Appearances of Christ in the Old Testament - Introduction

Video/audio transcript

00:0200:02 - all right guys this week we are picking back up in our study of Bible basics part one going over theology proper and
00:0900:09 - now we’re going to be talking about appearances of Christ in the Old Testament so in our last lesson we had
00:1500:15 - been covering the symbolism of blood sacrifice and some of the specific prophecy related to the Messiah in the
00:2200:22 - Old Testament and now we’re actually going to be talking about when the pre-incarnate Christ appeared and kind
00:2800:28 - of the language we used to describe that and how that fits into how God has related to humanity even before the
00:3600:36 - Incarnation when Christ took on a full human nature so uh in terms of things we’re going to be going over here uh
00:4300:43 - we’re going to start out just kind of giving an overview of of kind of when we’re talking about appearances of God
00:4800:48 - what does that mean what what words do we use and we’re going to be defining those words theophany and christophany
00:5500:55 - we’re going to be talking about the invisibility of the Father the inaccessibility of the father apart from
01:0101:01 - Christ that’s sort of like in relation to us as in the father’s inaccessible to us as sinful Humanity apart from the
01:0801:08 - blood of Christ and then the Dignity of the father and then finally we’re going to be talking about how you know in
01:1501:15 - contrast to these things the visibility accessibility and the humility of the son and how through him we are now able
01:2301:23 - to enter into the throne room of God with our prayers and once you know once the heavens and the Earth are remade the
01:3001:30 - father will then dwell with us but all of this is is sort of going to be talking about how the father is in the
01:3701:37 - third heaven at present veiled from us but we do have access to him through our Lord Jesus Christ who took on that human
01:4501:45 - nature to become the visible part of the trinity in God’s plan for Humanity and actually um as we’ll see as we go
01:5301:53 - through this lesson’s materials uh the second person in the Trinity the son has always been the visible part of the
02:0002:00 - Trinity so even at the beginning of Genesis when God is walking in the garden with Adam and Eve uh some people
02:0802:08 - might suppose that to be the father but we’re going to make the case that all of the appearances of God in the Old
02:1402:14 - Testament so-called theophanies are in fact christophanies that is they are appearances of the pre-incarnate Jesus
02:2202:22 - Christ and so we’ll go over all this in more detail but these are the things that we’re going to be covering in the
02:2802:28 - lesson this time so just starting with an overview here of where we’re going to be going this
02:3802:38 - week we’re going to be talking a bit here about the presentation of the trinity in the Old Testament and so we
02:4402:44 - spent some time covering all of the passages for the trinity in the New Testament and uh kind of where we get
02:5102:51 - the concept from all of these verses that that basically clearly presuppose the existence of the trinity um and so
03:0003:00 - uh We’ve made the point before that the Bible doesn’t so much argue for it in like an apologetic sense as it just
03:0603:06 - takes it for granted um and we’re going to be kind of examining the Old Testament perspective now uh we’ve
03:1303:13 - already been doing that some but in this specific lesson and uh the things that we’re going to be talking about moving
03:1803:18 - forward we’re going to be talking about kind of how God Appears to humanity in the Old Testament and so in terms of the
03:2603:26 - presentation of the Trinity uh there the difference here between the Old and New Testaments is
03:3203:32 - that in the New Testament Christ is clearly visible and distinct from the father while in the Old Testament the
03:3803:38 - father and the son can sometimes be difficult to distinguish now we’re going to make the argument that they are in
03:4303:43 - fact distinguished and that the the appearance of God in the Old Testament are is actually the second person of the
03:5003:50 - Trinity but nonetheless uh you could see how old testament Believers without the benefit of that additional Revelation
03:5703:57 - wouldn’t necessarily uh catch on to this or it wouldn’t be as obvious in that way and of course the spirit is distinct as
04:0404:04 - well in the New Testament but you know the father and the son are really primarily the forces that we’re going to
04:0904:09 - be talking about here uh because we know that the Spirit uh one of the characteristic defining traits of the
04:1504:15 - holy spirit is the fact that he is unseen he is that force that uh supports you know everything in our walks as
04:2504:25 - Christians so he empowers our gifts he connects us to God the Father um and our lord Jesus you know he he
04:3204:32 - makes us United with God through his indwelling ministry towards us and at any rate Holy Spirit kind of makes sense
04:4004:40 - that we aren’t going to be talking of him as the seen member of the Trinity because that’s kind of one of his
04:4604:46 - defining characteristics is that he is the Unseen member of the Trinity um so at any rate we will be kind of comparing
04:5504:55 - and contrasting um the the roles of the father and the son as we’ve already discussed them so we’ve made that
05:0305:03 - argument that the father is the representation of deity within the Trinity the one with authority and
05:1005:10 - majesty and and basically the the one who sends Jesus Christ as a representative uh to do his will on his
05:1905:19 - behalf and so that makes Jesus Christ the accessible one for us and we talked about how that is defining
05:2605:26 - characteristic of the second member of the Trinity is that he is the one we can see and talk to and the one who became
05:3305:33 - like us so that we might relate to God in this way but all of this is leading into where we’re going to start this
05:4105:41 - time which is talking about that when we hear of God uh being seen by people in the Old Testament or appearing to
05:4905:49 - Believers in the Old Testament there is kind of this misconception uh even in many Christian circles so not just
05:5605:56 - Jewish circles so people who hold to uh Judaism and and you know don’t reject Christ as the Messiah and things like
06:0306:03 - this but even among Christians there seems to be a large number of people that think that the visible person in
06:1106:11 - the Old Testament is actually God the father so when uh Moses is being given the law on Mount Si for example people
06:1806:18 - would think that that is the father doing that or that in the garden with Adam and Eve that that would be the
06:2406:24 - father and so on that that I don’t know that maybe like it was God the father in old Testament but then we say it’s Jesus
06:3106:31 - in the New Testament and that that basically like there’s this switch um now one of the reasons why we can argue
06:3806:38 - against this almost in an intuitive sense is because of what we’ve gone over with the roles of the Trinity well we
06:4506:45 - have no indication that those actually ever shift during this time period of you know human history this time period
06:5306:53 - of creation that basically the father would be doing something and then the son would start doing that and the
06:5906:59 - father stop partway through uh the roles that we have presented to us in the Trinity are sort of seen as being static
07:0707:07 - um and not so much in the sense that um it’s the right way to say this that like that it had to be this way we’ve made
07:1407:14 - this point that uh the the members of the Trinity chose to act as they have in perfect Unity while yet having this
07:2107:21 - division of responsibilities but the point is is that there is no shift between the Old
07:2707:27 - and New Testaments here it’s not like the rules that applied before no longer apply and that’s kind of the intuitive
07:3607:36 - uh just the way in which we would think about this so we kind of get that that feeling that maybe this idea that it was
07:4307:43 - the father before but now it’s the sun after the Incarnation that maybe it could also be
07:4907:49 - the sun before because as we’ve argued already if the son is the representative uh sent towards Humanity he is the
07:5707:57 - visible member of the trinity wouldn’t that role be true even before he takes on a human nature during the
08:0508:05 - Incarnation and so that is exactly what what we’re going to be arguing here is that the father has always appeared to
08:1208:12 - the world through the person of his son Jesus Christ and that was in fact just as true in the Old Testament as it is in
08:2008:20 - the New Testament but the only difference is the manner of the father’s representation of himself through the
08:2608:26 - son so in the New Testament and in Jesus Christ becomes visible to the world except under kosis so that means that
08:3608:36 - his divine nature was veiled he didn’t take advantage of his full Divinity during the time of the Incarnation then
08:4408:44 - he was you know ascended and glorified and now he has his full Divinity and full Humanity it’s not that he ever
08:5008:50 - stopped having his full Divinity but you know that’s that Greek word you know emptying himself um of his power so that
08:5808:58 - he lived a life as a genuine human being you know facing all the same things we did without it being easy mode for him
09:0509:05 - as God but that is the New Testament the Incarnate Jesus Christ who’s taken on a human nature but in the Old Testament
09:1309:13 - it’s really not that different uh Christ also represents the father but not in incarnate bodily form and so we would
09:2209:22 - say that um in both cases Jesus is sent as a messenger and in fact uh the Greek word for Messengers is the one that we
09:3109:31 - use for Angel Angelas um is that that Greek word and in the Old Testament uh as we’ll get to um when we talk about
09:3909:39 - these things we’ll see that there is a the angel of the Lord like the definite article here um and the angel of the
09:4709:47 - Lord we’re going to say is going to be Jesus Christ as distinct from Angels who are also representatives or Messengers
09:5509:55 - sent by God um you know in various times you know appearing to like Dan and other prophets and and and things like this
10:0310:03 - but there is only one the angel of the Lord and that is Jesus Christ and so in his in his role even before the
10:1210:12 - Incarnation when he took on a human nature so when Mary conceived of the Holy Spirit Jesus Took on you know a
10:2110:21 - bodily form you know a human nature at that point but even before that he was appearing as God’s representative or
10:2910:29 - Emissary towards humankind um plenty of times as we’ll see throughout the Old Testament this happens and we’re going
10:3610:36 - to be saying that that’s Jesus Christ not the father um and so that’s the distinction that we’re going to open on
10:4210:42 - here is that well in these places in the Old Testament where we hear mention of God appearing before Moses or Abraham
10:5010:50 - and things like this well which member of the Trinity is it and and how do we know and what arguments do we make to
10:5610:56 - support the conclusions we come to and so um just to finish off this kind of introductory bit uh we’re also going to
11:0511:05 - talk a little bit about uh in the New Testament how we can see this distinction a little bit more clearly
11:1211:12 - and again we’ve kind of already made these points all throughout reading that scripture in the New Testament but when
11:1811:18 - we see something like I and the father are one so that’s John chapter 10 verse3 we mentioned this verse before in
11:2511:25 - talking about the Trinity well you can kind of obviously see that the father and the son are not the same even though
11:3311:33 - they have Unity right because you know I and the father being two distinct things yet saying that they are one they share
11:4311:43 - that Essence I you know three persons one Essence that is the definition of the Trinity but we can also see in the
11:5011:50 - New Testament that Jesus Christ speaks the father’s words and so just um bit earlier in the Book of John because
11:5811:58 - Jesus here says that he does nothing on his own initiative but he speaks these things as the father has taught him and
12:0612:06 - then John 14 ver 24 um the word which you hear is not mine but the fathers who sent me so we can see that there is a
12:1612:16 - distinction between the father and the son yet they have this perfect Unity but by way of contrast in the Old Testament
12:2412:24 - when God Appears you know we don’t see this distinction made we don’t see this uh you know we don’t be because the son
12:3212:32 - had not taken on Humanity in his incarnate form there is no distinction in being made as to the words of God in
12:4112:41 - the same way and so we are arguing here that it is consistently the son who appears in the Old Testament as a
12:4812:48 - representative of the father still speaking the father’s words that part hasn’t changed but it’s just in how it’s
12:5412:54 - mentioned that it doesn’t come off in quite the same way because the distinctions in the Trinity have not yet
13:0113:01 - been drawn for us as humans and um if you remember I believe it was immediate lesson preceding this or maybe two back
13:0813:08 - we talked about the idea of progressive revelation and that the Trinity was not made known to Old Testament Believers in
13:1613:16 - part to help keep them separate from their idolatrous Pagan neighbors so avoiding this idea of pantheons even
13:2413:24 - though that’s not what the Trinity is you know at just keeping them even more separate and distinct as a nation state
13:3113:31 - among their neighbors but also more importantly we argued because you can’t really understand the purpose of the
13:3813:38 - Trinity with respect to God’s plan for human Redemption aside from the Incarnation and so all of this to say I
13:4713:47 - know I rambled a bit here that the way in which we see God interact with us in the Old Testament in the New Testament
13:5513:55 - is different in ways you know we just said here that when Jesus speaks of the father’s words in the New Testament as
14:0114:01 - one standing before us we understand that there’s a distinction between them and this is why the Trinity becomes
14:0714:07 - visible in the New Testament however what we are saying is that even in the Old Testament the son was still sent as
14:1614:16 - the representative of the father and that part didn’t actually change even despite what some people might suppose
14:2214:22 - here so a do you have any just introductory thoughts as we’re drawing this contrast between knew a bit but the
14:3114:31 - consistency of the son as the representative of the father yeah I was just thinking of John 1 verse 18 where
14:3914:39 - it said that no one has seen God yeah we have that somewhere yeah it’s coming yeah so that that particular um passage
14:5114:51 - was in my mind while you were speaking and I was like that’s actually uh a very uh deliberate
15:0015:00 - demonstration in the scriptures of this thing we are discussing we can see without doubt that
15:0815:08 - the Bible is explicit that nobody has ever seen the father so not even Adam and Eve in the garden we’re hanging out
