 5] Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

Isaiah 44:3 [Y^ehovah’ speaking, see previous verses] For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.

Isaiah 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Y^ehovah’; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

Ezekiel 36:27 [Y^ehovah’ speaking] And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Ezekiel 37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Y^ehovah’ have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Y^ehovah’.

Ezekiel 39:29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Y^ehovah’ God.

Joel 2:28 [Yehovah’ speaking] And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. KJV

Joel 2:29 [Y^ehovah’ speaking] And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

Haggai 2:5 [Y^ehovah’ speaking] According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.

Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Y^ehovah’ unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

In every one of the twelve texts above, Almighty God is speaking, determined by lord (yhwh/ Y^ehovah’) being used either within the verse, or used in the immediately preceding verses. Y^e-ho-vah God claims ownership of the “spirit” by referring to it as “my spirit.” This fact is emphasized even more when Joel prophesies in 2:29 that Y^e-ho-vah will pour out His spirit on all flesh. Of the 378 times that “ruwach” (OT 7307) is used in the Old Testament, it is translated “spirit” 227 times in the KJV. There are 20 instances of the phrase Spirit of Yehovah’ (the lord).  

The phrase “Holy Spirit” is the Hebrew word qodesh, Strong’s OT 6944 which means a sacred place or thing and occurs only three times in the Old Testament. It makes sense to refer to the spirit of God as “my spirit” and as “holy” but to make the spirit of God into a separate person of a godhead ventures outside the truth of scripture.

Jesus told us in John 4:24, “God is (a, KJV) Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” God’s spirit cannot be seen or grasped. When the apostles were startled and frightened to see Jesus in their midst, he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost (spirit) does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:36-39). Jesus explained here how he was not like God because he had flesh and bones, he was not a spirit. God is spirit. The spirit of God is not a physical being or separate person from God any more than my spirit is separate from me, or yours is different from you.

Recall Isaiah 44:24 telling us that God “alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.” To say God, the 3^rd person of the Trinity was hovering over the water is contrary to what scripture describes. Trinitarians muddy the water of clear teaching by suggesting that the three members of the Trinity are active here since “Elohim,” the word used for God here has a plural ending. That will be discussed soon in Who is the “US”? and Elohim chapters.

The Spirit of God, aka the Holy Spirit, is the Father of Jesus

Lk 1:26-28 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.

There should be no contention with the understanding that the angel’s statement “The Lord is with you” refers to the lord, Yehovah’. The Greek word used here is kurios which, as explained earlier was used to refer to Adonai that was the Hebrew replacement for YHWH, the tetragrammaton.

Lk 1:29-33 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

The angel informs Mary that she will be the mother to a baby boy whom she will name Jesus. The child will be called the Son of the Most High and Yehovah’ God will give him the throne of his father David.

Lk 1:34-35 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

A confused, overwhelmed young girl asks the angel of Yehovah’ “How will this be?” The angel explains: 1. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. 2. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. 3. The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. The terms Most High, Lord God, Holy Spirit, and God are all referring to the same being, Yehovah’ God. Scripture is clear that God’s spirit is the Father of Jesus.

This scenario creates a nightmare for the Trinitarian. According to these texts, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary dictating that the Holy Spirit is the Father of Jesus. From a Trinitarian perspective, this would be illogical and impossible since Jesus cannot have two fathers. If the Holy Spirit is a separate essence in the nature of God, then the Father had no role in the conception of Jesus, again illogical.

The same spirit, the spirit of the one true God, that hovered over the surface of the waters during creation (Gen 1:2), hovered over Mary and planted the seed of a baby in her womb. The event of the conception of Jesus made the spirit of God, the Father of Jesus. God is the spirit; God is the father of this baby named Jesus, born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph?

Jesus is the Son of God

Ps 2:7  I will proclaim the decree of the lord: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father (Also Hebrews 1:5).

Mt 1:18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit (Also Luke 1:35).

