Chapter 7 - Christ – His life and His work

- 27 - John 5: 18: ‘They sought more intently than ever to take his life, for they held him guilty not only of profaning the Sabbath, but also of making himself equal to God by calling God his true Father.’ Christ did not defend himself against the charge of having called God his true Father, for he was a ‘Son of God’ in a sense that was not true of the other ‘sons of God’ or of the Divine spirits. He was not only the highest of the spirits created by God, but the only one whose heavenly body had also been created by God. As for the other sons of God, only their spirits were created by God, whereas their heavenly bodies owed their existence to His first-born Son. • Christ was, therefore, not only God’s ‘first-born’, but also the only one whose whole being was the product of direct Divine creation. He was unique. He was His Father’s ‘only begotten Son’. In another respect also he was the Son of God in a sense that applied to him alone. Upon him, and upon no one else, God had conferred the regency over Creation. God had given him the same position in his kingdom that the Pharaoh had given to Joseph in the kingdom of Egypt. In this particular, then, the Jews were right: Christ did call himself a Son of God in a special sense. He was the Son of God! But what Christ defended himself against vehemently was the charge brought by his Jewish enemies, that he made himself God’s equal. Again and again he protested, saying that he had no power and could do nothing at all in and of himself. If someone can do nothing of himself, then that is incontrovertible proof that he is not God. This is a conclusion so obvious that not even the high priests and the scribes could have failed to see it. And although they understood well enough what Jesus meant by the phrase ‘Son of God’, they professed not to, for they were seeking grounds for his death and could find none better than to assert that Christ was making himself equal with God by calling himself Son of God. Once they were committed to this pretext, they had to adhere to it at all costs; nothing that Christ could have said in refutation would have been of any avail. It is true that Christ had full authority on earth and in heaven, but not from himself. As Joseph held his power in Egypt by the grace of Pharaoh, so Christ derived his power from his Father. In the same way that Joseph was not Pharaoh, Christ was not God. The Father alone, and none other, is God. All power resides in the Father exclusively, and in no other being. At his own pleasure the Father can delegate this power to any created spirit, in and through which He performs His works. The power that was conferred upon Christ could have been conferred by the Father upon any other created spirit. It did not have to be His first-born Son. The great miracles worked by Christ could have been performed by any other human if God had given him the necessary power. Christ himself said frankly that the things he did could be done by anyone who became a believer. John 14: 12: ‘Whoever believes in me shall have the power to do the same deeds that I do, and even greater deeds.’ To believe in Christ is to believe in God, not, however, because Christ himself is God, but because he proclaims God’s teachings. John 12: 49: ‘I have not spoken of my own accord; it was my Father, who sent me, who directed me as to what I should say and what I should teach.’

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