15:1615:16 - with the father and none of the prophets ever saw him so every time that anyone saw the Lord was
15:2415:24 - necessarily the second person of the Trinity that they were seeing not the father himself
15:3115:31 - so um that’s uh what I wanted to um add into everything you said because you’ve covered quite a bit of
15:4315:43 - ground right and we in fact have an entire uh we have an entire section on this in this lesson it’s coming um and
15:5015:50 - it’s not just John 1118 there’s actually lots of scriptures that make this point that Audi’s making here that this thing
15:5815:58 - that I guess I’m saying we’re arguing for here um I think about the right way to phrase it I wanted to just kind of
16:0416:04 - put this as a way of contrast that people say things other than this they would be incorrect because the Bible
16:1016:10 - clearly teaches what we’re saying but we’re going to be thinking in terms of evidence here and one of the strongest
16:1616:16 - points of evidence for this is that the Bible makes it real clear as we’ll get to you know in I guess a a section or
16:2316:23 - two that no one has seen the father ever like it’s black and white on this and if that be the case then the Christ the
16:3216:32 - appearances of God in the Old Testament has to be Jesus Christ because if the spirit is the Unseen person of the
16:3816:38 - Trinity by nature and no one sees the father on account of the current sin infesting the world well by process of
16:4616:46 - elimination that only leaves Jesus Christ right in his in his pre-incarnate form and so obviously it’s different
16:5316:53 - before and after the Incarnation but that General sequence of logic to get us here is pretty in escap
16:5916:59 - you can’t have it any other way um yeah yeah all right anything else to say or shall we go ahead and move on to those
17:0817:08 - other points well that’s about it yeah so now we’re GNA be talking about
17:2017:20 - what a theophany is and what a christophy is we’ve been using these words a little bit already but we’re
17:2617:26 - going to kind of get into what they mean kind of from their atmology and and how we use them as theological terms here so
17:3417:34 - the words theophany and christophany mean respectively in appearance of God that’s what theophany means and so the
17:4217:42 - Greek word for God is Theos um and so you can kind of see that show up here in the t h EO it’s the Theo part and then
17:5217:52 - uh christophany meaning an appearance of Christ and so you know we have Yus Christos in Greek is Jesus Christ and so
18:0218:02 - this again you can see it kind of come out in the words here so it’s pretty obvious if you know Greek because the
18:0918:09 - other part of these roots comes from this verb here Fawn which when you you make this into a verb it’s the verb of
18:1618:16 - appearing in Greek um or being you know present or seen and so well you know a theophany is you know a seeing or an
18:2518:25 - appearance of God and a christophy is a seeing or appearance of Christ right and so you know when Christ
18:3118:31 - appears that’s a christophany and when God Appears you know regardless of you know that is broader than Christ because
18:3718:37 - there’s multiple members of the Trinity we would say that’s a theophonic this is that in the
18:4618:46 - interpretation that we are putting forward that that the Bible teaches in my estimation of things every
18:5818:58 - distinction between these and that technically you know per what the words mean and how we ought to think about it
19:0319:03 - they’re not the same because if you want to look at it this way in eternity there you know the father will be present with
19:1019:10 - us and that would not be a christophany because the father is not Jesus Christ you know in in so much as they’re not
19:1719:17 - the same person in the Trinity they all share the essence as we’ve gone over but that would be both but whenever Jesus
19:2419:24 - Christ shows up technically it is a theophany but more precisely it is a christophy which is more specific and so
19:3219:32 - of all that is too confusing just think about it like this whenever we talk about God appearing and talking to
19:3919:39 - someone in the Old Testament or doing something in the Old Testament the person in the Trinity who is doing that
19:4519:45 - who is visible to humanity is the second person of the Trinity the son and so if you hear people talk about these things
19:5419:54 - we would call those appearances christophanies so if you want to be precise when we talk about the
20:0020:00 - appearance of the second person of the trinity in the Old Testament the word you would use for that if you’re
20:0620:06 - speaking sort of the theological jargon is christophy and you’ll mostly only hear
20:1120:11 - the word theophonic does not happen independent from Jesus Christ um so that is sort of
20:2120:21 - how we think about this and so as Dr lug puts it here um it will be argued in biblical terms the only category of
20:2920:29 - event we really need to be concerned with here is christophany for in my view all cases of theophany in the Old
20:3520:35 - Testament are really christophanies that is every time God Appears to people or shows up in the Old
20:4220:42 - Testament in some way we are arguing that that is Jesus Christ sent on behalf of the father as a messenger or
20:4920:49 - representative because he is the visible person of the Trinity and always has been and always will be that is the role
20:5720:57 - of the second member of the Trinity and so uh we should say here that what we’re talking about by christophanies we’re
21:0521:05 - not referring to the literal physical appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ in his Humanity um that is to say when
21:1421:14 - Jesus Christ was showing up in the Old Testament doing these things as the angel of the Lord with a definite
21:2021:20 - article he wasn’t a human being yet he hadn’t yet taken on a human nature that happened during the Incarnation and that
21:2821:28 - happened once it’s not like Jesus continuously took on a human nature or became a human multiple times or
21:3321:33 - anything like that is Jesus Christ as the second person of the Trinity was appearing even before he had a human
21:4021:40 - nature so-called pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus Christ and so again we’re not referring to the literal
21:4821:48 - physical appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ in his Humanity because that didn’t happen in until the
21:5521:55 - Incarnation and Christ has not yet appeared appeared in temporary kristofic form um so uh what we’re getting at here
22:0422:04 - also actually and this is an important Point too is uh you’ll hear Dr lugan Bill talk about how there kind of isn’t
22:1022:10 - any unfulfilled Prophecy in the church age and so a people run around saying that they saw Jesus like now as in 2000
22:2022:20 - something um years after the cross and you know Jesus appeared to me and Jesus did this and Jesus did that or you know
22:2622:26 - maybe more typically Jesus will appear and then there’ll be a Rapture and then somehow he disappears again until the
22:3222:32 - end of Revelation you know that so-called false doctrine of the pre-tribulation Rapture is a more common
22:3822:38 - teaching um that in fact there’s actually going to be one more appearance of Jesus Christ you know what he will
22:4522:45 - become present with us that Greek parsible perusia there um well at any rate not to get off topic here but the
22:5422:54 - christophanies we’re talking about are not referring to you know Jesus Christ in a human nature but the pre-incarnate
23:0023:00 - second member of the Trinity um and so the position here that all Old Testament appearances of God are in reality
23:0823:08 - appearances of Christ does not actually rule out the possibility for uh prophets seeing the father um and so you’ll say
23:1823:18 - well okay Stephen isn’t that a contradiction well not really because it isn’t so much a physical manifestation
23:2423:24 - of the father so the the words Dr Lugano used for this an ostensibly corporeal appearance on earth right if you want to
23:3223:32 - use that phrase um but uh these prophets saw the father through dreams or visions um and uh I don’t know if you remember
23:4223:42 - uh we kind of talked a bit before about you know like being in the presence of the father and if Isaiah or Daniel or
23:4923:49 - one of the other Major Prophets was taken and and saw the throne room of God or even saw things happening in the
23:5723:57 - future and prophecy well were they just given a vision of the future or were they basically like if you view time as
24:0424:04 - a linear stream were they picked up and dumped in a different point in the Stream like were was their existence in
24:1124:11 - time actually shifted did they jump forward in time well we don’t know any of this nor does it really matter for
24:1724:17 - the purposes of you know understanding that they were given to see something that would happen in the future so they
24:2324:23 - could record it for our benefit but in the same way here when these prophets see the father in Visions we’re not
24:3024:30 - violating this principle that we’re we’re setting out here as in it wasn’t an appearance of the father before
24:3624:36 - Humanity in the same way that Jesus Christ in his pre-incarnate form appeared before Humanity because it’s
24:4324:43 - not the father you know somehow on Earth appearing physically before people it is seeing visions of the father or seeing
24:5124:51 - the likeness of the father in this prophetic State and uh that is just a sort of it’s a different thing
24:5824:58 - um and so one of the examples that that is kind of an obvious one to look at here is in jiel Daniel chapter 7 um
25:0725:07 - which is where we see the son of man presented Before the Throne and so this is Daniel chapter 7: 13- 14 says I kept
25:1525:15 - looking in the night visions and behold with the Clouds Of Heaven one like a son of man was coming and he came up to the
25:2125:21 - Ancient of Days and was presented before him and to him was given Dominion glory and a kingdom that all the peoples
25:2925:29 - Nations and Men of every language might serve him his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which will not pass away and
25:3525:35 - his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed so the presentation of the son of man to the Ancient of Days you know
25:4425:44 - well if Daniel sees you know Jesus Christ who is the son of man coming Before the Throne of God the Father who
25:5225:52 - is the Ancient of Days In this passage then he saw God the father in this Vision um but that isn’t kind of running
25:5925:59 - contrary to what we have been uh kind what we’ve been setting forth here that the appearances of God in the Old
26:0826:08 - Testament are kind of uniformly christophanies because the prophetic appearances of God uh you know like
26:1526:15 - seeing God or the third heaven in Visions it’s just not the same thing really so with that Audi is there is
26:2326:23 - there anything you want to contribute about the difference between theophany and christophy we talk about it and what
26:3026:30 - the words mean and what they don’t mean just so that we’re making sure that we have the uh the meanings nailed down
26:3526:35 - here before we move on so not much really uh just that first of
26:4426:44 - all the a theophany christophany they necessarily mean appearances of of God and Christ uh
26:5426:54 - respectively um prior to uh his Incarnation his Incarnation was [Music]
27:0327:03 - necessarily uh not just an appearing an a a a showing of himself visibly or visually to people but he actually
27:1227:12 - became human and entered the The Human Experience so those that’s a pretty big difference
27:2027:20 - in other words the way he was uh when he was appearing before he um was born by the Virgin
27:3127:31 - Mary um was not the way he was after he was born
27:3827:38 - those are two different things really um and just I I I think it’s it’s already established that every theop was
27:4927:49 - necessarily A christophy so I’m not really sure that there is much of a difference to make except to probably
27:5627:56 - note that uh much of the time the Lord Jesus was appearing on behalf of the Father which is why we talk about the
28:0228:02 - theophany which necessarily means he was um he was he was uh coming to the world to speak for the father to act for the
28:1328:13 - father so that the focus is is on the father rather than on himself you know so I I think it’s useful to have draw
28:2128:21 - the distinction between these two particular terms to note that Jesus Christ is the member of the Trinity
28:2628:26 - coming but you could could use [Music] theophelis opony too You’ never be wrong
28:4428:44 - but you’re you’re kind of contrasting the fact that it’s God himself as opposed to an Angel um which happened
28:5128:51 - plenty in the Old Testament as well and in that case using theop is you know it’s always technically correct but you
28:5728:57 - would use it as opposed to it being just an angel or you know even a prophet sent as a representative of God rather it’s
29:0529:05 - God himself yeah that that actually puts me in mind of when uh God said to Moses uh my angel
29:1629:16 - will go with you and do not provoke him because my name is in him so clearly he was talking about this is not just any
29:2429:24 - Angel this one is like me you know so he’s he’s like like you said even in the Hebrew the word for Angel is literally
29:3529:35 - the word messenger there so he was essentially saying my Messenger will go with you and he has my Essence in him he
29:4429:44 - is like me he he’s he is the same as me so to speak that’s what the whole name and me thing meant so when I think about
29:5529:55 - theany that’s a very solid point to make that um we use it to make a difference
30:0130:01 - between when it’s actually an angel uh that is one of the creatures showing up and when it is the Lord
30:0830:08 - himself uh the the other point that I I thought was uh that that I thought was necessary to make I I think you may have
30:1730:17 - already made it uh was that um when when Jesus was appearing uh he I don’t think that we
30:2630:26 - will have any examples of when he appeared for his own sake but I think the vast majority of his appearances
30:3430:34 - were actually on behalf of the father if not all of them really so the when we speak of these are not words that I that
30:4330:43 - I’m conscious of as being part of the Bible I trust that you would know that better than me uh going by the Greek and
30:5130:51 - the Hebrew um stepen but my thinking is when we use when when we make a difference between theophany and
31:0031:00 - christophany one of the reasons for that would be that the theophany keep keeps the using the term theophany keeps the
31:0831:08 - the focus on the father that this is actually um a showing up in the world on his behalf we use christophany to point
31:1831:18 - out that this appearance of God is actually the appearance of Jesus Christ himself on behalf of the father so
31:2731:27 - that’s um that’s one of the things that I thought would be yeah I mean they they have
31:3531:35 - different overtones different connotations and yeah it’s not like using theophany of Jesus Christ is
