Combined cache of “Christ Jesus” GEMs to Make Your Own!
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Christ Jesus”
for Sunday, August 27, 2023
(Cobbey’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps• 314-378-2574
Have a ONE-ness Mind-Set to Fulfill Bible PROMISES and
BE A HEALER LIKE CHRIST!
[Warren Huff:] Mary Baker Eddy made Christian Science a religion based on the Bible and its promises.
In her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she quotes the Bible 60 times just in the opening 20-page chapter on “Prayer.”
Here’s an example from a recent Christian Science Quarterly where in just the following one-sentence citation she makes at least three Biblical allusions/references. “Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.” (SH 467:13). In this sentence Mary Baker Eddy refers not only the first commandment about having no other gods (Exodus 20:3) and to man being the “likeness” of God (Genesis 1:26), but also to “having that mind which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5/Responsive Reading)
More Scriptural quotations in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures are woven throughout every Bible Lesson and on almost every page of the book. Here are a couple more from last week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on “Mind.”
- “When the divine precepts are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship, in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with the Scriptural command: “Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” S&H 276:4, referring to RR/ Philippians 2:5
- “Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.” (S&H 467:13/ referring to RR/Philippians 2:5
RESPECT ALL! — CHERISH UNIVERSAL HUMANITY—
DO GOOD FOR ALL MANKIND
WITH a “WALK TO EMMAUS” SPIRIT & INSIGHTS!
Cobbey Crisler on citation B1/Acts 10:38-41 (+verseS before & after)
[Cobbey:] “Acts 10, verse 34, begins a lecture or sermon to the first group of Gentiles. And the opening statement that Peter makes is one that could be well considered by every denomination of Christianity today… Here Peter expressed his new view of God, that God is no respecter of persons, that God speaks to receptivity.
Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
This new view of God, of course, leads to this next question:
Should man as well be no respecter of persons?
This is a tradition-shattering concept.
And Acts 10, verse 35, Peter summarizes it by saying “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” …
Then he begins to explain to Cornelius and the friends and acquaintances of Cornelius, the history of early Christianity. “The beginning of Christianity is traced from Galilee after John’s baptism, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth.” … Of course, that word “anointed” immediately identifies Jesus as the Messiah. This is a point that Peter is obviously going to get across to this Gentile audience that would need some instruction in this. (See below)
(Bonus Prelude to cit. B1/Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
And you find in Acts 10, verse 43, he does that by stating that “all the prophets had given witness to the Messiah, namely Jesus.”…
As soon as Peter gets into this “Walk to Emmaus” approach, in other words the comprehension of Jesus’ role in the earlier scripture, we find in Acts 10, verse 44 that “the Holy Ghost falls on all the listeners.” …
It wasn’t Peter’s idea that this should happen; it’s at the Holy Ghost’s initiative. This is disturbing to some of those that came with Peter: Jewish Christians.
And we will find it becomes even more disturbing to other elements in the church later on, for this is a departure. The question underlying this event is “Should the church be parochial or universal?” Is it simply a sect of Judaism or an outcome of Judaism, or is it the fulfillment of God’s will as expressed in prophecy with its ultimate mission to embrace universal humanity?”
“After the Master What? – The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
SEE PETER’S FOUNDATIONAL ROLE IN CHURCH IN DECLARING JESUS TO BE THE CHRIST –
Cobbey on cit. B2, Matt. 16:13-19+ & cits. S4, S5, p. 136-137
Bonus: See a monologue inspired Peter’s declaration, “Thou Art The Christ”
[Cobbey Crisler:] Verse 13 of Matthew 16 has a very important question that Jesus raises himself. He says, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” Do you think he was interested in the answer? He wouldn’t have raised the question otherwise.
(Verse 14). He gets the answer right away. They all say he’s some old prophet reincarnated. You can almost take your choice of prophets.
(Verse 15). Putting aside the general point of view, the average point of view, he says. “But whom do you, my immediate students, say that I am?”
(Verse 16). Peter, once again, raises his hand, and says, “You are the Chris the Son of the living God.”
Remember what that would mean to a first century Jew. You are the Christ.” The Christ was the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. “You are the Messiah.” Where do you find the
Messiah? In the Old Testament. “You are the Old Testament prophesied Messiah.” Was Jesus pleased with that answer? Yes.
(Verse 17).”He said, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona.” He says two specific things. One, “That he didn’t get that because a human had given it to him. He had gotten it directly from God.” Jesus considered that he was prophesied about in Scripture.
