Tag: pneuma

Who is the Father? Who is the Son?

God’s Son never called Himself “God” and God never called His Son “God.” He called Himself the Son of God, and God called Him “My beloved Son” at His baptism and transfiguration. Furthermore, the Son called His Father “God” and “the only true God” (Jhn 17:3). He also called Him “My God” while on the cross (Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34), after His resurrection (Jhn 20:17), and after His seating next to Him in heaven (Rev 3:12). The Father and the Son are in complete agreement and unity about each other. What they said is the final word. Who dare say otherwise?

Christ’s apostles taught that the Father is Jesus Christ’s God: “God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:6); “Christ is God’s” (1Co 3:23); “the head of Christ is God” (1Co 11:3); “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Co 1:3); “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Co 11:31; Eph 1:3; Col 1:3; 1Pe 1:3); “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory” (Eph 1:17). They never called Christ “God.” The “Word was God” (Jhn 1:1) is simply a metaphor—Christ visibly represented the invisible God, “Christ, who is the image of God” (2Co 4:4), “Who is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). When Thomas declared, “My Lord and my God” (Jhn 20:28), he was affirming Christ as his Lord and Christ’s God as his God just as he was told, “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (Jhn 20:17). And “God our Saviour” (1Ti 1:1,2:3; Tit 1:3,2:10,3:4) is the Father, not the Son, “God our Saviour, and the Lord Jesus Christ … God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord” (1Ti 1:1,2). Finally, “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God … therefore God, even thy God” (Heb 1:9), is what the Son’s God on the throne said to the Son.

The Greek theos for “god” is a position, role, or title of authority, not a kind of being. The Father is God because of His status as the highest authority over all, including over His Son Jesus Christ. That theos isn’t a type of being is inferred by Christ using it for both human beings and for God Himself, “I said, Ye are gods [theos 2316]? If he called them gods [theos 2316], unto whom the word of God [theos 2316] came” (Jhn 10:34-35). Paul also used this word for angels, humans, and the Father, “that are called gods [theos 2316], whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods [theos 2316] many, and lords [kyrios 2962] many,) But to us there is but one God [theos 2316], the Father” (1Co 8:5-6). It’s simply a title of the being.

That the Son is not God doesn’t deny His divinity as a being, just like the President’s son is not President doesn’t deny his humanity as a being. Christ claimed to have been begotten of God, “his only begotten Son … the only begotten Son of God” (Jhn 3:16,18). He was begotten the same kind of divine being as His Father with the ability to create the entire universe. In the incarnation, He relinquished His divine being to become a human being, dependent upon His Father to work miracles.

After His death, burial, and resurrection, His Father gave Him authority over heaven and earth: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Mat 28:18); “As thou hast given him power over all flesh” (Jhn 17:2); “For he hath put all things under his feet” (1Co 15:27); “angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (1Pe 3:22). However, the Father didn’t put Himself under His Son—He is the exception, “he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” (1Co 15:27,28).

Furthermore, there is no third person. The first occurrence of the Hebrew ruwach, “And the Spirit [ruwach 7307] of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2), wasn’t a person flying over the water like superman! God was blowing His breath across the surface of the waters. The second, “in the cool [ruwach 7307] of the day” (Gen 3:8), “breezes were blowing” (NLT), “the evening breeze” (CSB), “the breezy time of the day” (NET), “at the breeze of the day” (YLT). The Greek equivalent of ruwach is pneuma, where our English “pneumonia,” “pneumology,” and “pneumatics” are derived—all involving air. Its verb form pneo means “to blow” as Jesus Himself used it, “The wind [pneuma 4151] bloweth [pneo 4154]” (Jhn 3:8). And Jesus illustrated pneuma as breath by breathing, “he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost [pneuma 4151]” (Jhn 20:22). Finally, when Christ spoke of the holy breath as though a person, He said He was speaking figuratively, “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs” (Jhn 16:25), “figures of speech” (NET), “speaking figuratively” (NIV), “figurative language” (NKJV).

Nobody but the Son has seen God, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (Jhn 1:18). He declared the truth about God. And who knows God better than His Son? How can highly educated ministers be wrong about the most important subject of all? And if they’re wrong about what’s most important, why listen to them?

How to Perform that which is Good

There has been an ongoing debate whether Romans 7:7-25 is Paul’s former life under the law, or his present struggle as a Christian. It’s actually neither, but his former life without God’s breath in his heart because in the next chapter he used pneuma for “breath” 22 times!

In chapter 7, he quoted the Tenth Commandment he was guilty of breaking, “I had not known lust [epithymia 1939], except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet [epithymeo 1937]” (v. 7), then five verses in a row he referred to it simply as “the commandment” (vs. 9,10,11,12,13). He said repeatedly that he wanted to do good, “what I would” (v. 15), “perform that which is good” (v. 18), “the good that I would” (v. 19), “when I would do good” (v. 21). However, the evil of coveting and lusting that he didn’t want to do, he was doing, “that which I do I allow not … but what I hate, that do I” (v. 15), “I do that which I would not” (v. 16), “the evil which I would not, that I do” (v. 19), “I do that I would not” (v. 20).

Except for the two “positive” commands “Remember the sabbath day … Honour thy father and thy mother” (Exo 20:8,12), the Ten Commandments are “negative” prohibitions: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (v. 3); “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” (v. 4); “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain” (v. 7); “Thou shalt not kill” (v. 13); “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (v. 14); “Thou shalt not steal” (v. 15); “Thou shalt not bear false witness” (v. 16); “Thou shalt not covet” (v. 17). But Jesus taught that all of the “Thou shalt nots” are kept by two “Thou shalts,” “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength … Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mar 12:29-30,31). Paul wasn’t doing the good “Thou shalts” because he was doing the evil of the “Thou shalt nots.”

His members, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (vs. 22-23), were his eyes for lust and his hands for getting what he coveted. This is the evil that Jesus taught against, “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after [epithymeo 1937] her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” (Mat 5:28-30).

But Jesus also taught us to do the good: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Mat 5:44), “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Mat 7:12), “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luk 6:31), “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again” (Luk 6:35). When Paul said “how to perform that which is good I find not,” he meant that without God’s breath in him, he couldn’t find how to perform the good of doing to his enemy as he would want done to him. This is the litmus test of salvation—do we sincerely love as ourselves, our enemies and those that mistreat us? God’s children do as He does, “Love your enemies … That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven” (Mat 5:44,45), “The Spirit [breath] itself beareth witness with our spirit [breath], that we are the children of God” (Rom 8:16).

Those “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit [breath]” (Rom 8:1,4), are those who walk after God’s breath in their hearts. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself … Walk in the Spirit [breath], and ye shall not fulfil the lust [epithymia 1939] of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth [epithymeo 1937] against the Spirit [breath], and the Spirit [breath] against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal 5:14,16-17). That we “cannot do the things that ye would” is that we cannot the “thou shalts” without God’s breath. By the “thou shalt nots,” the law manifested or revealed the works of the flesh, “But if ye be led of the Spirit [breath], ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness …” (Gal 5:18-19). But there are no “thou shalt nots” against the fruit of the breath, “But the fruit of the Spirit [breath] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith [faithfulness], Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal 5:22-23). Do the “thou shalts” and we won’t be doing the rest.

How do we NOT walk after the flesh? By walking after the breath. When we do the good by God’s breath in our hearts, we won’t “fulfil the lust of the flesh.”