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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
God is the Father of Christ; Christ is the Son of God. To Christ
has been given an exalted position. He has been made equal with the
Father. All the counsels of God are opened to His Son.
Jesus said to the Jews: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work....
The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do:
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for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself
doeth.”
John 5:17-20
.
Here again is brought to view the personality of the Father and the
Son, showing the unity that exists between them.
This unity is expressed also in the seventeenth chapter of John, in
the prayer of Christ for His disciples:
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou,
Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that
the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which
Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We
are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in
one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast
loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.”
John 17:20-23
.
Wonderful statement! The unity that exists between Christ and His
disciples does not destroy the personality of either. They are one in
purpose, in mind, in character, but not in person. It is thus that God
and Christ are one.
The relation between the Father and the Son, and the personality
of both, are made plain in this scripture also:
“Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying,
Behold, the man whose name is the Branch:
And He shall grow up out of His place;
And He shall build the temple of Jehovah;...
And He shall bear the glory,
And shall sit and rule upon His throne;
And He shall be a priest upon His throne;
And the counsel of peace shall be between Them
both.”
Zechariah 6:12, 13
, A. R. V.
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