Q. I was reading John 17 and two questions came to mind. Verses 1-5 describes the Father restoring Jesus’ glory. While Jesus was on this earth was his glory hid or taken away so man would not recognize him as God? And my other question is, do you think he was referred to as the “Son” before he came to earth as a man? Or do you believe he might have been known as another name in heaven before that? Thanks for all that you do.
A. All the time Jesus spent on Earth was in the form of a human. Once, on the Mt. of Transfiguration, He momentarily assumed His glorified body. Matt. 17:2 tells us His face shone like the Sun and His clothes became as white as the light. Mark 9:3 described Him as appearing in clothes brighter than any one in the world could bleach them. Luke 9:29 says His face changed and His clothes were as bright as lightning.
This was obviously not His normal appearance while He was here, and after a few minutes He changed back to look just like other men again. Isaiah 53:2 said the messiah would have no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, and nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. Jesus fulfilled this prophecy by looking like an ordinary man. But His glory was not taken from Him. He set it aside to become a man, so He could save mankind.
As for His pre incarnate position, in Psalm 2:7, written 1000 years before His birth, The Father said to Him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.” And in at least one encounter a demon addressed Him as the Son of the Most High God (Mark 5:7). This seems to indicate that in the spirit world He was known as the Son of God even before people on Earth recognized Him as such.
No comments:
Post a Comment