The apostle James also testifies of Christ being God: “Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer awaits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it, until it receives the early and late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, because the coming of the Lord has drawn near. Do not murmur against one another, brothers, lest you be judged. Behold, the Judge stands before the doors! My brothers, take the prophets, who spoke in the Name of the Lord, as an example of evil suffering and of longsuffering. Indeed we count those blessed who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you saw the end of the Lord--that He is compassionate and He is merciful” (James 5:7-11). James makes no difference between the One Who is coming (Christ), and the One Who spoke through the prophets and stands ready to judge the world, showing mercy to His servants - God. Abraham, in the matter of the destruction of Sodom, said to God, Who stood before him as a man, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). There is only one Judge over all, and the fact is that He has appeared as a man more than once. The Record is thorough and consistent. Indeed, as Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), and it was of Him Abraham prophesied that God would fulfill the sacrifice of Isaac: “Isaac said, ‘Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?’ ‘My son,’ Abraham answered, ‘God will provide the lamb’” (Genesis 22:7). God also spoke of this through the prophet Zechariah, leaving no doubt it was He Who fulfilled the role of the lamb: “And I will pour on the house of David, and on the people of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers. And they shall look on Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be bitter over Him, as the bitterness over the first-born” (Zechariah 12:10). John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and an apostle and brother in tribulation to all those in Christ, wrote a book about the revelation of Jesus Christ. What is the purpose or meaning of this revelation, if not to reveal God? That is what the Scriptures say: “Because it is God Who commanded light to shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). We see in John’s writing that the revelation of Jesus Christ is the revelation of God. This is consistent with the Record of God from the beginning: “The LORD continued to appear in Shiloh, since the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh through the Word of the LORD” (1 Samuel 3:21 ). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 KJV). “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 23:39:10 +0000
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