In order to understand the true beauty of the Easter story, it is important to know God and Jesus were, are and always will be ONE.
God was not off somewhere watching The Passion Play. He was The Star! (And yes, God even announced His Entry into the world as Jesus by shining a big star!)
It has always been a little hard for me to wrap my head around how God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit can be ONE.
If God was Jesus, did He put the rest of the universe on hold and just shrink into one body? No. God was present in every part of the universe.
In fact, God’s Creation was His First Missionary. Paul aptly stated no one would ever have an excuse for not knowing God.
“Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
But when God revealed Himself as a human, it was His most up close and personal Revelation yet!
And yes, God continued His Presence everywhere at once. Jesus put it this way,
“Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.”
John 14:11
Jesus was both inside God and God filled His Body as Jesus.
How can two function as one?
A baby in the womb and the mother carrying him are separate, and yet function as one.
There are many parts to our physical body, and yet it functions as one.
We can see how one person can be someone different to multiple people.
My husband is my husband to me. But he is also the son of his father and the father of our daughter. He is also the grandfather of our grandson. And he has other relationships.
Is he more than one person? No. He is one person, who relates in a different way to different people at different times.
So it is with God and Jesus. They go by many different names, but They are ONE.
If you are still pondering trying to separate God and Jesus, you might ask, “What about that statement ‘God sent His Son …’” Doesn’t that mean God and Jesus were separate? No.
Let’s go back to our human example.
All the parts of our body work together to accomplish what we need to do. If we want to pick up something from the floor, our brain “sends” the message to the parts of our body that are need to become active to accomplish the mission.
Do those parts separate from the rest of the body? No. They are very much still a part of the body. Those parts do as they are told. Everything works together.
Jesus explained exactly how this worked with God.
“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever The Father does The Son also does.”
John 5:19
That is The Real Easter Message. Easter is not just about Jesus’ Death and how we can buy “fire protection” from an angry God.
God’s Gift to us through Jesus is His up close and personal demonstration of how to live an Abundant Life. We receive this Gift by doing what Jesus said. Watch Him and do exactly what He did and said.
When Moses pressed God to tell him His Name, God told Moses His Name was “I AM.”
Jesus said, “I AM The Way, The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6
Jesus was not giving us some pass through to gain access to God. He was saying, “Watch Me. Do just what I do and say. And you will discover if you have seen Me, you have seen The Father!”
John 14:9
God lived Life as Jesus to show us The Way.
God lived Life as Jesus to tell us The Whole Truth and nothing but The Truth.
God lived Life as Jesus to give us Life in Him, The One True God.
Stay tuned as we look further at how that Life unfolded, and what it has to do with us.
“I have come that they (you) may have life, and have it to the full!”
John 10:10
