The Deity of Christ - His Attributes

For those of you who have been with us for a few weeks, you know that we are doing a doctrinal study tonight and have been in for some weeks here on Wednesday nights, the doctrine of Christ, or the Bible teaches about Christ. And we are talking about the deity of Christ. I mentioned to you earlier that we were going to spend a good bit of time on this, and we really are just getting started. This is such a critical doctrine. It is at the foundation of everything we believe, and it is also at the center of everything the enemy attacks is the deity of Christ. And so every cult, every major world religion attacks the deity of Christ. And so we want to make sure we are well grounded in that, and thankfully the Bible gives us a lot of material on that. We began, as I said, we were going to be looking from many different perspectives at what the Bible teaches about the deity of Christ. We began by looking at his names, and we saw that there are seven names in the Bible that define the deity of Christ. First of all, he is called God. Obviously, that's pretty obvious, and it is so overwhelmingly obvious in the scriptures. We looked at seven different passages where he is clearly called God. We could stop right there, but the Bible just keeps piling layer upon layer of evidence for who Christ is. And so we also saw that he is called the Son of God. He is called the Lord. He is called the Lord of glory. He is called the Holy One. He is called the First and the Last. And he is called the Alpha and the Omega. All of those names indicating his person as God. Tonight, we begin looking at the second way that we can see his deity, and that is the attributes of Christ. Now, in order to understand those and understand our approach to those, we have to kind of review something that we studied some time ago. Somebody remind me what an attribute is. What is an attribute? What are we talking about? A characteristic. Characteristic of someone or something is an attribute. Anything else come to mind there? It is more like a defining characteristic. A defining characteristic. The character is the bit of a definitive... It is not just a characteristic in the sense that it describes, but it actually defines the nature of that person or thing. Very good. A defining characteristic. A quality. Something that really defines who a person is. That is an attribute. Some time ago, we went through a series on what the Bible teaches about God. And remember, we looked at the attributes of God. At least some of them. We looked at 15 of them. And if you recall, we divided them into two categories. Attributes of greatness and attributes of goodness. Now, I am really testing your memory here. Anybody remember the difference between attributes of greatness and attributes of goodness? Greatness to the most shared attributes of goodness. Good. Attributes of greatness are characteristics of God which are not shared with mankind, with us. Attributes of goodness are attributes which we can, at least to some degree, share with God. Now, just to remind you real quick, can anyone name the 15 attributes we looked at? I can't either, so I am going to read them to you just to remind you. The attributes of greatness that we talked about, and the reason I want to review this is because we are going to see that all of these attributes are also descriptive of Christ. And so make the connection. If these are attributes of God, and all of them are also attributes of Christ, you know, if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C, right? That's the way the still of Jism works. So that's what we're talking about here. Christ, God is self-existent. He is eternal. He is unchangeable. Omni-present, omniscient, omnipotent, perfect, infinite, and incomprehensible. Those are his attributes of greatness. Attributes of goodness, he is holy. He is true. He is loving. He's righteous. He's faithful. He's merciful. Those are 15 of the attributes of God. And as you know, we've talked about, there could be many more Norm Geysler lists 37. Attributes of God, but he parses them out very carefully. But at least those 15 defining characteristics of God. What I want to do is show you from the Scriptures that all of those also apply to Christ. Now let's begin in John 16 with an amazing statement that Jesus made. John chapter 16 and verse 15. This is a statement Jesus makes as he's describing to the disciples in the upper room that he's going to lead them, but he's going to send the Holy Spirit to be with them forever and minister to them. He'll be the Spirit of truth in verse 13. He will guide them into all truth. He will glorify me. Jesus says in verse 14, because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. Now verse 15, John 16, 15, all that belongs to the Father is mine. Pretty basic statement, but it is a profound statement all that belongs to the Father is mine. He's not just talking about possessions, the glories of heaven, the riches of heaven. He's talking about all that belongs to the Father by way of who the Father is. So everything that describes God, every defining characteristic of God is also a defining characteristic of Jesus. That's really what Jesus is saying. And this is also said in other ways in the Bible, Jesus himself said in John chapter 10 and verse 30, and my Father are one. We share the same nature. We are the same in nature and essence or attributes. Paul said it this way in Colossians 2.9, in him in Christ dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form. So all the fullness of deity, everything that would describe God also dwells in Christ in bodily form. Christ in his humanity remains fully God. So the claim is that all the attributes of deity that are true of God are also true of Christ. And so we're just going to start with the first one that we listed earlier and work our way through all of them, all 15 of them, and see that they are also descriptive of Christ. We won't spend quite as much time on them as we did when we were looking at what the Bible teaches about God, but we'll at least touch on them. The first one, Christ is self-existent. Help me remember, what does self-existent mean? What is the meaning of self-existence? What are we talking about? Self-existence means God exists on his own. Everything, every living part of creation, every living created thing. Humans, plants, animals, all derive their life from an outside source. We were all born, right? We were all conceived, which means our life came from someone else to other people. Our life came from outside us. Same thing is true of animals and plants. All human plant and animal life is derived from another source and outside source. And it is also dependent on constant input to maintain itself. If you just absolutely stop eating, you're going to die. There is the need for some input to maintain that life. None of that is true with God. God is not dependent on anything, the continuous life, but he also does not have any origin of life. He is not dependent on anyone else for his existence. That is what we mean by the self-existence of God. The same thing is true of Christ. Let's look at four verses that teach that. First of all, John chapter 1, verse 4. Speaking of Christ, it says, in him was life. And that life was the light of all mankind. In him was life. Very simple statement, but the idea is that in him existed life. Life was in him. It did not come to him. He did not originate from outside him. In him was life. And that life is the light of men. Let's look at chapter 5 and verse 26. This one is even clearer. We've seen this one recently on Sunday morning. Jesus in establishing his claims as to who he is says in verse 26, as the father has life in himself. So he has granted the son also to have life in himself. That means that that life is by its very definition a part of who he is. He is his life in himself. He did not get life from outside himself. The continuation of his life is not existent. On the thing being given to him, he has life in himself. He is self-existent. That is a definition of self-existence. Chapter 14, verse 6, you're familiar with this verse. States it in a little different way. Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Jesus is the originator of life. He gives eternal life. He is the source of eternal life. He is the life. He does not get life from outside himself. He did not originate. But he gives life. He is the life. And one of the clearest statements of this in the New Testament is in Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3 and verse 15. Peter speaking in the temple. In verse 13 he talks about the fact that as he addresses the Jews, you handed him over to be killed. Talking about God's servant Jesus, you handed him over to be killed. You disowned him before Pilate. Though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life. But God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. You may have a translation that says you killed the prince of life. The word here in some translations prints really is the word author or originator. The one who originates life. The one who authors life. The one who gives life because he is life. So he is the author and originator, the source of life. The same word that is translated author here or prints of life is used three other times in the New Testament. In every case, it has the same meaning. Notice in chapter 5 verse 31, one of them. Chapter 5 verse 31, God exalted him to his right hand as prince and savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. Again, this is Peter speaking to the authorities. This time it is translated prince, but the same word that we saw translated author in chapter 3 means the originator, the beginner of life, the source of life. Next two verses are going to put on the screen, so let your fingers rest for just a moment. Hebrews 2, 10. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God for him and through whom everything exists should make. Now notice this next word. The pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. You may know this better from the King James. You may be the captain of their salvation. Captain of the salvation, pioneer of the same Greek word. It means author or originator. He is the author of our salvation. He is the originator of our salvation. Then the other one is in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, very familiar. Verse, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the pioneer, the, what word do you remember from the King James? The captain or I'm thinking of another one. The author and finisher of our faith, right? But pioneers the way it's translated here in the NIV, but it's the same word. Same word, same original word is found in all four of these passages. It can be translated captain, pioneer, author, originator. The idea is that whatever is being talked about, salvation, life, whatever originates with him comes from him. And so he is, he has that in himself and is able to distribute it to others. So Christ is self-existent. He has life just in and of himself. He did not start from someone else. He was not originated by anyone else. He does not need any sustenance, anything to sustain his life. He is life. He is the originator of life and the source of life, the author of life. So we've established from the scriptures that the first attribute of God is also an attribute of Christ, certainly not of us, but of Christ establishing the Christ is by nature, same as the Father. It's God. Any questions about Christ being self-existent? Questions or comments? Okay. Right. If the second one, Christ is eternal, eternal. A couple of Old Testament prophecies established this. So let's look at the biblical evidence, the biblical teaching in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. Familiar Christmas verse. Isaiah 9, 6, 4, unto us a child is born to us. A son is given. Obviously speaking of Christ, a child is born emphasizing his humanity. A son is given emphasizing his deity as a man. He was born a child as God. He is a son who is given to the world by the Father. And the government will be on his shoulders. He will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He is the everlasting God, everlasting Father is one of his titles. Another prophecy is in Micah 5.2. This is another prophecy of his birth, Micah chapter 5 and verse 2. What is often emphasized in this prophecy is the location of his birth because it is a prophecy some 700 years before Jesus was born telling us the exact town where he would be born. But you, Bethlehem Ephraim, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me, the one who will be ruled over Israel. Whose origins are from a old, from ancient times. And you may have a footnote there, marginal reference from eternal times or from eternity because the Hebrew word for from ancient times also means from eternity. And so Christ proceeded from ancient times. His origins are from eternity. That is where he comes from. He comes from eternity. He doesn't come from time. And then there are other scriptures that we looked at when we looked at the pre-existence of Christ. We looked at a number of those. We won't go back to them. But just remind you that John the Baptist said he was before me. And remember John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus, but Jesus was before him. So establishing his pre-existence, Jesus himself said, I'm the bread come down from heaven. He prayed to the father to glorify him with the glory he had with him before the world began. So verses like that which established the fact that Christ existed in eternity past in glory with the father. And then of course the apostles also talk about his pre-existence. We saw several of those passages and Philippians and Colossians and other places. So all of those verses also talk about the fact that he eternal. So Christ is eternal. He is the everlasting God. He is one who has proceeded from eternity past. He is pre-existent. And so he is eternal just like the father is. Now there's a question that sometimes comes up and Colossists will be quick to raise this question. And so we're going to go ahead and raise it so that we can talk about it and make sure you would have a good answer to give to a cult who would raise this question. Doesn't the Bible say Jesus was the first born of every creature? What is meant by that? What is meant by the first born of every creature? Look at Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15. And the first born of every creature I'm basically taking the phrase from the King James Version. You'll see it's rendered a little bit differently in the NIV to more accurately reflect the original language. Colossians 1, 15. Paul says the sun is the image of the invisible God. Now that ought to be enough right there to help us see that he is God. He is the express image of the invisible God. He reflects the invisible God. And then the first born over all creation. Notice how the NIV differs in the translation. It's a more accurate translation actually because it goes to the meaning of the word first born. When we think of he's the first born of every creature that kind of sounds like he's a creature like us, a created being. And he's just the first born. It was the first one. Well, to begin with, he wasn't the first born, even if he was a creature, he wasn't the first born Adam, well Adam wasn't born, but he came from the hand of God. It wouldn't have been the first one. But the word first born does not refer to first in time. It refers to first in position. So it has to do with priority of position, not priority of time. That's what the Greek word translated in our English word first born means. We're going to establish that in a moment from some other scriptures. But just get that down and get that in your mind. When the Bible