31:4031:40 - incorrect in any way it’s just that the thing to argue against and um I we kind of kicked it until like the third set of
31:4931:49 - slides so we’ll get to this next I promise is that it has to be Jesus Christ actually this isn’t optional this
31:5431:54 - isn’t just a oh you know maybe it’s this or maybe it’s that is black and white it positively must be Jesus Christ as the
32:0132:01 - one appearing and so just depending on your audience depending on people I you know you can use any of these words
32:0832:08 - they’re all technically correct they all have different kind of conita overtones too I me again I think like we’ve said
32:1532:15 - it kind of depends what you’re talking about if you want to say it’s God not an angel theophany kind of does that
32:2132:21 - because you’re emphasizing God you know Theos if you want to emphasize it’s Christ not the father you’d use
32:2632:26 - christophany um but yeah yeah so that’s what the words mean and that’s hopefully now it kind of
32:3432:34 - makes sense when we say you know all appearances of God in the Old Testament are
32:3932:39 - christophanies like you don’t wonder what that means anymore that was kind of the goal of this particular section in
32:4632:46 - the lesson um yes so that is the statement we’re making that is kind of the purpose of this particular lesson in
32:5232:52 - the series is that all appearances of God in the Old Testament are christophanies in one sentence form
32:5832:58 - that’s what we’re trying to get at um but this was hopefully helping toine terms so that that makes some sense
33:0933:09 - um all right so we’re finally going to get to this topic we’ve kind of already danced around a little bit here in our
33:1533:15 - discussion and that is the invisibility of the father or the unapproachable of the father his separation from the world
33:2433:24 - and so this is entirely the reason why we know all pre- Incarnation appearances of God
33:3133:31 - still have to be Jesus Christ because if the father is the representation of deity and he’s behind the veil that has
33:3833:38 - stayed consistent all throughout the entire the all all the times in the Bible in fact ever since Satan’s
33:4433:44 - Rebellion God has always been separate from humanity and this is why it’s true to say that no one has seen the father
33:5133:51 - ever as a human being you know until we go to be in his presence in the third heaven but we’re talking about like
33:5633:56 - living human beings no one has ever seen the father and if that is true then the appearances of God in the Old Testament
34:0334:03 - can’t be the father QED um that’s basically how we know for certain that all theophanies had to be christophanies
34:1134:11 - that all appearances of God in the Old Testament had to be the son not the father because the Bible says that no
34:1734:17 - one has seen the father so it really is that simple we don’t want to make it more complicated than that because it’s
34:2234:22 - not so but simply until we go to heaven you know that is the third heaven we will not see the father till we die till
34:3034:30 - we’re on the other side we will never see the father not when we inhabit our current bodies of sin so we know that
34:3734:37 - the father is Not Invisible to the angels for they constantly see the face of my Father in Heaven that’s a quote
34:4334:43 - from Matthew 18:1 so this is Jesus saying don’t despise the the little ones the children
34:4934:49 - for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of my father who is in heaven so angels can go
34:5634:56 - to and fro from the Third Heaven which is positionally a different place from the cosmos um but we human beings do not
35:0535:05 - and so Angels see God Believers in the third heaven see God the father but for us on Earth presently inhabiting this
35:1335:13 - this Cosmos Satan’s World System still Infested by sin after the fall and and more moreover we have sinful bodies and
35:2135:21 - we have the sin nature within us we do not see the father um and so notice even in this passage here that God is our
35:2935:29 - heavenly father and so when we are taught how to pray you know in the in the The Lord’s Prayer here we have our
35:3735:37 - father who is in heaven as in Our Father who is not on earth right um and so pretty clear and then Matthew chapter 6
35:4635:46 - verse 26 so your heavenly father feeds them right you know as contracted with our Earthly fathers but the point is God
35:5435:54 - the Father positionally resides in heaven um and so as long as the Earthly
36:0036:00 - conflict between his wouldbe usurper so Satan who wants to sit on the throne of God and his designated Regent who is
36:0836:08 - Jesus Christ still rages in heaven God remains for his Majesty’s sake speaking and working his
36:1636:16 - will through his servant Jesus Christ so Jesus is sent as a representative of God it’s not like God is sitting aloof from
36:2436:24 - creation that is a point of view that many so-called theists or deists um had throughout history you know some of the
36:3236:32 - founding fathers ascribe to such a belief that you know basically God made creation wound it up like a clock and
36:3836:38 - now he doesn’t do anything he just sort of watches it um well that is not how God operates because He sent Jesus
36:4436:44 - Christ into the world as his representative he is does it’s not like he he stands aloof from creation it
36:5036:50 - doesn’t interact or doesn’t have plans or isn’t working things out perfectly so at any rate in until the final victory
36:5936:59 - until Jesus Christ completely conquers the world makes all of God’s enemies you know uh as a foot stol under his feet um
37:0937:09 - only then and in fact until the universe is completely wiped away and remade only then will the father come to the new
37:1637:16 - Earth to make his Abode with us forever so until that time which positionally isn’t even in the Millennium it’s after
37:2437:24 - human history it’s after the end of time if you want to think about it like that creation of the new Heavens the new
37:2937:29 - Earth uh everything is destroyed and remade yet without sin without pain without tears until then the father
37:3737:37 - though acting and speaking through his representative Jesus Christ will yet remain invisible to humanity um and so
37:4537:45 - this point we’re making and we’re going to read a bunch of passages now that’s the rest of what we’re going to talk
37:4937:49 - about this is not a negotiable point this isn’t something that you get to argue it’s not like some theologians
37:5537:55 - think this some theologians think this or I mean if they do they’re wrong but the Bible says this straight up many
38:0138:01 - places and so we’re going to go read that now so a whole bunch of passages here starting in the Old Testament
38:0838:08 - Exodus 33 verse 20 um but he said he being God you cannot see my face for a man may not see my face and
38:1838:18 - live so straightforward enough we’ve already talked about this I think almost in the very first lesson of this entire
38:2538:25 - Series in theology proper talking about the unapproached light so we talked about how the father
38:3038:30 - is the one in that and in fact we’re going to read that verse I think that’s 1 Timothy chapter 6 um but you cannot
38:3638:36 - see my face and live well obviously Moses did see whoever was there right um but who is being spoken of here it’s the
38:4538:45 - Father the father as the representation of deity um Isaiah chter 45:15 surely you are a God who hides
38:5438:54 - himself you know except we have a appearances of God in the Old Testament so who is being spoken of here it has to
39:0039:00 - be the father uh John 1:8 this is the one that AI mentioned a couple sections back says
39:0839:08 - no one has ever seen God ever you know except people saw you know one member of the trinity in the Old Testament so has
39:1639:16 - to be speaking of a particular member of the Trinity right no one has ever seen God God the only son the one who has
39:2339:23 - always been at the father’s side he has made him known that is the son has made the father known no one has ever seen
39:3139:31 - the father it’s what 1 John 1:18 says uh John chapter 6 verse 46 not that anyone has seen the father except he the son
39:4039:40 - who has always been with the father he has seen the father I mean you can’t say it more
39:4639:46 - clearly than this right that’s John 6:46 then this verse I mentioned the unapproachable light that’s first
39:5139:51 - Timothy 6:16 he the father who alone possesses immortality dwelling in unapproachable
39:5839:58 - light whom no man has ever seen nor can see it’s the same thing and then 1 John chap 4:12 no one has ever seen God so
40:1140:11 - implied the father there and as I say we have seen God we have seen a member of the Trinity visible before us in the Old
40:1940:19 - Testament Humanity has and of course Jesus was visible during the Incarnation so it’s not that no one has seen God but
40:2540:25 - when these verses say no one has ever seen God God you have to put in Brackets there imply the father because as
40:3140:31 - several of these verses like John 1:18 and John 6 verse 46 make real clear that it is specifically the father who no man
40:4040:40 - has ever seen and because of this this is why you can’t say that the appearances of God in the Old Testament
40:4640:46 - were the father because well I mean all these other verses say that no man’s ever seen the father so if it was the
40:5240:52 - father ding ding ding contradiction right and this is why we know the Bible doesn’t contradict itself there is no
40:5940:59 - way that the appearances of God in the Old Testament could be the father they have to be the son for that reason
41:0741:07 - um so I really think it’s that straightforward um I you know the argument is not supposed to be
41:1341:13 - complicated here but nonetheless it’s just important for us to emphasize so a you have any points to add to this I was
41:2141:21 - just thinking how this is such a powerful reputation of everything it people have said about how the Trinity
41:3041:30 - is not is not a Biblical Doctrine I mean how do you reconcile this with everything else we see in the scriptures
41:3941:39 - but it’s absolutely true that’s what we’re talking about how and like you said this is the sort of thing you don’t
41:4641:46 - particularly need to be taught you can read it from the scriptures yourself and they’re fairly straightforward you can
41:5141:51 - actually understand it you know when you read the Bible that in fact God has been seen several times in fact in Exodus it
42:0042:00 - said that the elders um saw God there was a they they saw a pavement under his feet and a
42:1142:11 - throne above it that’s it was describing exactly what they saw and it stated very clearly that they saw God and then we
42:1942:19 - come to John and he declares without mincing words there is no no qualification no one has ever seen God
42:2642:26 - so either you get that to mean that they saw someone who was God but no one has
42:3342:33 - seen a certain other person who is God or you can decide that the Bible is contradictory which simply means you
42:4242:42 - don’t believe what the Bible says you know so but we are believers we take the Bible to be true so if it says these
42:4942:49 - things then these things are true so uh I I was particularly impressed too by the fact that it is the
42:5742:57 - Lord’s Majesty essentially his saying this is beneath me that I should stoop so low as to be engaging with my
43:0743:07 - creature in this war because he wants to overthrow me so to speak so the Lord says somebody will go and speak for me
43:1743:17 - someone who will act so to speak on this person’s level and and that this is yet another way that we should understand
43:2443:24 - the incredible sacrifice of the Lord Jesus for us because to to take Satan on he took
43:3043:30 - Satan on as the servant of the father not in his capacity as God that’s a very big deal that’s a huge deal well think
43:3943:39 - of it as the delegated authority of a general is different than the authority ofing exactly basically the king saying
43:4843:48 - is yeah it’s basically the king saying it’s too little for me to you you come into a man’s home and and his little boy
43:5943:59 - is making all these noises and it’s like no I’m not going to deal with you here’s your your your kid brother he will deal
44:0644:06 - with you that sort of thing because essentially that’s what that’s what the Lord did by sending Jesus as a human
44:1344:13 - being human beings are supposed to be below the angels and they were so that’s a really really big deal and then we see
44:2144:21 - that every time and this is also why a lot of people get confused about the the deity of the Lord Jesus Jesus Christ
44:2744:27 - because throughout the the Old Testament even when he shows up as God you see him speaking in ways that would seem to
44:3644:36 - suggest that he he forgets that he is God for example the the the passage that should by now be very popularly
44:4444:44 - associated with me Zechariah 2 I believe verse 9 where it said um the the the the Lord God says
44:5344:53 - that the Lord God has sent me and it’s like well you the Lord God why are you being sent by the Lord God that sort of
45:0045:00 - thing it’s common enough in the Old Testament to tell us the humility of the Lord Jesus the fact that he just he he
45:0945:09 - took on a role that if if it were any of us would probably say I’m not going to do that that’s beneath me to do that and
45:1745:17 - yet it was in doing so that he rescued us so yeah um the Bible is actually absolutely clear that
45:2745:27 - uh all theophanies that we have in the Bible are necessarily christophanies I mean I just want to
45:3545:35 - Riff on a little bit you we were talking about Jesus being sent as the servants to deal with Satan part of this is that
45:4245:42 - God is going to redeem that position that Satan threw away right Satan’s trying to usurp the Throne of God in the
45:5045:50 - universe but Jesus Christ is going to redeem the throne at the right hand right um
45:5745:57 - Satan was Lucifer lightbringer the person who warded off Evil Jesus Christ is the Morning Star right so but he is
46:0746:07 - the true Morning Star if you want to view it this way and so God is redeeming that which was thrown away without a
46:1446:14 - second thought right and so when we view Jesus Christ God is reclaiming that which was lost with the fall um it’s
46:2246:22 - really powerful stuff because we understand that that Jesus’s identity is entirely his
46:2846:28 - existence is tailor made to refute Satan’s entire platform right that yeah you know Satan’s trying to usurp that
46:3746:37 - position of authority and Jesus Christ willingly basically makes himself sub subservient to the father to demonstrate
46:4446:44 - his glory they’re opposites right but it’s the second one that actually you know truly is the Redemption of that
46:5346:53 - position in creation um yeah so you know like this is why you know and and all of this feeds into itself right and I I
47:0347:03 - also think that it’s important to just to emphasize that it’s not like the father arbitrarily made the decision to
47:0947:09 - be separate from Creation in this way right it has a reason that reason is named sin um God’s glory and majesty and
47:1747:17 - Authority you know as we’ll get to in the other sections is that it these things render him completely separate