(Verse 18). The second point is “that on that rock he would build his church.” It is interesting the use of the two Greek words for “rock” there. Petros in Greek is “rock.” But it’s not the real Greek word for “rock.” It’s kind of a nickname. The Greek word is petra which is feminine. Petros is masculine. It shows that the church is founded on petra which is the bedrock and it has a feminine context. Petros, Peter, is like a chip off the rock. Petros in Greek is almost the equivalent of “Rocky” in English. It’s a nickname. The church is founded on the bedrock, or petra. What bedrock is he talking about?
Peter has just said, that he has recognized that Jesus was prophesied in the Old Testament. Is that important to the church? Because this is the first time Jesus ever mentions the word “church.” He was probably waiting until the receptivity among his hearers warranted its mention. That receptivity would not be proved until whatever is necessary to be seen was introduced into the conversation. Peter apparently brings in that necessary ingredient by saying, “You are the prophesied Messiah.” In effect, you are not a temporary phenomenon. You were appointed by God to do your job.
[Bonus beyond the end of citation B2:]
“But what exactly does Peter mean by “your job?” Every Jewish child was brought up on the Scriptures. Brought up to consider that the Messiah was to come. But what kind of Messiah? What kind of Messiah did they expect?
The Jews expected a king, a political leader. How about a Messiah who would suffer and end up on a cross? I think about as accurate as we can be on the subject from this vantage point in the twentieth century is to give you an example. For instance, we even have modem Jewish scholars today writing things like this. “In Jewish Messianic thought of the Targum (a book or division of the Old Testament in Aramaic), there is no room whatsoever for a suffering and dying Messiah.”
The Jewish Encyclopaedia reads on this same subject, “The Messiah was expected to attain for Israel the idyllic blessings of the prophet. He was to defeat the enemies of Israel, restore the people to the land, reconcile them with God, and introduce a period of spiritual and physical bliss. He was to be prophet, warrior, judge, king, and teacher of Torah (the Pentateuch). The early sources do not mention a suffering Messiah. How did Jesus look on the cross to a Jewish nation that had been brought up to regard a Messiah who would be victorious over everything, not be crucified as a criminal.”
So, you can see what Jesus was faced with on the cross. That was a pretty lonely position, among other things. Understanding who Jesus was to become is the one obstacle between Jesus and the formation of his church. So, for the first time, when Peter says, “You’re the Messiah,” it looks good as far as the progress of the church is concerned. But, let’s analyze what goes on and discover what Peter meant by that.
(Verse 21). Notice, right after Peter says, “You’re the Messiah,” Jesus tells his disciples for the first time what? “That he must go unto Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and be raised again the third day.”
How did that look for what they had been brought up to regard as the Messianic fulfillment?
(Verse 22). Not very good, not even to Peter. “Peter rebuked Jesus and said, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.”
Peter has just taken a good portion of Scriptural prophecy and run the vacuum cleaner over it. What did Jesus have to say?
(Verse 23). Here’s the same man that had said (in Matthew 16:18) “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” now saying, “You are an offence unto me: Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” That’s the very opposite of what he just said before.
It’s what Peter said that represented the rock upon which the church would be built in the first instance. It’s what Peter said in the second instance that was Satan’s attempt to distort and discount Scriptural prophecy.
So, perhaps, the greatest threat facing the church is the attempt to distort the role of its founder in Scriptural prophecy and the role of the church itself in the fulfillment of Scriptural prophesy. Because when Jesus says to Peter, “Thou art an offence unto me,” that Greek word “offence” is skandalon, or our scandal. But it also has a meaning in Greek of “stumbling block.” Do you see the play on words again? Peter was called petros, which was identified with the rock, only so long as he identified himself with the rock. When he did not, the rock became a stumbling block instead.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“ACKNOWLEDGE ONE Christ… or divine Comforter” in the evolution of the 2ND TENET
(SH 497:5/cit. S1) from The Mary Baker Eddy Library for The Betterment of Mankind
CURRENT EDITION (Science & Health 497:5/cit. S1):
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.
1879 “Tenets and Covenant”
2d. — We rest our hope and Faith on God, the only Life, Truth and Love, depending for salvation not on the person of God, but on the understanding of the Principle or Spirit that is God, and the demonstration of this Spirit or Principle according to those commands of our Master, “Go ye into all the world, preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and these signs shall follow them that believe” (understand). “They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover.”
1887 “Tenets to be Signed by those Uniting …”
Second. — We acknowledge one Father, Son and Holy Ghost, — one God, the brotherhood of man, and Divine Science. And the forgiveness of sin, which is the destruction of sin. And the atonement of Christ, which is the efficacy of Truth and Life. And the way of salvation marked out by Jesus, which is healing the sick, casting out devils [evils], and raising the dead, — uplifting a dead faith into Life and Love.