Jn 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jn 14:28…If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

Mt 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Mt 26:63-64 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”  “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

Ro 1:4 …and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Co 15:24-28

Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

The sonship of Jesus was predetermined in the mind and plan of God from eternity. That understanding does not mean Jesus is the “eternal son of God.” Jesus is not the “eternal” son of God. Jesus did not really exist until he was born in Bethlehem.  As my mentor Robert Sabin described, when homebuilders look at blueprints of their future home, they see the plans for the bathroom and say, “There’s the bathroom.”  They can imagine it in their mind’s eye, but it does not exist yet.  The plan of Jesus’ birth, life, sacrifice, and death was similar. You might say, God had a blueprint of salvation that was so real to him he could see it as though it already existed.  Ro 4:17 tells us “God…calls things that are not as though they were.”  Ps 2:7 (quoted above) in the KJV states “this day have I begotten thee.” Jesus was God’s son, his only son—he had a birthday which means there was a time when he did not exist. The spirit of God is eternal, without beginning or end.  Man is not eternal.  As a man, Jesus had a beginning.  The humanity of Jesus died as a sacrifice for our sins at Calvary.The spirit of the risen Christ, humanity and divinity together will never end.  Since the birth of Jesus, he will always be God because God’s spirit resides in Jesus.  But Jesus will not always be a son. 1 Corinthians 15:28 describes a time when “God will be all, and in all.”  The sonship of Jesus as mediator between God and humanity will no longer be necessary when there is no more sin, no more death, no more sorrow. 

Jesus is Yehovah’, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father in the flesh, God with us

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus was introduced long before he was ever conceived in the womb of Mary as a “child to be born” and “a son to be given.” Isaiah was putting the world on notice that a child was on the way. This child was declared by Isaiah the prophet to bear the names “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father” and therefore possess the corresponding powers and characteristics. The confusion caused by this prophesied fusion of God and Man in an infant child is understandable, but the accepted solution should have been glaringly unacceptable. How many Mighty Gods are there?  Scripture demands there can be only one. When the spirit of God took up residence in Jesus upon conception, the Everlasting Father became the child and son born in the manger. 

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Prophecy, emphasis mine).

Matt 1:23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(emphasis mine)- which means, “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14 prophecy fulfilled, emphasis mine).

Therefore, Jesus truly is Immanuel, God with us.  Jesus is Almighty God as a man.

Dt 6:16 Ye shall not tempt Yehovah’ your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

Mt 4:7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord (kurios, Yehovah’) thy God.

 In his explanation of Deuteronomy 6:16, Adam Clarke’s Commentary asks: How did they tempt him in Massah? They said, Is the Lord among us or not? Ex 17:1-7. After such proofs as they had of His presence and his kindness, this was exceedingly provoking. Doubting God’s kindness where there are so many evidences of it, is highly insulting to God Almighty. Jesus refers to this text in Matthew 4:7 when is in the desert after fasting for forty days. Satan tempts Jesus by telling him to cast himself down to see if the angels come to his rescue. Jesus addresses Himself as Yehovah’ by quoting Dt 6:16 to Satan. This is the only possible conclusion since Jesus is only one being tempted by Satan in the desert.

Isa 40:3 A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for Yehovah’; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God” (Prophecy).

Jn 1:23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for Yehovah’” (Isaiah 40:3 prophecy fulfilled, emphasis mine).

Please recall the prior section titled “A Great Deception” where I discussed the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, the personal name of God. In the prophecy of Isaiah, a voice of one calling from the desert was to prepare the world to receive the lord (yhwh, Yehovah’). John, the apostle tells us that when Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled, John the Baptist prepared the way for the lord (yhwh, Yehovah’), but who did John actually prepare the way for? He prepared the way for Jesus. Neither the apostle John nor John, the Baptist made a mistake; they knew that Jesus was yhwh, Yehovah’ God joining the human race.

Notice the explicit declarations that God is alone.

Isa 45:21-23 Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, Yehovah’? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. 22 “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear (Prophecy).

