The Knowledge of the Father
The Knowledge of the Father
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (I John 1:3)
Around 1948, probably before you were born, a distinguished Assemblies of God pastor and elder, by the name of Elmer Fullerton, came to the Berean Bible Institute in San Diego, California.
Audrey and I were students there at that time.
Brother Fullerton had just experienced a wonderful revelation of the Lord. He had been a Pentecostal preacher for many years. But what he told us students about was an experience past the baptism with the Spirit.
His main emphasis was Christ in us, and also the rest of God, of Hebrews, Chapter Four.
"Knowing the Father" was one of the many topics he mentioned. I have never forgotten that. I felt it was true and important, but during the following years of preaching and teachings I have not stressed this particular subject.
My emphasis through the years has been on the spiritual fulfillment of the last three feasts of the Lord: the Blowing of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; and the feast of Tabernacles.
If I am not mistaken, the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, in which the Father and the Son come and make their eternal home in the believer, is an occasion for thinking about the Father.
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." (John 14:23)
If an individual had never been exposed to the doctrine of the Trinity, and he or she were asked if John 14:23 meant one Person or two People were coming to make His/Their home in us, how would he or she respond?
The individual probably would say, "Two Persons will come and make Their home with us."
Am I correct or not? I grow suspicious when scholars inform us that a Bible passage does not mean exactly what it states. How about you?
I now am going to explain how this confusion came about. I would not spend time on it, except I believe that when we understand that the Father and Jesus are two different Persons it helps us understand more clearly what is meant when the Bible states that we are being made one in Christ and God just as Christ and God are One.
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)
The following passage is a basis for believing that The Father and the Son are the same Person.
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'? (John 14:9)
"Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father."
Doesn't that prove that Jesus and the Father are the same Person?
But the next verse demonstrates clearly that Jesus is not saying that He Himself is the Father.
Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. (John 14:10)
"I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me."
Now, if Christ were the Father, would He say that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him?
Can you see the difference between "the Father," and "Me"?
"The Father, living in Me, is doing His work."
If Jesus were the Father, would it make sense for Him to say "The Father living in Me is doing His work"?
Has Christ lost any of His majesty because He is not the Father but rather the Dwelling Place of the Father?
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)
The passage above, while upholding the supremacy of Christ, reveals clearly that Jesus Christ and God (the Father) are two different Persons.
Notice carefully:
Christ is the image of the invisible God. Christ is not the invisible God.
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him."
"His fullness" is referring to the Father. "Dwell in Him" is referring to the Lord Jesus.
Christ created all personages and things. Yet it was God creating them through Christ.
But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 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. (Hebrews 1:2,3)
God has spoken to us by His Son. Two Persons-–God and the Son.
God has appointed His Son as the Heir of all things. Two Persons.
The Lord Jesus is the Radiance of God's glory. Two Persons.
Christ is the exact Representation of God's Being. Two Persons.
Sat down at the right hand of God. Two Persons.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered. (Hebrews 5:8)
To whom did Christ learn obedience? To Himself?
The following is interesting:
The Lord says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." (Psalms 110:1)
"The Lord" is the Father.
"My Lord" is the Lord Jesus, who sits at God's right hand.
Again:
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. (I Timothy 2:5)
I don't think it is likely that Christ Jesus is a mediator between Himself and mankind. Do you?
The clearest demonstration of the difference between the Father and the Son occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane. It would take an intricate theological explanation to prove that the will of Christ and the will of the Father were not two separate, distinct wills.
Beyond doubt it is an individual's will that is the most authentic proof of his uniqueness as a person.
There are many other passages that show Christ and the Father to be two Persons. For example, Christ said "My Father is greater than I."
"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.'" (John 14:28)
The Lord did not say My Father is equal to Me. Christ said, "My Father is greater than I."
Also:
Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father." (Matthew 20:23)
And:
The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. (Revelation 1:1)
And notice:
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:34)
Is the Lord Jesus Christ sitting at His own right hand and praying to Himself concerning us?
We know also from reading our Bible that Christ spent long hours in prayer to the Father. It is interesting, isn't it, that although the Fullness of God dwells in Christ, Christ did not pray to the Father who was in Him. Christ always prayed to the Father in Heaven. Did you ever think about that?
I would imagine that what I have written above would convince most people that Christ is not the Father. The Father is the Father. The Son is the Son. The Spirit is the Spirit. "God in three Persons," the old hymn declares. And so He is.
I would not waste your time if I were not going somewhere with this.
As I stated previously, my chief burden has been the spiritual fulfillment of the last three feasts of the Lord. The final and climactic celebration is the feast of Tabernacles.