talks about Christ being the first born, he's not talking about the one who was born first. He's talking about the one who occupies the highest position. First born has to do with priority in position, not priority in time. It has nothing to do with time. And so for that reason, the NIV work accurately translates not first born of every creature, but the first born over all creation. It really captures the meaning of the Greek word, position. He is in priority position over all creation. And the context bears that out. Four or because in him all things were created. If a cultist ever tries to take you to Colossians 1 to 15, just keep reading. Just keep reading because verse 16 separates Christ from the creation. He's not the creation. He's not a part of the creation. He's not a creature. He is the creator. Verse 16 makes that clear. He created all things. And so he's not a creature to begin with. He's not one of us in the sense that he was born or created as a person. He is in a priority position over all of creation. That's what that means. Now there are a number of other places where this term is used. One of them is here in verse 18. And he Christ is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the first born from among the dead that in everything he might have the supremacy. Now you can see the whole passage is talking about his position of priority. He has a position of priority in the church. He's the head of the body. He has a position of priority among those who have been resurrected. He's the one who holds the highest position of those who have been resurrected from the dead. He was the first one in time to be resurrected from the dead in a glorified body never to die again. But he also holds the highest position because when he was resurrected, what happened to him after that? 40 days after that. He was res strapably repaid or appointed, but it was a logarithm of his own. But the Gaston added to the assumption we had once that the papetates aren't as advanced in that Georgia. And what Christ had position, not time, but position. Other passages where this is used, just to give you a flavor for the ways in which Christ is seen as being in the priority position, Romans 8.29. Look on the screen. For those God for new, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brothers and sisters. So this is really the same thing Paul St. and Colossians 1. Isn't it? He holds the highest position in the church. Those of us who are saved and God is working with the conform us to the image of Christ, His Son, we are like brothers and sisters and we're in the same family, but He holds a higher position. He's got a different position than we do in the family. Okay? He is the unique son of God as we saw with that title. So it's used that way in that passage. Another one is Hebrews 1.6. This is a whole string of prophecies that are quoted by the writer to the Hebrews that establishes the lofty position of Christ above all the angels. And again, when God brings His first born into the world, He says, let all gods angels worship Him. When God sent His first born, the one who has the highest position into the world, the angels worship Him. I mean, they happen on the night of His birth, and it would continue to happen throughout His life and ministry. So He holds a different position. He holds a higher position than the angels because the angels bow before Him in worship. That's the thrust of that argument in Hebrews 1. Then one other occasion, Revelation 1.5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, same thing that we saw earlier in Colossians 1. He holds the highest position of those who have been resurrected. The ruler of the kings of the earth, the Him who loves us, since free of us, from our sins by His blood. So that passage describes it as well. The one that's on the screen now is an interesting, old testament example of the use of the words. The reason I wanted to put it on here. And I will appoint Him, this is speaking of David. God is speaking about His servant David, the king. He says, I will appoint Him to be my first born, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. Now this is in Psalms. This is a poetic section of scripture. And remember we've talked about this before. One of the hallmarks or signs of Hebrew poetry is what's called parallelism. English poetry is marked by meter and rhyme. Meter being, that's the way English poetry works. Rhyme is, you know, two words rhyme at the end of each line or at the end of every other line. Well, Hebrew poetry didn't work that way. Hebrew poetry worked by two statements put in parallel with each other. Sometimes they were saying the same thing. Sometimes they said opposite things. Sometimes the second part completed the first part. But those two parts of a good line of Hebrew poetry always were connected to each other. And in this one, it's the parallelism of repetition. So what is meant by the first line is explained in the second line of poetry. So you see what he's saying? I will appoint Him, David, to be my first born, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. That's what I mean by first born. He has the highest position of the kings of the earth. Now there is some hint or kind of a veiled prophecy of Christ in that. But if you