The Cosmic Person in the New Testament - Part 7

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

In Part 6 of " The Cosmic Person in the New Testament " , we concluded

with these words:

 

" Nowhere in the New Testament is the human frailty of Jesus brought

out so profoundly as in this same letter, where it is said, " In the

days of his flesh Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud

cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was

heard for his godly fear " . Again the figure of the heavenly man and

the suffering servant are brought together, and it is said, " though he

was a Son he learned obedience from the things which he suffered "

(Hebrews 5:7). Once again we see the rich complexity of the New

Testament concept of Christ. To this we have only to add the cry of

Jesus on the cross, " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? " to

realise the depth of the mystery of Christ, who though he was " in the

form of God " , yet emptied himself and experienced that sense of

separation from God, which is the burden of fallen humanity.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 125

 

Here now is Part 7, which is the conclusion of " The Cosmic Person in the New

Testament.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

The Cosmic Person in the New Testament - Part 7

 

(P.125) In the Letter to the Hebrews Jesus is also said to be the reflection,

the 'apaugasma', and the character, the stamp or impress, the expression of the

Godhead (Hebrews 1:3). The term 'apaugasma' comes from the Book of Wisdom, the

last book of the Old Testament, probably written in Alexandria under Platonic

influence like the letter to the Hebrews itself. This again expresses the exact

relation of Jesus to God as an image, a reflection, a mirror held up to the

Godhead. It is this that underlies the conception of the Word, the Logos, of God

in St. John's Gospel. This Word is conceived primarily as the Word of God which

came to the prophets in the Old Testament and has now been fully revealed in

Jesus. (P.126) But it also has a wider significance. The concept of the Logos

was widely known in the Greek world in which the Gospel of St John was written,

and there can be little doubt that the author of the Gospel was aware of it. The

Logos was first conceived by Heraclitus as the Reason by which the universe is

governed. In speaking of Jesus as the Logos the Gospel is clearly relating Jesus

to that Primordial Word which Philo the Jew had already related to the God of

the Old Testament. We come back therefore to that primordial self-manifestation

of the Godhead, the Word which expresses the mind of God, which manifests his

Person. But St John goes on to say that " all things were made through him and

without him was not anything made that was made " (John 1:3).

 

This opens up a new horizon. The Word of God is the expression of the Mind of

God, and in the Mind of God are contained the ideas of all created things. The

Greek fathers spoke of the logoi or the " energies " ('dunameis') in creation,

which all reflect the Logos, the Primordial Word and the Primordial Energy. In

that Word of God the whole creation comes forth eternally. All things come forth

from God eternally in his Word and through that Word are brought forth in time

and space. Again we see how this Word is none other than the Cosmic Person, the

Archetypal Man, through whom everything comes into existence and in whom all

things " hold together " . All things come forth through the Word in time and in

space and are given form by the Word which is the exemplar of all creation. And

all things derive their energy from that Uncreated Energy, which is the source

of all created energy. At the same time all things are being drawn back to the

source of their being by the same power of the Word. As St Paul says, " It was

his plan in the fullness of time to bring all things to a head in him, things in

heaven and things on earth " (Ephesians 1:10).

 

This then is the place of Christ in the perspective of the New Testament.

(P.127) He is not precisely God but the Word of God, the Image of God, the

Self-revelation, the Self-manifestation of God, who is reflected in the whole

creation and who brings the whole creation back to God. The nearest the New

Testament can come to saying that Jesus is God is to say in the Prologue to St

John's Gospel that the Word who " became flesh " in Jesus was God ('theos') with,

or in relation to, God ('pros ton theon'). This places Jesus immediately " with

God " , or better perhaps " in relation to " God, and it is from this that all the

later theology of the Trinity derives. It is, therefore, perfectly correct to

say that Jesus is God, but always with the qualification that he is " God from

God " , that is, he receives the Godhead from the Father, which is what

characterises him as the Son; and furthermore he is not simply God, but God in

man and man in God. He is the " Word made flesh " . In this view the Son comes

forth eternally from the Father. And this process is not merely a temporal

process but an eternal reality. The Son comes forth eternally from the Father as

his Self-manifestation, his Self-expression, and manifests God in the whole

creation, drawing everything in time and space into the fullness of the divine

being. Seen in this perspective Jesus does not appear as an isolated phenomenon,

a sudden appearance of God on earth. He is the fulfilment of the whole plan of

creation, drawing the manifold of creation back to unity, drawing all humanity

back to God, to that fullness of being for which it was created. In this

perspective also Jesus can be seen in relation to those other forms of the

Primordial Person, the Universal Man, which are found in the traditions of

Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 125-127