In the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles the Father and the Son come to us and make Their eternal home in us. The Spirit of God already is dwelling in us and preparing the way for the Father and the Son, as I see it.
Not surprisingly, as I thought about the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, the introduction to the Father that Brother Fullerton taught came to mind.
My principal burden in the present hour, and has been for about two years, is that of learning to live by the Life of the Lord Jesus. This is in preparation for the moral and physical chaos that is on the horizon for us in America.
Learning to live by the Life of Jesus means sharing His current thoughts, words, and actions throughout our life each day.
This is not as difficult as it might appear to the young Christian. It means that throughout the day and night we are looking to the Lord Jesus for what we are thinking, saying, and doing.
In other words, we are praying continually. We are not petitioning Christ continually for our needs, rather we are entering a dialogue, just as would any two friends who were working together.
This is not meant to imply that Christ keeps talking to us. He seldom speaks clearly to us. But as we keep acknowledging all our ways to Him, He answers us in different ways; and He always directs our path.
In any case, His palpable Presence is with us as we keep looking to Him for all things.
Nothing short of this will enable us to stand in Christ, and help other to stand, once the Divine judgment of God begins to remove America's standing as the world leader.
I believe the Spirit has told me that much blood is going to be shed.
The Apostle Paul said he was endeavoring to know Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:8)
"The surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
When we think of "eternal" life we picture a long period of time. But as far as I know, all spirits live forever, in one condition or another.
So we are not talking about length of existence when we refer to eternal life. We are speaking rather of becoming a part of God to such an extent that we are living by His Life.
It is a quality of life rather than an assurance that we are not going to cease to exist some day.
The reason I have spent so many words "proving" that the Father and the Son are not the same Person is that we have trouble "knowing" Christ when we picture Him as the Father.
The Father, God Almighty, the One who created all things through Christ, is not readily comprehensible. It is true that Christ stretched out the firmament and its stars and planets with a word. That thought alone is incomprehensible. But we must keep firmly in mind that it was the Father who did this through Christ, or so the Bible informs us.
If we did not remember that Christ is the Son of God, and not the Father Himself, we might give up trying to be a friend, a brother, of Christ. Who could be a friend, a brother, or a part of God Almighty?
Yet, the Bible call us to fellowship with God.
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (I John 1:3)
We are to have fellowship with the Father as well as fellowship with His Son.
Have you ever heard anyone say they have fellowship with the Father? Neither have I. Yet there is no statement in the Bible that is not relevant and absolutely necessary to our redemption. If it were not, God would not have placed it there.
We are to have fellowship with the Father, according to the Bible.
Please keep in mind that when we were born again, God became our father. We no longer are solely human. Divinity has entered us.
Having been born of God, we now are part human and part Divine.
And here is the point, and it is a stumbling block to many. When we were born again we became eligible to be a brother, a friend, a co-heir with the Lord Jesus. We are not as exalted as He in authority and glory. The Father has made Christ, God and our Lord so we can worship Him. We are not to worship each other.
Yet, we, when we are born again, have the same Father. That makes us true brothers of Christ, as infantile as we may be.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29)
Having been born again, we are of the same Divine Nature as He.
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.. (II Peter 1:3,4)
That says it, doesn't it? We participate in the Divine Nature.
Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11)
The following passage has been a great blessing to me, because it reveals the joy of Jesus Christ as He considers the idea of having brothers and sisters.
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" (John 20:17)
My Father and your Father.
My God and your God.
Is Jesus' Father our Father?
Is Jesus' God our God?
Is Jesus' Father actually our Father? Does Jesus have a God? Is Jesus' God our God? Is this what the Bible teaches? Is the Bible true?
I have been a Christian since I was eighteen. And tomorrow I will be 89. How many years is that? I am here to declare to you that the Bible is God's very Word—every word of it. It has proved out in my life.
So I am stating that we who have been born again are genuine brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ, and partakers of the same Divine Nature as He.
But just because we have "accepted Christ" does not mean we now are fully mature sons and daughters of God and know Christ. We may have very little understanding of Christ and of our Father.
How then do we lay hold on eternal life? How do we come to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent?
We come to know God by a multitude of deaths and resurrections. As we are willing to set aside our own plans, hopes, goals, treasures, and so forth, and give our life to Christ (which is the same as giving it to God), we are raised up by the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus. Every day we die in the Lord. Every day we live by the resurrection Life of Jesus Christ. Day in and day out we die and live; die and live; die and live.
"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. (Isaiah 43:10)
This is how we come to know Jesus Christ, and the Father also. It is by experience.
