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NASB | John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 6:29 Jesus answered, "This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One whom He has sent." |
Subject: Our authority in His name? |
Bible Note: Dear BradK I am sorry to have to disagree with you on both counts. I am in work presently and dont have the time either to discuss this very important question at the moment but possibly another thread should be started on this. Briefly. I don't believe that we can say that the Lord had limited attributes of Deity upon earth - to have limited attributes of Deity is necessarily to be less than God. The attributes of Deity are what mark God out to be Who He is! So if a Person is not Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Eternal etc we can safely say that such is not God. Philippians 2 must be kept in its context. There are a number of examples in that chapter of "the mind of Christ" - Paul is seeking to inculcate an ATTITUDE within the church at Philippi and he gives examples of that attitude. What is that attitude? "look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of other". It is an attitude whereby we seek the benefit of others. Now how does this apply to the Lord? He is eternally "in the form of God", personally He cannot change but He does change His position. Knowing all that He is, recognising that He is equal with God in position, He "empties Himself" - this cannot be of Deity or He is not God - the point is simply that He does not act for Himself but rather for others! This stoop for the benefit of others is then described in the further statements "took upon Him the form of a servant etc..." Personally I would appeal - Do not read into Philippians 2 more than what is intended in the context. How could our Lord be an example by the setting aside of attributes? He is an example because, although He IS what He is, He is willing to stoop to think upon "the things of others". Another statement you have made is "He was limited to a fleshly body, so that He wasnt omnipresent while on earth". Can I ask - when God lived among men in the Tabernacle in the wilderness "within the veil, between the 2 cherubim" did that mean that He was not Omnipresent? Did that mean He was nowhere else? "The Word was God...the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us" (John 1). Not meaning to cause any arguments on this most sacred of subjects - the Person of Christ - but I do feel we need to be careful limiting Him in any way. One final thing - I know that there are Scriptures which are often quoted at this point which appear to limit Him - these again must be read in their context and against the background of the clear teaching of Scripture that Christ is God. In Him David |