Aug 3

“... to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;” Colossians 2:2

The apostle desires the hearts of the saints to be comforted, knit together in love and reassured in the understanding they have been imparted of the truths of God. In particular he points here to the doctrinal truth, the ‘mystery’ of God, now revealed. This has to do with the powerful truth that God is One. Some would divide God into three separate, distinct persons rather than to see He is but One God, who manifests Himself in multiple ways. This is in part the truth over which Paul wanted the saints at Colossi to rejoice and be assured in. He also instructs them, later in the same chapter, not to be deterred from this truth by traditions, deceptions, philosophies or man’s reasoning. He reminds them that in Jesus dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and that they and all believers are complete in Him! This powerful and liberating truth identifies God and focuses all the glory, the honour, the power and the worship to the One to Whom it belongs! Hearing from, obeying and following the ways of the Holy One of Israel, was and remains core doctrine among the Hebrews and should be so among all Christians also. All of deity, the fullness of it, is in Christ Jesus! It is all in Him! Scholars agree that ‘and’ (kai, in the Greek) may be rendered to mean ‘even’, or ‘that is’, and does not always imply a ‘copulative’ (addition) action. Thus the mystery of God ‘and’ of the Father, ‘and’ of Christ, in our verse, is not a mystery involving three beings, persons or gods. It is the mystery of God, now revealed to man through His word involving God, that is, the Father that is, Christ! We are told in 1Timothy 3 that the great mystery of the Godhead is how that God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory! Jesus fits all of that description! Paul confirms that the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelt in Jesus, not just a portion, a second person, a third or a partial aspect! The same One God, who was the Father in eternity, took on the form of man and became known as the Son of God in redemption, died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead, and now abides as the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers! This is a great assurance, a cause of great comfort, and an establishing, stabilising truth to all the faithful - that we may personally know the God we have believed in and trusted for our salvation! 

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Mar 20

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…” Hebrews 1:3

Jesus has existed from eternity as the one and solitary ‘person’, the Only Eternal God, The Father. God became incarnate when He overshadowed the virgin Mary, and the child Jesus was born. He was the Son of God, the ‘body’ of God, the incarnate God, the Messiah, the Sent One. Jesus on earth was still the Jesus of eternity, not a separate person, but rather the same eternal God in a different office, fulfilling the function of Redeemer of the world and Saviour of a lost humanity. The Son (God the Father, in flesh), was born for the purpose of showing the invisible God to the world and dying as a substitute in payment for the sin of the world. The role of Sonship, was specific in purpose, and pre-determined in outcome.  Everything Jesus did while on earth as the Son, was intended to glorify the Father (Jesus in Eternity), teach man how to obey the Father, and show humanity the way of salvation which the Father has provided. Our verse clearly reveals the identity of the Son! Jesus on earth shone the brightness of His own eternal glory, as the Father in heaven! No man could ever stand to see the raw brightness and glory of God, but in Christ, humanity saw it. God’s glory, brilliance, intensity of power and wisdom, is seen and revealed through Christ Jesus, as the Son on earth. All we know and understand of God and His will for us, has been brought to us, via His incarnation. The entire tenor of the teachings of Christianity, revolves around this very glory, the bright light of truth which has challenged the darkness of man’s sin. The eternal God is a Spirit and has no bodily form, except in what He showed us through Christ Jesus. Jesus as the Son, while on earth, was the express image of the eternal God. What could ever be seen of the substance of God, is seen only in Christ! When we reach heaven, once again we will only ever be able to see the Eternal God, in the One and singular person and substance of Jesus. Jesus will have fulfilled His role as the Son, and will continue to be the Eternal God (the Father), He has always been! God did not send another to show us His glory, express His substance and die for us - He came Himself!  

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion