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Jesus and Christ

Son of Man and Son of God

Earth and Heaven

One

April 2010

There are a number of sections in scripture that require an understanding of the truth of two differing groups within the body of Christ for proper interpretation of the revelation of the Apostle Paul’s great mystery. Here is one:

And (Jesus) sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias (Elijah) did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. Luke 9:52-56

Here, these followers of Jesus assumed that they had the same spiritual identity as that of Elijah. It was well known to them that when Elijah was a man that he had commanded fire to come down and consume his offering and altar as a result of his competitive challenge to the malignant prophets of Baal that were from the royal house of Ahab and Jezebel. It was also known to Jesus’ followers that Elijah would come again, before the Lord himself came, to command fires of judgment on unbelief.

However, Jesus told these that they were not of the same spirit as that of Elijah. So, in this section, Jesus is informing them that they are of a gifted spiritual nature but not the same gifted spiritual nature as that of Elijah. Jesus then indicates that spiritual nature of these followers as that of the Son of man. Scripture informs us that there was a complimentary nature of Jesus. That complimentary nature is revealed when the Lord is identified as the Son of God rather than the Son of man.

In that name of Jesus Christ are the unified spiritual natures also identified correspondingly as Son of man and Son of God in scripture. “Jesus” is the name of his perfect soul also identified by the title Son of man. As such the apostle Paul identifies Jesus as the second Adam or the second perfect soul made through the power of the feminine from and since the foundations of this world.

“Christ” and “Son of God” are the names for the spiritual endowment from and by the Father from conception. As, also, the firstborn son from before the foundations of this world, Peter appropriately identified Jesus as “the” Christ. Here the word “the” is critically important. Peter and those who wrote the gospel record knew that Jesus was not just Christ or “a” Christ. He was “the” Christ. Peter and others in that day and time realized that there had been others and would be others with weak and damaged souls from fallen Adam, yet anointed with the spirit of Christ. When Peter writes about the salvation that is to be revealed in the “last time” in his first letter he writes about those in whom the spirit of Christ dwelt.

9: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

10: Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

11: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

12: Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. (unto)

It is important to notice Peter’s usage of the words “them” and “us” in this section. By his usage of “them” Peter does not include himself as one endowed with the spirit of Christ. So Peter was, as John and James who wanted to command fire, of a different spirit than that of Elijah. That different spirit of Elijah is the spirit of Christ. So of what spirit were Peter, James and John? They were of the Holy Spirit.

This theme of two differing yet complimentary and intertwined spiritual realities repeats itself again and again in the apostle Paul’s writings. He addresses his letter to the Colossians to both the saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus. In the following section from the introductory chapter, Paul, as a saint, is addressing the faithful souls in the church of Colosse.

25: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26: Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

27: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

28: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

29: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

The precision of this phrase “Christ in you” in verse 27 from the original Greek language is compelling evidence of the two distinct yet intertwined spiritual realities that comprise the one body of Christ. In what may have been the most precise language in the history of man these three words read, “Christ among you.” (In most other places in the original where the Greek third person dative plural follows the Greek preposition “en” the English translators translated the phrase with “among” as required by the rules of Greek grammar yet here they did not. There is no substantial or valid peripheral reason in the rules of Greek grammar to justify this mistaken liberality of translations.)

So some think, “what difference does it make?" Well, this verse in its context and alone is one of numerous that are epitomizations of the Great Mystery within the apostle Paul’s gospel. And, it is by his gospel that the secrets of men’s hearts are to be judged. Yes, one is saved by faith but by what faith is one saved? According to Jude, a natural brother of Jesus and spiritual brother of Christ, it is by the faith once delivered unto the saints - like well-known Melchisedec, Gideon, Deborah, Sampson, Ester, David, Daniel, Paul, Luke, Timothy, Isaiah, Moses and Elijah. Those of this faith in the apostle Paul’s revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ will see the saints as Peter, James and John saw Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. This will be when the tens of thousands of former saints, then transformed as the holy angels of the Melchisedec priesthood descend from heaven. And hopefully those who see will respond in awe as Peter, James and John did. Salvation depends upon it.

Now that we have come to the Mount of Transfiguration in the context of the two complimentary spiritual realities of the one body of Christ, one can consider that the voice from heaven, stating that Jesus Christ was the beloved son in whom the vocalist was well pleased, was that of the Father while the similar words spoken from heaven, when John the Baptist baptized his natural cousin Jesus in the Jordan under the light of a spiritual dove, were from the feminine Holy Spirit. Certainly in him, the beloved son, Jesus Christ, does all the fullness of eternity dwell.

Jesus, as the first perfect soul since the origins of Adam, had the fullness of man’s reasoning abilities and the fullness of man’s emotions. As he walked forward, the panorama of his life unfolded before him. In situations that arose, his compassion, in of itself, brought healing to broken hearts and hope to despairing souls. He, as Jesus, felt the sting of the insults thrown at him by those who had taken the law which was at one time applied, as intended, as holy, just and good and were now misusing it to enslave men within their corrupt systems. He wept at the unjust death of his cousin John and the death of his suffering friend Lazarus. He became enraged at those that made their ill-begotten profit from cheating the common man by selling inferior sacrifices in the shadow of the temple. He became angry with those who resisted and opposed his ministry of deliverance. Jesus rejoiced upon the return of his seventy ambassadors as recorded in the gospel of Luke. He was and continued unto death as the perfect prototype soul generated from the Holy Spirit for the coming age long life on this earth

As Jesus walked forward into the real life panorama he came to “really know” that he was “the” Christ that he read about when he was a child. Shortly afterwards, he went to the holy mount to met with two of the tens of thousands from all times and places in whom the spirit of Christ dwelt. These two were Moses and Elijah. From that point onward, he knew what he must accomplish as “the” Christ and yet what he must suffer in willing subjugation to all the reasonings and emotions of the soul that loved his given life to the utmost. This was Jesus, in the agony, hanging, broken, battered, mocked and deserted as a common criminal between death and life in the midst of insanity, held by that ancient faith. It was a faith, in that ultimate passion, which was so distant and faint as the proverbial mustard seed yet so full and powerful that it carried him to die at the exact moment and at the precise location that the Father willed from before the foundations of the world.

Yes, this is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who has acquired a name far above his holy angels. Yes, rightly so, he will minister over all those that have been indwelt with Christ and over all faithful souls together within his unified body in the New Jerusalem – the expansive glorious “city” populated by the sons and daughters of the power of the Highest and the Holy Spirit that will descend from above and remain for one thousand years in his coming kingdom upon this earth.

Faithful in Christ Jesus and Saints

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