A Man in the Godhead! Acts 7:54-60

The martyrdom of Stephen occurred early in the age of the Church.  It was a time when every experience was brand new.  And every experience was potentially filled with deep theology.  Such is the case with Stephen’s view into heaven.  He simply describes what he sees; but the description is profound.

·        First let us note that there is no reason to attribute this to a vision or a trance.  Stephen actually saw something, and what he saw was real.  In Acts 10 Cornelius saw clearly in a vision (10:3) and Peter fell into a trance (10:10).  Ananias had a vision (9:10) and Paul heard God while in a trance (22:17).  But Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus was fully experienced while in full control of his faculties (9:3-9) as was Peter’s experience of the angel who led him from prison (12:7-11; he thought he was having a vision until he realized it was real).  We stress this because it is important to note that what he saw was real, not just a symbolic vision.

·        Let us also note the response of the Jews.  It was the same as with Jesus.  Any time He made reference to His Deity the Jews went ballistic (e.g. John 8:58-59; 10:31-33).  The latter passage is critical because Jesus asks them why they are trying to stone Him.  Their answer is: for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.  That is exactly why the Jews stone Stephen.  What he sees is a Man in the Godhead.  There is none of the silly (and I mean that according to its definition) theological game that says because He is at the right hand of God He is not in fact God.  In that regard the Jews are smarter than Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and other cults.  The “only begotten Son” of God is of the same nature as “God.”  To be at the right hand of God does not make Him less than God; it fits perfectly with the simplest description of the Godhead in Scripture: the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1).  

·        Lastly let us see: there is a Man in the Godhead.  And not just any man but the Word who was God and was with God and who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1,14).  He was and is the Man Christ Jesus, the mediator between God and men.  He became Man, not symbolic Man or a type of Man or a concept of Man.  He became Man so that God, who could not die, might taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:9).  In exactly the same way that He was in the form of God He took on the form of a bondservant (Phil. 2:6-7).  And after dying our death He abolished death by His resurrection.  For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:21).  

Real men (humans) do not cease to become human, now were they ever something other than human (say apes or frogs for example).  So Jesus, God who became Man, did not cease to be Man when He ascended to the Majesty.  And we have an eyewitness who saw Jesus, the Man, at God’s right hand!  Glory!!!