Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Real Time with the Father

But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." [1]

Therefore Jesus and was saying to them, "Truly truly I say to you, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. [2]

The above passages (John 5:17, 19) are favorites. Particularly, the passage of John 5:19 is often cited by some believers to deny the deity of Jesus. It is, according to them, an admission of the human ineptitude of the Son who can do nothing of Himself. There is an even greater travesty, namely, that other believers are squeamish about the passage. They avoid it in the fear that it might affirm the denial of the deity of Jesus which they rightly, but sheepishly and timidly, proclaim about Jesus. That is not something to which they are prepared to reply. This fear may be what gave rise to the popular, but mistaken, compromised teaching of Jesus as “one hundred percent man” and “one hundred percent God” as well as talk about the “God part of Jesus” and the “human part of Jesus.”This, interestingly enough or bizarrely enough depending on your perspective, is actually the confluence, the merging, of belief and unbelief concerning the deity of Jesus.

Here are some questions which might elicit some possible and perhaps some reasonable inferences from the passage?

the Son can do nothing

What does it mean that the Son can do nothing unless it is something he sees (present tense) the Father doing?

The scriptures declare for our understanding what God did before the foundation of the world,[3] namely, that He chose us in the Son. We, from a human standpoint, rightly understand the expression “before the foundation of the world” as having occurred in the past. Interestingly, the declaration by Jesus “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working” implies two things. from a human standpoint. First, the Father has been working until now implies a time before the present when the Father was working. Since the scriptures testify of the work which the Father did before the foundation of the world it seems a reasonable to infer that the point about this is that the Father has being working from before the foundation of the world until now. In human terms we would say, from before the foundation of the world in the past to the present time. Second, Jesus does not cast himself in a particular period of a time span of past or future. He states emphatically, I Myself am working.

working until now
The Son was there with the Father since before the foundation of the world.[4] Now, in the present setting the Father was with the Son even as Jesus spoke this declaration to the Jews. Jesus had intimate knowledge of what the Father purposed according to his good pleasure,[5] namely, the redemption of those who believe in the Son. Jesus was fulfilling, that is, he was making manifest[6] what the Father purposed before the foundation of the world. Now, the Son declares what the Father and the Son are doing. They are working together in real time. The Son could do nothing unless he sees the Father doing something for the Son to see anymore than the Son could speak words of his own accord.

The Son does what the Father does and speaks what the Father speaks. Now. In real time.

If the idiom "seeing is believing" were true men would have believed when they saw Jesus doing the things which he did in like manner as the Father. The reason why they rejected the work which they saw with their own eyes was because they did not understand what they saw. Furthermore even after Jesus explained with words those things which he did before their eyes they rejected it. Nonetheless this is the reason why Only Begotten Son came into the world, to explain[7] God, visibly with works, and audibly with words.

The works which Jesus did concurrently in real time with the Father are a visible demonstration of the active, virtual engagement and presence of the Father together with the Son.

This is akin to receiving a live stream webcast from a family member across the country via WiFi technology. The cast is real and visible on your screen even if the cyber connection link is not visible.

The works were for all to see. They were not merely to see with their eyes. Even more they were to understand, both the significance of the works, and the meaning of the words by which Jesus explained the works. It was these works (secondarily) to the words which Jesus declared to Philip as the evidence that the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father.[8] The Father did not purpose in the past to send the Son in the future into the world. He did not send the Son like a fatherless child to do the work of God. Both, purpose (as of the Father) and fulfillment (as of the Son) are, for the Transcendent God, creator of heaven and earth, in the moment, _literally. The working together of Father and Son for the purpose and fulfillment of the will of God is a showcase display of the unity that the LORD GOD is one.

Does this maybe suggest what believers have long stated, namely, that God is not bound by a time and space continuum? The concept of time as past, present and future is for our benefit. It enables us to relate and express our understanding of all things and experiences in life from the perspective of past, present and future. It is not surprising that believers who profess to believe very uneasily the deity of Jesus seem at a loss about him being bound up in the grave three days.

What is the time span of three days to the God who is not bound by time, but less than a blink of an eye.

God did rest on the seventh day after he had completed the work of his creation. (Even this point about creation is typically and mistakenly ascribed to the Father, but it is not the Father to whom the apostle Paul by inspiration of the Holy Spirit ascribes the work of creation in Colossians 1.[9] The apostle ascribes the work of creation to the Son.) However the entirety of the scriptures in general and the passage in John 5:19 specifically indicate that God, that is, Father and Son, have been working and seeing to our redemption. We would say from a human standpoint, from long ago to the present.

these things the Son does

What do the words “these things the Son also does” (present tense) imply about Jesus in this passage?

I am reminded of the declaration which Jesus made to the Sadducees about God. He said to them “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, you are greatly mistaken.” The reason why the Sadducees, Jesus said, were greatly mistaken was because they did not understand the scriptures or the power of God. Their mistake was that they thought of God in the past tense, as having done what he did and no longer working. They, reading the scriptures presumably, missed and failed to grasp the significance of God who identified Himself to Moses as, I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is not unlike Christians who miss the significance of the Father and Son working together in real time. Hence, like the Sadducees, the saints in Christ are sometimes greatly mistaken because they do not understand the scriptures or the power of God. God is. God is doing. The Son is doing. Present active tense.

This may be the greatest testimony of the manifestation of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, I AM THAT I AM,[10] I AM WHO I AM, I AM BECOMING WHO I AM BECOMING, YAHWEH ELOHIM, the LORD God. HIS name declares in the face of past, present and future, those human constraints, parameters and perspectives to affirm that He is the one WHO WAS, WHO IS and IS TO COME. If you still have some doubt or are uncertain as to the significance of this present tense involving Father and Son do some simple subtraction math. Let’s just say you do not know who was. Let’s just say you do not know who is.

However, you do know is to come, right? The LORD God, the Almighty.[11]

It is Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God, who was God, the Word who became flesh. It is the Son who is coming.

Real time for the redeemed

Muslims and other nonbelievers stumble in their misunderstanding. Christians struggle to understand the God whom they love. They wonder when they read in the Genesis account, if God rested on the seventh day, how could Jesus, let alone the Father, be working if He is God? Of course, their question overlooks the fact that the Father is working, but perhaps even more they overlook the significance of why the Father is working and that He is working together with the Son.

Yes, God rested on the seventh day after he had finished the work of his creation. However what is made evident throughout the entirety of the written revelation of the will of God is that God has been quite active and at work to redeem the lost. The much used catchy phrase about the work of redemption has been, is and continues to be an ongoing, real time reality for God towards the redeemed. The redemption of the lost is what the Father PURPOSED before the foundation of the world. The Son came into the world to REDEEM, that is, to fulfill the PURPOSE of the Father. Only after redemption was realized and set in motion with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was the Holy Spirit sent from the Father to SEAL, that is, to affirm the REDEEMED. These are those who have believed in the Son according to the good pleasure of the Father. This, purpose, fulfillment and affirmation by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, respectively, is the entirety of the message of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1.[12] It is the focal point of John 5:19. This purpose, fulfillment and affirmation is what Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together in their unity as one for our redemption. This is the work of the LORD God in which they share equally and unselfishly for our sake.

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