47:2647:26 - from that’s the reason it’s not that BS things it does clearly John 646 John
47:3747:37 - chapter 1 ver8 probably the two clearest passages among the list we just read here but if you can’t just take that
47:4447:44 - well logic wise we’ll see real soon how the father is just inherently inaccessible to us like biological
47:5347:53 - necessity like so even if the Bible didn’t say this we’d be arguing the same thing we’ll get to that as we do the
47:5847:58 - next section here but I just want to emphasize again that this is real clear like very very clear and we there are
48:0648:06 - many things that we are dogmatic about as Christians built on far less than this so uh it it shouldn’t be a
48:1348:13 - controversial one for us um yeah all right well with that we’ll turn next to talking about some of those
48:2148:21 - things I just mentioned that just renders the father inherently inaccessible to us
48:3148:31 - all right so now we are going to be picking up talking about the inaccessibility of the father apart from
48:3748:37 - Christ so the last thing we talked about previously was how the father is currently veiled from us he is not
48:4448:44 - visible to us in the world um ever since Satan’s Rebellion when he has tried to usurp the Throne of God um the father
48:5348:53 - has withdrawn from creation separated from this present Cosmos By the Waters above and the father currently resides
49:0249:02 - in the third heaven in terms of heavenly geography and we talked about how uh no one has seen the father um we actually
49:1049:10 - opened this study quite a few lessons back talking about this verse in 1 Timothy chapter 6 discussing how the
49:1749:17 - father lives in or dwells in unapproachable light and so in the idea of light and glory glory is the visible
49:2549:25 - manifestation of of kind of of God’s uh unapproachable light and so the unapproachable of light
49:3449:34 - is a metaphor like if you look at the son uh you kind of can’t see it it’s veiled um and so that’s the idea of the
49:4049:40 - father being separate or invisible from us but now we’re going to kind of turn and shift towards the idea of
49:4749:47 - accessibility in a spiritual sense and if you recall back to when we were talking about the roles in the Trinity
49:5649:56 - uh we made the point rather strongly that what characterizes the second member of the Trinity the son is how he
50:0450:04 - is accessible to us how just as with a kingdom where you have the king and the Crown Prince and the king is maybe up on
50:1350:13 - the throne uh ruling over his subjects with all this Authority maybe it’s hard for people to approach him and to bring
50:2150:21 - their concerns uh before him but the son the crowned Prince he is the mediator between the king with authority and his
50:3050:30 - people and so that is the role of Jesus Christ as you know Heaven’s high priest if you will the mediator between us and
50:3750:37 - the father but the point that we’re going to be talking about here specifically is that the father is
50:4350:43 - inaccessible to us and we mean this not only in the physical way as in he’s not only is he invisible but Also
50:5050:50 - spiritually we have access to the throne room of God through the blood of Jesus Christ um because of our sinfulness and
50:5750:57 - because as we’ve discussed previously the father is the member of the Trinity who holds sort of the representation of
51:0551:05 - deity the one who has the face of of God if you will within the Trinity and so he is the one who holds himself separate
51:1551:15 - from sinfulness right and we talked about that in just the previous thing and so one reason why this is the case
51:2351:23 - um is because if we were to see God in all of his glory and we weren’t to instantly perish due to our sinfulness
51:3151:31 - which presumably we would but like for the sake of argument let’s say that that didn’t happen then human Free Will would
51:3851:38 - be substantially compromised so there’s these verses I think one maybe in gosh Philippians somewhere Philippians 2 I
51:4651:46 - could be wrong um talking about how every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and so at the last judgment
51:5451:54 - before the great white throne where unbelievers um are shown that their works are not sufficient to get them
52:0252:02 - into heaven you know that because they rejected the Son of God they chose hell well at that point all human beings will
52:1152:11 - bow the knee and confess with the tongue that you know God is righteous and just and he has the authority to do all of
52:2052:20 - this not because they want to but because they will not be able to deny it and within this life though one of the
52:2852:28 - reasons why the father remains inaccessible why also Jesus’s Glory was veiled during the Incarnation was
52:3552:35 - because if it was not we wouldn’t actually have the capacity to choose as humans and so ikus makes this points
52:4252:42 - many places uh in many ways that the reason why we are here is to choose uh are we going to submit to God put our
52:5252:52 - faith in Jesus Christ and live for him or are we going to follow the world and this choice is in fact what life is all
52:5952:59 - about this free will that we have to the ability to choose is in reality why we are here why we are all here as human
53:0853:08 - beings and so you can see why God does not force our hands as creatures because if we were forced to choose simply on
53:1753:17 - account of his glory being unveiled before us it wouldn’t actually be a free choice um and so this paragraph mostly
53:2453:24 - what I’ve just been saying here that even against their will people would be obligated to follow him out of Terror
53:3353:33 - because they would understand they would not be able to delude themselves and Harden their hearts and sort of close
53:3953:39 - their eyes and their ears as the metaphors the Bible uses to somehow convince themselves that that you know
53:4653:46 - Divine Justice will not catch up with them or that God doesn’t hold the power of their Eternal lives well if they saw
53:5353:53 - God as he really is they would would obey him not because they wanted to but because they would know that they had to
54:0154:01 - that there wasn’t actually a choice here and so this this irrationality of sin of lashing out against God that is actually
54:1054:10 - true even for us but because God has not fully unveiled himself to us people are allowed to stick their heads in the sand
54:1854:18 - to delude themselves that this is not so in fact most of humanity lives trying to not think of their impending deaths they
54:2754:27 - live as if they will never die um and so one of the studies on ichus part four of the satanic Rebellion series um titled
54:3554:35 - Satan’s World System talks about this uh in great detail that in fact a lot of humanity is trying to forget the fact
54:4454:44 - that they are mortal um and that after they die we will face a perfect and just God okay so a little bit rambly there um
54:5254:52 - but where we are going with this um as it relates to this topic in the study the inaccessibility of the father apart
55:0155:01 - from Christ through the blood of Christ we have access to the father that’s the point we’re talking about here um so uh
55:0855:08 - even in saying you know emphasizing how the father’s inaccessible to us um someone might raise the point of well
55:1455:14 - what about the omnipresence of God that is one of the attributes that we argued was inherent to God’s nature um so God
55:2355:23 - is everywhere in creation he has um the ability to manifest at any point he desires because he’s completely in
55:3255:32 - control of space and time um and so we cannot go to heaven ourselves to seek God and even though the father is around
55:4355:43 - us you know we’ve argued that uh the members of the Trinity all have their roles um positionally speaking the Bible
55:5155:51 - talks about the father being in heaven so by heaven we mean like the third heaven which is different than Eden
55:5955:59 - which is different from Paradise in Hades where Believers were before the Ascension which is also different from
56:0656:06 - the new heavens and the new Earth which is where we’ll dwell in eternity so right now the father is completely
56:1156:11 - separate from the world and so uh some of this is symbolic in the way that the Bible commonly uses of symbolism and
56:2156:21 - typology that the distance if you will between us and the father if you want to think in a physical sense is symbolic of
56:3056:30 - the spiritual distance between us and God and so when we think of this it’s not quite proper for us to get all hung
56:3856:38 - up on the omnipresence bit and be like well if God’s everywhere how can he be in the third heaven and people cry
56:4556:45 - contradiction and things like that that’s not really the point here the point is that the righteous father in
56:5256:52 - the Trinity again the one who manifests the deity of the Trinity keeps himself completely separate from Human sin um
57:0157:01 - and just one last point on this opening slide is just that because sin is largely the issue here this is the cause
57:1057:10 - of the father’s separation when we are given new bodies in the new heavens and the new Earth such that we no longer
57:1757:17 - possess sin Natures then the father will not be separate from us he will come down the New Jerusalem will descend and
57:2357:23 - we will have fellowship with not only the in the spirit but also Father for all of eternity um and
57:3257:32 - so um this particular verse here uh in Isaiah chapter 6 um so Isaiah was one of the major prophets in the Old Testament
57:4157:41 - given to see visions of God um and so Isaiah seeing the Father Here by implication um although sometimes it’s
57:5157:51 - kind of hard in Prophecy to know which member of the Trinity is in view um but by interpretation that’s what we take
57:5857:58 - this as um that Isaiah confesses his unworthiness he says he’s a man of unclean lips and lives among a people of
58:0658:06 - unclean lips and he understands this just inherently by seeing God all right so this is one of the longer sections
58:1558:15 - here so I’m going to keep going a bit um the back to the accessibility idea here of the father uh being sort of separated
58:2558:25 - from us having this powered Gap um in a way such that we don’t have access to him inherently well the person who
58:3358:33 - bridges that is Jesus Christ and so through faith in him and his death for us that is what we would term
58:4058:40 - spiritually speaking the blood of Christ what he did for us on the cross we have access to the father in the name of
58:4858:48 - Jesus Christ so by his blood his death for us on the cross on our behalf Christ has broken down the barrier of hostility
58:5658:56 - between the father and those who believe in him um so this is if you remember back to um some of those theological
59:0559:05 - jargony terms this is what people typically refer to as reconciliation we have been made right with God through
59:1259:12 - the blood of Jesus Christ and so now on account of Christ’s payment we have been granted entrance into the throne room of
59:1959:19 - Heaven and the presence of the father so only on the basis of the acceptability of Christ’s sacrifice and our acceptance
59:2759:27 - of him such that we claim that sacrifice for ourselves that is the coin by which we have access to the father um and so
59:3659:36 - again if the father is the the one who represents the authority within the Trinity then our access to him is GED by
59:4359:43 - our belief in Jesus Christ um so a couple verses here uh oops uh at the beginning of Romans chapter 5 um Romans
59:5459:54 - chap 5 veres 1 through the first part of verse two says this so now that we have been justified by faith let us take hold
01:00:0201:00:02 - of the peace we have with God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have also obtained our access
01:00:0901:00:09 - into this grace in which we stand so you’ll see bolded in all of these verses here um these are translations coming
01:00:1601:00:16 - directly off of IUS you’ll see uh certain words bolded so access access access approach bring um this idea of us
01:00:2601:00:26 - being in the presence of the father is what all of these verses are getting at so I’m going to go through and read the
01:00:3001:00:30 - other ones that was the first couple verses of Romans chapter 5 uh now we’re going to look at Ephesians chapter 2
01:00:3701:00:37 - verse 18 for through him Jesus Christ we both Jews and Gentiles have access to the
01:00:4501:00:45 - father by one spirit it’s Ephesians 2:18 Ephesians 3:12 being in him that is Jesus Christ
01:00:5401:00:54 - and having confidence through our faith in him we possess this access to the father and freedom to speak to
01:01:0101:01:01 - him Hebrews 4:16 so let us approach with confident free speech to the throne of grace of
01:01:0801:01:08 - the father that we might receive his mercy and gain his favor for timely help so we’re able to approach the father
01:01:1601:01:16 - because we have access to him and then finally 1 Peter 3: 18 for Christ died once for us on account of our sins the
01:01:2601:01:26 - righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God you know giving us access to him as we’ve been saying
01:01:3401:01:34 - here and so the fact that through faith we now have access to the father and that the Bible words things in this
01:01:4401:01:44 - manner suggesting that this was something that was gained um after Jesus’s death and resurrection and
01:01:5101:01:51 - Ascension that before that before the Incarnation before Jesus Di died for us and the father accepted his sacrifice on
01:01:5801:01:58 - our behalf access was actually limited um one sort of aside here um is that in Ephesians chapter 4 actually pull this
01:02:0901:02:09 - up I think it’s like Ephesians chapter 4 verses 7 through 11 I want to say let’s see how good my memory is Ephesians
01:02:1901:02:19 - 47-1 um uh we hear about Jesus leading captivity captive and he gave gifts unto
01:02:2701:02:27 - men now the giving gifts unto men is actually talking about uh the Holy Spirit at Pentecost giving people
01:02:3301:02:33 - spiritual gifts um so that happens a little bit later in Acts chapter 2 but the LED captivity captive um when Jesus
01:02:4201:02:42 - descended into Hades um after he had died he didn’t go to I mean let me think about the right way to say this he
01:02:5001:02:50 - didn’t go to hell in the sense of like being in the negative part of the underworld he was in in what is
01:02:5601:02:56 - theologically termed Abraham’s bosom or Paradise within Hades and so we have this Parable in uh Luke chapter 16 I
01:03:0501:03:05 - want to say I don’t know if I’m right there too with Abraham and Lazarus um not Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus
01:03:1401:03:14 - but the the beggar Lazarus um yeah and so anyway not to get off topic but um the point is is that prior to Christ’s
01:03:2201:03:22 - Ascension um believers who died before the cross were actually separated from the father they didn’t go into the
01:03:2901:03:29 - presence of the father when they died they were in Paradise so it’s not like it’s a negative part of the underworld
01:03:3501:03:35 - but they weren’t actually in the presence of the father because Christ had not yet died for human sin but after
