BACK
as energised by the Spirit of God is probably the nearest that we get to a superman in Scripture, perhaps not counting the heroes of Genesis 6:1-8. Had He been just that He would not have been great enough to make atonement for the sin of the world or reveal God to us. If He is not any of the above then what is He ? Yes, He had the nature of God absolutely (John 1:1 - God does not have the article and is therefore characteristic). Yes, because He had God's nature absolutely He was able to represent Him perfectly (1 John 5:20 - God does have the article here showing that the Son stands for God, because with the article the word excludes all others from being God). In Paul's language, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him and therefore He could be his image; not just like an image on a coin, but a living perfect expression of the invisible God (Colossians 1:14-19; 2:9).

Certain things need to be said here. Christ was a real man with the nature of God. It was God's moral nature. We should not mix this up with divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. Christ, no doubt, had access to God and could call upon all the resources that God had, but there is no idea that Christ, so to speak, kept all the knowledge of God in his human head. He did not know certain things (Mark 13:32; Acts 1:7) and He had to have things revealed to him (Revelation 1:1). God would not have revealed to Him what He knew already.

As a real man with the nature of God absolutely Christ was unique. He was sinless in thought, word and deed because there was no lawlessness in his essential being (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5). We may I believe rightly speak of Christ as a person. He had a spirit, a soul and a body (Luke 23:46; Mark 14:34; John 20:12), though the word person is only used once of Him in the AV and then the word strictly means face (2 Corinthians 2:10 - see Youngs Concordance). It is of course also true that neither God nor the Holy Spirit are called persons in the Bible, though the use of the personal pronoun implies it.

Christ's relationship to God is that of Son (Mark 9:7). There are depths in his being which are beyond us. Paul speaks of "the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). He is not just a man of Adam's race as we are, but "the second man, out of heaven" (1 Corinthians 15: 47). We are finite; but of yesterday (Job 8:9). He is also finite so far as his human origin is concerned, but there is also an infinite side to his person, for his goings forth are from the days of eternity (Micah 5:2). To use a human illustration; we are like torches with a battery that runs out. He is like a light linked to the mains supply which does not run out. He looked like us when here on earth as the bulb linked to the battery may look like the one linked to the mains, but underneath there was a vital difference.

Christ was complementary to God. This word does not appear in Scripture, but the thought is there, that is, His existence is necessary in order that God might be declared (John 1:18). It is a bit like a car. The driver and the motor spirit (petrol) are not part of the car but both are necessary before the car will go. God in that sense needs Christ and the Spirit. They are not just replicas of God. If they were their very existence would be superfluous. They are both distinct from God. They are complementary in a way like Eve who complemented Adam (Genesis 2:18 - was his counterpart) and the Assembly which is the

complement of Christ (Is his fulness - Ephesians 1:23).

As well as being complementary to God, Christ is identified with Him. Again, the words 'identified with' do not appear in Scripture, though J. N. Darby uses them in Romans 6:5 where the literal meaning of the expression is 'grown up with' and so thoroughly one: cf Luke 8:7 - see JND note. God the Father and Christ are so identified that John can often move from one to the other as if they were the same person (1 John 2:28-3:3).

Further, God and Christ are so integrated that Christ could say: "I [am] in the Father, and... the Father is in me" (John 14:10). Again, "The Father who abides in me, he does the works" (John 14:10). Finally, it must be said that Christ existed with God his Father before the world was (John 17:5). Note however Scripture (Christ speaking) is careful to say that the glory which he had (his own peculiar glory) was with his Father the only true God (John 17:3). Although some passages of Scripture apply the word God to Christ as John 1:1; in very many others He is clearly distinguished from Him (see for instance 2 Corinthians 13:14). There is no idea in Scripture of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as well as God the Father. Such expressions originated with the Church of Rome and not Scripture.

NEXT