1892 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”)
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme God. We acknowledge His Son, the Holy Ghost, and man in His image and likeness. We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin, in the destruction of sin, and His present and future punishment of “whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie.” We acknowledge the atonement of Christ, as the efficacy of Truth and Love. And the way of Salvation as demonstrated by Jesus casting out evils, healing the sick, and raising the dead, — resurrecting a dead faith to seize the great possibilities and living energies of the Divine Life.
1893 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”)
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme God. We acknowledge His Son, and the Holy Ghost, and man in the Divine image and likeness.
81st edition (1894)
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme God. We acknowledge His Son, and the Holy Ghost, and man as the Divine image and likeness.
179th edition (1900)
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme Infinite God. We acknowledge one Christ, the Holy Ghost, and man as the Divine image and likeness.
214th edition (1901)
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme Infinite God. We acknowledge one Christ namely the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter — and the son Christ Jesus – man in the divine image and likeness.
249th edition (1902)
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme Infinite God. We acknowledge one Christ, His son, the Holy Ghost or Comforter, — and man in the divine image and likeness.
252nd edition (1902)
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme and Infinite God; — acknowledge one Christ — His Son Christ Jesus; the Holy Ghost or the divine Comforter; and man His divine image and likeness.
1907 edition
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.
TREAT YOURSELF & ALL AS “BORN FROM ABOVE”
Cobbey on John 3:1-7, cit. B5 +related verses & a BONUS:
See a video from The Chosen of Nicodemus’ night visit with Jesus.
[Cobbey Crisler:] “John 3:1 begins with an introduction to “Nicodemus.” Nicodemus was a rather cautious man that ran around back alleys after twilight. He didn’t want to be seen by his daytime friends. Sort of like one of those captions in the Charlie Chaplin movie, where Charlie was a waiter during the day, but dressed up in the finest tuxedo at night. The caption simply said, “Charlie’s friends of the evening didn’t know Charlie’s friends of the day.” I think this is probably true of Nicodemus.
“John 3:2, “He comes to Jesus by night.” He’s in a rather awkward position because he is a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Jews, that later convicts Jesus. If what he says is accurate, it is an unfortunate commentary on the motives that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. If he is really speaking for the Sanhedrin when he says, “We know that thou art a teacher came from God,” then that is a tremendous commitment. If we know that you are a teacher come from God, where is the evidence? What evidence do they use as proof? Such semeia, or signs, or significant results, can’t happen unless God is with you.
John 3:3, “Jesus makes this comment, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” You know how popular that particular verse has become in our century. Yet it’s based on a misapprehension of the original word. We really don’t find John here using the Greek word “anothen” here in the sense of “again”. It can suggest the idea of “again.” But John uses it more in these terms, “from above.”
“Anothen” means “from above.” Now look at that statement that Jesus is making,
“Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom, or dominion, of God.” This is a theological breakthrough that’s incalculable. You can’t see the kingdom, which, by the way, he told us was not only within, but here, right here. It wasn’t a future far-off thing. “But to see it one must be born from above.” This is a definition of nativity which sounds totally impractical for us as human beings, and yet it’s apparently something that Jesus based his whole theology upon. And he got the results from the concept that man is born from above.
“We ran into that in the first chapter of John, Verses 12 and 13, when he said, “We all, if we will receive it, have the authority to become the sons of God.” But to be God’s son means you’ve got to cut the animal connection, those links or roots in “blood, will of the flesh, and will of man.” Sever those links.
“A nativity higher, is that practical?
“John 3:4. Nicodemus wonders about that himself. He even goes to the extreme of saying, “How do you do that? Do you climb back into your mother’s womb, and get born all over again?” This is obviously a negatively impossible event, so Nicodemus is somewhat laughing up his sleeve.
John 3:5. Then Jesus says, “Except a man be born of water, which was the usual way by which children were born in the presence of water, “and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The normal, natural biological birth is not going to do anything. In order to enter the kingdom or dominion of God, something about nativity has to be understood. A nativity that is higher and not tied into biology. Why?
“Because of John 3:6 one of the most practical statements ever made in the Bible, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” And it’s not going to rise any higher than its source. Should we be doing something about recognizing origin in Spirit? Is this what is behind the meaning, again, logos? Get to the meaning. Nativity in Spirit. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” It’s never going to go anywhere else. That’s pretty clear cut.
“We’ve got to get out of that concept of flesh. Again, is this really practical theology? Or is it, again, pie in the sky? If we have any concept of arising at some spiritual goal, then we’ve got to start as if we originated there.
