Who is Messiah? Part 2 - Son of God

Fact: The ‘Books of Moses’ are also called the Torah.  Torah means ‘teaching, instruction, guidance, law’.  The first 5 books of both the Hebrew and Christian bibles are the same books. 

Fact: Y’shua (Jesus, Yahoshua, Yeshua, Yahshua) said that Moses wrote of him (John 5:46-47, Luke 24:27).  He used ONLY Moses (the books of Moses) and the Prophets to explain who he was.

Food for thought: Can we clearly explain and understand who Y’shua is ONLY from Moses and the Prophets?  If he could do this, shouldn’t we be able to?  That would mean we’d have to put aside whatever understanding we hold based on ‘New Testament’ support, and instead search out the teachings of Torah. We could expect to trust that whatever the Creator considered important for us to know, He would have clearly taught many times over, right from the beginning. 

Fact: the first Adam was called a ‘son of God’ (Luke 3:38). He was formed in the perfect image/likeness of YHVH (but he was NOT YHVH) and was commissioned by God to act as His representative on the earth. He was to ‘subdue the earth and have dominion over it’.  Isn’t that what the Messiah will do?   The first Adam turned away from trust in and obedience to God and lost his position.

Fact: Y’shua is called a ‘son of God’ (most translations phrase ‘Son’ of God as distinctive…but capitals are added in and not part of the original language) and all ‘born again’ believers in Y’shua as Messiah are also called ‘sons of God’.  Y’shua is called ‘the last Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15: 19-23, 44-46); there’s a connection between these first and last Adams.  It’s said the physical Adam came first and then the spiritual Adam.  It also says the first Adam was a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.  So the last is greater than the first.

Food for thought: is it possible that since this first Adam failed, and since YHVH knows everything, as He’s outside of the limitations of time, that He had already prepared a second Adam…even before the first?  That this had happened before the ‘foundations of the world’, though it had not played out within the dimension of time…that it didn’t come about until the ‘fulness of time’, but that it had already been accomplished outside of time? There are a number of teachings about two brothers, where the first rebels and the second becomes first or greatest.

 

Fact: Y’shua is called a son of God in the Greek (‘New Testament’) writings.

Fact:  Believers are called ‘sons of God’ or ‘children of God.  This expression in the Greek writings is identical to that used for the phrase ‘sons of God’ in the Old Testament.  They’re referring to the same beings.

Food for thought: It logically follows that if Y’shua is a son of God and we are sons of God, then we are like Y’shua.  But if Y’shua is also YHVH, the comparison stops, because we are NOT YHVH.  Christians generally work around this by interpreting that Y’shua is the intermediary between God and man, the god-man.  But there would need to be clear support for this in Torah, and it doesn’t seem to be there.

Fact: Y’shua is called the ‘firstborn over all creation’ in Colossians 1:14-16.  Also in this passage Y’shua is called the image of the invisible God (YHVH) and not the invisible God made visible.

Fact: In Greek the word ‘eikon’ (G1504) is used for ‘image’.  This has a meaning of ‘mirror like representation, likeness, very close in resemblance, exactly reflecting its source’.  Its corresponding Hebrew word is ‘tselem’ H6754, which is from a root meaning to shade, specifically an image, representation, phantom, illusion, and an idol. The Hebrew word ‘tselem’ (Greek ‘eikon’) is first used in Genesis 1:26…’let us make man in our image’.

Food for thought:  Y’shua not called ‘God the son’ anywhere in the Greek writings.  He is called the perfect representation, the image of God.  An image or a representation is NOT the original or even part of the original.

Fact:  in Genesis 6, it’s written that the ‘sons of God’ went into the daughters of men and had children by them, and that these offspring became mighty men of God, men of renown.

Food for thought: if Y’shua, as the son of God, is truly YHVH in flesh, then who are these other sons of God, and how could they, being of the same substance as Y’shua (which in Christianity, would be taken to be YHVH) go into (sexually) the daughters of men and bear children?  This isn’t speaking of a spiritual concept but a factual, physical one.

Fact: “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1) is actually “In the beginning, Elohim”…where Elohim denotes plurality. In Genesis 2 “YHVH Elohim” is introduced.  This has to have significance. 

Fact: Romans 8:29, 11:2, 1 Peter 1:2, 20, Revelations 13:8 all seem to say that YHVH foreknew all His people.

Fact: Job 38:7 speaks of the sons of God who shouted (with joy) at creation.  They were there and they were many.

