Jesus Christ is the perfect Revelation of God for mankind in the Human Form

Revelation of God can be as real as the incarnation and the death of God, exactly as it happened in the case of Jesus Christ. If God is almighty, he can become man. It is not impossible for the almighty loving God to become a man, and to die for the salvation of mankind, if He thinks it is needed. The revealed truth is that, it was not only possible, but also inevitable, for the almighty loving God. And that is what exactly God has done. Hence, by denying the reality the contemporary reality of the Trinity, and the Godhood of Jesus, one is taking the biggest risk, by making the worst possible accusation against God. Some people argue that if God becomes man, God will become unholy. Then in accordance with the same logic, one has to argue that, even by the act of making of man, God could become unholy. But these are all faulty arguments. And if the almighty loving God, Himself entered into the human history as a man, and died for our sins, there is nothing more wonderful than that. And, when there is no logical impossibility in it, and where there are so many evidences and human commitment on it, rejecting the fact of it cannot be wiser than accepting it.

There is difference between the substance of the supreme God and the substance of his revelations. There is distinction between original substance of God and the attributed substance of God, present in the revelations of God. This explains the difference between the substance of the supreme God, and the substance of the body of Jesus. We can know God, only from His revelation activities. But we have no access to His essence. God’s revelation work permeates and reflects in all his creation. The divine revelations are the instruments by which God acts. They reach out to the life of man and the universe. But the original substance of God does not reach out to man, or any of the creations of God. Because God is infinitely transcendent to all His creations. The gap between God and His creations is infinite. But the attributed substance of God inherent in the revelations of God can physically reach out to man.

Because of God’s greatness, man cannot see God without many levels of self-reduction or kenosis from the side of God. Notice the instance of the God revelation of the Yehovah Son, allowing Moses to see Him subject to a 3 step PRECAUTION of hiding him in the rock, covering Him with His hand, and even then permitting Moses to see only the back portion of the Yehovah Son, during the Old Testament time. Because seeing God even in such self-reduced levels could cause death for man. Man could not even see the angels face to face without causing much fear and trembling, because man cannot bear the glory of even the angels. Even in the future and even in heaven, the creatures can see only reduced forms of the revelations of God. Matthew chapter 5, verse 8 says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Even lowered levels of the revelations of God, are truly God.

Godhead or God proper is functionally different from the various manifestations of God. No revelation of God or the name of God can fully exhaust God. But can fully represent God for His own specific purposes. Every revelation of God fully represents God. Hence, we call the revelation of God also as God. Thus, in Jesus the fulness of God dwells in bodily form, not in the spirit form. Thus, Jesus is fully God in the essential legal sense as is determined by God Himself for the redemptive work of mankind. God is infinitely transcendent and different from any of His revelations including YEHOVAH FATHER, YEHOVAH SON and YEHOVAH HOLY SPIRIT. But, in accordance with the divine law, all the revelations of God are same as God Himself, in His own divine provision. But each revelation of God might vary in the functional roles, in accordance with the divine determination. Thus, Jesus Christ is divinely approved in the Bible as the exact representation of God.

The Law of self-reduction in the revelation of God in Trinity is inevitable in God’s dealings with the creation. Any action of the infinitely great, invisible God in relation to the creation, requires His own self-revelation which involves His self-reduction or kenosis which is self-emptying. The reason for such a self-reduction or self-emptying or God lowering Himself is to match the gap between the greatness of God and the smallness of His creation. The Theophanies are proofs for this truth. Without this kind of self-reduction, any contact between the Supreme God and His creation would consume the created order. Hence, even for the initiation of the creation work, the Supreme God made a Kenosis. This is because no creation could bear the infinite power of the glorious light of God. Hence, what the creatures could see as God at any time, is only the lower level glory revelation of God like Trinity, Jesus etc. Thus, every revelation of God has inherent in it a lowering of God by Himself, suiting to the particular mission. This is truer in the case of God’s interaction with the fallen sinful humans, and the redemptive work of God in Jesus Christ. God comes to the creation not as He is, but reveals Himself in a manner that the creature can bear and understand. This is because the Creator is infinitely bigger and greater than the creation. The creation cannot contain the creator, without the creator God reducing Himself. This kind of reduction of God by Himself for the purpose of creation, and then manifesting Himself to His creation for various purposes and missions is to be understood as revelation.

