Friday Morning Manna July 5, 2019
Nathaniel Fajardo
email: [email protected]
The Humanity That Will Forever Share with Divinity the Throne of the Universe
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest [most holy of the heavenly sanctuary] by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.”
Heb. 10: 19, 20, N.K.J.V.
From Desire of Ages, pp. 23, 24:
“Nearly two thousand years ago, a voice of mysterious import was heard in heaven, from the throne of God, ‘Lo, I come.’ ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me. . . . Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.’ Heb. 10: 5-7. In these words is announced the fulfillment of the purpose that had been hidden from eternal ages.
Christ was about to visit our world, and to become incarnate. He says, ‘A body has Thou prepared Me.’ Had He appeared with the glory that was His with the Father before the world was, we could not have endured the light of His presence. That we might behold it and not be destroyed, the manifestation of His glory was shrouded. His divinity was veiled with humanity,—the invisible glory in the visible form. [Shrouded same as veiled].
“The great purpose had been shadowed forth in types and symbols. The burning bush, in which Christ appeared to Moses, revealed God. The symbol chosen for the representation of the Deity was a lowly shrub, that seemingly had no attractions. [see on Isa.__]. This enshrined the Infinite. The all-merciful God shrouded His glory in a most humble type, that Moses could look upon it and live. So in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God communicated with Israel, revealing to men His will, and imparting to them His grace. God’s glory was subdued, and His majesty veiled, that the weak vision of finite men might behold it. So Christ was to come in ‘the body of our humiliation’ (Phil. 3: 21, R.V.) ‘in the likeness of men.’ In the eyes of the world He possessed no beauty that they should desire Him [a shout out to all artists who have been vainly trying to portray Jesus as the most physically beautiful man ever!]; yet He was the incarnate God, the light of heaven and earth. His glory was veiled, His greatness and majesty were hidden, that He might draw near to sorrowful, tempted men.
The full sanctuary doctrine reveals Christ’s human nature: Christ’s own human nature “tabernacle-sanctuary” in contrast to man’s human nature “tabernacle-temple.” – “God commanded Moses for Israel, ‘Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.’ (Exo. 25: 8)., and He abode in the sanctuary, in the midst of the people. Through all their weary wandering in the desert, the symbol of His presence was with them. So Christ set up His tabernacle [also referring the human body, see 2 Cor. 5: 1-4__] in the midst of human encampment. He pitched His tent by the sides of the tents of men, that He might dwell among us, and to make us familiar with His divine character and life [this is the “divine nature” that is imparted by the Holy Spirit to the truly-born again Christian!]‘The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.’ John 1: 13, R.V.” DA 23, 24.
“Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam [after the fall] may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners [Who hates sin with perfect hatred]. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Savior’s life on earth, we see ‘God with us.’
“Satan represents God’s law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading men to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us [in His incarnation] He was to give an example of obedience. For this he took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experience. ‘In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.’ Heb. 2: 17. If we had to bear anything which Jesus did not endure, then upon this point Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us. Therefore, Jesus was ‘in all points tempted as we are.’ Heb. 4: 15. He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God. He says, [Ps. 40: 8 quoted]. As He went about doing good, and healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to men the character of God’s law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God. Paul declared, “We are justified by His blood . . . and saved by His life.” Rom. 9, 10]. . . . ‘God with us’ [in the incarnated Creator] is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of heaven.” – Ibid, p. 25.
Other reasons for the incarnation. – “In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan. But He stepped still lower in the path of humiliation. ‘Being found in the fashion as a man [‘likeness of sinful flesh,’ Rom. 8: 3], He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’ Phil. 2: 8. As the [typical] high priest laid aside his glorious pontifical robes, and officiated in the white linen dress of the common priest [during the day of atonement], so Christ took the form of a servant, and offered sacrifice, Himself the priest, Himself the victim. [Isa. 53: 5 quoted]. [Now, what other human being is capable of being both priest and sacrifice in one?]
“Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. ‘With His stripes we are healed.’
“By His life and death [in His one-of-a-kind human nature], Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan’s purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ [in His adopted humanity] we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Savior has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. [see below how!] Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. [John 3: 16 quoted]. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace [Heb. 6: 17, 18], God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder.’ God [the Father] has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven [into the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary in the third heaven, Paradise itself, 2 Cor. 12; 1-4]. It is the ‘Son of man’ who shares the throne of the universe. It is the ‘Son of man’ whose name shall be called ‘Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of peace.’ Isa. 9: 6.”
It may appear that that Christ, as the Son of man, not as the Son of God, who is being uplifted here. But it isn’t so. It is the Father who is being glorified, as Christ always said and did, because the Father adopted the exact same human nature that His Son incarnated into, in and through His Son’s person—they being one from the beginning. That is, because of the mysterious incarnation, the Father now had a human-divine Son, where before it was exclusively a divine Son.
