The Foolishness of denying Truth as a Person.
Colossians 1: 15 - 20. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 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.
Jesus was the personification of who God is. In Jesus dwelt the fullness of God. All that God was, Love, Truth, Wisdom, et al were all in Christ Jesus… for Jesus is God…
It is said by someone that Jesus is not literally The Way, The Truth and The Life… in that why did Jesus say that He was?
This person tried to show that by the Law of Co-equals:
Jesus=the Way.
Jesus=the Truth.
Jesus=the Life.
In that then Life equals Truth… equals The Way...
He tries to then say that the demons believe truth… yet are dead… yet that is not necessarily a good example as demons are eternal creatures… also Demons lie… and live not for truth but for lies… Though the demons believe truth... and tremble... they are not indwelled by it. Jesus will not indwell a demon so as far as the New Created order that began at the Tomb… Demons cannot have the Life of Christ nor take part of the New Creation! Their destiny is the Lake of Fire... the second death... so they will dwell in the second death for eternity.
So let’s look again…
Jesus is Logos in John 17:17 “Thy Word is Truth” or "Thy Logos is Truth"… Jesus is the Logos of God… the very Word breathed out in the Creation as Jesus was before all creation and nothing was created that was not created through Him. (Logos is rarely used in scripture to mean the scripture or the bible.)
In that being eternally in the Father, before creation, was also Life… For God is the giver of Life and the source of all Life… this eternal Life is now given to us though our faith in Jesus.
Truth can only dwell in us if Jesus does… and how does Jesus dwell in us? By His Spirit, or the Holy Spirit (Which is refered to as a Person also). The Holy Spirit is the Breath of Life itself that was breathed into Adam, then raised Jesus from the dead, and later breathed on the disciples. (John 20:22)
In contrast I am saying that these attributes of God are all personified in the person of Jesus… literally. To reduce this is to say that Jesus was just a way, a teacher of truth and a life style…
It opens the door to other ways… other truths and other lives… which is not what Jesus meant at all.
The Bible says God is love… and I take that literally also. Though God is love, love is not God. Love is part of the very character of God, though it in itself does not encompass God completely as to Who God is… This also applies to Jesus as He is the incarnation of God…
Though I do not worship truth… I do worship the Person of Jesus… and in Him dwells all Truth… He is the source. Thomas asked Jesus in John 14: 5 "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Simply Thomas was wanting to know a literal path or direction in which Jesus was heading. Jesus replies in verses 6 and 7 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Jesus stated plainly He is "the way"… (Which was very specific), "the truth" (again specific) and "the life" (again specific). Then Jesus points to their relationship with Him in order to have the way, the truth, the life… “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Literally Jesus is The Way… and knowing Jesus relationally then acknowledges Jesus as the Truth… and having seen Jesus they have now seen the Father… again I see this literally as Jesus was God incarnate…
John states in 1 John 4:16 “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” Life comes from our relationship with God… through Jesus being Life… as He indwells us with His Life… we are not “in Christ” as He is in the Father.
Literally Jesus becomes our very Life… as Paul states in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Again this theme is carried in Colossians 3: 3-4 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Also this states pretty clearly that Jesus is literally the life! For outside of Jesus there is no true life... and that is eternal life. Paul exhorts Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:19 “In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
Again, to use the logic that this person uses… the verses in Revelation 1: 8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
Jesus = Alpha
Jesus = Omega
So therefore Alpha = Omega…
This is fallacious as can be. Again part of Who Jesus is, is that He is the Alpha and Omega… not separately, but as a whole being… or person. In the same way people who are against the trinity try to say:
Father = 1
Jesus = 1
Spirit = 1
1+1+1= 3 so we have 3 gods…
Yet, if one uses algebra:
Father = 1
Jesus = 1
Spirit = 1
1x1x1= 1… God is One.