Food for thought: A foundational belief in Christianity (and Messianity) is to believe Y’shua is God (YHVH) or part of God appearing in the flesh.  In other words, Y’shua is believed to be both God and man.

Most christian teachings assume the plurality of Elohim is the trinity or some other combination of Y’shua and YHVH.  However, it’s possible that the plurality referred to here is Elohim as well as other beings related to Him in divine order, either by appointment (angels), or by choice (sons/children of Elohim). 

Conclusion:

Is it possible that YHVH foreknew his children because they were outside of time with Him at creation?  This is a difficult concept to grasp, as we’re used to thinking only within the confines of physical time.  But it appears from a careful reading of Genesis 1, that the boundaries of time were not set in place until the fourth day.  The fourth day also is a picture of authourity over us (more about this in Part 3 – Creation and Messiah).

Is it possible that the testing and approval of the sons of God came about within the confines of the physical world?  That the choice was made there, but that YHVH already knew those who were His because they exist outside of time as well?  Not ‘before time began’ but outside of time…those are different concepts.

Is it possible that the creation was accomplished through, by and for the sons of God, of whom Y’shua is the firstborn of many brothers?  A careful, thoughtful (in context) reading of these verses, referring to an Interlinear if possible, presents the beginnings of an interesting study:

Psalm 89:27, Mark 10:6, Rom 8:29, Col 1:14, 18, Heb 1:6, Rev 1:5, 3:14.

Is it possible that Y’shua is neither a god-man nor merely a man, but instead a unique being as the first Adam was a unique being?  We have our physical life in the first Adam, we bear his image physically, we’re his sons.  That we have no choice over.  We DO have choice (free-will) to die to the self-will that led the first Adam to sin, and to be ‘born again’ through trust in YHVH, as part of the ‘last Adam’.  If we’re found to abide in the last Adam, we’re received by YHVH as sons through the obedience of the last Adam, Y’shua.

Who is Messiah? Part 1 - First and Last Adam

There’s a connection between the first Adam and the last Adam, as referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:45.

Both are called sons of God (the first specifically in Luke 3:38) both were sent ones who had no sin in them, both were the perfect image and representation of the Creator, both were tested, both were intended to rule over the earth as its King and Deliverer (to ‘subdue’) in the Name of the Father, and both were meant to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ in the sense of filling the earth with obedient ones (sons of God, children of God), to the glory of the Father. 

The first Adam was made in the image and likeness of the Creator and was sinless when placed in the perfection of the sanctuary of the Garden (a temple picture).  He was unique from those who came after him, as he was created ‘naked and not ashamed’.  (It’s an assumption that Adam and Eve were clothed with animal skins, the text just states they were clothed with ‘skin’.) He received the Word (the Law) from the Creator, but when tested, fell to temptation through his own will (flesh), was deceived and turned away; and brought bondage and curse to creation and its inhabitants.  He had become adulterated. He was the ‘born first’ but he rejected the inheritance of the firstborn.  Through the first Adam, great increase came to the earth, as all humanity came through him.

The last Adam was also sinless, and was ‘the image of the invisible God’, ‘the exact representation of His being’, was also ‘placed’ on earth, this time in the sanctuary of the womb, in the sanctuary of family, in the sanctuary of Israel.  When he was tested through his flesh/will (Matthew 4), unlike the first Adam, he trusted in and remained in the Word of his Father.  He resisted temptation, and through trust in the Will of the Father, he subdued and ruled over creation through his obedience.  He was given the rights of the firstborn son, and intended to be the ‘firstborn of many brothers’.  He was obedient unto death, and was resurrected in a form that didn’t have the physical limitations (‘skin’, in a sense) of the body of a ‘son of Adam’ (Luke 24:36, John 20:19). He was not only restored to the form of the first Adam, he was blessed with more.

All the sons of the first Adam faced physical death, but through rebirth and ‘abiding in’ the last Adam, a remnant of the sons of the first Adam would also be given the rights of children of God, along with him.  The first Adam was CREATED a living being…the last Adam BECAME a life-giving spirit!

It’s abundantly clear from Torah that no son of Adam could save mankind, yet it would have to be an ‘Adam’ who would save them…a man like them.  All Torah points to the necessity of a rebirth into an uncorrupted ‘seed’, and the Greek writings (‘New Testament’) validate this fully.   It would have to be another ‘son of God’ that would become the salvation of all creation. 

