Humans
Next Part I Am
In Jesus, God manifested himself as a human being. Before Jesus came, he had manifested himself in other ways. The laws and rituals of the Old Testament were shadows of divine truth. The ancient priests also revealed God, but not clearly. The scriptures revealed God to those few who had them and could understand them. Jesus went far beyond all previous revelations when he came to reveal God in human form.
He was the perfect revelation of God, but even he had limitations. He said this himself, ‘I have a baptism with which to be baptised; and how am I restricted until it is accomplished!’ He had accepted limitations when he came to earth in human form.
He was limited to one physical body. He could only be one type of person. He was a male, and could not also be female. He came as a Jew. He could not also be a Chinaman, an Indian or an African. He worked as a carpenter. He could not be a fisherman, a farmer, a nurse, an athlete, a musician or any other of the multitude of occupations now available to the human race. He only reached the age of 33. He never became a parent, or an older person. He expressed God totally in the one person that he was, a male, Jewish carpenter and itinerant preacher. His full body will be an expression and manifestation of God across the vast and varied spectrum that comprises mankind. How beautiful it will be to see Jesus manifested as male and female, in every race, at every age, in every occupation, with every physical appearance.
Pure light consists of all the individual colours added together. When all the different coloured lights of every member of Christ’s body unite, they will produce the pure, brilliant light of God.
Through previous centuries, the church has claimed to manifest God. Millions, if not billions, of people have believed that claim. What a limited manifestation it has been! The clergy has been a very small subset of the human race. In Roman Catholicism, they have been restricted to celibate males mainly European who have only ever had one job - the "priesthood." This was not God being made man. In that religious system, He was restricted to a minute minority of humanity.
Even the divinely ordained priesthood of the old covenant was available to only a very small group of people. They could only be male, between the ages of 30 and 50, and of the tribe of Levi. Women, the young, the old and those of other tribes were all excluded.
The true body of Christ, when manifested, will be fully human. It will reach across the whole spectrum of the human race. It will be a vast extension of Jesus, its head.
Gods
We move on to the fourth and most amazing part of our study. John’s gospel, more plainly than the other three, reveals Jesus as God.
As we have previously noted, John simply states, ‘the Word was God.’ He also quotes the confession of Thomas, ‘My Lord and my God.’ In addition he records 21 instances of Jesus using the divine name ‘I am.’ Twice he relates how the Pharisees attempted to stone Jesus for what they regarded as his blasphemous claims. In these and other ways John’s gospel presents Jesus as God. All the other New Testament writers also saw Jesus as God. Paul wrote that ‘God was manifest in the flesh’ (1 Tim 3: 16). The writer to the Hebrews described Jesus as ‘the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’ (Heb 1: 3).
Does John’s gospel present Jesus as God, and his followers as men, with an unbridgeable gap between the two? Is that the message of the New Testament, and indeed the whole Bible? For centuries, that is what the church has taught. In fact it is not very different from what the Greeks in ancient times believed, and the Hindus today, believe about their gods. For them gods are magical beings from another world, completely separate from the flesh and blood creatures that we are.
Did Jesus see himself as a different species from his followers? Did he regard himself as a totally separate class of being? Let us look at his words again.
Jesus said, ‘I and the Father are one’ (10: 30). The Jews reacted by picking up stones to throw at him. Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ ‘"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God"’ (31, 32).
The words that so offended the Pharisees were ‘I and the Father are one.’ They took these words as a blasphemous claim to be God. Jesus not only made this claim for himself, but he also extended the claim to his disciples. He prayed for his disciples (and for all those that were to believe in him down through the ages), ‘that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me’ (John 17: 21). His oneness with the Father was not something reserved for himself. He prayed that his followers would also know and experience that oneness.
What Jesus prayed was never just wishful thinking. He always prayed according to his Father’s will, and consequently every prayer he prayed was answered. Any prayer that Jesus prayed was as good as a statement of fact of what was going to happen! He prayed that his followers would become one with him and the Father. We can therefore take it as a fact that his followers will and do become one with him and the Father.
The Pharisees accused Jesus of blasphemy. How did Jesus answer them? He said, "Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’? If he called them ‘gods’, to whom the word of God came -- and the Scripture cannot be broken -- what about the one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son?’" (34-36)
Jesus did not deny their accusation. Instead he again extended the accusation to include his followers! He quoted Psalm 82: 6: ‘I said, "You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High."’ This passage spoke of gods, in the plural. Jesus showed that it was totally in line with the scriptures for not only him, but also his followers to claim to be sons of God.
Jesus continued his answer to the Pharisees with the words, ‘Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 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"’ (37, 38).
The miracles and the other actions of Jesus showed that God was his Father and he was God’s Son. However he called and equipped his disciples to do the same things that he did. He said, ‘I tell you the truth; anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father’ (John 14:12). The same miracles that proved Jesus was the Son of God will prove that his followers are sons of God.
Jesus emphasised that he ‘did nothing of himself.’ The Father who lived in him did everything. ‘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’ (John 14: 10). He went on to make the astonishing promise to his disciples that he and the Father would live in them also. ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’ (John 14:23). The Father that lived in Jesus also lives in us.
Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world.’ On another occasion he said to his disciples, ‘You are the light of the world.’
Shortly before he left his disciples, Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, ‘Go to my brothers and tell them, "I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God"’ (John 20: 17).
Jesus did not look at his disciples as separate beings of a lower grade or status. Neither does he look at us as inferior beings. He died so that the divine spirit that lived in him should come and live in us, and make us one with him. That spirit is the great I am that lives in us also. That spirit makes us sons of God.
Paul spoke of this as ‘the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now revealed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col 1: 26, 27). It was hidden from generations before Paul, and has been hidden from generations since that day. But now, as then, God is again revealing it to his saints.
Many years later, John himself wrote, ‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!’ (1 John 3: 1). We too look in amazement at our calling.
For a separate writing expanding this last section, see I Am.
The Spirit of Christ
We return now to Ezekiel’s vision to read more of what he saw. Speaking of the living beings he wrote, ‘Their wings were spread out upwards; each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two wings covering its body. Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went’ (Ezek 1: 11,12). These four living beings moved together in perfect unison; and they moved wherever the spirit led them. Paul echoed this with the words, ‘as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God’ (Rom 8: 14).
By nature we are not kings or servants or gods. We have neither the power to rule nor the humility to serve. We are nothing but degraded humans who are devoid of God. We can be none of these things by our own wisdom or strength or will power.
The Spirit of Christ is the great transformer. Even Jesus did nothing in his own strength. He himself said, ‘The Son can do nothing of himself’ and ‘I can of myself do nothing.’ He totally depended on the indwelling spirit of his Father for everything he did. That spirit in him was the authoritative king and the obedient servant. That spirit was the perfect man, and the almighty God.
That same spirit that was in him is now in us. What is impossible to the natural man is possible to God. The same spirit that made Jesus a king will make kings of the members of his body. That same spirit that made Jesus a servant will also make his body members servants. The same spirit that was God in Jesus will be God also in those who follow him. By that spirit they will become a glorious, united body, moving together in perfect unity and harmony. By that spirit they will be one with each other and one with God.
Next Part I Am