Oh my longtime friend I always think deep. We seem to agree on this. When you consider what the express image of God is its changes the content of established theology. Christ is an invisible spirit like his father. He changed his form to be in the body prepared for him.
How awesome is our God and Lord.
Yes, our God is awesome.
Regarding this statement:
Christ is an invisible spirit like his father. He changed his form to be in the body prepared for him.
Now, I know that words and names mean so much to some people; so, I must ask:
Do you consider The WORD of God mentioned in John 1 to be equal in identity to The CHRIST?
Personally, I consider The CHRIST, The WORD, The SAVIOR all to be speaking of the Promised ONE of God.
Now, it seems to me that you want to say that the CHRIST is an invisible spirit ... where I would say that the WORD is an invisible spirit. If you think CHRIST and the WORD are one and the same invisible spirit, then I will accept your conclusion in our discussion. I will not quibble over that detail.
However, I am prone to say that The CHRIST and The SAVIOR are more than Spirit.
To me the SAVIOR is
both the spirit of God and the physical form of God who appeared among men as Emmanuel. I think that most people consider The CHRIST and The Savior to be what they saw in our Lord Jesus when he walked the earth.
Since I have done much study over the image of God and have found that God gave his physical image the name of LORD/YHWH/Jehovah (Exodus 6:3; Exodus 3:6; Exodus 34:5,6 ... then it makes Isaiah 43:11 so clear.
I know that I quote it often... and I just don't see why others don't see clearly what I see.
I (the ONE Spiritual God), even I AM the LORD (the name of God's visible image when he appeared among men), beside ME (as the Spiritual God in a visible form) there is no savior.
If you consider Jesus the CHRIST to be the SAVIOR, then you must see that this verse says that he is the ONE God/I Am in the visible image of God named LORD.
This is why Jesus said that people correctly called him Lord, because he as the Christ was God appearing with his personal image named Lord.
Watch this interesting verse that will remind you of Psalm 110:1
You know that Lord Jesus the Christ in human form told people that Abraham saw his day and was glad of it ... well so did Moses. As soon as the LORD God had come down and allowed Moses to look upon all his goodness and glory in the form of the LORD ... this is what Moses did and said:
Exodus 34:8,9
8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped (God who appeared in the glory of the LORD and who called out his name as he passed by Moses).
9 And he (Moses) said, "If now I have found grace in thy sight, O LORD,
let My Lord, I pray thee, go among us."
Question:
If the visible presence of the LORD God the Father was too dangerous to look upon as IT approached in all its goodness and glory but only safe to see the back parts as IT departed, then who or what was the
My Lord that Moses was asking to go among them?
Three clues:
1.) God makes a promise to Moses - Exodus 23:20-23
20 Behold, I send
an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and
to bring thee into the place which I have prepared (The Promised Land).
21 Beware of him
(who will lead you into the Promised Land), and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for
my name (LORD) is in him.
22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice (the voice of the ONE who comes to lead), and do all that I speak (through him); then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies,
and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
(Is it any wonder that Jesus said something like this: "You call me Lord and correctly so, but why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say - IOW, why do you not obey me if I am Lord?"
23 For MINE (God's) ANGEL shall go before thee (into the Promised Land), and bring thee in unto the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
(Just like the angelic presence that belonged to God, which could be safely seen, went before the children of Israel ... so would our Lord of flesh go before us into the promised place he has prepared for us.)
Question:
So how do I know that the angelic presence that God called MINE ANGEL is the form belonging to God named LORD?
2.) Well, all I had to do was consider who showed up when Joshua was about to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land.
Joshua 5:13,14,15
13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, "Art thou for us,
or for our adversaries?"
14 And he said, "No (I'm not for your adversaries), but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship (just as Moses had done before the LORD) and said unto him, "What saith
my Lord unto his servant?"
15 And the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy." And Joshua did so.
Question:
Why did Joshua worship and why did the "special man sent by God) tell him the ground where he stood was holy?
Because this was the Angelic presence that belonged to God, which men could behold safely, which Moses had asked for to go before the people, had shown up. This "My Lord" angelic being was God come among men in a more safe presence, and this bodily form belonging to God came in the name of the Lord as God said IT would.
3.) Moses speaks to the Lord face to face and asks God to promise him something and God grants it.
Exodus 33:11-17
Paraphrased slightly
12 Moses said: "See, you
(Lord God) say unto me, 'Bring up this people: but you have not let me know whom you wilt send with me. Yet you
(LORD God) hast said, I know you
(Moses) by name, and you
(Moses) have found grace in my sight."
13 If I
(Moses) have found grace in thy
(LORD God's) sight, show me now thy way..."
14 And HE (the LORD God) said,
"MY PRESENCE" shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Moses still unsure is insistent with God:
15 Moses says: "If
YOUR PRESENCE go not with me, then carry us not up from hence."
16 The LORD replies:
"I will do this thing that you have spoken."
Hopefully, now you can comprehend that the
"MINE ANGEL belonging to God - aka - the presence of the LORD" was who would go with the children of Israel into the Promised Land.
This is the angelic presence that showed up to Joshua ... and the presence that Moses called
"My Lord" and whom Joshua also referred to as
"My Lord." This is the "My Lord" whom King David in Psalm 110:1 understood to exist. The LORD God told his "My Lord" that he would sit at his right hand until God had made all his enemies as a foot stool to him.
This "My Lord" was the pre-incarnate presence of our Lord Jesus... Is it any wonder that Jesus said: "You correctly call me Lord; so, why don't you obey me?"