As we press further into the Life of Christ, we find that the Father is becoming ever more real to us.
We can be a Christian for many years, and not know God.
We can be a minister of the Gospel for many years, and yet not know God.
We can work many miracles, signs and wonders in Jesus' name, and not know God.
We come to know God only as we become poor in spirit, setting aside our own desires and ambitions that we might have the desires and ambitions of Christ.
We are to make ourselves of no reputation, having the sentence of death in ourselves that we might live by the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus.
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. (John 14:19-21)
If we truly are coming to know the Father, our behavior will be according to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, Chapters 5-7). Our conformity to the Sermon on the Mount will be spontaneous, as we carefully follow and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wrote this essay about our coming to know the Father because it is an integral aspect of the spiritual fulfillment of the last three feasts of the Lord. But as the text came together I found myself stressing that the Father and Christ are two distinct Persons.
This was not my original intent. I merely desire that the Christians recognize that there is a distinct Person, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we may pray and love, and who loves us.
And do you know, when we receive Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, the Father of Jesus in actuality becomes our Father also.
I do not know what Jesus was like when He emerged from the Father as the Word. He was not a human being at that time. I wonder sometimes if Jesus, after He became a human being, could remember what it was like to speak the spiritual and physical creations into existence, as the Father directed Him.
But then the Father somehow fertilized the chosen Egg in Mary and Christ no longer was only the Word that emerged from the Father. Jesus now is an authentic Human Being in whom the Fullness of the Father is dwelling.
He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. (Revelation 19:13)
Jesus is termed "the Word of God" in the description of His return to the earth to set up His Kingdom. However, the bulk of the New Testament references to Jesus view Him as a genuine Human Being and not as the mystical Power through whom God created all things.
Why is this important?
It is important, because in the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus does not always come across as a human being with whom we can have fellowship.
When we claim that Jesus is one manifestation of God, He can be viewed as a sort of hologram, not a person in his own right at all.
True salvation results in a very personal relationship with the Lord. When we think of the Lord as one part of the invisible God, if my opinion is correct, this viewpoint tends to lessen if not inhibit totally our having a friendly, brother to brother, relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus has been my best friend for about seventy years. I do not think of Him as being a manifestation of the Father but as a Brother, although highly exalted.
My observation is that the Christian religion, in its doctrine of the Trinity, has made our Lord one aspect of an incomprehensible Deity, not a Brother to whom we can relate as we would to an earthly brother.
Also, it appears to me that we have lost sight of the experience of having fellowship with the Father. I may be incorrect in this, but I seldom or never have heard a minister of the Gospel speak of having fellowship with the Father.
So perhaps, as we are entering the spiritual fulfillments of the final three feasts of the Lord, the Blowing of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; and the feast of Tabernacles; fellowship with the Father as well as with the Son may become more familiar to us.
I am sure the Father will enjoy having fellowship with us. After all, the Lord Jesus did not come to earth to be the way to Himself but the Way to the Father.
We might say that Christ is one Expression of the Father. But I say that He is the Son of the Father, and not the Father Himself. This has to be if we are to be one in Him and the Father as He is One with the Father.
A highly placed religious leader was quoted recently as saying that to have a personal relationship with Jesus is dangerous. Our only safety it to relate to Jesus through the properly ordained clergy of the Church.
Right here is one result of the doctrine that Jesus is not an authentic human being in His own right but an expression of the Father. I think the idea here is that we humble believers are not qualified to have a friendly relationship with Christ because we are not ordained clergy.
Isn't the "priest and people" an abominable and destructive concept! Yet to a greater or lesser extent it pervades religious organizations in one symptom or another.
For that matter, we could say that the Apostle Paul is an expression of Christ.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
"I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
If Paul no longer lives, but Christ lives in him, could we say in truth that the Apostle Paul is an expression of Christ?
We could, but this does not mean Paul and Christ are the same person.
Yes, someone might protest, but the Word was in the beginning with God and is Divine.
True enough. But remember that the Lord Jesus was genuinely born of a human being. God was the Father. Mary, a human being was the mother.
So our Lord Jesus is Son of God and Son of man.
I do not believe any Christian would disagree with that.
The Lord Jesus Christ is very Man, that is, He is an actual Man. He is more than a reflection of the Father.
I am writing this because I wish to invite all Christians to come into a personal relationship with a fellow human being—someone who has been tempted just as they, although, having been conceived by the Father, was without a sinful nature.
I envision the true Church as something different from the way in which we view a church. I believe the true Church, that which will be gathered together by the Lord when He next comes, is to be a collection of brothers and sisters, not members of any organization. Each one will have an intense personal relationship with the Man, Christ Jesus.