read the context, it's clear he's talking about David and David's position as during his reign, the most exalted of all the kings of the earth. And God did give David great victory over his enemies. Okay, so it's just an interesting use. Yes. The capital H throws you a little bit. It should be a small age that's referring to David. That's where you see the translators indicating that we think there's a prophecy of Christ here as well. But if we go back and read the whole passage, and I'm not going to take the time to do that, but I would challenge you to do it, it's clear that he's talking about David, even mentions David in the context there a few verses earlier. But as with a lot of passages in the Old Testament, particularly when it comes to David, there is an overlap. David is kind of a type of the greater king. Obviously Christ comes from the line of David. And David is kind of a type or symbol of the greater king who would come from his family Christ. And I think that's what the translators are saying here. Burton. King James has a small age. Okay. King James got it better that time. Okay. Anybody have another translation? Yes, V or something like that? Be interested in know-huts. Okay. One other passage, John 1-3, and I think we've established this pretty well. Through him, again, Christ, all things were made without him, nothing was made that has been made. This verse, along with the ones we saw in Colossians, removes Christ from the creation. It separates him from the creation. Make sure that he's not a part of creation. He is the creator. He is not a part of creation. He is not one of the creatures. He is the creator. And this passage makes it clear like the one in Colossians 1. So if a Jehovah's Witness or another cultist who denies the deity of Christ tries to pull Colossians 1.15 on you, he's the firstborn of every creature. So he's just like us. He's just the first born. So he was born, right? No. And you should know how to answer the word first born has nothing to do with time. It has to do with priority of position. And you can show them those other passages that show that, right? You can do that, right? Good. Good. All right. Yes, sir. We've been moving forward to that. We've discussed about how human beings we've created this by the time. We kind of trap ourselves that sometimes we tend to forget things. God do not be contained within that by the time he is with the outside of the inn and at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. Good statement there. He is outside it and in it at the same time. It's a tricky thing because God does act within time, but he is not bound by time. He is before time and and some would say even above time, but he does act within time. Yeah. That's all part of God being eternal. Okay. We've seen that if God is eternal, but also Christ is eternal in the same sense. So again, establishing the fact he shares an attribute with God that we don't share. So he's more than he's more than just a mere man. He is also God. All right. Let's look at the next one and that is that Christ is unchangeable. A couple of passages in Hebrews established this Hebrews chapter one verses 10 through 12. Again, this is in that series of Old Testament quotes which show Christ's superiority over angels. Hebrews 1 verse 10. He also says, again, quoting from the Old Testament, in the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe, like a garment. They will be changed, but you remain the same and your years will never end. Again, the quote, the whole purpose of the quote is showing how the Old Testament refers to Christ as being above the angels. So the person being talked about here is Christ. Okay. Christ is the one who will remain the same as years will never end, even though all of creation will someday be rolled up like a scroll. It will gradually wear out like a garment. Then the familiar passage, Hebrews 13 and verse 8, one that is a favorite of many. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. Now, we talked about the meaning of all these terms, unchangeable, immutable when we talked about God. So I don't want to go back to all of that. But some do raise this question when it comes to Christ. Did Christ change when he became man? Was that a change in Christ? And what would your response be to that? Did Christ change when he became man? When he became man, he laid aside the outward expression of his deity. Yeah, right. Okay. His essence did not change. And what John was saying, he laid aside the outward expression of his deity, not the essence of it. His essence did not change. His nature did not change. It really could be said that he didn't change. I mean, what was he before he came to earth? That kind of a weird question. He was God, fully God. Did that change? No. So nothing changed. When he came to earth, he was still fully God. So nothing changed. All that happened is, and theologians like to say it this way, he added to his full complement of divine attributes a corresponding full complement of human attributes. So he simply added to who he was a full set of human attributes. None of his divine attributes changed. Nothing he was before changed. He's still fully God, but he added humanity to his deity. And so to add something does not mean there's a change in essence or nature. He's still who he was before. He has just added humanity. Exactly. That's a part of what's happening in the incarnation for him to, as Colossian or as John 118 says, no man has seen the Father at any time, but God the one and only has revealed him. So in order for God to be revealed in a form that we could handle, he had to come in human flesh. And of course, there's more than that, Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 4, he had to become like us so that he could die for us as well and experience human life. Tom? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Great, a great passage on this very topic. And Tom has talked about the the Philippians 2 passage where Paul is talking about he did not being in the very nature of God. He did not see quality with God as something to be grasped onto, held onto it all costs, but he became man. And so doing he gave up the outward display of that glory. He didn't give up deity, but he gave up the outward display of that glory so that he veiled it with a human body and with human nature. Okay. Now, as we talked about when we talked about the unchangeable nature of God, there is a sense in which God changes, there is a sense in which Jesus changed. God can be seen as changing in his dealings with man because God does respond in time to man, to mankind. And so in that sense, there is at least from our perspective change, but there's never any changing God's nature. And there was never any change in Christ's nature. Nothing changed from what he was before. He simply added to his divine nature a fully human complex of attributes or set of attributes, which included a human body and a human nature. Okay. So he's unchangeable. The scriptures make that clear. And even his coming to earth as man did not change anything about his nature. Just added to it. All right. Yes, Walt? We are created in images and it's more than we've ever done. I'm trying to end up saying it. You're already wrong. You're already doing it. You're already committed by all the way. Okay. For us to be created in the image of God has to do with a moral likeness, an ability to have a relationship with God. It doesn't have to do with our physical nature, but it has to do with the fact that we have a moral likeness. We can distinguish between right and wrong, unlike animals. We can distinguish moral, the moral nature of actions. That's all part of the image of God. The nature of God doesn't have to do with our physical yes, yes. But the image and likeness of God has primarily to do with a moral likeness, the ability to discern the difference between right and wrong. It's a little tricky to get into a little bit of a gray area when you start talking about emotions because to some extent animals can display emotion. They can display anger, love, so forth. So it gets a little tricky there. Really the image of God has more to do with the ability to discern right from wrong and also the capacity to have a relationship with God. We have a connection with Him by being made in His image. And as I've said many times, your cat and your dog don't. Sorry, but they can't get saved. What was I heard Mark Lowry say the other night that concert? Dogs are going to have them, but cats for sure will go to hell. I think it's the way He said it. Okay. That's a difficult one. And when we, one of these years, get to what the Bible teaches about man, we'll deal a little bit more of that image and likeness issue. It's a very complex issue. Okay. Christ has unchanged it. When the other commenter questioned on that? Okay. The last two, we're just going to get started on the next one. We won't get all the way through it, but the last two have, I think, two of the most interesting questions that arise because of them that, again, cultists will often bring up. But let's begin at least talking about the fact that Christ is omnipresent. Again, what does that mean? Omnipresent always everywhere, everywhere present at the same time. Okay. Yes. That's what we're talking about. A couple of passages in Matthew that describe this, Matthew chapter 18, verse 20, in the context of dealing with church discipline issues or dealing with sin, resolving difficulties between believers. Verse 19 says, again, truly, I'll tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my father in heaven, for where two or three gather in my name, their MI with them. Now, how does that show the omnipresence of Christ? If two or three gather in his name, I'm there with you. How does that demonstrate on my presence? Exactly. There can be two or three people gathering in a whole lot of places. There are tonight, right? I mean, there are lots of other places where two or three people are gathered like they are here and Christ makes the same promise to everyone, every, every group of believers. Okay. The other passage, the familiar ending to the great commission, where Jesus says, teach them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. We've got a couple minutes. So maybe we can at least begin the question if we don't get it fully out. We can begin here next week. Those passages obviously say, Jesus is with us always. He's omnipresent in that sense. One of the questions that's often raised is, how can Christ be omnipresent if he has a