1 Timothy 6:11-16 (2)

Let us begin by completing the thought from yesterday dealing with our faithful pursuit of godliness and engagement in the fight of faith.  Paul said we are to do this until Christ appears.  Many people want to know just how long they have to endure, wanting to know just when Christ will make this appearing.  This is the wrong approach because He will manifest Himself in His own time.  Jesus Himself even said that this time is all in the Father’s hands (Acts 1:7).  We can know the season (Matt. 24:32-35) but what we know about the time of His return is that it will catch most people off-guard (1 Thess. 5:1-5).

We have seen that the key for believers is their knowledge of and relationship with God.  Today’s passage has a mighty view of our Lord.  He is described in ways that fit the mystery of God (cf. Eph. 1:10-11), by which God will exalt His Son to be heir of the nations, ruling from the throne in Zion (Psalm 2:6-9). 

Who is being described in 6:15-16?  Is it God the Father or God the Son?  You may want to answer by saying that it is simply a description of “God” without reference to the trinity.  After all it does say that this Person is the only Potentate who alone has immortality.  Indeed this passage does speak to the essence of Deity when it speaks of Him dwelling in unapproachable light and as One whom no man has seen or can see.  You might think, then, that it cannot be Christ since He was clearly seen (1 John 1:1-4) and who lived among us (John 1:14).  

However this fails to understand the potent truth of the passage.  It does, in fact, speak of Christ.  The language itself makes this clear where “He” at the start of v15 logically refers to the nearest antecedent which is our Lord Jesus Christ in v14.  Further, it is still true, even after the incarnation, that no man has nor can see God in His essence.  In Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, God took on flesh and dwelt among us.  We saw a Man; and then on occasion we beheld His glory which we are told was the glory as of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14 again).  It was the same in the Old Testament when God appeared as the Angel of the Lord (Judges 13:15-23) and most notably as El Shaddai (God Almighty, e.g. Gen. 17:1).  God, then and in Jesus of Nazareth, made Himself known to men, appearing, in visible form.

What is Paul saying?  He is affirming that Jesus was God in essence, in every way we think of God.  Jesus was/is the only Potentate (Sovereign, El Shaddai in the Old Testament).  Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16).  Jesus, as God, revealed Himself to Moses on Mt. Sinai, dwelling in the unapproachable light of glory which, if a man beholds it, he could not live (Ex. 33:20-23).  He is to be worshiped as God with honor and everlasting power.  

The New Testament clearly portrays Jesus in His humility, in submission to His Father. What we cannot do and must not do is to take this to mean He is less than the fullness of God in bodily form (Col. 1:19; 2:9).