|
|
How can Yeshua be the Son of God?
The title of this article asks a question that we frequently encounter when sharing the message of Yeshua with our Jewish people. It is a question that also can be challenging for us to understand as believers. How can we possibly comprehend this issue of Yeshua being the manifestation of God in human form? Many believers seek to explain this truth by describing what is called the “trinity” or the “triune nature” of God. The doctrine of the triune nature of God describes God as expressing Himself in 3 forms to mankind. He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This doctrine of the triune nature of God is absolutely correct in its conclusions. However, it does not clear up the confusion we might encounter as we try to process the concept of God having a Son, or the concept of God coming to the world as man.
Again, the doctrine of God’s triune nature does arrive at the right conclusion. However, the “trinitarian” approach is actually Greek & philosophical in nature. For this reason, it can seem so foreign to a Hebraic mind set. Though its conclusions are correct, it is really not the best way to attempt to process this issue of God coming to earth as a man. As our friend in Israel, Asher Intrater has insightfully stated, the doctrine of the trinity is an attempt to describe in ontological terms the nature of Yeshua. Ontology makes a science of trying to explain the nature of living beings. The problem is, we simply cannot approach the concept of God Himself in that way. We cannot make a science out of describing God. He is simply beyond that. How, then, do we understand the person of Yeshua and this idea of God coming in the flesh?
While not being able with our finite mind to understand this, I believe we can get a glimpse into this issue from the Bible itself.
There are numerous references from the T’nach (Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament) in which God Himself either manifests or appears in human form. Some references to this would be Genesis 18, Genesis 32, Exodus 14, Exodus 24, Joshua 5, Judges 6, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7, and Zechariah 2. These are just a few out of many such references. In several of these passages, He is referred to as the “Angel of the LORD” or the “Angel of YHVH.” Clearly it is God Himself in manifestation, and yet He is in human form. Why is this such an important phenomenon?
It is important because Yeshua is obviously the dominant figure of the New Covenant Scriptures.He is the dominant figure in God’s redemptive purposes. Yet this seems strange if Yeshua is nowhere to be found in the T’nach. How can it be that the concept of God appearing in the flesh would not be found in the T’nach? In other words, the idea of Yeshua as God in the flesh must be consistent with what is seen in the Old Testament. Otherwise, Jewish people have no frame of reference for understanding how the Messiah could be fully human, yet fully God.
Well, the answer is found in the T’nach itself. There is a key figure who we see in the early chapters of Genesis, who re-appears numerous times even in the books of the Prophets. He is seen as a dominant figure in the purposes of God, as He converses with such patriarchs as Abraham, Joshua, Gideon and others. He appears in the form of man, and yet He is worshiped as God. Again, He is referred to as the Angel of YHVH. The point we need to see is this. We do not need to be able to explain or understand the nature of His being. We simply need to point to who He is in the Scriptures.
In the T’nach, He is the Angel of YHVH. He comes in the form of humanity, but He is clearly a manifestation of God Himself. In the New Covenant Scriptures, He comes in the form of Yeshua. What is there for us to explain or try to figure out? He is there throughout the Bible. He is a dominant figure in the T’nach, appearing at crucial times in God’s redemptive purposes for Israel. And, He is the dominant figure of the New Covenant Scriptures as well, as He actually becomes born into this world as the Son of God and the son of man.
As the Son of God, He is sinless and perfect, pure and righteous. No sin can be found in Him. As the Son of man, he has authority as a man to defeat sin and death in a way that can actually impact us as human beings. As the Son of man, he has the authority to actually redeem, or buy back, the human race, as he pays the price for our sin.
Yeshua’s birth––God entering into this world in the flesh––was the one thing the devil knew he had to somehow prevent from happening. I suspect that the devil did not fully understand the ramifications of the Messiah living a sinless life. If a man could live a sinless life, then that man could redeem the human race from the power of sin and death. Such a man would bring about the undoing of the devil’s authority over the human race. Satan’s rage against Israel and the Jewish people, in the centuries leading to Messiah’s birth, was aimed at trying to somehow stop God from coming to this world as a man.
Once Yeshua was born, the devil tried to kill him by seeking to wipe out every male born at the time of his birth. Once Yeshua had lived His sinless life & laid it down, submitting to death in order to pay the price for sin, even then, the devil tried to nullify the impact of what Yeshua accomplished. One of the major heresies that came forth in the first century was the idea that Yeshua did not actually come in the flesh. This thinking came out of a philosophy called Gnosticism. Satan could not stop the event itself, so he tried to get people to spiritualize Yeshua’s life and death. The idea was that Yeshua wasn’t really flesh & blood, but some kind of a spiritual manifestation. You see, if Yeshua didn’t come in the flesh, then no one has yet paid the price for our sins. If He lived a perfect life simply as a “spiritual entity,” that does not do us any good at all.
It was as a man that Yeshua was able to defeat the devil and redeem us from the power of sin and death. The devil’s issue and problem is related to Yeshua coming in the flesh. All hell was raging against this monumental event to try to keep it from ever happening. When God Himself was born into this earth, heaven & earth came together in the form of a man, in the person of Yeshua ha Mashiach. This was God Himself, living in a human body, wreaking havoc with the devil and his kingdom. We are told in 1 John 3:8: “for this purpose the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
What an awesome event this was. God could not accomplish salvation simply as God in heaven. It required heaven coming to earth in order to make it possible for salvation to be accomplished. No wonder there is such controversy over this issue of even the possibility of God coming as a man. Of course He can do this! He is God, and nothing is impossible to Him. And because He has accomplished salvation for us, we are free to live as His beloved children, whose sins have been forgiven and whose guilt has been cleansed. May His great name be praised for this wonderful work of salvation.
|
|
Ormond Beach, FL 32174 