The law of reduction is at work also in the revelation of Jesus Christ from the Trinity. Even though the Son is essentially equal to the Father, there is a further kenosis in the Son becoming the firstborn of all creation, and then taking the human form. Christ can be understood as the firstborn of all creation, in the sense that He was brought forth and appeared in a visible form for the purpose of revealing the invisible and infinite God, in a visible manner to the visible and finite created beings. As the Son was equal with the Father in all manner of being, prior to His being brought forth, being invested with great glory, Christ had to veil His own glory, for the sake of interacting with mankind. If the Son would appear in the fullness of His divinity, then even the angels would be consumed. But when the Son took the form of a man, people around Him could see Him and interact with Him. By virtue of the self-reduction of God in Jesus Christ, when people were seeing and interacting with Jesus Christ, they were actually seeing and interacting with God.

The process levels of self-reduction can be understood in this manner: the Son was God, equal to God but reduced Himself to be a man as the point of contact with man, opening up the way, and the door for salvation; and as a direct contact point for the knowledge of God. John chapter 1, verse 1 and 14 declare that: the Word was with God, the Word was God and the Word became flesh. Philippians chapter 2, verse 5 to 11 declare that: the Son was equal with God but emptied Himself. There are many passages in the Scripture that speak of the Son’s obedience and subordination to the Father. The human frailties seen in the incarnate Son is to be attributed solely to his taking up the human nature. When Jesus is said to be subject to the affections of hunger, thirst, toil, sleep, weep, limitations of knowledge, etc. we get it confirmed that God has in reality conformed Himself to mankind fully in history. The limitations and weaknesses manifested in Jesus Christ were of the inherent human nature. Hence the human characteristics displayed in the incarnate Son should not be legitimately traced back into the character of the Supreme God.  It is by committing this fallacy that many tend to deny the Godhood of Jesus. In the incarnation, God was actually assuming humanity while not giving up his divinity in any measure. What we find here is that the most loving God making contact and communion with man at the level of man. Epistemologically it also means that through Jesus Christ, the physical human beings could actually know God who is Spirit. This knowledge was the knowing of the very being of God, because to know Jesus constituted knowing the Father who in the trinity revelation REPRESENTS THE SUPREME GOD. This is why he who has seen the Son has seen the Father, and that is why the knowledge of the Son is the knowledge of the Father.

The truth is that the almighty supreme God through His own revelation in Jesus Christ could undergo suffering and death. The self-emptied God is often misunderstood. This kind of misunderstanding is the most fatal suicide point in theology. By the self-emptying, the Son of God appears as man with an appearance much less than God. The salvation plan of God, the incarnation of God, the sacrificial death of the Savior etc. inevitably demand that the savior shall seem to be less than God. But in essence, He is not actually less than God in the truth. Because of the giving up of certain privileges of the Godhood, Jesus appeared a little lower than the angels in the redemptive work.  In all the manifested expressions of the Son of God, He appears to be much lower than the Father. But this appearance of inferiority was caused by the voluntary submission or the self-emptying of the Son. Hence this should not be taken as a negation of the Godhood of Jesus in any sense.  

In Jesus, the creator humbled Himself as a servant. In His incarnate state, the Son of God appeared lower than the Father and even the angels. The understanding that Jesus is essentially inferior to God as a mere creature of God is the error of misunderstanding the self-emptying and the voluntary subjection of Jesus. Here the subjection is not inferiority. John chapter 14, verse 28 says: You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I. The Jehovah's Witnesses misunderstand the John chapter 14, verse 28, and falsely claim that the verse proves that Jesus is not God, because Father is greater than Jesus. But in the redemptive plan Father appears greater than Jesus because Jesus humbled Himself. Philippians chapter 2, verse 5 to 8 and other passages clearly show that, while on the earth, Jesus, who is the Son was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. Hebrews chapter 2. Verses 9 to 10, says that: For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Here Paul is referring to what the apostle John wrote about Jesus in John chapter 1, verse 3 that: All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. Colossians chapter 1, verses 16 to 17 says: For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. Thus, in Jesus we find the creator humbling Himself revealed as servant. No man or angel can create all things and hold them together. It is impossible for Jesus to be a creature, if He is the creator of all things seen and unseen, according to the Scripture. In Hebrews chapter 1, verse 4 we see that, Jesus the Son, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Jesus purposely humbled Himself and became a servant to the Father and also to the mankind, washing their feet and dying for them on the cross. When Jesus did this, His position was lower than God the Father's, thus His Father was “greater” than He. According to Hebrews chapter 2, verse 7, Jesus was even revealed as lower than the angels, not only father. Hence in Jesus we find a very purposeful revelation of God Himself.