And since the Father Himself addresses His Son as God, saying, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom” (Heb.1: 8), and John says Jesus “the Word, in the beginning was with God, and was God, and that same was in the beginning with God who then “was made flesh and dwelt among us,” the new relationship in their unchanging oneness as God, after the incarnation, was now Christ the Man, Christ in His one-of-a-kind human nature that had to be perfected to be the Savior for fallen man, Him learning obedience through the suffering of temptation as part of His mission on earth. (Heb. 5: 8, 9). The only-begotten Son of God, after the incarnation, is now also the Son of man, will, in the grand finale of the gospel, be named, “The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace!” But He had to first incarnate into that human nature. Now you know what kind!
“In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together [see on Eph. 3: 14-21]. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of infinite love.” – Ibid, pp. 25, 26.
Once more, the emphasis in the context of these passages and verses quoted, is, the “Son of man’ contrasted to “the Son of God.’ The time is hastening, i.e., after the Biblical millennium, according to the glorious plan of redemption, when the eternal throne of the universe, still currently temporarily vacant since Christ left it, will be finally and eternally shared and occupied again between (1) humanity and divinity, in Christ, and, between (2) Christ in His blended Person of human and divine natures, with the divine Persons of the Father and the Holy Spirit, both Spirits and invisible,—“for these Three are One.” 1 John 5: 7. Previous to the incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of Christ, the Son of man, no humanity ever “shared” or occupied the throne of the universe; only the Godhead did in their divine natures.
Even as Christ alone is “the brightness of His (Father’s) glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3), it is He alone who was appointed in the Godhead, in their counsel of peace, to adopt human nature in His person. And, if He did not fail and fall under test, trial and temptation in that human nature, as the first Adam did, He, the second Adam would then take this particular human nature, that was “perfected by learning obedience through suffering of temptation” (Heb. 5: 8, 9), with Him to the highest heavens, throughout eternity. Herein resides the pledge that God will keep all His promises to contrite sinners!
It was after having read the foregoing passages many years ago—that our Creator will forever retain His adopted human nature throughout eternity, and that it is through Christ’s human nature that those who are judged eternally saved, will become more closely united to the Father than if they have never fallen—was one of those details in the present, sealing truth subjects that grabbed my attention, challenged whatever ideas I had about of Jesus and then changed my view and understanding of who He really is, what He gave up, what He lost, what He gained, and what eternally changed in His relationship and standing with the Father, not only in order to save a wretch like me but to elevate me into a new and higher relationship and standing with the Father and the Son—one greater than that of the angels who have never fallen!
Those first salvo of impressions revealed how sickeningly ignorant I was of Christ’s nature that formed so much part of His sacrifice, way before and way after Calvary, because I had no reason or motivation to know what it was. It did not matter or bother me at that time. I did not even think about it. On the other hand, in the same manner I believed that Santa Claus was real with all those Christmas fairy tales reinforced in children’s books, pageants, stage dramas, films, and song, I even faintly entertained the still-persisting error today that Jesus’s divinity derived from His earthly mother, Mary, with emphasis on her virginity and so-called “immaculate conception: nowhere found in the Bible! I humbly believe I now know much better, and still want to know more but only as Christ is willing to reveal.
Before the incarnation, the Creator’s nature was only divine as were and forever will be that of the Father and the Holy Spirit. “God is Spirit.” John 4: 24. “No man has seen the Father except the Son.” But Christ is “the express image of the person of the Father.” In reply to Philip’s spiritually puerile request, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” [Philip spoke for the rest of the disciples as well!]. God’s servant wrote:
“Amazed at his dullness of comprehension [like I was regarding Christ’s human nature], Christ asked with pained surprise,’ Have I been with you so long , and yet you have not known me, Philip?’ He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father?” John 14: 8, 9. Is it possible that you do not see the Father in the works He does through Me? . . . Christ had not ceased to be God when He became man. Though He had humbled Himself to humanity, the Godhead was still His own. Christ alone could represent the Father to humanity, and this representation the disciples had been privileged to behold for over three years. . . .The Savior was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what purpose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God, that man might be uplifted by its restoring power. God was manifested in Him [in His adopted human nature] that He might be manifested in them [the disciples]. Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers [in His human nature], that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity [in stark contrast to our imperfect humanity] is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was.” – Desire of Ages, pp. 663, 664.
If, by now, we haven’t yet seen and known as much as has already been revealed in the Word, of God in the flesh, whom the disciples confessed they “had heard, seen with our own eyes, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1: 1), how can we ever hope to actually know the invisible Father, who is Spirit, thus invisible, whom Christ came to reveal or manifest in the flesh, which is visible? (To be continued next week)