Angelic Conflict part 260: The Lord's power over death – Joh 4:34; 5:36; 6:38; 10:18; Luk 7:11-17; 8:49-56; Joh 11:41-46.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 259:  The Lord's power over death- JOH 4:34; 5:36; 6:38; 10:18; LUK 7:11-17; 8:49-56; JOH 11:41-46.

 

Our Lord's miracles were ordained by the Father and the Lord had absolute faith in the power of the Father's commands to do them. Hence it is vital to understand the hypostatic union.

 

Hypostatic union - Christ is true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever.

 

These theological terms are vital to understand if we are to understand the application of Christ's ministry to our own lives. We cannot, nor will ever, be deity or operate as deity - not even little deity as is sometime falsely taught.

 

Kenosis [PHI 2:7] - our Lord laid aside the use of His deity during the incarnation.

 

God is not in time while mankind is. We live in past, present, and future, while God does not. Therefore God does not need faith, nor does He need hope. To God, the end is the same as the beginning. To Him a thousand years is a day and a day a thousand years.

 

PSA 90:4

For a thousand years in Thy sight

Are like yesterday when it passes by,

Or as a watch in the night.

 

It is impossible to identify with this, but we can believe that in God, in deity, in the eternal, self-existent One that events in time are as if they have already happened [He's already seen the movie], but not so with us and therefore, not so with the humanity of Christ. He had to operate in faith and trust in the word of His Father in things, to Him, that were yet future.

 

In like manner, just as the humanity of our Lord, we are taught about the future without actually experiencing it, so we have the choice to believe the word of God and to have hope in the future or not.

 

This doesn't at all mean that we never, ever doubt, but it does mean that when we do doubt or live in fear of the past, present, or future and that battle between doubt and faith is raging in the soul that we eventually trust in the promises from God.

 

ROM 8:24-25

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

 

Did Lazarus fear death at all the second time like he may have the first time, and even if he didn't fear, did he approach his physical death with the same need for faith?

 

PSA 56:3

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee.

 

Christ operated in His humanity and in that humanity He had to operate in faith in what the Father commanded Him that He must do.

 

He had absolute faith that He could and would do what the Father commanded Him. By laying aside the use of His deity He laid aside the use of omniscience. He operated as true humanity. He did not see the cross and the future victory in the blink of a omniscient eye, but in trust and faith in the prophecy of the OT and the command of the Father He believed it as if He saw it all done in a moment. God is not in time, but the humanity of Christ was, and He had to operate as we do, in time, in faith, in trust in the word of the Father. If His deity was used then the need for faith would have vanished in a moment and His soul would have seen it all as already done!

 

JOH 4:31 In the meanwhile the disciples were requesting Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."

 

JOH 4:32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 

 

JOH 4:33 The disciples therefore were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?"

 

JOH 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.

 

JOH 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative [absolute, exhaustive faith]. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

 

He has prophecy concerning Himself, but that's for the big picture. The believer has the same about his own future, but the believer doesn't know what's coming tomorrow and neither did Christ. He had to walk in faith like we do. He had to trust in the Father's plan for its divinely planned outcome just like we do.

 

JOH 5:31 "If I alone bear witness of Myself, My testimony is not true.

 

JOH 5:32 "There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony which He bears of Me is true.

 

JOH 5:33 "You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

 

JOH 5:34 "But the witness which I receive is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.

 

JOH 5:35 "He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

 

JOH 5:36 "But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.

 

The works - the miracles that display His power and authority over satan, KOD, world system, sickness, handicaps, nature, death, etc.

 

The Father gave Him the miracles to do in the plan that the Father decreed for Him. He trusted in that plan and in the word so that when He commanded these miracles His source and His faith made them powerful and effective. They bore witness that He was the God-man, the ultimate warrior, and the carrier of the kingdom of God to the earth.

 

GEN 3:19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

 

JOH 6:25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You get here?"

 

JOH 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.

 

JOH 6:27 "Do not work [seek/believe] for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you [faith], for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal." 

 

JOH 6:28 They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"

 

JOH 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." 

 

JOH 6:30 They said therefore to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

 

ROM 8:24

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?  

 

ROM 8:25

But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

 

They want Him to validate Himself the day after He fed 5,000 with 5 loaves and two fish. Faith is based on evidence and it has measurable results when placed in the right object, but faith is not needed in what has already been seen, in other words, faith isn't compatible with absolute proof.

 

JOH 6:31 "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.'"

 

JOH 6:32 Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

 

JOH 6:33 "For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." 

 

JOH 6:34 They said therefore to Him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread."

 

They want a reversal of the curse upon mankind:

GEN 3:19

By the sweat of your face

You shall eat bread,

 

JOH 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

 

JOH 6:36 "But I said to you, that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.

 

JOH 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me [faith], and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

 

JOH 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

 

JOH 6:39 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day [and He knows by faith that He will].

 

JOH 6:40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

 

Are you as a believer what God says you are? Do you believe it as certain in time and for the future? Truth and faith produce life and power.

 

JOH 10:14 "I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me,

 

JOH 10:15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

 

JOH 10:16 "And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd [faith].

 

JOH 10:17 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

 

JOH 10:18 "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."

 

What authority has God given to the believer? Separation from death, the course of this world, satan/KOD, and the flesh.

/Christ raised three people from the dead during His ministry so that He could reveal His power over death. He raised each one of them with a word.