A perspective on atonement

[John317]

John, I don't think it's the correct question. The question is, can a God who created universe (Jesus) be constrained in a human body and thus only limited to the human body? A good perspective of understanding this would be... if you control the sock puppet... is the sock puppet really you? Are you limited by the limitations of the sock puppet?

"The man Christ Jesus" who stands today as our High Priest is really God and really man. He voluntarily accepted that "limitation" in space in order to become human. He forever retains his human nature. When He was resurrected, He proved He is still a man-- glorified, yes, but fully human. He hasn't changed between then and now. Hebrews 13: 8 says he remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He's our "Elder Brother" in heaven.

We can't use human logic and human reasoning to tell us Christ's nature. Special revelation-- the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy-- is the only way we can know what His nature is.

Being the God-man does not prevent Christ from upholding all things in the universe. See Col. 2: 17. This verses means Jesus Christ has always upheld the universe, and continues to uphold it even today. Yet Col 2: 9 says that "in Him [Christ] dwells all the fulness of the Godhead in bodily form." Compare Hebrews 1: 1-13; 2: 9-18.

[fccool]

John, again, back to the sock puppet metaphor. If your hand would be the indwelt in the fullness of the sock puppet and made it move, and the power behind it would be the rest of you... does it mean that you are fully contained within a sock puppet as a being?

God indwells human body that He did not indwell before the creation. But that indwelling is TO RELATE TO US... otherwise there's no need for it. So, God's manifestation in flesh is for us to be able to see and communicate and relate, just like you can relate to kids through a sock puppet. But it does not mean that Christ gives up the rest of His powers.

Simply because He does not use them, does not mean they are not there readily available. For example... Christ had power to resurrect/heal/know things that he did not see happening. The point was that He did not use these to bring comfort to Himself, neither He used these to save Himself or to fight off Satan.

[John317]

.... back to the sock puppet metaphor. If your hand would be the indwelt in the fullness of the sock puppet and made it move, and the power behind it would be the rest of you... does it mean that you are fully contained within a sock puppet as a being?

God indwells human body that He did not indwell before the creation. But that indwelling is TO RELATE TO US... otherwise there's no need for it. So, God's manifestation in flesh is for us to be able to see and communicate and relate, just like you can relate to kids through a sock puppet. But it does not mean that Christ gives up the rest of His powers.

Can you give some Bible verses that state what you are trying to say here?

How about Phil. 2: 5-11?

Verse 6-- Jesus Christ was in the form (or essential nature) of God before coming to this earth.

Verse 7-- Jesus Christ emptied Himself of His divine prerogatives and powers, and took the essential nature of man.

Verse 8-- After He became a man, Jesus Christ "became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."

Verse 9-- Because of Jesus' obedience to the point of death, God the Father has highly exalted Him.

Verses 10, 11-- Some day, to the glory of God the Father, everyone will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Verse 7 tells us plainly that Jesus Christ gave up His divine prerogatives and powers.

One of those divine powers He gave up was the ability to appear in any form He chose. For instance, Christ appeared in Judges 6: 11-23 as an angel.

After becoming a man, Christ is not able to appear in any other form than as a man. He hasn't taken back ALL of his divine prerogatives. He voluntarily gave some of them up FOREVER.

Notice the centrality that Jesus' death played in His exaltation for the reason that Jesus became obedient to the Father's will that Christ should die and be resurrected. Acts 17: 3.