The Father’s Confirmation of the Sabbaths of God
The hidden things of God are not to be revealed to human beings who have not been born of Spirit; for without being born of Spirit, no person can begin to understand these hidden things of God. Circular reasoning certainly, but the logic for why those who are not born of Spirit remain skeptics. They are unable to attach sufficient meaning to the earthly examples [i.e., metaphors] of heavenly things that they can believe.
Perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to understand is that the man Jesus, having entered His creation as His son, His only (John 3:16), did not speak His words during His earthly ministry, but spoke the words of His spiritual Father, the Most High God, Theon, previously unknown to Israel. Jesus’ actual Father, Theos, was the Logos, the spokesman for the Most High. Their relationship is represented by two metaphors, the first that YHWH Elohim made humankind in the image of YHWH Elohim; “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27); so to be created in the image of YHWH Elohim, humankind is male and female, with the “female” aspect of God contained in the Logos who came as the man Jesus … biological gender makes comprehending that which the metaphor describes difficult. In this case, biological gender, itself, forms the metaphor.
The other metaphoric relationship is disclosed by Moses being as God to Aaron (Exod 4:16), two brothers according to the flesh, with Aaron delivering the words of Moses to Israel, the two functioning as one entity in a manner analogous to how a man and his wife become one flesh through unity even though they are two.
Before now proceeding one important scriptural passage needs referenced:
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:9-18)
Jesus spoke only the Father’s words as Aaron spoke only Moses’ words to Israel [with the notable exception of the golden calf incident]. Jesus did not speak His own words; thus, the utterances of the Father delivered through the renewing work of the Holy Spirit are not limited to the movement of air in sound waves. Therefore, the work being then done by the Father is the work that Jesus was visibly doing, perhaps the best assignment of meaning to verse 17. The utterances of the Father were the work that He was doing, for all things came into being through the Logos, or Word. So the miracles Jesus performed should be perceived as the speech-acts of the Father, who dwells in timelessness.
Heaven is outside the physical creation, an aspect of which is time. Thus, heaven is timeless. And without the passage of one moment to the next moment in heaven, all activity takes place within the same moment.
Heaven, itself, is represented by both the Millennium rest, and by the weekly Sabbath rest. Therefore, the Father’s delivery of His speech-acts on a particular day within the created universe causes special significance to be assigned to that day; for the Father could have delivered His speech-acts on any day of the week or month or year. He does all of His work within the same unchanging moment; so He has to make a concerted effort to have His speech-acts delivered on a particular day if they are not to be delivered on any changing moment within time. In plainer speech, if the Father did not choose to figuratively deliver a sermon on the Sabbath through His speech-act of healing the invalid, He would have caused the invalid to be healed on another day, or most likely, healed without any attention being attracted by the healing.
By Jesus delivering the speech-acts of the Father on the Sabbath (seven times in the Gospels), the Father does more than connect the Sabbath to the redemptive work of God. The Father places His stamp of approval on the Sabbath, thus transferring the holiness of YHWH Elohim resting on the seventh day to the renewing work He does through the man Jesus, this work the on-going activity of giving life to that which is dead.
* * *
"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
Perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to understand is that the man Jesus, having entered His creation as His son, His only (John 3:16), did not speak His words during His earthly ministry, but spoke the words of His spiritual Father, the Most High God, Theon, previously unknown to Israel. Jesus’ actual Father, Theos, was the Logos, the spokesman for the Most High. Their relationship is represented by two metaphors, the first that YHWH Elohim made humankind in the image of YHWH Elohim; “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27); so to be created in the image of YHWH Elohim, humankind is male and female, with the “female” aspect of God contained in the Logos who came as the man Jesus … biological gender makes comprehending that which the metaphor describes difficult. In this case, biological gender, itself, forms the metaphor.
The other metaphoric relationship is disclosed by Moses being as God to Aaron (Exod 4:16), two brothers according to the flesh, with Aaron delivering the words of Moses to Israel, the two functioning as one entity in a manner analogous to how a man and his wife become one flesh through unity even though they are two.
Before now proceeding one important scriptural passage needs referenced:
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:9-18)
Jesus spoke only the Father’s words as Aaron spoke only Moses’ words to Israel [with the notable exception of the golden calf incident]. Jesus did not speak His own words; thus, the utterances of the Father delivered through the renewing work of the Holy Spirit are not limited to the movement of air in sound waves. Therefore, the work being then done by the Father is the work that Jesus was visibly doing, perhaps the best assignment of meaning to verse 17. The utterances of the Father were the work that He was doing, for all things came into being through the Logos, or Word. So the miracles Jesus performed should be perceived as the speech-acts of the Father, who dwells in timelessness.
Heaven is outside the physical creation, an aspect of which is time. Thus, heaven is timeless. And without the passage of one moment to the next moment in heaven, all activity takes place within the same moment.
Heaven, itself, is represented by both the Millennium rest, and by the weekly Sabbath rest. Therefore, the Father’s delivery of His speech-acts on a particular day within the created universe causes special significance to be assigned to that day; for the Father could have delivered His speech-acts on any day of the week or month or year. He does all of His work within the same unchanging moment; so He has to make a concerted effort to have His speech-acts delivered on a particular day if they are not to be delivered on any changing moment within time. In plainer speech, if the Father did not choose to figuratively deliver a sermon on the Sabbath through His speech-act of healing the invalid, He would have caused the invalid to be healed on another day, or most likely, healed without any attention being attracted by the healing.
By Jesus delivering the speech-acts of the Father on the Sabbath (seven times in the Gospels), the Father does more than connect the Sabbath to the redemptive work of God. The Father places His stamp of approval on the Sabbath, thus transferring the holiness of YHWH Elohim resting on the seventh day to the renewing work He does through the man Jesus, this work the on-going activity of giving life to that which is dead.
"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
Labels: Father's words, healing, miracles, Sabbath, speech acts, timelessness, YHWH Elohim
posted by T, L & F … at
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