There is only one God by nature. Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 to 8 refer to Jesus as “Who being in the form of (nature) God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men (nature)”. In becoming a man, the change that occurred in the Son, in relation to the Father was a change in position, not a change in nature. Thus, Jesus could put aside the eternal attributes of God for a while, as He entered the time and space dimensions, to reach out to the mankind. There was a voluntary self-emptying by Jesus, in order to give up His independent use of the divine attributes while living on earth, in a subordinate role to the Father. This did not change his nature of being as the Son of God. The Scripture says in John chapter 5, verse 19 that: “the Son can do nothing of Himself”. It means that, while possessing all the nature and attributes of Godhood, He did not independently use them on His own, but obeyed the will of His Father. Those who confuse subjection as inferiority, get the whole theology wrong. Jesus was subject to his earthly parents, as shown in Luke chapter 2, verses 51 and 52. Here we have the God-man who is subjecting Himself to, two sinful humans. Certainly, Jesus was superior to them, both in position and nature, being sinless and their creator. The subjection of Jesus to Joseph and Mary does not make them superior to Jesus. Jesus subjected Himself under the law, fulfill it perfectly. In fact, Jesus being the one who gave the Law, was greater than the Law. Jesus was also subject to the ruling authorities of Rome, giving them their due. Temporarily, even the angels were more powerful than Jesus, while He was on the earth.

The answer to many questions regarding the Godhood of Jesus is to be found in His state of humiliation on the earth in the form of a man. Jesus began His public ministry only after growing to the time of being a priest, that is, 30 years of age. Then He revealed Himself to Israel beginning His public ministry.

The revelation of God in Jesus Christ, as the self-reduction of God is thus sufficiently proved. Believing in the Son of God brings salvation, only if the full Godhood of the Son revelation is accepted by faith without questioning. Believing in the Son of God, and deliberately questioning His Godhood brings eternal damnation. To be saved, one must believe in the full identity of Jesus, primarily His Godhood. Rejecting the Godhood of Jesus is dishonoring both the Son and the Father. If you don’t take him as fully God and fully man, you cannot get salvation by the merit of his redemptive work on the cross.

WE CAN CLEARLY IDENTIFY 3 STAGES INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS OF GOD MANIFESTING HIMSELF AS A MAN IN CHRIST. At the first stage, God, manifested Himself in the trinity. In the second stage, the Son proceeds from the Father. In the third stage, the Son is manifested as a man in Jesus Christ in history.

IN THE REVELATION STAGE 2, THE SON OF GOD PROCEEDS FROM THE FATHER. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn. 1:14). Jesus had been "brought-forth" from the Father before the creation of all. John 16:27-28   For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out (exerchomai) from God – FROM BOSOM OF FATHER.  I came forth (exerchomai) from the Father, and am come (erchoma) into the world: INCARNATION again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. John 8:42 “If God were your Father, ye would love me; For I proceeded forth (exerchomai) and came from God neither came I of myself, but He sent me”. In the above passages we see the use of two distinct Greek words. First Christ states that He came forth or proceeded forth from God. In both instances he uses the word exerchomai. It means coming forth from God towards mankind in a visible and physical manner for mankind. It is about incarnation. John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou, sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 

THUS, IN THE REVELATION STAGE 3, THE SON OF GOD MANIFESTS AS MAN. In becoming man, He did not have to subject Himself to any substantial change, from one substance to a totally different substance. Because mankind was already created by the SON OF MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE. Hence there was no need for the Son of God for changing His essence in order to MANIFEST HIMSELF AS A MAN and accomplish His mission. When Jesus died, God died for you, for all practical purposes. That is the purposeful accomplishment of the Trinity revelation. God dying for man and providing salvation to the believer, was accomplished in the redemptive work of Jesus. This is the true Biblical faith.