In the previous post we saw how that a person cannot know the Father unless Jesus Christ reveals him. Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen, I Timothy 6:16. Only Jesus Christ has seen the Father in his glory. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, John 1:18.
The idea that no man has seen God at any time seems contradictory to the testimony of Moses; And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness, Exodus 24:10. How do we reconcile John 1:18 which says that no man hath seen God, and Exodus 24:10 which says that the elders of Israel saw God? We believe both passages exactly as written and realize that the context of John 1:18 is the Father. The are many times in the Word of God where God makes a temporal appearance in one form or another. Jesus Christ dwells in the very essence of the Father which no man has seen, and which only he can declare.
The common, worldly and mistaken concept of the Godhead is trivial. The new versions paint a picture of a generic god who is much like the god of the major world religions. They see that god as their father in the general idea that he made all things. To this, Paul partially assents. He quotes a Greek poet in saying, For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring, Acts 17:28. He follows that up in the next verse acknowledging that, we are the offspring of God.
That common realization between Christianity and paganism is that God created us all and that therefore we are his offspring. That common understanding was enough for the Apostle Paul to force his audience into recognizing that both common sense and the second commandment condemn thinking of God as a graven image. Having God as a father in the sense that he created us, is no substitute for having Jesus Christ reach into the Godhead and introduce a repentant sinner to his Father, whom no man can approach unto.
In the generic understanding of God, God as the father stays in heaven and sends forth Jesus Christ to dwell in a man's body. He is then killed, resurrected, and taken back to heaven. When a person gets saved he gets God's Spirit. Your King James Bible would have you see it differently.
We see the Father by studying Jesus Christ. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell, Colossians 1:19. It was the Father's choice that everything that is God should dwell in the flesh of Jesus Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2:9. Jesus is far more than God inside of a man.
His flesh is made up of the entire Godhead and that is a choice that the Father made. Let my readers consider; does God dwell in you? Do you have a man's body? Does that make you God? Obviously not, Jesus is far more than God dwelling in a man's body. And the Word was made flesh, John 1:14. It didn't say, the Word was put into flesh. It said, the Word was made flesh. John Calvin hated that understanding and said so in his John Commentary.
In his notes on John 1:14 he strongly disagreed with Servitus and the Anabaptists who thought that the flesh of Jesus Christ was God. He apparently also disagreed with the Apostle John who speaking of the flesh of Jesus Christ said, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, I John 1:1. John says that he handled that which was from the beginning. Did he handle the soul, the spirit or the flesh of Jesus Christ?
How could flesh which was made of the seed of David, (Romans 1:3); be from the beginning? The flesh is the Word. The Word was made flesh. Jesus Christ is not God poured into a man's body. He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Father chose that everything that is God should dwell in the flesh of Jesus Christ. The spirit and soul that commanded that body and claims it as his body is the second person of the Godhead.
We are all familiar with Jesus's answer to Phillip when Phillip wanted to see the Father; he that hath seen me hath seen the Father, John 14:9. What far fewer people grasp is that in the same chapter he also identified himself as the Holy Ghost, I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you, vs 18. How can that be? It can be because the it pleased the Father that in him (Jesus Christ) should all fullness dwell.
The idea that the Father stays in heaven and does not come inside the believer is contradicted by scripture. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all, Ephesians 4:6. The Apostle Paul says that he is inside of us. That glorious being who is described as the light which no man can approach unto, is living within the believer. We are complete in Jesus Christ. He declares the Father.