Each attribute would be looked at like this:
God = one
God = Love
God = truth
God = way
God = life
Love = One
Truth = one
Way = one
Life = one
So Love, truth, way, life all = one
God is again a whole being and not a sum of His parts or attributes. The attributes come out of Who God is.
In the same way Love is not God, nor Truth is God, nor is Life God… as it reverses the source of each and would make God subject to each of the attributes. IOW the parts then would make the god… and Not God having all these attributes that are in Him and are in essence literally Who He is…
We should never idolize one of God’s attributes at the expense of the others as God is not just parts, rather a whole being. Rather, each attribute works with each other, and all of God’s attributes work harmoniously together such that He is one integrated, undivided being. For God is One. This is the issue of modernity as it tries to explain things by just plain reason… or scientifically… it in its purity denies Who Jesus is.
So we should not place truth as higher than Jesus… which again is what modernity has done. To say propositional truth is the way to reason ones way to God is offering another “way, truth, and life” other than Jesus. It is saying that the parts and attributes of God are more worthy than God Himself as a whole Being. It cuts across the truth of Who Jesus truly is… and in how we must relate to Him to be saved.
The idea of God as a Whole Being is really even a bit to much for mere man to conceptualize. To think that by only the few attributes we do know of God… and to think by these few parts… we can construct God in His Fullness… is to bring God low. I believe that there are attributes of God and even conceptions within God Himself that are so far beyond our grasp… that to even hint we know God by our own reasoning is blasphemous! That is why God tells us Who He is by “revelation”. God is more complex than some will give Him credit.
(This is not "gnosticism" as I have been accused of teaching! Not even close. Rather it is more like getting to know a friend. It is being pulled in that friend’s life where both you life and theirs intertwine and have a unity. In that it becomes a shared life between both parties. Also "gnosis" is a very biblical word... and means simple "knowledge" it is used in the Greek in Luke 1:77, Luke 11:52, Romans 2:20 and on and on.)
So I appeal to those who worship only the “parts” and not the “whole” to press more in Christ to find the Person… Jesus.
Blessings,
iggy
Colossians 1: 15 - 20. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 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.
Jesus was the personification of who God is. In Jesus dwelt the fullness of God. All that God was, Love, Truth, Wisdom, et al were all in Christ Jesus… for Jesus is God…
It is said by someone that Jesus is not literally The Way, The Truth and The Life… in that why did Jesus say that He was?
This person tried to show that by the Law of Co-equals:
Jesus=the Way.
Jesus=the Truth.
Jesus=the Life.
In that then Life equals Truth… equals The Way...
He tries to then say that the demons believe truth… yet are dead… yet that is not necessarily a good example as demons are eternal creatures… also Demons lie… and live not for truth but for lies… Though the demons believe truth... and tremble... they are not indwelled by it. Jesus will not indwell a demon so as far as the New Created order that began at the Tomb… Demons cannot have the Life of Christ nor take part of the New Creation! Their destiny is the Lake of Fire... the second death... so they will dwell in the second death for eternity.
So let’s look again…
Jesus is Logos in John 17:17 “Thy Word is Truth” or "Thy Logos is Truth"… Jesus is the Logos of God… the very Word breathed out in the Creation as Jesus was before all creation and nothing was created that was not created through Him. (Logos is rarely used in scripture to mean the scripture or the bible.)
In that being eternally in the Father, before creation, was also Life… For God is the giver of Life and the source of all Life… this eternal Life is now given to us though our faith in Jesus.
Truth can only dwell in us if Jesus does… and how does Jesus dwell in us? By His Spirit, or the Holy Spirit (Which is refered to as a Person also). The Holy Spirit is the Breath of Life itself that was breathed into Adam, then raised Jesus from the dead, and later breathed on the disciples. (John 20:22)
In contrast I am saying that these attributes of God are all personified in the person of Jesus… literally. To reduce this is to say that Jesus was just a way, a teacher of truth and a life style…
It opens the door to other ways… other truths and other lives… which is not what Jesus meant at all.
