A Testimony Worth Living and Dying For

Faith is the mental view of a Christian looking into God’s description of eternity. Looking by God-given faith keeps us separated from the evil world that hates us (I John 5:19; John 15:19). To the human eye, the moon looks small because of its distance. Therefore, faith corrects reason. The inspired writer of Hebrews said, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3 NASB).

Compare faith with prophecy, because they both agree in object (Divine revelation) and in nature (both are for things of the future). Although faith is not the full enjoyment, it is a foretaste of the reality. God sees things in His eternal purpose; faith sees them in Scripture (promises). It is sufficient for faith to see things in God’s promises, even though the believer cannot actually have them until God’s appointed time. It was sufficient to the faith of the patriarchs to see things at a distance. Promises are the overflowings of God’s love and care of His own. What a great blessing Christians have in the statement by Isaiah—“Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you” (Is. 42:9 NASB). The Christian hope is unfailingly certain (Rom. 5:5). An anchor is the symbol of hope. It enables the ship to outride the storm. Vital union with Christ provides secure anchorage, because it reaches within the veil. Jesus Christ is the Object of hope. Paul said, “…looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:13, 14 NASB). The conclusion of hope is Christ and His Kingdom. Hence, true hope purifies (I John 3:3). It purges and works a lifestyle suitable to the believer’s hope. (Study I John.)

No one has ever seen God because He is absolutely spiritual. A physical vision of God has never been seen, because one does not exist. Christ said to the grumbling Jews, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that any man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father” (John 6:44-46 NASB). Therefore, it was the Person who came from the Father who has made Him known. The one who came from the Father was the eternal Son of God, who was the Word of God (John 1:1). “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 NASB). Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son, is the One who reveals the Father. “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God [monogenes theos], who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained [exegesato, aorist middle indicative third person singular of exegeomai, meaning to report, explain, reveal, or make known] Him” (John 1:18 NASB).

The incarnation of Jesus Christ reveals the necessity of the Divine Triunity; and by the agency of the Holy Spirit, the eternal Son of God became the only Mediator between God and man. Godhead became God-Man, and the two natures were preserved without confusion and division. Christ must have two natures in order to redeem the elect.

The regenerated person has two natures. Both the Savior and the saved person are two-natured personalities. The elect gain from the One who became flesh without suffering loss. Furthermore, the “Word became flesh” in His new mode of existence, but He did not cease to be the Word. Deity cannot be changed into something different, and Christians cannot be changed into something different. Christians cannot be changed into something other than being Christ’s saved sheep by God’s grace (John 10; 17).

Through the person of Moses, the Law was given to reveal sin and to declare all men guilty before God. Concerning the revelation of sin, Paul said, “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, YOU SHALL NOT COVET. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead: And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful” (Rom. 7:7-13 NASB).

The same Christ who gave the Law beforehand by the agency of His servant, Moses, also became “the Servant” who by personal agency brought grace and truth. The apostle John said, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17 NASB).

The record does not state that Moses saw the face of God, but the LORD spoke to Moses face to face (Ex. 33:11). When God made Himself visible, it was in the Person of the Son of God. In reality, Old Testament Theophanies (manifestations of Deity) were Christophanies. We are informed in Exodus that Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel “…saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself” (Ex. 24:10 NASB).

Since there are no contradictions in Scripture, how do we reconcile such statements as “No man has seen God [the Father] at any time…” (John 1:18 NASB), and “No one has beheld God [the Father] at any time…” (I John 4:12 NASB)? What about Exodus 33:11, which says, “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend…” (NASB)? This verse does not contradict verses 20 and 23. “But He said, You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (v. 20). “Then the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by” (vv. 21, 22). “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen” (v. 23). Seeing God’s back is not seeing Him “as He is” (I John 3:1-3 NASB). It was the LORD, the covenant God, Jehovah—YAHWEH, that Moses saw.

When Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were both in their glorified bodies. The coming of the Kingdom in the transfiguration scene does not refer to the assembly (church) as is evident by the connection of the assembly to the second advent of Christ. I John 3:2 applies to Moses in Matthew 17:1-13. John said, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (NASB). Moses was not “as the LORD [the covenant God] is” when the tabernacle was being built in Exodus 33. The elect see the Father in the Person of Christ, and they see the Son in the gospel of Christ by the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of regeneration (I Thess. 1:4-10). As great as this sight is subsequent to being born of God, it is imperfect until we see Jesus Christ perfectly “as He is.”

The first Epistle of Peter does not refer directly to the decree of election, but to the manifestation of it in the selection of certain individuals out of the world. The Lord told His disciples, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19 NASB). (Read Ps. 139:17-24.) There is an election to sanctification, as performed by the gospel, separating the foreordained from the mass of mankind unto holiness of life. This is what we have in I Peter 1:1 and 2—“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure” (NASB). (Read verses 3-12.)

According to the sovereign God, there is no more “foreknowledge” than “afterknowledge” when it comes to eternal election. Here, as throughout Scripture, Christians are selected to be God’s peculiar people. Election is the cause of salvation by the Persons of the Godhead: (1) The Father’s election is the moving cause (Eph. 1:4). (2) Christ’s redemption is the procuring cause (Rom. 3:24-26). (3) The Spirit’s sanctification is the final cause (I Pet. 1:1-12).