John 3:9, “Nicodemus says, How can these things be?”
John 3:10, “Jesus said, You’re a teacher in Israel, and you haven’t grasped these things?” Think of the average point of view when you’ve been dealing with the Bible all your life. Then in John 3:13 he makes one of those magnificent statements that requires almost a lifetime search.
“No man hath ascended up to heaven.” Isn’t that what practically every religion puts in the heart of its communicants? Doesn’t everybody want to get to a destination labeled heaven? “Ascended up to heaven,” but no one gets there, except “he that came down from heaven.” The same thing, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” John 3:6. You can’t get there via flesh.
“Apparently this critical awareness of man’s nativity as God’s child free from “blood, will of flesh, lust of the will of man,” is not just a nice theory. Jesus is introducing it as the prerequisite for comprehending the kingdom of God and seeing it here and now. The son of Man sees it humanly, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of Man which is in heaven.” Is it possible for humanhood to experience the kind of harmony on earth as it is in heaven? There is the major challenge.
“It’s almost the same question that God asks Job 38:33, after all the mental argument is through for forty chapters or so, when God says to Job, “Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?” Imagine being able to express the dominion of heaven right on earth. Is that possible for the son of Man? Or must we wait for some future event where we float up to the sky on a pink cloud somewhere with a harp from Angel Rent-A-Harp, Incorporated? That’s a problem. We often try to rent a harp instead of earn it.
“How practical this is, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man already there.” Never moved. That claim, then, of heavenly nativity. It has to have something that is of major importance, John including it, and giving it so much space.”
In John 3:27, John the Baptist is confronted again. John, using communication terms, says, “A man can receive nothing, except it be given to him from heaven.” That’s almost the same concept in a way. Receptivity is what’s already been communicated to us. We’re not doing the communicating. We’re tuning in to what’s been communicated.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BE AN ANSWER TO JESUS’ PRAYER FOR HEALERS, SOLVING PROBLEMS TO BRING IN THE HARVEST!
Cobbey Crisler on the end of Matthew, chapter 9, verse 35-38/cit. B7, plus start of chapters 10 & 11/cit. B8)
“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
(Matthew 9:35 highlighted every shows there’s no incurability!)
[Cobbey:] “In Matthew 9, Verse 36, Jesus is looking around him after he disposes of the Pharisaical thought— “he sees multitudes needing help, moved with compassion. There they were as sheep. They were shepherdless.”
(Verse 37). He turned to his disciples then, and his disciples in future generations, and made the remark, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Does that imply he expected his disciples to be out there solving human problems, healing?
(Verse 38). He even asks them to “Pray the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
We now come to Chapter 10. We’ve had so much evidence that Jesus was an effective healer, but we haven’t yet had evidence that there could be healing via the instruction-route: that could be taught to heal1 sent out like apprentices in some human trade or profession, and come back practicing the rules learned with results, namely, healed cases.
We find right after the prayer (Matthew 9:38) that God “would send forth more laborers into his harvest,” and what do we find? A mandate to heal.
(Matthew 10, Verse 1). “He called his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, to heal” What? Only certain diseases? “All manner of disease and sickness.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
PS. on citation B8: “And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.” (Matthew 11:1/cit. B8)
STOP SITTING around YOUR Pool of Bethesda
WAITING for SOMETHING to HAPPEN!
Do you want to “sin no more?”
Tune-in so nothing obstructs your at-one-ment with God.
Cobbey Crisler on John 5:2-9/cit. B10, plus BONUSES to verse 20 and
a video on The Chosen filming of the healing at the Pool of Bethesda):
[Cobbey:] “John 5:2 We’re now at the famous incident at the “Pool of Bethesda”. Near what serves as an occasional sheep market today, there is still a pool that has been excavated, that has archeological remnants that suggest the five porches. There is apparently, if this is the correct location of the pools, a structure that had two pools, each with two porches. Down the middle was a fifth porch with pools on either side. It may have been the ancient equivalent of a hospital.
“John 5:4 There’s some indication that it might have at some point in its history a spot that might have been associated with Aesculapius, the pagan founder of medicine, and that this superstition may have gotten to the point “that those who stepped into the pool when the water was troubled would be instantly healed.”
John 5:3 At least “an awful lot of people were waiting around for that event,” so the news must have spread that this occurred.
John 5:5 Here we run into a man that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. “He’d been there for thirty-eight years.” I’m sure that many of us would feel for him. We all have been sitting around our own pool of Bethesda waiting for something to happen, something miraculous, something fateful. We have all waited for something unexpected from the outside to lift us out of a condition that we haven’t made too much of an effort to do anything about.