Php 2:9-11 Prophecy fulfilled: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Is 45:23 prophecy referring to Jesus).

Isaiah 45:23 quotes God to say that “before me every knee will bow…every tongue will swear.” Paul, a Pharisee, quotes this text when he uses the same language referring to Jesus as “Lord” (Kurios) in verse 11. Paul understood scripture’s description of God as a solitary spirit, a lone sovereign.  He also knew that applying this scripture to Jesus as Lord was the same as calling him lord, yhwh, Yehovah’, the one true God.In essence, Paul was saying that Jesus was Almighty God become a man.

Jesus came to save us from our sin

Mt 1:21 “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Jn 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Jn 3:17  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Heb 7:27  …He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

1 Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 Jn 3:5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

The name of Jesus in New Testament Greek is “Iesous” (e-ay-soos’).  The origin of Jesus’ name is found in the Old Testament names “Joshua, Jehoshuah, or Jehoshua,” pronounced Yehowshuwa` (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah); or Yehowshua. These names mean Jehovah-saved, Jehovah saves, Jehovah saviour. The name of Jesus was not decided upon in an arbitrary fashion as most children’s names are.  Jesus’ name was decided based upon his mission in life, and his mission was determined from the foundation of the world—He was to save us from our sins (Revelation 13:8) with one sacrifice for all time.  The significance of the name of Jesus does not end with his mission in life.  It is also found in the fact that Jesus is Jehovah.  The one true God, who “stretched out the heavens alone, and spread out the earth by himself” (Isaiah 44:24), came to earth to save us by living as Jesus Christ. 

There is an analogy of a husband, wife, and son walking along a riverbank together. The wife falls into the river and is drowning. The husband tells his son to jump in the river to save the wife and mother while he stands on the riverbank and watches his family fight for their lives.

Robert Sabin taught “God did not send someone else to save the world…he came himself.” God did not remain in heaven, aloof from the danger and sacrifice while he sent his son to sacrifice himself. God put on flesh and experienced every struggle, every blow, every lash, every thorn, nail, and spear that pierced Jesus’ body. Paul’s last words to the Church at Ephesus were a charge that they “Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Shortly, you will read that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). To correct the analogy, the father/husband jumped in the river and saved his wife.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God

Heb 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

2 Co 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Col 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.

John 4:24 tell us, “God is spirit” and Luke 24:39 states “a spirit has no flesh or bone.” All scripture confirms that God, in the Old Testament, was invisible. “No man has seen God” (Jn 1:18); but Jesus is described as the “exact representation of God, the image of God, and the image of the invisible God.” The spirit of God that never permanently occupied a body or form before, took on the form of a man by becoming the person of Jesus Christ.  He was no longer invisible, untouchable, without form, as Jesus he dwelt among us.  Both God Almighty and man, not two deities but two natures: divine and human, born in Bethlehem as Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ Father, the Spirit of God, was living within him.

Jn 10:30 Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”

Jn 10:38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

Jn 14:8-10 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

Jn 14:20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

2 Co 5:19…God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (NKJ).

Col 1:19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him

Col 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.

Before reading on please stop for a moment, look at John 14:8-10 again and let it sink in.  Jesus said to his disciples Don’t you know me…if you have seen me, you have seen the Father…it is the Father living in me doing his work. This is one of the most powerful texts in the entire Bible to understand who Jesus is. Jesus credits his Father for all the power required in the performance of miracles and defers all glory to God while announcing that the creator of the world abides within him.