This holy group will automatically be one, we might say, in that each member is an integral part of Him who is mature in them and also One with the Father.
I am not suggesting, nor would it be wise in the present hour, for the true Christians to leave the denominational structures. The result of such an exodus would be a new denomination. We would be repeating the historical error—that of being led by the self-will of people rather than the Spirit of God.
But I have no doubt the moment will come when the Spirit of God says clearly, "Come out of her, My people." I think this summons will come in the future. Then the brothers and sisters will be gathered together to the Lord Jesus, transformed in body, and caught up together with the saints who have come with Jesus.
They all will meet at the staging area in the air. Then the army of saints and angels, with the Lord Jesus at the head, will descend and confront the armies of Antichrist.
The Lord has not returned as yet, and probably will not for some time. There is much that has to transpire first, according to the Book of Daniel.
The task of each believer at the present time is to confess and turn away from sin and self-will. The Spirit of God will help with this.
Also each believer must seek his or her own gifts and ministries and employ them faithfully in order that the members of the Body of Christ may come to maturity in Christ.
We cannot come to know the Father while we have Him mixed together with the Lord Jesus. We cannot come to know the Lord Jesus while we have Him mixed together with the Father as though somehow They are the same person.
A minister of the Gospel, I can't remember whom, and assuredly do not wish to criticize the individual, stated that when Christ was on earth the Throne of God in Heaven was unoccupied. If such were the case, why did Jesus look to Heaven when He prayed? To whom was Christ praying?
But such a viewpoint could be gained from the doctrine of the Trinity, I believe.
This is the damage caused by the doctrine of the Trinity. While the purpose of the doctrine of the Trinity is to properly exalt the Lord Jesus to His position as Lord of all, a position given to Him by His Father, there can be an unintended consequence. That unintended consequence is the separating of Christ from His brothers and sisters so they no longer can truly be one in Christ in God.
The best news of all is that each person called to be a member of the Body of Christ is, in the nature of things, called to be an integral part of Christ and the Father. There is no destiny that can ever equal that in majesty and splendor.
Thus the Hebrew Sh'ma , "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one," is fulfilled. Each member of the Body of Christ is One in Christ who is One in the Father.
In the Father's House, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, there are many rooms. Each member of the Body of Christ is a room in Christ, and has a marvelous inheritance of people.
Christ, Head and Body, is One in the Father. The Whole is one God, in the sense in which I am speaking. Such is the destiny of those who are called to be part of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The moment after Satan chose to follow his own will instead of the Father, the Father decided to create a Kingdom that for eternity would govern the creation. That Kingdom is the new Jerusalem.
The new Jerusalem consists of the members of the Royal Priesthood. It is the eternal Temple of God. Every member of the Royal Priesthood is distinguished by the fact that he or she does God's will sternly and completely at all times.
The Throne of God Almighty will be located for eternity in the hearts of the Royal Priesthood. They shall govern the creation so that no angel or human being ever again will set his or her will against the will of the Father.
Indeed, in answer to the prayers of millions of Christian people, God's Kingdom shall come. His will shall be done in the earth as it is in Heaven, as soon as the heavens have been brought into subjection to God's will by the Lamb and His followers.
In the present hour the Spirit of God is inviting whosoever will choose to do so to renounce and turn away from his sins, and to set aside his own will that God's will may be done in all aspect of his life.
Choosing to do God's will even when we are in the furnace of affliction, is absolutely necessary if we are to be gathered to the Lord Jesus when He appears. No self-willed person is competent or qualified to be a soldier in the army which Christ will lead as He descends to set up the Kingdom of God on the earth.
Let each one of us count ourselves dead with Christ on the cross so we may live by His resurrection Life and thus be qualified to be a part of the conquest of evil.
If we will set ourselves, even today, to think along in concert with the Lord Jesus, to speak along in concert with the Lord Jesus, and to act in concert along with the Lord Jesus, we can say. "He who has seen me has seen Christ."
And he who has seen Christ has seen the Father. Thus the original mandate is operating: we have been created in the very image of God; and one day, when our body has been transformed, we also will be in God's likeness as well as in His moral image.
We have been called to have fellowship with the Father. We have been called also to have fellowship with our Lord Jesus. We have been called to be one in Christ and the Father as Christ is One in the Father.
So there may come a day when we actually know God as our Father. We may even see His Face, when we all become as little children! We can hasten that day by looking to the Lord Jesus for everything we think, say, and do.
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." (Exodus 19:5,6)
They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. (Revelation 22:4)