“There was an environment there that did not help the problem. As a matter of fact, here’s how Professor Dodd describes it. I like this:
‘There is another story about a man who had given way to a chronic disability, and for years had nursed a grievance which excused him from doing anything about it.’
John 5:7. “Someone else always gets in before me.” If that sounds like a familiar excuse, then Bethesda isn’t so far back in history. So, he translates Jesus’ statements this way. Do you want to recover? That pinpoints it, doesn’t it? Do you see how that translation exhibits Jesus dealing with the thought of the patient? Where must it happen?
If communication from God to man must work, where must we work? In the thought of the receiver. Do we want to recover? That almost sounds silly to people who have been in a longtime condition, but it may very well be the core of the issue. Do we really want to be healed? Or have we become so settled into our condition that for thirty-eight years, we just sit there with our friends and talk about our operations? Misery loving company is a quality that attaches itself to human nature.
John 5: 6. Here’s how Dodd again translates Jesus’ question and then his demand on the patient. “Do you want to recover?”
John 5:8, “Then, pick up your bed and walk.” Jesus wasn’t about to volunteer to pick up his bed for him.
That says a lot. How else do we know Jesus, but to study his thoughts, his words, his methods, his messages, his intent, the logos, not but the word, but the thought behind it? What is required for the healing of a paralytic condition that has lasted practically a generation? It’s the very thing that he thought he couldn’t do, to pick up his bed and walk. Do you want to be healed? ‘Let there be light!’ (Genesis 1:3) That’s permission. Let it in.
John 5:9, “Immediately the man was made whole.” We don’t have any sense that there was a convalescence period. “He took up his bed and walked.”
“Notice in John 5:13 Jesus is saying: “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more.” This was another aspect to healing before it was complete, dealing with the thought of the patient. Jesus often views himself in the role of physician. Remember, he said, “A man that is whole needs not a physician” (Matthew 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31). “Sin no more” was something which that man had to comprehend in thought to avoid a recurrence.
“Notice the priority with what he dealt with the patient’s thought. “Do you want to recover?” OK great, we’ve got something we can work with.
“Do you really want to?
Do you want to give up this 38-year record of horizontalism?
“We have an even longer record of that. Stop and think how the “bed” dominates our lives, especially after a long day. All the way from birth to death, in sickness and in sleep. There is so much happening and looming so large in this concept of bed, that when Jesus healed the man, he made him take up what had dominated him for thirty-eight years. He said, “You dominate that bed and get out of here!” Jesus spoke with some degree of authority. And that’s just what happened.
BONUS verses right after citation B10:
“Jesus responds to the debate on the Sabbath (verse 16) with a brilliant exegesis of the seven days of creation.
In John 5:17, “Jesus said, you’re stopping me for healing on the Sabbath day. But my reading of the Scripture is this, My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” If the original works, what can the image or reflection do?
“Notice also John 5:19 is Jesus’ famous statement, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” Taking this apart, it really gives you what man’s role is. What is it? It’s reflection. It’s image.
Man is not original in what he does. What he does stems from the original which is God. Then it reflects originality. Otherwise there would be competition for the job of Creator. Under monotheism there is no possibility for such competition (“For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”)
“He took the Son of Man through every problem that the world could hurl at him and proved that even the Son of Man can be victorious and not a creature of circumstances when the understanding of his true nature as the Son of God can be applied.
Our understanding of the Son of Man and the Son of God, and the difference, might be heightened by realizing that the Christ comes to the Son of Man. The Christ doesn’t come to the Son of God because the Christ really presents the Son of God.
We’re on the human side of things, who feel the foot of domination on our necks from outside circumstances. Is that where the Son of Man belongs? Notice the argument of Bildad in the book of Job… It uses the very same phrase that Jesus does, elevating him way above the outlines of fleshly domination. So, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” Why?
“John 5:20, “The Father loves the Son.”
John 5:30. The same point is repeated, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” Is this false humility or is Jesus actually giving us the facts straight out? What is the secret and source of everything he thought or did? What is the obstacle then between us and following Jesus? There’s something in there. Some kind of different concept of our selfhood than what he had. His was so transparent that there was nothing obstructing his at-one-ment with God, even on earth. His summons to us is to follow his example and shows his own expectation that we’re equipped to do it. So, we’re equipped to receive and to act on the instructions given us via communication. All we need to do is tune-in.
We’re coming to understand Jesus’ view of himself, and where he thinks this authority originates, “The Son of Man can do nothing of himself. (John 5:19)]
“John, the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
