Looking back, I realize I have made a consistent error in some of my blogs. I have often referred to us (the human race) as sons & daughters of Yahweh God. But in reality, are we? Paul writes in Romans 5:12 a statement that implies we are sons of Adam.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, in this way, death spread to all people because all sinned.”
Adam was made perfect in every way, formed by Yah’s hand from the dust of the earth. Eve was formed from Adam’s rib. Where we were born into sin through the DNA of Adam and Eve. We were formed in the womb of sin. I believe this makes me a son of man—a son of Adam. If this is true, we have a starting point in knowing who the Messiah is. Care to look?
In this week’s study of “Naso,” we are reminded to lift up or elevate. But what exactly are we to elevate? Throughout this Torah study, Yahweh tells Moses to speak to the Sons of Israel certain commands that measure dedication to a new way of living. My observation is that Yah does not refer to Israel as “Sons of God” but as “Sons of Israel.” This reference should remind us of our frailty as well as our promise, for it was Jacob who was called Israel. Jacob wrestled against his sins to achieve a new life and was therefore given the name Israel. This new life, of course, was not due to his works, but to a recognizable need for an intercessor between heaven and earth. This promised intercessor throughout all of Scripture would be Yeshua the Messiah.
From the above picture, we can begin to see why Yahweh would direct Moses to tell Israel to confess and make full restitution if found guilty of unfaithful trespass. It would be why Yahweh gives the picture of an unfaithful bride and a jealous husband in Numbers chapter five. They both require an action from the priesthood as a solution as well as judgment; a role given to Yeshua via His completion of meeting the requirements of the perfect lamb sacrifice.
It was such a blessing being in the waters at Silver Falls this last weekend with Brother David as two proactive witnesses for those seeking to Mikveh. It was a humble experience to baptize those who had their hearts stirred by the One who called Himself living water.
While we were in the water, I noticed onlookers not from our fellowship. It reminded me of Paul’s prophetic words in addressing his Jewish brothers. He told them that by their transgression salvation had come to the Gentiles to make them jealous. (Romans 11:11). What would be their transgression? He referred to their eyes and ears being closed to grace brought by Yeshua, the One who fulfills the Law. (Matthew. 5:17).
As a Gentile, I am well aware that I can’t keep the law as well as a Jew. They have cherished the laws of Yah and even man’s interpretation of Yah’s laws for centuries. It’s in their DNA. In knowing this, I can honestly see why jealousy occurs. In the New Testament, Paul speaks to the Jewish leadership about his call to bring the gospel of truth and life to the Gentiles. How did they receive this message? They ripped their clothes, threw dust in the air, and called for his death. They questioned his calling even though Paul taught and kept the Torah. (Acts 22, 23) Paul’s identity “in” the Messiah was hated in that his message required faith before works. This is why I love Paul. Even with rejection, He never stopped fighting for his Jewish brothers to see what was right before them.
The Gospel message of the Messiah is for us to repent from our sins and to be covered by the perfect blood of the Lamb. In so doing, we will become a “new man.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Consequently, my prayer is that we repent from our wicked ways and return to our true identity of being an adopted son or daughter “in” Messiah (Ephesians 1), so that what was hidden is made known to us.
An example of a repentant prayer may look like this:
“Father forgive us (me) from our (my) sins so that we (I) can walk in Your ways, so that we (I) can claim our (my)priesthood and fulfill our (my) vow to a called out royal identity—through Messiah, by being “in” Yeshua. Let us (me) stand strong once again so that Your Kingdom is made known and that Your Truth (Messiah) is revealed. Renew us (me) in the perfect righteousness of Yeshua our (my) Messiah. Thank you, Father. Amen.”
Why is the matter of Yeshua’s divinity so important? I believe it is a matter of our salvation. If you care to read on, please consider carefully what is written.
Let’s go back to the concept of Sons of Israel and Sons of Adam. In doing so, we can easily see that we are not direct sons of Yah, but are instead adopted into the Kingdom due to the works of Yeshua Messiah and the spiritual blessings brought forth from Him. (Please read Eph. 1: 1-6) How can the sons of Adam be redeemed by a fellow man? Due to our sinful DNA, we can only be rescued by a Divine Redeemer, one that is completely holy.
In considering who is Yeshua, we must also consider who is satan. The prophet Isaiah gives a picture of this. He writes.
“How you have fallen from heaven, You star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth, You who defeated the nations!
But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly, In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Isaiah 14:12-14
Satan is filled with pride and slander. He seeks to destroy the creation of YHWH in that his pride cannot accept the creation of man. Therefore, he seeks to destroy man and goes about “seeking to devour.” In doing so, he slanders YHWH with untruth. In the garden, he told Yah’s creation that they would not die and that if they ate, they would be like God. This was slander at its best. He slandered the character of YHWH by false representation.
Fast forward and we see the evil one convinced that he is the ruler of this earth. He takes Yeshua to the top of the temple and offers Yeshua the kingdoms if He worships him. In this picture, we see satan wanting to battle directly with God. He wants to be like God. Therefore, there would be no reason to wrestle or fight a person who is not divine. There would be nothing to gain. He has already deceived the sons of men.
Since Yeshuah’s conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary (Luke 1:26-38), the real identity of Yeshua has always been questioned by skeptics. It began with Mary’s fiancé, Joseph, who was afraid to marry her when she revealed that she was pregnant (Matthew 1:18-24). He took her as his wife only after the angel confirmed to him that the child she carried was the Son of God.
