Rabbi Schneider - How Is Jesus God?
Let's get right into it now in the first chapter of the book of Colossians, verse number 15. Now before I read though, verse 15, I want you to know that Paul intros this section by talking about what Yeshua Hamashiach has done for us. So listen to the Word of God as I begin in verse 15. It says that He, speaking of this one that rescued you and I from darkness and brought us into His marvelous light and into the kingdom of God; that this one that did this, that we call Jesus, that we call Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus the Messiah, Yeshua the Messiah in Hebrew, this is who He is. Paul says, "He is the image of the invisible God and the first born of all creation".
So we have two separate statements there speaking to us of the identity of this one that we call Yeshua. Now before we get into either of these statements, that He's the image of the invisible God or that He's the first born of all creation, I want to challenge you as I've been challenging you on previous broadcasts, to begin to think of Jesus as someone that is beyond human. Many people when they think of Jesus, the first thing they think of is an image that they have of somebody on the cross that they call Jesus. Let me say to you, first of all Jesus isn't on the cross anymore. Secondly, the image that you have of Jesus isn't the actual person that He was, because we don't know what He looked like physically.
And thirdly, He is beyond an image. This is why Jesus told us, meaning something that we can fathom, that's. But what I'm saying is, the Lord told Israel not to create any graven images in His likeness. God is beyond our capacity to contain. Jesus is beyond our capacity to contain. He's bigger than we can know. He is unending life. He is unlimited life. He has no beginning and He has no end. So how could we confine Him to an image of a human being on a cross? Don't misunderstand me. God took upon flesh and blood. He walked upon the earth. He was crucified on that cross on our behalf. In English we call that one Jesus, in Hebrew Yeshua. But He's bigger than the body. He's bigger than the physical form. He's God and I want to encourage you to begin to start thinking about Him in a bigger way, because unless you do, your level of spirituality is gonna remain bound and trapped at an earthly level. We're not called to worship images. We're called to worship an unseen living God, that has no beginning and has no end.
So let's begin. Verse 15, "He is the image of the invisible God". In other words, God who is invisible came to earth and showed us what He looked like through the incarnation of Yeshua. We saw the heart of God, that God has a heart of love. We saw the heart of God, that He has the heart of a father. We saw the heart of God, that His will is to take care of you and I. We saw the compassion of God, as Jesus, as Yeshua was moved with compassion and healed the sick. We saw the righteousness of God, even the righteous anger of God when Jesus overthrew the money changers in the temple. Yet even beyond everything we read about in the Gospels, He's more than that. Jesus said to His disciples, "I have many more things to say to you, but you can not bear them now".
Yeshua is bigger than we know, so don't keep your thought of Him confined to something that you can hold in your mind; because He's bigger than your mind. "He is the image of the," get it now, "invisible God". Jesus said, "Believe in God, believe also in me". I want you to hear me. The God that you and I worship is spirit. He's an invisible God and we need to stop, as I've been teaching, seeing things in the natural, recognizing that behind everything that's natural is the supernatural. Everything that we see with our eyes, everything that's been made has been made by the invisible God. And so our call is to move beyond the natural, into the realm of spirit. We can receive from God through the natural. For example, to be in the woods alone, to be in the forest, to absorb God's beauty and His creation is an awesome thing. And God can use creation to transmit, to impart His beauty to us.
I was recently in a place where there was just, it was so lush, it was so green, big boulders, raging rivers, alone in the forest. What a place to commune with God and to receive His beauty into our spirit. And yet we're called not to worship creation, but to worship the God that's behind the creation; that God the creator is the one that is showing His beauty through creation. Many have made the mistake, they've made the woods their God. They worship nature. But nature isn't made to be worshiped. It's just the image of the invisible God. And so Jesus took upon flesh and blood to reveal God to us. Once again verse 15, "He is the image of the invisible God and He is," get this now, "the first born of all creation".
Now when we say first born, we're not saying that Jesus is a created being, because Yeshua speaking of the Son of God now, God's son has been in the bosom we read in the scriptures, from the beginning. In other words, concerning Yeshua it says, "In the beginning was the word," the Gospel of John chapter 1, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God". Now get it, "and the word was God. In him was life; and that life was the light of men". And all things came into being through Him and by Him. Nothing that's come into being has come into being. And then the scripture says in the 14th verse of John 1 there, that this Word, this One that has been in the bosom of the Father from the beginning; this One whom everything has been created through, listen now, He came earth, took upon flesh and blood and became visible for us. But understand that the Word existed before the physical Jesus was manifest, because the Word has always been. He's always been in the bosom of the Father.