The Bible says God is love… and I take that literally also. Though God is love, love is not God. Love is part of the very character of God, though it in itself does not encompass God completely as to Who God is… This also applies to Jesus as He is the incarnation of God…
Though I do not worship truth… I do worship the Person of Jesus… and in Him dwells all Truth… He is the source. Thomas asked Jesus in John 14: 5 "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Simply Thomas was wanting to know a literal path or direction in which Jesus was heading. Jesus replies in verses 6 and 7 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Jesus stated plainly He is "the way"… (Which was very specific), "the truth" (again specific) and "the life" (again specific). Then Jesus points to their relationship with Him in order to have the way, the truth, the life… “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Literally Jesus is The Way… and knowing Jesus relationally then acknowledges Jesus as the Truth… and having seen Jesus they have now seen the Father… again I see this literally as Jesus was God incarnate…
John states in 1 John 4:16 “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” Life comes from our relationship with God… through Jesus being Life… as He indwells us with His Life… we are not “in Christ” as He is in the Father.
Literally Jesus becomes our very Life… as Paul states in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Again this theme is carried in Colossians 3: 3-4 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Also this states pretty clearly that Jesus is literally the life! For outside of Jesus there is no true life... and that is eternal life. Paul exhorts Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:19 “In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
Again, to use the logic that this person uses… the verses in Revelation 1: 8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
Jesus = Alpha
Jesus = Omega
So therefore Alpha = Omega…
This is fallacious as can be. Again part of Who Jesus is, is that He is the Alpha and Omega… not separately, but as a whole being… or person. In the same way people who are against the trinity try to say:
Father = 1
Jesus = 1
Spirit = 1
1+1+1= 3 so we have 3 gods…
Yet, if one uses algebra:
Father = 1
Jesus = 1
Spirit = 1
1x1x1= 1… God is One.
Each attribute would be looked at like this:
God = one
God = Love
God = truth
God = way
God = life
Love = One
Truth = one
Way = one
Life = one
So Love, truth, way, life all = one
God is again a whole being and not a sum of His parts or attributes. The attributes come out of Who God is.
In the same way Love is not God, nor Truth is God, nor is Life God… as it reverses the source of each and would make God subject to each of the attributes. IOW the parts then would make the god… and Not God having all these attributes that are in Him and are in essence literally Who He is…
We should never idolize one of God’s attributes at the expense of the others as God is not just parts, rather a whole being. Rather, each attribute works with each other, and all of God’s attributes work harmoniously together such that He is one integrated, undivided being. For God is One. This is the issue of modernity as it tries to explain things by just plain reason… or scientifically… it in its purity denies Who Jesus is.
So we should not place truth as higher than Jesus… which again is what modernity has done. To say propositional truth is the way to reason ones way to God is offering another “way, truth, and life” other than Jesus. It is saying that the parts and attributes of God are more worthy than God Himself as a whole Being. It cuts across the truth of Who Jesus truly is… and in how we must relate to Him to be saved.
The idea of God as a Whole Being is really even a bit to much for mere man to conceptualize. To think that by only the few attributes we do know of God… and to think by these few parts… we can construct God in His Fullness… is to bring God low. I believe that there are attributes of God and even conceptions within God Himself that are so far beyond our grasp… that to even hint we know God by our own reasoning is blasphemous! That is why God tells us Who He is by “revelation”. God is more complex than some will give Him credit.
(This is not "gnosticism" as I have been accused of teaching! Not even close. Rather it is more like getting to know a friend. It is being pulled in that friend’s life where both you life and theirs intertwine and have a unity. In that it becomes a shared life between both parties. Also "gnosis" is a very biblical word... and means simple "knowledge" it is used in the Greek in Luke 1:77, Luke 11:52, Romans 2:20 and on and on.)
So I appeal to those who worship only the “parts” and not the “whole” to press more in Christ to find the Person… Jesus.
Blessings,
iggy
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