WHO IS GOD?

Who is the God we must love? Is He the devil? Is He an earthly animal, person or thing? Is He the lifeless idol in many altars and churches, chiseled by man out of stone or wood or metal? The answer to the questions is, of course, No.

                  ¹³ …our great God and Savior [is] Y’shua the Messiah. TITUS 2

Y’shua ("Jesus Christ" to the world) we must love with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds and with all our strength. There is no other God.

⁶ [Y’shua] who, being in very nature God… PHILIPPIANS 2

¹⁵ …is the image [visible likeness] of the invisible God, the first-born over all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether throne or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. ¹⁷ [He exists] before all things [were created], and in [union with] Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And He is the Head of the Body, the Church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. COLOSSIANS 1

In Y’shua was found two characteristics exclusive to God:

Omniscient (All-Knowing)

³⁰ His disciples said to Him, “You are all-knowing. You do not even have to hear our questions to answer them.” JOHN 16 

Omnipotent (All-Powerful, Almighty).—He restored the health of lepers at a time when leprosy was yet incurable. He healed all kinds of diseases and infirmities. And while no one in history has given sight to a man born without eyes, He did (John 9:32).

¹⁶ When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. MATTHEW 8

³¹ The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. MATTHEW 15

Y’shua was life-giving. He brought the dead back to life (eg. Lazarus in John 11:44, the daughter of Jairus in Mark 5:41, and the son of a widow in Nain in Luke 7:15).

Y’shua fed no less than 5,000 with five loaves of bread and 4,000 with seven. 

³⁷ They all ate and were satisfied. Afterwards the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ³⁸ The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. MATTHEW 15

The prophet Moses had to part the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:5-31) and the prophet Elijah, the Jordan River (2 Kings 2:9), to get to their destinations. Y’shua simply walked over the waters to get to His (Matthew 14:25).

Y’shua demonstrated power of command over the five components of creation: the four elements of water, earth, wind and fire (as in Mark 4:39); the plants (as in Matthew 21:18-19); the animals; the humankind; and the celestial beings—both the angels (as in Matthew 4:11) and the demons (as in Luke 4:36).

¹⁰ The Messiah is the Head over every power and authority. COLOSSIANS 2

Y’shua was the source of all authority and power. It was by His authority that appointed some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be teachers (Ephesians 4:11). 

To the apostle Peter He gave the power to walk over the waters (Matthew 14:29). To His disciples—then and today—He has given:   

 

§  The power to exercise His powers

¹² I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. JOHN 14

¹³ I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. PHILIPPIANS 4

§  The power to overcome Lucifer and his demons, and to bind them

¹⁹ I have given you authority to overcome all the power of the enemy. LUKE 10

¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. MATTHEW 16

§  The power to undo wicked works

⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. MATTHEWS 10

¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on the sick, and they will get well. MARK 16

§  The power to forgive sin (except blasphemy of the Spirit and deliberate sin)

²³ If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. JOHN 20

§  The power to make prayers come true

¹⁹ Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three come together in My name, there I am with them. MATTHEW 18

By His omniscience and omnipotence, no doubt Y’shua was “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

THE FULLNESS OF GOD LIVES IN BODILY FORM IN Y’SHUA (Colossians 2:9).

The invisible God took the form of Son of Man to become a visible God to the humankind. He became the personification of two natures: human (pregnancy by Mary) and divine (what was conceived was of the Holy Spirit).

³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will be with child and give birth to a son…” ³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” ³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overthrow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” LUKE 1

²⁰ An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit… ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ The virgin will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means ‘God with us.’” MATTHEW 1

Because Y'shua had dual nature, when we study each of His pronouncements, it must be determined who spoke: Was it the God in Him or the man in Him? We must do it to avoid confusion and arriving at the wrong conclusion that He was only human, not God. The hint is, when the Gospel refers to the speaker as Son of Man, the reference is usually to His humanity; and when it refers to the speaker as Son of God, the reference is usually to His God-being. 

When Y’shua prayed (and He prayed a lot while on earth), it was the man in Him who prayed. It was not a case of God praying to Himself.

When He cried out in a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46), it was the man in Him who cried out.

When He said “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), it was the man in Him who spoke. The words should not be interpreted as if a lesser or inferior God was talking of a greater God. For there is no such being as a greater God or a lesser God. There is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4, John 5:44, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 5).

In Matthew 12:32 He said, “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But anyone who speaks a word against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” That should be read as “Anyone who speaks a word against My humanity will be forgiven. But anyone who speaks a word against My divinity will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

In Mark 13:32 He said of the end time, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” In this pronouncement Son was a reference to His humanity.   

Open your Bible to Luke 5:17-26, to the healing of the paralytic. God knew the man’s sins were causing the paralysis. The man had to be cleansed of his sins in order to be healed. So God said to him, “Your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and Torah-teachers did not see God. They saw Y’shua speaking and thought He was blaspheming for, as they correctly asserted, “Only God can forgive sins!” (Luke 5:21). But no blasphemy was made. The paralytic got healed; a self-evident proof was given that his sins were forgiven. Because the sins were forgiven and only God could forgive sin, an indisputable proof was given to believers and unbelievers alike that the God in Y’shua had spoken.    

¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just My own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. ¹¹ Believe Me when I say “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me;” or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. JOHN 14

be careful of taking Y’shua’s words literally. He was fond of speaking in parables.

                ²⁵ I have been speaking figuratively. JOHN 16

When He spoke of “My Father in heaven” (Matthew 12:50), it was the Son of Man who spoke. The Son of God cannot possibly have a Father. Hebrews 7:3 is explicit: The Son of God was without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life.

That being the case, it should be clear in our minds that God did not sire a Son. As we've said, there is only one God. The Father and the Son are one.

Why the veiled communication? Because the message of restoration has been exclusively reserved to those who have the heart for it (Matthew 13:11).

              ³ [The Gospel] is veiled to those who are perishing [those who persist in walking the realm of death]. 2 CORINTHIANS 4

The fact is, not even all of those who have the heart for it can understand God’s communications. Understanding comes only to persons whom God gifted with insight. As in the case of Simon Peter:

              ¹⁵ “But what about you?” [The Lord] asked. “Who do you say I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ Y’shua replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven.” MATTHEW 16

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