01:03:4201:03:42 - Christ’s Ascension then Ephesians chapter 4 tells us that actually these people were brought into the presence of
01:03:5001:03:50 - the father so he ascended up far above the heavens that he might fulfill all things um so at least that’s how ikus
01:03:5701:03:57 - takes it again I don’t want to get too off topic here but this is why we say that we have gained access it’s
01:04:0301:04:03 - something that we did not previously have and it’s only through the blood of Christ that we have this um so uh the
01:04:1001:04:10 - splitting of the temple veil uh this happened when Jesus was um uh when Jesus was on the cross um after his work had
01:04:2101:04:21 - been fulfilled the veil of the temple was torn into two now if memory serves just a few few verses later here in Luke
01:04:2701:04:27 - chapter 23 um I think we hear about um well I don’t know I a bit later in the chapter I think we hear about uh the
01:04:3701:04:37 - Dead Rising as well there were people in Jerusalem who came out from the grave right these were the miraculous signs
01:04:4401:04:44 - that accompanied the uh Jesus’s death and payment for our sin upon the cross but relevance to what we’re talking
01:04:5201:04:52 - about here um the barrier in the temple that symbolizes our separation from God the Holiness the set apartness of God
01:05:0101:05:01 - was actually torn into it was torn aunder based on the work of what Jesus had done for us and so when we are still
01:05:0901:05:09 - in the flesh like now in our lives here down in Satan’s World System we have access to God the Father through prayer
01:05:1701:05:17 - um so we pray to the father in the name of Jesus Christ Jesus taught us how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer so Our Father
01:05:2401:05:24 - Who Art in Heaven um that again signifying that well if he’s in heaven he’s not quote unquote not on Earth he
01:05:3201:05:32 - is separate from us but our father in Heaven is who we pray to and we pray to him because of what Christ did for us um
01:05:4101:05:41 - and as we were saying before the cross the father was even more inaccessible and so all of this is leading up to this
01:05:4901:05:49 - sentence here I apologize since like I said this is one of the longer sections here that we’ve gone through um all of
01:05:5401:05:54 - this is leading up up to the point that if the father is still inaccessible to us even after the cross we have access
01:06:0201:06:02 - to him through prayer um when we die we now go into the presence of the father in The Third Heaven well all of that’s
01:06:0901:06:09 - true but the father’s still separate from the world he’s still inaccessible to us to a degree and will be until the
01:06:1501:06:15 - new heavens and the new Earth but every indication says that before the cross before the Incarnation he was even less
01:06:2201:06:22 - accessible right only accessed um his grace through the the symbols and the rituals of the law um that veil of
01:06:3001:06:30 - Separation in the temple only the high priest once a year went into the most holy place in the temple um to offer
01:06:3601:06:36 - sacrifices of atonement Hebrews chapter n talks about how when Jesus died for us once for all he didn’t have to keep
01:06:4401:06:44 - going back and keep doing this like the high priest did every year well this is why we say that all of the appearances
01:06:5301:06:53 - in the Old Testament where we hear of God appearing to Moses god appearing to Abraham um uh you know the angel of the
01:07:0201:07:02 - Lord with a definite article leading the people of Israel arguing that the manifestation
01:07:0901:07:09 - the the member of the Trinity that was there was the father kind of runs contrary to everything that we’ve been
01:07:1501:07:15 - talking about and so that’s why we made the argument previously that all of these appearances of God in the Old
01:07:2301:07:23 - Testament are actually what we call christophanies pre-incarnate appearances of Christ the second member of the
01:07:2901:07:29 - Trinity now he didn’t have a human nature until the Incarnation but he was still the visible member of the Trinity
01:07:3701:07:37 - because that is his role within the Trinity we said the father is the one with authority the son is the one who’s
01:07:4301:07:43 - accessible to us and the spirit is the Unseen empowerer I mean there’s more to it but that’s a a sort of offthe cuff
01:07:5001:07:50 - generalization well Jesus Christ has always been the visible member of the Trinity even even in the Old Testament
01:07:5701:07:57 - even before we kind of were able as human beings to clearly distinguish the members of the Trinity when God appeared
01:08:0501:08:05 - before man like walking with Adam and Eve in the garden that was actually Jesus Christ the pre-incarnate son of
01:08:1301:08:13 - God um and so that is kind of the whole point of everything we’ve gone through here because the father remains
01:08:2301:08:23 - inaccessible to us because we have this barrier between us that can only be bridged through the blood of Jesus
01:08:2901:08:29 - Christ and that actually won’t fully be torn down until the new heavens and the new Earth all of this points to the
01:08:3601:08:36 - father’s separation from us his inaccessibility to us and so when we hear of God appearing to people in the
01:08:4201:08:42 - Old Testament the point of everything we went through was if all of this is the case then even though the Old Testament
01:08:5001:08:50 - doesn’t say something like it was the son that appeared to so and so you know it say says God or it says the angel of
01:08:5701:08:57 - the Lord and we talked about how Jesus Christ uh you know angels are messengers in both Greek and Hebrew the word for
01:09:0401:09:04 - for Messenger is well what we would call Angel you know angalo in Greek that’s what it means um well Jesus Christ is
01:09:1101:09:11 - The Messer of God U we talked about Hebrews chapter 1 where um not Hebrews 11 Hebrews chapter 1 where God talks
01:09:2001:09:20 - about speaking through his son Jesus Christ is the glory and exact representation of his being um you know
01:09:2701:09:27 - he is deity of course through kinosis but um all right so I’m sorry this this one got kind of long a do you have
01:09:3401:09:34 - anything you want to go on anything we’ve talked about here from the several slides the verses we’ve gone over
01:09:3901:09:39 - talking about the inaccessibility of the father and what it means for us in terms of identifying the appearances of God as
01:09:4701:09:47 - christophanies I have a question sorry I said I had a question
01:09:5601:09:56 - um what what did you mean by what does it mean by barrier of hostility when reference to the veil
01:10:0201:10:02 - that was torn apart so is that here it was one of the earlier yeah that was that was
01:10:1101:10:11 - a I think it’s the quote in Colossians if memory serves me right I was just wondering is it in the slides or is it a
01:10:1801:10:18 - verse I need to look up no it’s in one of the slides one of your earlier slides uh okay so you said hostility
01:10:2601:10:26 - barrier of hostility was broken okay here Christ has broken down
01:10:3301:10:33 - the barrier of hostility between the father and those who believe in his son um so Hy you want to take that or you
01:10:4001:10:40 - want me to go okay sure um that’s that’s still the issue of the
01:10:4801:10:48 - inaccessibility of the father and there had to be some way that um it would be made obvious it will be demonstrated
01:10:5801:10:58 - that there was really hostility between God and the creation that was now corrupt when we read I think it’s
01:11:0901:11:09 - Psalm is it six I think it may be Psalm 6 it tells us that God cannot dwell with evil so the idea is
01:11:1901:11:19 - that God has a revulsion against sin sin is a essentially offensive to him so there
01:11:3001:11:30 - has to be some way to represent that to us while at the same time God is working our Salvation Among Us so for that
01:11:3801:11:38 - reason there is a separation between God and human beings that’s what that barrier of hostility is the hostility is
01:11:4801:11:48 - simply this that the attitude of God toward a sinful creation is an attitude of judgment but there is also an
01:11:5701:11:57 - attitude of Mercy that’s why we see that there is someone of the godhead who is working within creation to bring about
01:12:0701:12:07 - the Redemption of sinning mankind so um I mean that’s uh in terms of vocabulary it’s actually what being
01:12:1701:12:17 - holy means too means being set apart sometimes you hear this um about the right way to say this so it doesn’t come
01:12:2601:12:26 - off as too offensive but you’ll hear this kind of sometimes preached by people who try to make Christianity an
01:12:3201:12:32 - outside in sort of thing rather than inside out like we whitewash ourselves and they they will talk about well we
01:12:3901:12:39 - have to be separate from the world as Christians right and that is true but actually what makes us separate from the
01:12:4501:12:45 - world is our heart State not strictly our Behavior right although if you truly believe your behavior will change you
01:12:5101:12:51 - can’t do it backwards um but the idea of separation of God is that God has to be separate from sin um and I don’t have
01:13:0101:13:01 - the slides up before me this was one of the fundamental points when we were talking about how God is good versus God
01:13:0901:13:09 - is Holy a do you remember this we were talking about um God’s goodness manifest as love and his hly Holiness manifest as
01:13:1601:13:16 - Justice these are parts of God’s uh his his Essence like what it means to be deity
01:13:2201:13:22 - what it means to be God well we said that God is good um which means God is not evil but God is holy God must be
01:13:3401:13:34 - separate from Evil so that’s different than God is not evil God has to be separate from Evil this is the idea of
01:13:4201:13:42 - Holiness um so um I I should just add that the veiling of God’s nature as well it’s actually merciful like we said you
01:13:5101:13:51 - know it gives people a free will choice but we would be destroyed in the presence of God um so um I I don’t want
01:13:5801:13:58 - us to get bad import bad associations but if you’ve ever seen like pop culture movies you know like someone holds up a
01:14:0501:14:05 - cross and the light comes out for it and smokes the things of evil or whatever that is like overd dramatized nonsense
01:14:1301:14:13 - but that is kind of the idea here the unapproachable Holiness of God’s light cannot dwell in the same place as Sin
01:14:2101:14:21 - the two things do not mix light and darkness do not mix yeah so God’s God’s God’s righteousness
01:14:2901:14:29 - God’s character the thing I wouldn’t say the thing that makes him God but you know the character
01:14:3601:14:36 - of God does not tolerate sin it does not it it just does not tolerate sin the two things cannot be in the same place but
01:14:4601:14:46 - at the same time as we have said we do have the fact that God wants to save The Sinner so their heart the sinner has to
01:14:5601:14:56 - survive in order to be saved if God were in the same space as as The Sinner then the sinner would not be saved the sinner
01:15:0601:15:06 - would per force be subject to judgment so the way that the the Trinity structur things was that the father was going to
01:15:1401:15:14 - be the representation of the godhead the Holiness the separateness the Majesty of the godhead so we could have
01:15:2501:15:25 - God the son which is kind of the point of the last um discussions we had about theophany and christophany a member of
01:15:3401:15:34 - the godhead who is in every way God had to be working within creation to realize Redemption whereas another member of the
01:15:4401:15:44 - godhead had to be working to demonstrate that these things even though God is working to redeem us from it or from
01:15:5301:15:53 - these things are things that God himself abominates so there has to be both the I will not dwell with evil my eyes are too
01:16:0601:16:06 - holy to behold iniquity as well as the I am with you always I will not abandon you I will rescue you I am your savior
01:16:1501:16:15 - all of these things must go together so we we find the Lord Jesus working within creation to realize our salvation and
01:16:2301:16:23 - the Holy Spirit empowering everything that he he was doing toward that and then we see the father himself remote
01:16:3101:16:31 - from mankind such that in fact even believers who died before the cross could not go to heaven they could not
01:16:3801:16:38 - enter the presence of the father they were still separated from the father until Jesus died on the cross and when
01:16:4401:16:44 - Jesus Paid the price for their sin they were finally admitted into the presence of the father but that was why there had
01:16:5101:16:51 - to be a separation in Hades between the believer and the unbeliever but the believer still had to go to haters
01:16:5801:16:58 - because it was not admissible into the third heaven into the presence of the father so the barrier of hostility and
01:17:0601:17:06 - this discussion again of the um the uh what was what was the term the title of this of the slides we’re using right now
01:17:1701:17:17 - the inaccessibility of the father apart from the in exactly that’s that’s the idea of the inaccessibility of the
01:17:2301:17:23 - father apart from chist we have we have no right on our own to approach God if we dare to approach God
01:17:3301:17:33 - in our current state we won’t survive the encounter we would automatically be thrown into the Lake of Fire we would
01:17:3901:17:39 - our flesh would be destroyed instantly so but in fact um What the Lord Has Done is erect a separation Place himself
01:17:5101:17:51 - apart from us while he works out our Salvation to make us admissible into his presence that’s what the barrier of
01:17:5801:17:58 - hostility is about and that’s what um the inaccessibility of the father apart from Christ is really
01:18:0301:18:03 - about yeah I mean and I should add that by Nature we are enemies of God um you know like that is that is sin we are set
01:18:1301:18:13 - opposed to him and his righteousness only through the power of God working in us do we ever come to be adopted as Sons
01:18:2001:18:20 - um and so there’s this verse in you know um Romans 58 is it 8 while we were still sinners Christ died for us um you know
01:18:3201:18:32 - this is why we have such things in the Bible as loving your enemy and praying for your enemy and that sort of thing is
01:18:3901:18:39 - well God G you know God the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world to die for us to redeem us before any of us did
01:18:4701:18:47 - good things to deserve that it’s not like you know we had some humans who decided okay I’m going to follow God and
01:18:5301:18:53 - I’m going to be a good person and then God sent Jesus to redeem us no one is good apart from God um and so he died
01:19:0301:19:03 - for us while we were still unworthy while we were still his enemies um that’s why there’s hostility just it’s
01:19:1001:19:10 - inherent it’s within the nature uh God in his perfect Holiness and Justice cannot abide
01:19:1701:19:17 - unrighteousness um yeah yeah that’s that’s about it I don’t
01:19:2401:19:24 - know does that answer your question Jason yeah thank you it’s good okay all right so next we’re going to be talking
01:19:3601:19:36 - about the Dignity of the father um and so we have talked about uh the father’s invisibility uh behind the veil of