permanent body? Now, one of the things we have to understand about the incarnation, when Jesus became man, he took on a human body and he's never lost that human body. It's a glorified body now. It has some different characteristics to it. But when he went back to heaven, he went back to heaven in that body. And he is in heaven now in that glorified body. And when we see him, we will be like him, right? We will be changed into the same image, the same kind of glorified body. So Jesus is still in a body. So how can he be omnipresent if he is physically located in one place in a body? Bingo, you all are so good. Now, let me back up a little bit before we get to the Holy Spirit. Lutherans will say, basically, I'm not being critical of nominations, I will be critical of cults, but Lutherans basically say that Christ's body actually becomes on my present in some mysterious fashion. It's also a part of what they believe about communion, that when you per take of the elements that Christ's presence is, as they say, above and under and in, Catholics say, those elements actually become the body of Christ. And Lutherans see it a little bit differently, but not a whole lot of difference. But I don't think that's the sense in which we should understand this. I think Walt is right. I think he is, Christ is in a permanent bodily presence in heaven, but he is present with us through the ministry of the Spirit. We're going to look at one passage that describes that in John 14. I think it's on the screen, yes. And I will ask the Father, Jesus is promising this on the night before he dies to his disciples. I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The Spirit of truth, the world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Now, notice this last verse, this is the key verse. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Isn't that interesting? Jesus does not end this statement by saying, I will send the Holy Spirit to you. The Holy Spirit will come to you. How does he end it? I will come to you. And what he's saying basically is because God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are of the same essence and same nature. They are so intertwined in nature and in ministries that Christ can actually speak of himself being with them when he says, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit to be with you forever because it is Christ with them. It is also the Father with them. Jesus said in John 14 verses 23, I believe, maybe verse 23, that the Father would come and dwell within us and that He would come and dwell within us. And then here He says, the Holy Spirit will come and dwell within us. Well, who's in us? God. All because they are so intertwined in essence and nature and ministry that for Christ to say, I'm sending the Holy Spirit and He'll be with you always. He can also say, I'm coming to you. So it is in that sense that Jesus is still omnipresent and with us whenever two or three gathered together or promised He would be with us always in that literal sense He's with us through the ministry, the Spirit of God. Okay, even though He is bodily present in heaven. Among the Trinity, yes. Well, that's a tricky one. No other glorified bodies yet. There are no glorified bodies yet, but there would be many who would say there are intermediate bodies. That even though the resurrection has not happened yet and there are no glorified bodies that God gives us some kind of intermediate body between death and the rapture or the resurrection. Not real clear in scripture. Some people say 2 Corinthians 5 teaches that. When we're absent from the body, we're present with the Lord, but He also talks about having a tent. We rid of this earthly body, we have a tent, eternal maiden heavens and so forth, but that's a little vague. But among the Trinity for sure, the only body is Christ. I assume that's possible, but the blimpses that are given us of heaven talk about people who are seeing, they're doing things, they're singing in revelation and so forth. You know, and these are people that have died during the tribulation and they've not been resurrected yet till the end of the tribulation. So I tend to think there is a temporary body. And this goes back to the doctrine of man. God made us to be united, body soul and spirit. He never made us to be a disembodied spirit. That is Greek philosophy. That's from Plato. That the fact that the ultimate freedom is to be outside this body. No God created us to be in a body. And so I believe there will be in a body in heaven, ultimately a glorified body, but I don't see any problem with a kind of an intermediate body as some call it before the resurrection. Okay, we're getting into an area here that's a little off our topic and our kids are ready to be picked up. They were five minutes ago, so we need to stop. We'll pick it up next week. Father, thank you for our marvelous Savior, our wonderful Savior, the one who is overall and above all, the first born, the one who loved us enough to come and take on a human body so that he could become our Savior. Thank you for all that he is. Thank you for the opportunity to look into your word and see the amazing teaching and discoveries of all that he is. We give you praise as we bow at his feet tonight. It's in his name we pray, amen.