It’s ONLY in the last Adam that we are saved!  It appears that the plan of the Creator was to bring to Himself a people who would freely trust Him and obey Him, a people who would KNOW and be KNOWN by Him. A people who would be ‘one’ in will and purpose with Him and who would fill creation with the glory of knowledge of Him.

Fear

Job 28:28, in Psalm 111:10, in Proverbs 1:7, 9:10, 15:33, in Micah 6:9 all say variations of the same thing:

“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

Isaiah 33:6 says the fear of God is Zion’s treasure!  In Isaiah 11:2 there is a description of Messiah, on whom will rest the Spirit of God – the spirit of knowledge, of wisdom, of understanding, of ability to counsel and of power…and the spirit of fear of God. 

You see that ‘fear’ of God is very important.  It’s the beginning of learning how to walk in God’s ways, how to love God and how to show that love to others.

Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, but it also needs to remain alive and active in order for wisdom to continue and to grow. Turn away from fear of God, and turn away from wisdom. God created mankind with the capacity to make wise decisions…ONLY if they ‘feared’ and obeyed Him.  You can see this by reading Genesis 1-3, especially Genesis 3:1-6, where you can learn how they turned aside from God’s wisdom to the ‘wisdom’ of a created being.  We do that too easily. We’re prone to it.  But we’re not excused by it.

We were created to trust in God and to obey HIS ways.  While we will fight against that ‘other’ wisdom our whole lives…God did not take away our ability to fear, trust, love and obey HIM!

To study what ‘fear of God’ really is…and to consider the examples we’re given in the Bible of how to fear God (and what happens when we don’t) is foundational to our faith and our walk through life.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘fear’ is ‘yirah’, and its basic meaning is:  fear!  It’s also translated as terror, fearing, awesome or terrifying thing (object causing fear), reverence, piety, moral reverence, dreadful, obey, worship, afraid, cautious, esteems, to stand in awe of, to cause astonishment and awe, to fear, honour and respect, causing shaking or quaking as a result of fear.

Now…it’s THIS state that’s called the beginning of true wisdom!  How often do we really fear God in this way?  Do you think if we had more of this kind of reverential fear, that it would keep us from disobeying God? 

God is a God to be feared.  This is very clear from the Bible.  And it’s well worth spending time in study and thought about, and in remembering in all situations of life.  It is the fear of God that sinners lack.  It is lack of the fear of God that leads to sin. 

God hates sin.  He hates it because it causes death.  Yet He allows it!  Why?  Because He is fair and just.  He’s not created us as puppets, only able to obey.  He created us in HIS image…able to choose to walk in the way of life…also able to turn away.  God hates sin.  He doesn’t hate us.  He doesn’t want anyone to perish in sin (1 Timothy 2:4, Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11).  Though because He has given us choice, He will allow that to happen if we choose it.  Think carefully on how important that is. 

Not only does God not hate us…He wants us to be whole, healthy and full of the joy that comes from living life with Him.  And because of that, and knowing that the first Adam would turn away and reject God’s rule and God’s gift to him…at the right time, God sent the ‘last Adam’ (Messiah) who didn’t turn away.  He lived and died in obedience to God. He showed us the way back to God.  And we may join with him as ‘one’, to be a ‘new creation’, to be ‘transformed by the renewing of our thoughts’, by repentance and renewal, to receive peace with God.  He died for us. And he lives now, resurrected by God to never need to face the temptation to sin again. 

Just as our Messiah lived with temptation, so will we.  But if we ‘abide in him’ as our leader and King appointed by God, then we receive strength from God to do what is right, to obey God’s good ways.  Of course, that isn’t easy!  But we are not without help.  And proper fear can be a big helper!

Revelations 12:17 warns us the Deceiver (Satan) hates those who ‘keep the commandments of God and who hold to the testimony of Jesus’.  You see why?  Because they can’t be deceived!  It’s in having a proper understanding of God, and in remaining in that knowledge of Who He is…that we have His protection.  And that we walk in the testimony of our Saviour – who did exactly this!

Our Father loves us and wants us to be whole.  One day we will.  But in the meantime, we are to honour, respect, be in awe of, fear, and trust in God…and obey His ways.  He loves us and His ways are for our good.  Will we listen? Will we fear and obey Him, and trust in Him and His ways?  For He is a good God and full of compassion!

Here are some fitting and encouraging words from David                                                         

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, 

and my hope is in you all day long.
Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love,

for they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me, for you, LORD, are good.

Good and upright is the LORD;

therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.

(From Psalm 25)