01:19:4501:19:45 - Separation uh the inaccessibility inaccessibility of the father apart from
01:19:5101:19:51 - the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and now we’re going to talk about the Dignity of the father and this is actually a point
01:19:5801:19:58 - that we’ve really danced around I think almost since the beginning of this study um there isn’t like a wrong way to
01:20:0401:20:04 - organize kind of what comes first and what comes next but um this point that Audie and I have made repeatedly about
01:20:1001:20:10 - how the father is the he’s the the face of deity within the Trinity the representation of deity that is the role
01:20:1801:20:18 - he has adopted as the one in Authority that’s really all this is when we talk about the Dignity of the father it’s not
01:20:2401:20:24 - as if Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit don’t have dignity themselves or things like that um we’re talking about the
01:20:3101:20:31 - role the father has adopted as the member of the trinity in the position of authority um and so uh kicking off this
01:20:4201:20:42 - particular discussion um let me see this sentence um so the satanic Rebellion uh now there’s an entire series up on ichus
01:20:5201:20:52 - that covers this the SR series five part series on it this hundreds of pages um well at any rate before this present
01:21:0001:21:00 - creation even came about before humans were created uh God had already created the angels and so the Angelic rebellion
01:21:0801:21:08 - led by Satan precedes the creation of man and in fact as ichus interprets things it precedes the entire account we
01:21:1601:21:16 - have in Genesis verse versus one two and following like like verse two of Genesis chapter 1 and following is an account of
01:21:2301:21:23 - recreation after the gap between verse one and verse two uh during which you know the Angels fell the world was
01:21:3101:21:31 - judged it’s why creation starts out in darkness even though God’s a God of Light well not to get too off topic
01:21:3701:21:37 - there but you know the Angelic rebellion led by Satan precedes the creation of of man and so this actually
01:21:4701:21:47 - explains much of the father’s emmo of working through the one who will ultimately replace Satan as the ruler of
01:21:5501:21:55 - his world Jesus Christ so all sorts of scripture references here to kind of uh illuminate better what we mean by this
01:22:0201:22:02 - and um I I had a hard time reading this sentence why I stumbled a bit at the beginning here but the reason
01:22:0801:22:08 - why so much of what God does in his plan happens is because it is a response to the satanic rebellion and this is a big
01:22:1801:22:18 - deal in how Aus organizes its lessons and in fact I would argue that uh not appreciating this Point gives us a
01:22:2501:22:25 - really impoverished understanding of why we are here as humans um so a pretty normal catechism type answer is like
01:22:3201:22:32 - what is the purpose of the creation of man the purpose of the creation of man is to bring glory to God or something
01:22:3701:22:37 - like that right um the the catechized version of this question is not actually really sufficient why are we here as
01:22:4601:22:46 - humans well yes we’re here to give glory to God but we are also here as a demonstration to Satan and the other
01:22:5201:22:52 - rebelling angels that in fact that they are willing to repent God would redeem them um so human beings are for a time
01:23:0001:23:00 - as the book of Hebrews mentions for a Time lower than the Angels although in our Resurrection bodies we will be
01:23:0601:23:06 - raised up like Jesus Christ was well all of human history is playing out in this in in the in in it hold on let me think
01:23:1601:23:16 - about how to phrase this um human history is playing out with the backdrop of Satan’s rebellion in the background
01:23:2301:23:23 - like that is There It Is invisible to us you know people unbelievers would scoff you know they say we’re just making
01:23:3001:23:30 - things up that well we don’t see this unseen conflict raging around us so you know we can’t measure it with our
01:23:3701:23:37 - scientific instruments therefore it’s not real and people would say that although by definition if it’s in higher
01:23:4201:23:42 - Dimensions than our own we’re not goingon to be able to measure it you know seems kind of common sense but um
01:23:4701:23:47 - all of this to say the father acting in this capacity sent Jesus Christ Christ to redeem
01:23:5501:23:55 - mankind as part of his plan to redeem Humanity after the fall in a response to Satan’s Rebellion okay so I’m not going
01:24:0401:24:04 - to go any more off topic there we could but why I’m bringing that up is that the father sent the son as his
01:24:1101:24:11 - representative we talked about this a little bit earlier in this specific lesson as well that Jesus Christ is
01:24:1701:24:17 - serving as a servant of the father as his Messenger as his representative in the same way that so for example
01:24:2301:24:23 - ambassadors might represent countries Jesus Christ is being sent as the preeminent messenger of the father um
01:24:3101:24:31 - the one who who Bears the father’s Authority um so I think there’s one second the parable of the vineyard owner
01:24:4101:24:41 - um Matthew chapter 21: 33 33 and following
01:24:5001:24:50 - so uh where I was going with this was that when the wicked tenants this is the parable
01:24:5601:24:56 - of the tenants um they beat and killed the Servants of the master who owns the vineyard who sends them to him you know
01:25:0501:25:05 - and this by way of analogy this is what the stiff necked people of Israel did to the prophets the prophets who told them
01:25:1301:25:13 - to turn back to God to repent they beat them they stoned them they put them to death but then the uh owner of the
01:25:2101:25:21 - vineyard sends the air he sends his son saying surely they will listen to me now because they will respect my son because
01:25:2901:25:29 - he carries my authority he is you know he is my representative in a way that the prophets who were Servants of the
01:25:3701:25:37 - most high were not um and so that is what we are trying to get at here in this particular discussion of Jesus
01:25:4401:25:44 - Christ as the representative of the father but why we are talking about that is because the father is the one who’s
01:25:5101:25:51 - doing the sending here um so the father is the one whose authority and Majesty gives him the right to send the son on
01:26:0101:26:01 - his behalf to replace Satan as the Morning Star um through his sacrifice on the Christ through his sacrifice on the
01:26:1001:26:10 - cross he redeemed sinful Mankind and he is replacing you know present progressive and will replace in the
01:26:1701:26:17 - future um Satan as the preeminent uh member of creation sort of the prince of this world if you will um
01:26:2701:26:27 - Jesus Christ is going to completely replace Satan in his duties that he had before his fall as Ezekiel chapter 28
01:26:3401:26:34 - talks about um so in this way when Jesus Christ shows up in the Old Testament he speaks for
01:26:4301:26:43 - God he speaks the words of God um you’ll hear this come up in the Book of John is well anyone who believes my testimony
01:26:5101:26:51 - believes the testimony of the father who sent me right Jesus speaks for the father he has the power to do that um
01:26:5901:26:59 - because he is the anointed one the Messiah the one sent into the World by the father as his representative um and
01:27:0701:27:07 - so this principle is the main thrust of what we’re going over here when we discuss the Dignity of the father in
01:27:1501:27:15 - being the one who sends the son on his behalf um so the son represents the father as his agent in the Plan of
01:27:2301:27:23 - Salvation to redeem humankind from our sin um and so uh this organization this wasn’t me this is coming straight out of
01:27:3101:27:31 - the study here um this uh mission that the son has the son representing the father as his agent in the Plan of
01:27:3901:27:39 - Salvation well we see that that is demonstrated through these things so Dr LS used alliteration here to help us
01:27:4901:27:49 - remember them better so we see this role of the son representing his father and is his agent in the Plan of Salvation
01:27:5501:27:55 - through Christ’s message his mediation his mission and his monarchy so in terms of message Jesus Christ is the word of
01:28:0601:28:06 - God as the beginning part of the Gospel of John tells us he is the embodiment of the message and truth of the father and
01:28:1401:28:14 - speaks the father’s words truly and precisely at all times Jesus Christ is the Father’s ultimate message that verse
01:28:2101:28:21 - from Hebrews chapter 1 that we’ve been talking about is the messenger of the father’s New Covenant in his blood as
01:28:2801:28:28 - opposed to the high priests or the prophets who didn’t have the power to save Jesus Christ died for us once for
01:28:3501:28:35 - all reconciling us to God the father so Jesus Christ as the word of God if you’ve never thought I mean that that
01:28:4301:28:43 - word in Greek logos has many meanings but we think about it is Jesus being the final olive branch of God to sinful man
01:28:5401:28:54 - his message of redemption and deliverance if only we would believe Jesus Christ is God’s message himself he
01:29:0201:29:02 - embodies it he is the message but we also see Christ’s role as the agent representing the father in his mediation
01:29:1101:29:11 - Christ is the mediator between God the father and sinful mankind he is the one who reconciles us to the father by his
01:29:1801:29:18 - blood this is part of his mission this is why the father sent him but this is showing that he is the one acting on
01:29:2601:29:26 - behalf of the father to reconcile us to the father then we also see his role representing the father as the agent of
01:29:3601:29:36 - our Salvation in his mission Christ is the one anointed and sent by the father to offer himself as a sacrifice for our
01:29:4401:29:44 - sins so when Jesus Christ was born into the world during the Incarnation he came with a purpose he was not here uh just
01:29:5301:29:53 - by accident or wandering around not knowing what he was doing he was born into the world took on a human nature to
01:30:0101:30:01 - die for us that was the entire point of the Incarnation you know when Jesus is is uh you know Jesus coming from that
01:30:1001:30:10 - same Hebrew word you know Joshua the Lord saves um Jesus Christ the anointed the Messiah the one who saves his people
01:30:1801:30:18 - is implicit in the titles we have for him the epithets Emanuel God With Us we have this idea of Jesus being born
01:30:2801:30:28 - into the world as the savior of the world from the very beginning even before he becomes an adult and goes and
01:30:3501:30:35 - dies on the cross for us this is why Jesus came into the world um he is the ultimate high priest who makes atonement
01:30:4201:30:42 - to the father on our behalf Jesus came in order to die that was his mission um not die just
01:30:5001:30:50 - physically but take the spiritual death for our sins on his shoulders in our place this was why the second person of
01:30:5901:30:59 - the Trinity took on a human nature and came into the world because he had to be both fully God and fully man to pay for
01:31:0601:31:06 - our sins so finally the last way in which we see the son representing the father as his agent in the Plan of
01:31:1301:31:13 - Salvation is through his monarchy in recognition of Christ’s Victory on the cross the father has appointed him Lord
01:31:2201:31:22 - in Christ he is the Lord anointed to Rule the World um and so this going back to that idea of Jesus Christ replacing
01:31:3001:31:30 - Satan um signals not only Christ’s replacement of sat as ruler of the world but his Regent of the world he has been
01:31:3901:31:39 - delegated authority to rule by the ultimate one who has Authority who has sovereignty over the universe and that’s
01:31:4701:31:47 - God the Father acting as the face of authority within the Trinity um and so this actually explains many of the Old
01:31:5701:31:57 - Testament passages referring to the father’s impending return being actually the son who comes to rule in fact a lot
01:32:0501:32:05 - of this has multiple fulfillment um so there’s this concept in Prophecy that you know the same words in Prophecy can
01:32:1301:32:13 - apply to more than one thing or or you can have typology where a a literal physical human being in one place in
01:32:2101:32:21 - history actually symbolically represents something spiritual that can happen too um well some of this gets tied up it
01:32:2801:32:28 - depends on which passage we’re talking about but Jesus Christ is going to be the one who fulfills you know the God’s
01:32:3601:32:36 - return to rule the world with perfect Justice well some of that happens during the Millennium much less the new heavens
01:32:4201:32:42 - and the new Earth where there’s not even any evil but that unprecedented period of peace and prosperity and stability
01:32:4901:32:49 - that will come about during the Millennium is part of this comes from Jesus Christ
01:32:5501:32:55 - serving as the prince Regent of creation that that delegated authority and power he has representing God the father on
01:33:0401:33:04 - Earth is also part of his mission of representing the father as his agent okay and so we can see that his
01:33:1401:33:14 - acceptance of the rency of the world as the father’s representative um well how do we see all of that um the passage
01:33:2201:33:22 - hold on kind to figure out how all this fits together um so we see his Ascension into heaven is sit at the right hand of
01:33:2901:33:29 - God the Father um so we’re explaining kind of like how this you know Christ has a throne you know even though he’s
01:33:3701:33:37 - acting as a representative of the father he still has this this authority of royalty if you will um so we see that
01:33:4301:33:43 - through his Ascension into heaven um and so there’s this really famous Messianic Psalm that we we come back to repeatedly
01:33:5101:33:51 - Psalm 110 verse1 the Lord says to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foot stol for your feet
01:33:5801:33:58 - um and we see that fulfilled in Matthew chapter 22 here but the son’s Ascension to the throne on
01:34:0401:34:04 - Earth and then also Jesus Christ and his Primacy as the first born of creation um all of these
01:34:1301:34:13 - things show Christ’s role of representing the father in God’s Plan of Salvation and all of that supports the
01:34:2201:34:22 - position to tie it all back that QED where we’re going with all this is that if Jesus Christ is the representative of
01:34:3001:34:30 - the father who acts on his behalf in interfacing with Humanity well then the position that all Old Testament
01:34:3701:34:37 - theophany is truly christophany that is it’s not an appearance of the father or the spirit but the son that we see in
01:34:4401:34:44 - the Old Testament then we argue that all of these appearances of God in the Old Testament are actually the son appearing
01:34:5201:34:52 - representing and speaking for the father before his Incarnation um that is the point in fact the the very reason why
01:35:0101:35:01 - we’ve been talking about the invisib ever since we talked about theophany and christophy the reason why we then talked