Have you ever asked yourself the question:  When Jesus prayed, who was he praying to?  Why did Jesus seem to have such a subordinate role if he was God Almighty? Jesus was born a male child, fully human. He required food, water, warmth, and nurturing to survive and flourish. Jesus became tired; he slept; he wept, he felt anxious.  He was tempted in every aspect possible. The humanity of Jesus was as fragile and susceptible to failure as any other human being. The difference between Jesus and us, was Jesus had total access to the Spirit of God living in him. John the Baptist described Jesus by saying:”For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit” (Jn 3:34). It was the divinity of the Spirit of God living in Jesus that gave him the power to do miracles, to know the thoughts of men, to be “God with us.” The humanity of Jesus prayed to the Spirit of God (divinity) living in him for strength, insight, wisdom, knowledge, direction, and power. The Spirit in Jesus was no longer just a temporary manifestation of deity on earth (Temporary human manifestations of God that occurred in the Old Testament, were called theophanies). God became a man, or “The Creator became part of creation” (Robert A. Sabin).Two natures, not two Gods, became one in Jesus, the divine nature of God and the human nature of Jesus, thus Emmanuel, God with us. The humanity of Jesus is the mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5).  The flesh and blood were necessary for the propitiation of our sins (Ro 3:25, 1 Jn 2:2, 1 Jn 4:10); for without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin (Heb 9:22).  God did not have any blood until he lived in Jesus. The importance of Jesus being a man does not end there.  Jesus is also our advocate, defending us when we stand before God in judgment when the accuser attempts to steal us away from God (Ro 8:34, Heb 7:25,1 Jn 2:1).  The humanity of Jesus encourages every downtrodden, brokenhearted, defeated failure because, in Jesus we have someone who understands what we are going through. Jesus will always be God, but he will not always need to be a mediator, an atonement for sin, an intercessor. See earlier reference to 1 Corinthians 15:28 under “Jesus is the Son of God.”God will always be Jesus and Jesus will always be God.

Jesus declares a two-ness, a duality within himself, two natures, divine and human, not two gods.

There have been several statements mentioning that Jesus has two natures, God and man. These texts take a different approach but further confirm and support that Jesus has two natures living within him.

Jn 5:24 I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will (NLT, 2004).

Jn 8:12-20 Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” 13 The Pharisees replied, “You are making those claims about yourself! Such testimony is not valid.” 14 Jesus told them, “These claims are valid even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. 15 You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone. 16 And if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. 17 Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. 18 I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.” 19 “Where is your father?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” 20 Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the Temple known as the Treasury. But he was not arrested, because his time had not yet come (NLT, 2004).

Dt 17:6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. NIV

Dt 19:15 One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. NIV

Jesus is making a legal argument based on the Law in Deuteronomy which states there must be two witnesses testifying against an alleged criminal before they can be found guilty. He exclaimed that he “was not alone. The Father who sent me is with me…I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.” Even though the Father is not a man, Jesus presents him as a witness which goes unchallenged by the Pharisees.

Jesus is the Holy Ghost/Comforter

Mt 28:20 And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Jn 7:38-39 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Jn 14:16-18 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Jn 20:22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit….”

Ro 8:9-11 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

One must exercise caution here and remember that the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit, not a separate entity or additional deity. The New Testament words “Holy Spirit” are “pneuma hagion” in the Greek. Translated it means “holy breath,” similar to the meaning in the Hebrew of the Old Testament discussed earlier. In addition to overshadowing Mary and abiding in Jesus, the holy breath of God raised Jesus from the dead. The spirit of the risen Christ referred to in these verses is the same holy breath of God. Only now, the spirit has taken up permanent residence in a man. 

Jesus told his followers in John 14:16, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. The Greek word “another” is “allos.” According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, allos “denotes another of the same sort…Christ promised to send “another Comforter,” allos, another like himself.” Greek scholar, Warren Wiersbe holds the same view. How can the Holy Spirit, the Comforter that will come be “another of the same sort?” What would be different about Jesus after he left the disciples? Jesus had died and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He was glorified. Look again at John 7:38-39 on the previous page. Jesus was telling them about the spirit that they would receive, but not yet, because he had not yet been glorified.