Hundreds of years before the birth of Yeshua, the prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of YHWH’s Son:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6.
When the angel spoke to Joseph and announced the impending birth of Yeshua, he alluded to Isaiah’s prophecy: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’)” (Matthew 1:23). This did not mean they were to name the baby Immanuel; it meant that “God with us” was the baby’s identity. Yeshua was YHWH in the flesh coming to dwell with man.
Yeshua Himself understood the speculation about His identity. He asked His disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?” Matthew 16:13; Mark 8:27.
The answers varied, as they do today. Then Yeshua asked a more pressing question:
“Who do you say that I am?“ Matthew 16:15.
Peter gave the right answer:
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” Matthew 16:16.
Yeshua affirmed the truth of Peter’s answer and promised that, upon that truth, He would build His church (Matthew 16:18).
The true nature and identity of Yeshua the Messiah has eternal significance. Every person must answer the question Yeshua asked His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”
He gave us the correct answer in many ways. In John 14:9-10, Yeshua said:
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
The Bible is clear about the divine nature of Yeshua the Messiah (see John 1:1-14). Philippians 2:6-7 says that, although Jesus was “in very nature YHWH, He did not consider equality with YHWH something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Colossians 2:9 says,
“In Messiah, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”
Yeshua is fully God and fully man and the fact of His incarnation is of utmost importance. He lived a human life but did not possess a sinful nature as we do. He was tempted but never sinned (Hebrews 2:14-18; 4:15). Sin entered the world through Adam, and Adam’s sinful nature has been transferred to every baby born into the world (Romans 5:12)—except for Yeshua. Because Yeshua did not have a human father, He did not inherit a sinful nature. He possessed the divine nature of His Heavenly Father.
Yeshua had to meet all the requirements of a holy God before He could be an acceptable sacrifice for our sins (John 8:29; Hebrews 9:14). He had to fulfill over three hundred prophecies about the Messiah that Yah, through the prophets, had foretold (Matthew 4:13-14; Luke 22:37; Isaiah 53; Micah 5:2).
Since the fall of man (Genesis 3:21-23), the only way to be made right with YHWH has been the blood of an innocent sacrifice (Leviticus 9:2; Numbers 28:19; Deuteronomy 15:21; Hebrews 9:22). Yeshua was the final, perfect sacrifice that satisfied forever God’s wrath against sin (Hebrews 10:14). His divine nature made Him fit for the work of Redeemer; His human body allowed Him to shed the blood necessary to redeem. No human being with a sinful nature could pay such a debt. No one else could meet the requirements to become the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (Matthew 26:28; 1 John 2:2).
If Yeshua were merely a good man as some claim, then He had a sinful nature and was not perfect. In that case, His death and resurrection would have no power to save anyone. He alone could pay the debt we owed to Yah. His victory over death and the grave won the victory for everyone who puts their trust in Him (John 1:12; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 17).
Yeshua said, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews who heard Him make that statement knew well that He was claiming to be God, as witnessed by their reaction: “His Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him” (John 10:31). When He asked them why they were attempting to stone Him, they said, “For blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John10:33). Stoning was the penalty for blasphemy (Leviticus 24:16), and the Jewish leaders accused Yeshua.
Yeshua made another statement claiming to be of YHWH when He said, “Very truly I tell you, . . . before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58). The Jewish leadership, upon hearing Him, clearly understood that He was claiming preexistence and, more than that, to be Yahweh, the great “I AM” of Exodus 3:14. On this occasion, too, they tried to stone Him for blasphemy.
The Gospel of John begins with a statement of Yeshua’s deity:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1, emphasis added).
In verse 14, John identifies the Word: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” He left heaven to come to earth in the form of a man to live with men and display the glory of Elohim.
The disciples of Yeshua distinctly heard Him declare His deity. After Yeshua’s resurrection, Thomas the doubting disciple finally understood Yeshua’s deity, declaring Him to be “my Lord (King) and my God” (John 20:28). If Yeshua was not Lord and the direct Son of God, He would have corrected Thomas, but He did not; Thomas spoke the truth. After seeing Yeshua walking on the water, His disciples worshipped Him (Matthew 14:33). When He appeared to them after the resurrection, they fell at His feet and worshipped Him (Matthew 28:9). The disciples were well aware of the Mosaic Law’s penalty for blasphemy, yet they worshipped Him as God, and Yeshua accepted their worship. Yeshua never rebuked people for worshipping Him, accepting their worship as good and proper.
Jesus’ deity is recognized throughout the New Testament. Paul eagerly awaited “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) and encouraged us to do the same. Both Paul and John declared that Yeshua created the universe (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16–17), yet Genesis 1:1 clearly says that YHWH created the heavens and the earth. This can only mean that Yeshua is divine. Even Yah the Father referred to Yeshua as God:
“About the Son, he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.’” Hebrews 1:8, quoting Psalm 45:6.
Finally, Yeshua tells his disciples to eat His body and to drink His blood. This proves His Divinity, for how could we eat the body and drink the blood of the Messiah, if He was only a man, and not of YHWH? Yeshua confronted the evil one and said,
“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Who was The Word? (John 1) Do you see the picture?
In these last days, consider the power of Messiah’s divinity. Allow Him to rule.
Be Blessed,
Rollyn