By Kevin Guigou – Associate Pastor
In Part 1, Pastor Kevin introduced us to the Christian’s lifelong quest: to get to know Jesus that we discover his Father God and ourselves. We grow in a personal partnership with God the Father by seeking a deeper relationship with the living Lord Jesus through his spirit.
For 2,000 years, devoted people of faith have strived diligently to describe the most amazing relationship in the universe: the eternal bond between God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The two share a oneness and unity of purpose beyond our comprehension and yet are described with sharp distinctions that are equally breathtaking. God the Father and Jesus the Son are one (John 10:30), yet not identical (see Mark 10:18; 13:32; John 17:3).
“For although there may be-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—us there is one God, the Father, whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and whom we exist. But not everyone is aware of this…” 1 Corinthians 8:5-7a (ESV)
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5 (ESV)
Image by Baptist Union of Great Britain
“… Jesus from Nazareth a man authenticated to you by God through miracles, wonders, and signs that God performed through him…” Acts 2:22 (ISV)
“You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38 (NASB)
Oneness Between God & Jesus
Observing how God and Christ work together in Scripture fuels our fellowship with both. We never need to minimize Christ in order to lift up God.
As with Joseph and the Pharoah he served, there’s no competition between the Father and his Son. And there’s no idolatry in our praise of Christ Jesus in his exalted position of authority at God’s right hand.
The Father is glorified when we exalt his Son.
“Furthermore, the Father does not judge, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, that all people honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” John 5:22-23 (NET)
For the entire fullness God’s nature bodily in Christ, you have been filled by Him [“are complete in him”], who is the head every ruler and authority.” Colossians 2:9-10 (HCSB)
“He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God… He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place [supremacy] in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness in him,” Colossians 1:15a, 18-19 (CSB)
In the verse above, “image” is the Greek eikon which means, “resemblance, likeness, figure.” Nyland’s The Source translation says, “He is the portrait of the invisible God.”
Verse 1:18 shows that Christ’s resurrection awards him with “first place in everything.” Is Christ in first place in everything in your life?
Jesus Brings Glory to God
Jesus Christ perfectly modeled the life, existence, and reality of his unseen Father God, bringing the glory of God’s nature into human form and appearance.
“… Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get” 2 Corinthians 4:4b (The Message)
No wonder one name given to him was Immanuel, “God with us.”
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” Matthew 1:23 (ESV)
“who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped … As a result God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will [should] bow … to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:6, 9-11 (NET)
God highly exalted Jesus. Do you?
God gave – which is in the past tense – his Son a name above every name, Jesus. Is his name above the names of everyone and everything in your life? Do we bow with heart and knee?
Our Ministry at CFFM
As we get to know Jesus Christ, we get to know his Father. The Savior is our path to approaching God and understanding our fellowship with him.
The Lord Jesus blazed a trail of access for us into the Father’s presence where both God and Christ sit on the throne of authority (Revelation 22:1-3).
“But [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” Acts 7:55-56 (ESV)
Since our beginning in 1996, a prayer of Christian Family Fellowship has been that our doctrinal beliefs, perspectives, and passions would continue to graciously develop and mature.
We know that our faith community is made up of devoted, spirit-filled believers who may hold a variety of viewpoints on Scriptural interpretation. We welcome all seekers as we glean from the inspiration of Christ within each other.
In CFFM, we look forward to learning opportunities that stretch our ways of thinking about Christian living.
We’re not a family of scholars. We don’t converse in Aramaic over coffee. We’re a diverse, ragtag family of Jesus followers and truth seekers; Bible fanatics and God praisers. We’re more like energetic four-year-olds digging through Christmas stockings rather than somber pupils seated in a lecture hall.
CFFM cherishes both written revelation and the stirring of God’s Spirit. We learn and grow together as a loving household, ready for eager investigation, full of childlike wonder and tenderly shared compassion.
We won’t arrive at a perfect theology of the unique oneness of God, Christ, and the Spirit, but the eager pursuit for more of that understanding molds us toward Christlikeness (Romans 8:29).
In that quest, our spiritual community grows ever closer to our Father God and Lord Jesus Christ which is the central joy of our spiritual maturity in the faith.
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God & Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:4-6 (NET)
Where do we go for God’s light? God’s knowledge? God’s glory? … the face of Jesus Christ.
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory [splendor] of God in the face [or Greek, ‘presence’] of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)