Jesus goes on to tell them in John 14:18, “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you” (KJV). He identifies himself as the comforter, which is one and the same as the Holy Spirit. In John 20 Jesus “breathed” on them and told them to receive the spirit. In Romans, Paul refers to the Spirit of God living in you, and in the next phrase emphasizes the importance of having the Spirit of Christ in you. The connection is simple, Jesus is the Comforter, all because he is God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16, KJV).

Jesus is both the creator and descendant of David

Isaiah 11:1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Mt 1:2-26 See this section for the lineage of Abraham to David, and David to Jesus.

Mt 22:41-46 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”  42 “The son of David,” they replied.  43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 44 ‘Yehovah’ (The lord) said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ 45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Lk 1:22-33 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Ro 1:3 …regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David….

Rev 5:5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Rev 22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

When Jesus declares he is the “Root and Offspring of David,” he is exposing two facts: 1) David is descended from Jesus and 2) Jesus is descended from David. How can this be? Jesus, the human, did not exist actually before David, but the spirit of God did. Jesus existed throughout eternity only in the mind and plan of God before He was born. The “Root” is the Spirit of God; the same Spirit that spoke the worlds into existence out of nothing; the same Spirit that selected David as king and then blessed his kingdom; the same Spirit which overshadowed Mary to become the father of Jesus and took on the identity of Jesus by living in him. Matthew and Luke confirm that Jesus’ human ancestry is traced back to Abraham and David, but His bloodline comes directly from God.  Jesus is the Spirit of God from the Old Testament who became a man in the New Testament, thereby the “Root and Offspring of David.”

Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of lords

Dan 2:47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

 1 Ti 6:13-15 …I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time-God, the blessed and only Ruler (Potentate KJV, God NLT, Sovereign AMP) the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Rev 17:14 They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”

Rev 19:16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Misunderstanding these scriptures leads to an inaccurate perception of God.  In any kingdom, there can only be one “King of kings.”  You may say, That is true in a human kingdom, but it could work in a divine Kingdom. God Himself leaves no room for plurality within His sovereignty. He declares “I am the lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself “(Isaiah 44:24). To create a doctrine to solve problems of scriptural interpretation only creates more problems, not solutions. The question raised from these texts creates a fictional foundation:  How can the King of kings of the Old Testament be alone as God, and yet Jesus rightfully claim the same title in the New Testament? The answer is found in the fact that the King of the Old Testament is also King in the New Testament. There is no division of power, no delegation of authority, no eternal son dispatched from heaven. God did not send a prince into the kingdom; the king removed his royal robe and came into the kingdom as a pauper. You may ask, how can this be? Read on below.

Jesus is the first and the last

Is 44:6 Thus saith the lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

Is 48:12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

Rev 22:13,16 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

God declared through Isaiah that he was the “first and the last.” If you were to open your Bible to Revelation 22:12-16 you would see that the type in red indicating the words of Jesus. Verse 16 identifies the speaker as Jesus. Jesus declared he was the “Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end.” How many “firsts and lasts” are there?  The only accurate explanation is found in the fact that Jesus is Almighty God incarnate. 

Jesus will be on the throne when we arrive in heaven.

Mt 19:28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne…

Rev 3:21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Rev 4:2-3 …there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.

Rev 7:17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.

Rev 22:3-4 The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

According to the Bible, how many thrones are there in heaven? It is clear by the constant use of the singular word throne, that there is only one throne. How many will be seated on the throne? Matthew refers to the Son of Man. Is that one? When Jesus speaks in Revelation 3:21, he tells us the “he” will be seated with his Father. Is that two? It must be understood that the Father and Jesus are one (John 10:30) because the Father lives in Jesus. There is one God, one savior, one Father, one lord, one throne, one King of Kings and Lord of lords…Jesus. There is a dual nature in Jesus, divine and human, but there is only one God.

Jesus is everything to us:  He is God, savior, mediator, propitiation for sin, advocate, and comforter. Soon, he will be our rescuer, King, and ruler.

[1] Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers

[2] ibid

[3] The Torah, A Modern Commentary, Edited by W. Gunther Plaut, © 1981 by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, p. 18.