You ask good questions Omya, thanks. I'm sure I'm missing many of them with the number of posts we are all sending, but hope this one answers most of them in your last post
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you.
And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which [is] not of thy seed.
This was commanded as all members of Abraham's household were to be expressions of the covenant relationship between Abraham and God. Amorite customs at the time was that any child of Hagar, even though she was not Abraham's wife, would be considered Sarah's son and Abraham's legal son.
Now, the promise of a son was given to Sarah and Abraham in their old age, and the baby of Hagar was not the fulfilment of that promise, It was this very reason that saw Egyptian born Hagar lifted up by God with the promise that her son Ishmael would be a great nation. but that is discussed in another thread.
The point is, even as her servant, Hagar was included in the household of Abraham. Even the servants of Abraham would express through circumcision, the covenant relationship between man and God.
Carol, you said that God died, ok, who raised him? don't tell me he raised himself....because it's impossible.....and dn't tell me tha Father and/or the Holy Spirit did, because you'll be contradicting the trinity and making God into three scompl
I think ( I hope,) I explained this in one of the other threads I answered today. (the one to answer your question about why Jonah was alive in the huge fish, yet Jesus was dead). Let me try and explain again here in more detail.
Christians believe in ONE God.. just like Muslims and Jews do. All scripture, when you look at the original languages it was written in declare that God exists in three expressions of Himself.. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we talk about God, we are meaning ONE God, but each member of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are separate persons, making up the Godhead. One egg contains a yolk, an egg white and a shell, three parts but one egg. This is not the best analogy, but it is the one used most often to describe the relationship. We are not talking three eggs here, but one egg, with three separate parts to it.
The second person of the God head we believe is Jesus Christ and I'll look with you in John 5 after this post, as I promised yesterday.
Now.. Jesus IS God, He is the second person in the God head, very God of very God. He is totally and utterly God. However, He is God come in the flesh. This second person became man. John describes Him as the Word, who was made flesh and lived amongst us. (John 1:1-3).
Being very Man.. or fully man, didnot stop Him being fully God as well. Yes, if hypothetically I tried to become God, I couldn't. I am either Man, or I am God.. yet for God, who is the creator of humanity, nothing is impossible. God knew that without a Messiah, Saviour, all of us.. would be doomed to eternal separation from Him and eternal punishment. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8) Long before creation, God already had a plan to send the second person of the God head, Jesus Christ to the earth to do for man, what man could not do for Himself. (Galations 4:4-7)
Jesus became flesh and dwelt amongst us (John 1:1-3, Philippians 2:6-11)
He died on the cross and rose again and will oneday return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to the glory of God the Father. (Revelation 19:11-21)
Now.. as God, He didn't die.. He couldn't die. He was God and God can't die. But as man, He did die. Did God raise Jesus from the dead? Well yes, God the Father raised God the Son, through the power of God the Holy Spirit. Yet, Jesus declared of Himself in John 11:25
I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me, will live even though He dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die"
Jesus Christ, whilst He walked on this earth as a man, NEVER ceased to be God and in no way did He divide the Godhead into separate parts.
It was Mary's son who cried out "why have you forsaken me"
It was the human body that God had given Him that died
It was the human Jesus, the son of man who looked down on His mother and His Disciple and told them to take care of each other
BUT the ancient and timeless Deity, was never separated into different parts. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are forever one, inseparable, indivisable, and can never be anything else.
The eternal Father never turned His back on the eternal Word on the cross for He was and always is in the bosom of the Father as it says in John 1:18
However, God the Father did turn His back and covered the earth with darkness , for God the Son, at that moment became sin for us and the the Son of Man knew Himself forsaken. (utterly rejected by God as Holiness cannot look upon sin). God dumped all the sin of humankind on his son and then moved away. (2 Cor 5:21)
In one minute, Jesus asked "my God, my God why have you forsaken me, yet in the next minute he cried out "Father into your hands I commend my spirit. Luke 23:46. Notice the two different addresses.. As Jesus the man it was "my God" as Jesus the Son it was "my Father". (Hebrews 13:8)
Now.. to your question Omya.. How did Jesus raise Himself. By now the answer must be obvious.
Jesus IS GOD and never ceased to be God. God the Father, raised God the Son from the dead, yet God the Son is one and the same forever God. So in one sense, yes, God raised Himself, but it was the triune Godhead at play.. God the Father, raised God the Son, in the power of God the Holy Spirit. God the Father will oneday raise us in that same power (1 Cor 4:14)
I've used this once before, but I think it fits here as well
an ancient Latin inscription reads
I am what I was .......God
I was not what I am.....Man
I am now called both ...... God and Man
Is this union possible? Is it blasphemy?
This union has long been called "hypostatic union" The term is from the Greek and means personal. So complete, and so indissolvable was this union, that it's not right to call Him Jesus the Man or Jesus God.. but to call Him Jesus Christ.. the God-Man. We cannot cope with this.. for how in our human understanding can the infinite God.. become human with all it's limitations.
It is expressed in the creed that came from the Chalcaedonian council in AD451 which met to try and explain, what had always been accepted, but could never be adequately explained. ( and please remember, this was agreed to a hundred years before muhammed)
We confess and all teach with one accord one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once perfect in godhead and perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, proclaimed in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the differences of the natures being in no way destroyed on account of the union, but rather the peculiar property of each nature being preserved... not as though parted or divided in two person, but the one and the same Son and only-begotten God, the Logos, Lord Christ Jesus.
Four things stand out about this confession
1. He proper Deity,
2 His authentic humanity
3.The union of His divine and human natures in a single person. His person was fully integrated and not split or divided.
4. The proper distinction of the two natures.
The confession expresses the doctrine, but does not try to explain it. Wherever God and man meet there is mystery. It is unexplainable, but it is essential for the redemption of mankind.
At the transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-8 the Disciples saw the union in it's most vivid. Jesus the God-Man shone with the glory of God through the body of the man. John 1:14 states "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father). Hebrews 1:3 states "He is the radiance of the His glory and the exact representation of His glory." 2 Peter 1:16 states "We were eyewitnesses of His majesty".
CS Lewis who wrote the childrens classics "The Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe" Narnia series has said
But supposing God became a man
supose our human nature which can suffer and die
was amalgamated into God's nature in one person
And that person could help us,
He could surrender His will, and suffer and die,
Because He was man
And He could do it perfectly because He was God
You and I could go through this process only if God does it in us
but God could only do it, if He becomes a man.
Only as God could Jesus destroy him who holds the power over death (Hebrews 2:14 )
So in answer to your question I have to say Omya,
God is God. He is expressed in three persons, yet those persons are ONE not three. God the Father raised His Son from the dead, but His Son never stopped being God. Yes, God raised Himself for Jesus declared "I am the Resurrection and the Life". And if Jesus is God how can that be impossible? For NOTHING is impossible with God.