01:35:0601:35:06 - about the invisibility of the father and the inaccessibility of the father and now the Dignity of the father um his his
01:35:1301:35:13 - authority as the one who represents um the the Holiness and the perfect authority of God you know the perfect
01:35:2201:35:22 - King of Kings um well that helps explain why we take all of the appearances of God to be the
01:35:3201:35:32 - son because he is the one who is sent on the father’s behalf um so uh AI do you have points you want to bring up here
01:35:4301:35:43 - with respect to things we have said one thing that stuck with me was uh how Jesus is the word um this is a a
01:35:5201:35:52 - discussion we had in one of these uh sessions I I’m suspecting it was probably more than a year ago um when
01:36:0301:36:03 - the Bible says that Jesus is the word or the the logos as as it has it in the Greek it’s saying that Jesus
01:36:1201:36:12 - is God’s plan God’s answer because logos it can mean word just literally word but it tends to connote
01:36:2301:36:23 - argument it’s like when when you say do you have a case uh if you’re a defense attorney or
01:36:3201:36:32 - if you are a Prosecuting the prosecuting attorney or something of that sort when you asked if
01:36:3901:36:39 - you have a case do you have an argument do you have something to pre to present this is what Jesus represents then so
01:36:4701:36:47 - see just to cut off here I’m sorry I don’t want to cut you off but like you can see look at this definition this is
01:36:5301:36:53 - just their’s lexicon there are more modern Greek lexicons but if I just scroll down a bit look at all the
01:36:5901:36:59 - definitions of this one word right and if we were to look in a concordance you can see that it’s word word word right
01:37:0601:37:06 - but also an account you can give a reason you can give a saying so not like word singular but what someone said all
01:37:1401:37:14 - of those you know even commandment or or Reason all of those come from logos so carry on
01:37:2301:37:23 - yeah essentially Jesus is God’s answer to the rebellion in his creation that’s just what we’re what we’re getting at
01:37:3101:37:31 - and in that way he is um the father’s represent representation or representative to the world to the
01:37:4101:37:41 - universe to the creation that he has made so the Angels who stayed true who did not Rebel in Jesus they they they
01:37:5001:37:50 - find um Vindication for their children choice to stand with the Lord rather than to join the rebellion of Satan and
01:37:5801:37:58 - for human beings who were not there when the whole thing began Jesus is is um a demonstration of everything that God is
01:38:0801:38:08 - as an answer to all the lies that Satan has been throwing at at Humanity right from the Garden of Eden so in Jesus
01:38:1601:38:16 - everything that we want to know about God the answer that God has the lies that Satan
01:38:2401:38:24 - has told about him and the the discussion really of what his goal or objective for the universe that he
01:38:3401:38:34 - created is fully represented it’s all in Jesus Christ that is how he is God’s message that is
01:38:4201:38:42 - how he is God’s word that is how he is the logos so we see to um the other thing I
01:38:5001:38:50 - wanted to make a point about was the monarchy thing this is something that um I think some years back when it it it it
01:39:0001:39:00 - made sense to me or I came to appreciate it that way kind of blew my mind because if you did not
01:39:0901:39:09 - really understand that he was God Jesus Is God and as God he is The Sovereign of creation that that’s it he is that’s not
01:39:1901:39:19 - a position he he needs to have bequeathed to him or given to him by just the fact of being deity being
01:39:2701:39:27 - God just as the father is God and the spirit is God he is The Sovereign of creation but as man as a human being he
01:39:3701:39:37 - was exalted to an incredbly high place I don’t think sometimes it it I think I don’t know I it’s hard to imagine just
01:39:4701:39:47 - what Jesus has become as a man what he is is what God is
01:39:5601:39:56 - except as a creature that’s what he is it’s similar to what Satan was when he was the Regent
01:40:0401:40:04 - the the guardian of God’s Throne similar to that and but I think it’s even greater than that because he stands
01:40:1301:40:13 - above everything that God made far above even the angels Satan may have been the ruler of the Angels but he was an angel
01:40:2201:40:22 - what Jesus is is just he’s on a level just by himself completely removed from every other thing and he is high above
01:40:3301:40:33 - it as a man that’s the position that he has been given because of his choice as a human being to be true to the father
01:40:4301:40:43 - but there’s also something else in there when God made the universe the first time he gave it to somebody to
01:40:4901:40:49 - administrate for him um so to speak because I mean even though uh the Bible gives
01:40:5801:40:58 - us to know that Satan was acting in the capacity of God’s Royal Guard his his um special person so to speak his number
01:41:0901:41:09 - two on Earth we can take for granted that that was something that um an authorities that enveloped the entire
01:41:1601:41:16 - universe we could take for granted um Jesus himself has replaced Satan and that position he is now the ruler of
01:41:2701:41:27 - everything that God has made and this is on behalf of the father so again consider the father as a represent
01:41:3701:41:37 - the representative of the trinity in terms of the authority of the Trinity the sovereignty of the Trinity overall
01:41:4601:41:46 - of creation and as as that representation of the Trinity he has appointed somebody
01:41:5401:41:54 - to be his Regent just as um Stephen has said
01:42:0301:42:03 - so that’s exactly the the thing there and and the dignity that that shines through in all of that is is more
01:42:1101:42:11 - like in this fight with Satan God God essentially says it’s beneath me to be engaging with
01:42:1801:42:18 - you you if I engaged with you it would seem as though I we bullying you because you’re too small for me really we we
01:42:2701:42:27 - can’t really have a fair fight you and I so here’s what I’ll do I’ll choose a champion and he’ll match you that’s
01:42:3501:42:35 - what’s going to happen and that champion was the Lord Jesus Christ and it’s it’s essentially the Lord saying yeah you’re
01:42:4201:42:42 - laying claim to this this is the person I’ve chosen to be in that place that you’re claiming you Style Yourself the
01:42:5101:42:51 - God of this world the ruler of the of of the earth and whatnot but this is the man that I’ve chosen to rule the
01:42:5901:42:59 - universe the creation that I made I never chose you and I’m not going to hand things over to you and I’m not
01:43:0601:43:06 - going to abandon them to you he will win it all back for me and that’s exactly why we open this section with oops let
01:43:1501:43:15 - mean to click that with this backdrop of the satanic rebellion and why it’s actually quite important you know you
01:43:2101:43:21 - might say well what does it matter if we understand what happened before Humanity well it matters because when we
01:43:2801:43:28 - understand that Jesus Christ is the answer to this I I think we should emphasize again that Angels at present
01:43:3501:43:35 - compared to us as humans are way way way more smart and powerful than we are like it’s not even close right and the being
01:43:4401:43:44 - that God will replace Satan with is a human being Jesus is a human being now he’s also God right that’s very
01:43:5201:43:52 - important that we don’t mistake that um Hebrews chapter 1 I actually pulled this up um the new Hebrews series that Dr L
01:43:5901:43:59 - has been going through Hebrews chapter one all about how Jesus as the ascended Son of God the glorified Son of God is
01:44:0701:44:07 - superior to Angels well God chose to work through a a human being who Satan would view as weak and yet glorified him
01:44:1601:44:16 - above Satan he’s replacing Satan with a human being think about that for a second um how was I pulled up I kind of
01:44:2301:44:23 - surprised this wasn’t in the the verses I was thinking about this when I think about the son’s monarchy like Jesus
01:44:3001:44:30 - specifically serving as the Regent or the the monarch of human rulership as God has appointed I think of the
01:44:3601:44:36 - epithets that you’ll commonly hear read uh when we are talking about um wow the words escaping me you know
01:44:4401:44:44 - like before Christmas not that we make a big deal out of times and Seasons but uh uh Advent right um that you’ll hear you
01:44:5301:44:53 - know like the prince of peace and uh the the King of Kings and the Lord of lords right you know these epithets that we
01:44:5801:44:58 - apply to Jesus Christ well those actually come up in Revelation chapter 17 Revelation chapter 19 I’m now are
01:45:0401:45:04 - also applied actually to the father um well I guess probably depends on how you’re interpreting all these things
01:45:1101:45:11 - right but Jesus is serving as the Regent of the father and he has that kingly Authority he is the king of kings and
01:45:1901:45:19 - what that represents that turn of phrase in in Greek at least is this idea that you know he’s the the one king to rule
01:45:2601:45:26 - them all um you know think lord of the ring style here um he is the preeminent King the the king that perfectly
01:45:3401:45:34 - fulfills the platonic form of kingship if you want to go down that route um and he’s doing it as a human being right so
01:45:4301:45:43 - you might say well God is our ruler but God is not like us but Jesus is our ruler but Jesus Is Like
01:45:5101:45:51 - Us think about that for a sec right um this is the sovereignty of Jesus serving as the agent of the father is that he is
01:46:0001:46:00 - a human being who has been elevated above every other created thing in the universe on account of what he has done
01:46:0801:46:08 - for us God has glorified and put him at his right hand you know that’s another expression you’ll hear that is the sense
01:46:1501:46:15 - of Jesus’s role um you know what he is taking back from Satan God has glorified him the resur resurrected Christ to sit
01:46:2401:46:24 - at his right hand and Rule alongside the father for all eternity actually also really interesting here um I don’t want
01:46:3101:46:31 - to get us off topic but um Dr luging holds that during the Millennium you know uh we will be resurrected uh the
01:46:3901:46:39 - the Rapture happens at the end of the tribulation um we are caught up with Christ we we gain our Resurrection
01:46:4401:46:44 - bodies and we will rule with him Bible actually says this although a lot of people tend to ignore it and hand wave
01:46:4901:46:49 - it away but uh David if I’m not mistaken a you might remember better than me um he’s going to come back restore the
01:46:5701:46:57 - davidic kingdom as in the physical human being David not Jesus Christ um I think he’s going to serve as kind of a what’s
01:47:0601:47:06 - the right word like I don’t know how how do you pronounce this word like autant you know what I’m talking about like the
01:47:1501:47:15 - administrative assistant to a senior official ad dju an adant
01:47:2401:47:24 - okay whatever Jesus is going to be the king but he is after the type of David as the
01:47:3401:47:34 - ruler of Israel right yeah and that’s thatal 110 you know the Lord said to my Lord um
01:47:4301:47:43 - you Messianic Psalm here go ahead yeah so just like you said in in fact during the tribulation I’m sorry
01:47:5101:47:51 - during the millennium every resurrected believer will have um an oversight some some position of oversight over the
01:48:0201:48:02 - millennial world at that time Nations will have uh Believers resurrected Believers ruling
01:48:0901:48:09 - over them on the spiritual plane just like today we have Satan who has apportioned the nations of
01:48:1601:48:16 - the world under different um um Rebel Angel authorities so we have as as we see in Daniel a Prince of Persia a
01:48:2701:48:27 - prince of Greece and we have Kings of Persia for example so likewise during the Millennium there will be um
01:48:3501:48:35 - believers who will be in charge of different nations of the world David will be the one in charge of Israel
01:48:4101:48:41 - that’s that’s the guarantee um of of the promise that the Lord made to him that’s essentially what
01:48:4901:48:49 - uh yeah stepen is referring to I didn’t want to get it wrong was a bit fuzzy in my head since it’s been a while since
01:48:5401:48:54 - I’ve read that particular section but and I was just using David as an example of well we talk about Christ playing
01:49:0201:49:02 - second fle to the father if you will and well how can he do that he’s God well David to use this idea of delegated
01:49:0901:49:09 - authority and push it further David who is the king of Israel right in terms of all the kings that came after him were
01:49:1601:49:16 - kings in the line of David you know the davidic kingdom is what we call it well David is gonna be assisting Jesus Christ
01:49:2401:49:24 - that’s what we mean about Jesus being king of King and Lord of lords you don’t get more kingly than David and Solomon
01:49:2901:49:29 - in the Bible but Jesus is going to be in charge of them and in that same way Jesus is acting as the representative or
01:49:3701:49:37 - the Regent of the father and that’s the Dignity of the father that we’re talking about here yeah yeah pretty much and I I
01:49:4501:49:45 - do like where what you had had brought up that point that we’ve talked about before about how the father he’s not
01:49:5001:49:50 - even going to get his hand himself so to speak I mean turn of phrase probably isn’t quite on point because you know
01:49:5701:49:57 - God’s God and he’s not like us as created beings but he doesn’t he’s not even going to lift a finger himself to
01:50:0301:50:03 - do he doesn’t need to he doesn’t have to exercise even the smallest amount of his power to defeat Satan instead he is
01:50:1001:50:10 - going to redeem mankind not through an overwhelming display of his his grander and Majesty which he could do you know
01:50:1901:50:19 - he could just snap his fingers and annihilate Satan instantly right in this like overwhelming pyrotechnic display of
01:50:2501:50:25 - superiority but instead God is going to work through a human being someone who is weak who is frail who has all of
01:50:3501:50:35 - these things that that would make this the angels scof and he’s going to elevate Jesus Christ the resurrected
01:50:4201:50:42 - Christ to his right hand and he’s going to be the ruler God is showing that in fact he can do whatever he pleases and
01:50:5001:50:50 - he doesn’t have to annihilate Satan the choices of his other moral creatures through put the lie to Satan’s
01:50:5801:50:58 - entire PR platform through and through um and you know um that is I I should also
01:51:0601:51:06 - say that um one other thing that if you get this Trope of Kings in your head or monarchy and and authority and things
01:51:1401:51:14 - like that is you’ll think about kind of like the beneficence or the magnam of Kings I know those are kind of big words
01:51:2101:51:21 - but you know like the the King’s favor or the king’s good will you know um for his people you’ll hear things like that
01:51:3001:51:30 - God has that more than any other king you know any human kings are just kind of poor copies of the Divine version of
01:51:3701:51:37 - this right you know not to get all platonic about it but you know like basically that sense of the dignity and
01:51:4601:51:46 - and people like they want the king’s blessing and his his like his I don’t know his favor and uh like he’s the one
01:51:5501:51:55 - who you want you know like King’s kissing babies okay you know like when we have that idea
01:52:0201:52:02 - of he’s a big deal right um that that guy’s a big deal you know I do think that some of this symbolism is maybe
01:52:1001:52:10 - lost on us a little bit because you know our particular country you know uh not real big on Kings right um that was kind
01:52:2001:52:20 - of the thing about the American Revolution you know like we’re going to Rebel from the British Monarchy because
01:52:2601:52:26 - we don’t want to pay taxes I part of it but you know like basically that kings are sort of anathema to us in what we
01:52:3401:52:34 - considered our enlightened Western democracy but think about how hard this would hit for you know how about people
01:52:4101:52:41 - who were under the emperor the Caesars in Rome this idea of central individual Authority um it doesn’t hit for us in
01:52:5101:52:51 - the same way it would for them as people under an absolute monarchy um per Imperial monarchy but you know on
01:52:5901:52:59 - presidents are not Kings right um not in the way we’re talking about here we’re talking about people who have a right
01:53:0701:53:07 - you know think like Mandate of Heaven you know what that is from history not that that’s really a thing by the way
01:53:1301:53:13 - but like the actual Mandate of Heaven Jesus has the real mandate to Heaven everyone else was just using it as an
01:53:1901:53:19 - excuse to go steal people’s land but it’s Kings who have that basically the scepter from God
01:53:2801:53:28 - himself that is what we’re talking about in terms of Royal sovereignty Royal dignity is coming from that okay yeah
01:53:3801:53:38 - sorry a little bit rambly but important Concepts all right so we are finally
01:53:4901:53:49 - going to talk now kind of about how uh these characteristics of the son second person of the Trinity sort of contrast
01:53:5801:53:58 - with all of the things that we’ve been talking about with respect to the father for the last minut so we went over how
01:54:0401:54:04 - the father is invisible to us he’s separated by that Veil uh due to the sinfulness of humanity he keeps himself
01:54:1101:54:11 - separate we talked about how he is inaccessible to us um apart from uh us covering ourselves in the blood of
01:54:1801:54:18 - Christ to approach his throne of grace we only have access to him through what Christ has already done for us and then
01:54:2501:54:25 - we talked about how uh the Dignity of the father sent Jesus Christ to act on his behalf as a representative um so he
01:54:3301:54:33 - is uh kind of analogist to a King who has uh you know the prince serve on his behalf or uh you know officers of the
01:54:4101:54:41 - Court do things with his authority well that is sort of how the father sends Christ on his behalf um he sends someone
01:54:4901:54:49 - as an agent to uh he represent and speak for the father um and that’s how the father sends Jesus Christ as his
01:54:5701:54:57 - representative but um by way of contrast to what we just talked about with the father um Jesus Christ actually uh is
01:55:0901:55:09 - visible to us we have access to him and he humbles himself so that we can approach him as another person uh the
01:55:1901:55:19 - visible member of the Trinity who we can take our cares and concerns before um so uh while we cannot initially see the
01:55:2701:55:27 - father uh that is until we die after the Ascension uh he Ephesians chapter 4 mentions that uh Christ LED captivity
01:55:3501:55:35 - captive uh those pre cross believers who were initially in Paradise in Hades are now in the presence of the father in the
01:55:4201:55:42 - third heaven and that’s where we too will go when we die in this present Church age um but while we cannot
01:55:4801:55:48 - initially see the father we can see the son and can see the father through the son and so that principle comes up in
01:55:5501:55:55 - the Gospel of John we have a verse here from John chapter 14 and so this is when they are asking Jesus show us the Father
01:56:0301:56:03 - and Jesus says to them how I have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me Phillip he who has seen
01:56:1101:56:11 - me has seen the father how can you say show us the father um so we might also reference and I know I’ve been harping
01:56:1801:56:18 - on this one um but Hebrews chapter 1 brought this up over and over here how Christ is said to be uh the radiance of
01:56:2701:56:27 - God’s glory and the exact representation of his being uh Jesus Christ is not like an illusion he’s not like a I don’t know
01:56:3601:56:36 - like a pale Similac room of the essence of God he is God and that was true during the Incarnation um we had the
01:56:4501:56:45 - hypostatic Union in effect so uh God and man fully God yet fully man um now of course his divinity was veiled during
01:56:5401:56:54 - the Incarnation under that doctrine that we call kenosis but at any rate Jesus says to Philip here um how can you say
01:57:0301:57:03 - show us the father when you see the father through him Jesus acts as the representative of the father more than
01:57:1001:57:10 - just like a token title but he is the radiance of the father’s Glory that’s what Hebrews chapter one tells us here
01:57:1701:57:17 - so we could not initially approach the father we’ve talked about this we didn’t have access to him until Christ won that
01:57:2501:57:25 - for us on the cross but through the son we have gained that access another quote from first John here says I am the way
01:57:3201:57:32 - the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through me um so we usually use this verse in terms of
01:57:3901:57:39 - salvation but even for believers none of us even though we believe in God none of us can access the father except through
01:57:4801:57:48 - Jesus Christ the only reason why we have access even as Believers even once all this has happened is because of what
01:57:5401:57:54 - Christ did um so our sinfulness has kept us separate from the perfect Holiness of the father but the work of the son has
01:58:0301:58:03 - rendered us holy and has reconciled us to him Colossians 1:22 says he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body
01:58:1101:58:11 - through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and Beyond reproach so our sin was nailed to the
01:58:1801:58:18 - cross with Christ sometimes you’ll hear it phrase like that so Jesus is the visible accessible member of the Trinity
01:58:2501:58:25 - who was willing to Humble himself and associate with us to die for us this passage in Philippians chapter 2 talks
01:58:3301:58:33 - about uh kinosis this is one of the places where we get it from in the Bible talks about Jesus humbling himself so uh
01:58:4101:58:41 - picking up at verse six Hebrews chapter 2 verse 6 says he existed in the form of God but did not regard equality with God
01:58:4901:58:49 - as a thing to be grasped but emptied himself that’s where we get kinosis from but emptied himself taking the form of a
01:58:5601:58:56 - bond servant and being made in the likeness of men being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself
01:59:0101:59:01 - by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross and then we talk about how uh for this reason Jesus
01:59:0801:59:08 - will be highly exalted um that’s part of the uh tius back here watch this this part of the monarchy that we talked
01:59:1601:59:16 - about Jesus Will Rule as Regent on the father’s behalf as king of kings and Lord of lords um and he will be exalted
01:59:2401:59:24 - every knee will bow and every tongue will confess also In this passage from Philippians 2 um well where were we
01:59:3101:59:31 - going with this well this is what Jesus was willing to do for us he humbled himself in order to take on a human
01:59:3801:59:38 - nature to live alongside us and to die as the perfect substitute for our sins here so Christ has always been our point
01:59:4601:59:46 - of contact with the godhead whether in the Old Testament in christophanies or after his appearance in true human ity
01:59:5201:59:52 - following his Incarnation it’s always been Jesus Christ who is the visible member of the Trinity and the one who we
01:59:5801:59:58 - have contact with who gives us that that in if you will to the throne room of God the Father um and we’ve also emphasized
02:00:0602:00:06 - throughout this series that the holy spirit is the Unseen member of the Trinity that’s sort of uh his
02:00:1202:00:12 - characteristic you know of the son is the accessible one the visible one the approachable one the father is the one
02:00:1802:00:18 - in a position of authority the one with dignity like we talked about who sends the son on his behalf the spirit is the
02:00:2402:00:24 - Unseen helper um but it’s always been through the son that we have access to the father and and therefore actually
02:00:3102:00:31 - access to the Trinity as a whole um Jesus is the one through whom we have access to and reconciliation with God
02:00:4002:00:40 - and so this is why we’re kind of contrasting what we talked about the father being in invisible inaccessible
02:00:4702:00:47 - and uh having this Authority this dignity that sort of holds him apart from us uh so that he sends uh Jesus to
02:00:5402:00:54 - work on his behalf well by way of contrast Jesus is visible to us is accessible to us and has humbled himself
02:01:0002:01:00 - to live alongside us and become one of us taking on a human nature um and so you know we’ve talked before about how
02:01:0902:01:09 - the roles in the Trinity it’s not like either member of the Trinity is better or worse than the other in this they
02:01:1502:01:15 - have adopted different roles in the plan to redeem Mankind and so the father’s role is is to be that representation of
02:01:2402:01:24 - deity uh the one who cannot tolerate sin representing that part of God’s Essence that he cannot abide sin he is Holy he’s
02:01:3202:01:32 - set apart from it and Jesus is the one who chose to Humble himself to die on our behalf as a perfect substitute both
02:01:4002:01:40 - members of the Trinity their roles are entirely necessary for the Redemption of mankind but they are not the same role
02:01:4702:01:47 - right and of course we’ve spent a lot of time talking about the Trinity uh showing how that is the case here but
02:01:5302:01:53 - the point in all of this is that even in the Old Testament as we’ve been talking about here the appearances of the sun is
02:02:0002:02:00 - consistent with the son as being visible accessible and humbling himself he is the one who interacts with Humanity
02:02:0702:02:07 - directly not the father and so all those instances that we’ve talked about and will continue to talk about in the next
02:02:1402:02:14 - lesson here in this series of of the reincarnate Jesus Christ appearing to people in the Old Testament Jesus is the
02:02:2202:02:22 - one who does this because it is aligned with these characteristics of the second member of the Trinity as opposed to the
02:02:2802:02:28 - father’s in invisibility inaccessibility and his dignity his separateness from the world so AI do you have points to
02:02:3702:02:37 - add as we kind of tie up uh this this lesson we’ve been going over talking about theophany and christophany and why
02:02:4302:02:43 - we’re making this identification of Christ in the Old Testament uh it I think you you really
02:02:5102:02:51 - kept Ed everything I would say just that um uh the point is to remind us of the glory the Majesty of God and at
02:03:0402:03:04 - the same time his heart for Sinners because if God is Not removed from our sin we don’t see just how desperate our
02:03:1602:03:16 - situation is that is if God does not say you are not worthy of me I will not be in a situation where you can access me
02:03:2702:03:27 - you are my enemies you are people worthy of being thrown into the Lake of Fire we will not see how desperate our situation
02:03:3302:03:33 - is but if he did that alone we would not be saved so he did something else there was still the availability of somebody
02:03:4402:03:44 - who who said as vile as your sin is as terrible as your Rebellion is and we are God
02:03:5302:03:53 - cannot tolerate it at the same time God wants to bring you out of it he wants to
02:04:0202:04:02 - rescue you so he does not abandon you to your situation that’s what we see in this um issue of the son’s accessibility
02:04:1302:04:13 - because he presents the accessibility of God he is that he is that face of of God that says I won’t abandon you to your um
02:04:2802:04:28 - desperation to your frustration to your despair I will rescue you that was
02:04:3502:04:35 - necessary so we we see both things the father representing the Holiness of God I will not tolerate this sort of thing
02:04:4302:04:43 - around me and I will not have people of your caliber in fellowship with me
02:04:5202:04:52 - and Jesus plays the role of I will not leave you to your mess I will clean you up and restore you to
02:05:0102:05:01 - myself that’s essentially um what I would say regarding that in addition to all that
02:05:0802:05:08 - you [Music] said all right so that has been this
02:05:1502:05:15 - lesson going over really the kind of basic differences between theophanes and christophanies what they mean
02:05:2202:05:22 - conceptually and kind of introducing the idea that the appearances of God in the Old Testament were actually appearances
02:05:2902:05:29 - of a pre-incarnate Jesus Christ so this has sort of been the high level view um so we talked about what theophany and
02:05:3602:05:36 - christophany mean sort of in terms of their emology you know appearance of God or appearance of Christ we talked about
02:05:4202:05:42 - the invisibility the inaccessibility and the Dignity of the father um who is separate from us and uh sort of has this
02:05:5102:05:51 - this representation of Holiness in the Trinity that means he cannot tolerate human sin but how Jesus Christ chose to
02:05:5902:05:59 - align himself with us so by way of contrast his visibility accessibility and humility um in taking on human form
02:06:0602:06:06 - as that passage in Philippians chapter 2 talks about um gives us access to the father and so we see the father through
02:06:1402:06:14 - the son the son is sent as a representative of the father and we went over everything that means here you know
02:06:2102:06:21 - with the dignity of the father sting Christ as his representative we talked about his message his mediation his
02:06:2602:06:26 - mission and his monarchy all of these things applying to Jesus Christ as the agent of our Redemption sent on behalf
02:06:3302:06:33 - of the father so this was sort of like the overview or the introduction what we’re going to be touching on in our
02:06:3902:06:39 - next lesson is looking at some of the specific passages where we see uh appearances of God in the Old Testament
02:06:4602:06:46 - and and as we’ve gone over here we’re going to argue that all of those are actually christophanies but we’re going
02:06:5002:06:50 - to go ahead and look at some of those specific passages when we pick up in the next lesson