And then there was a point in time the scripture says that the fullness of time, God manifested Himself by coming to earth in the Word and clothing Himself in humanity and we call Him, Yeshua Hamashiach, or Jesus the Messiah, or the Anointed One. So He's not created. The Lord says here, "He's the firstborn of all creation". It doesn't mean He's a created. It just simply means He has preeminence over all creation, because everything, the scripture says, "was created through Him and by Him". Once again, in John chapter 1. So we're getting a sense here of who is this One that died on the cross for us.
Look in verse number 13. Speaking of this One that died on the cross for us, thinking of Yeshua of Nazareth, "For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption for the forgiveness of sins". But this One beloved, that saved us, this One that we worship, He's bigger than flesh and blood. He existed before flesh and blood. He existed before humankind. He merely became flesh and blood at a point in time to rescue us and to save us. It's God, the invisible God Himself that saved you and I. It's the invisible God that loves you and I. It's the invisible God that made Himself manifest in physical form in space and time to save you and I, to redeem us and to bring us to Himself.
Do you see what I'm saying? Jesus is bigger than you and I know. He's not just a person that died on the cross that you know, that we claim to be. He really is the One that existed before time and then came and took upon flesh and blood, so He could become like us; The innocent one in human form dying for our sin. Let's continue on. Verse number 16, "For by him," by God, by the Word who's been with God from the beginning, who's in His bosom, "by Him all things were created both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through him and for him".
I want you to get this once again, because many people when they worship Jesus, when they think about Jesus, they have an image in their mind and they have an image of this person on the cross or they have a picture in their house of a face that they call Jesus. And I'm trying to help you to understand that you need to get beyond the images, because the one that saved you is God Himself through whom all things have been created. God Himself, once again to restate myself, the invisible God that existed before time, at a point of time, at the fullness of time, He came to earth and took upon flesh and blood. He clothed Himself in a human body to die on the cross for you and I, to save us. But the one that you worship beloved, is beyond a human being. He's God Himself.
Listen to what Paul says once again here, "For by Him," verse 16, "all things were created". Who is he talking about here when he says, "For by him"? He's talking about the same One he talked about in verse 13. "For he rescued us from the domain of darkness". He's talking about Yeshua. And what does he say once again? "By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible". Now listen to that scripture that I just read and I'm gonna compare it now to the Gospel of John chapter number 1, as we listen to what John said concerning Yeshua in a very similar way. "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God".
So we're talking about, listen, before God took upon flesh and blood the Word was. Before God became humanity, through the person of Yeshua, the Word was. And who is the Word? The Word is the One who died on the cross for your sins. Listen again, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being". And then in verse 14 He says, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory, glory as the only begotten from the father".
Now you compare that to what Paul is saying here. We just read what John said and now we compare that to what Paul said. "For by him all things were created both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together". We're talking beloved, about God. God Himself is filling all things. God Himself is our redeemer. In the Old Testament, in the Tanakh, the Lord said, "I am your savior and there is no other".
I want you to lift your perspective of who Yeshua is. I want you to begin to think of Him in the spirit and not just in the flesh. Yes, He can identify with you in your humanity, because He clothed Himself in flesh and blood, walked upon the earth for approximately thirty three years, was tempted with the things that we're tempted with. He understands humankind, because He lived as one of us. But He is beyond being human. He is God. Yeshua Hamashiach is God who clothed Himself in the flesh for you and you and I need to begin to think out of the box that we've been thinking in. We've been called to a spiritual walk. We don't walk beloved, according to flesh and blood. Our fight, Paul told us, is not a fight of flesh and blood. We warfare in the spirit, Paul tells us in his letter. That we take down principalities and powers and forces of darkness by spiritual weapons of power.
We need to get out of this life that we're leading where we're so connected with what we see with our eyes, that we're bound to materialism and to the material world. We need to separate ourselves and create space around our life where we're alone with God, that we can receive the revelation that we need to truly think spiritual, because Jesus said, "Those that worship will worship in spirit and in truth". And we need the spirit revelation to comprehend the depths and the mysteries of our walk with God, of our relationship and of our calling. Beloved, we're just beginning to plunge the depths. We've been called to walk in the spirit. I want you to hear it today, God wants to bring you to a place that you have haven't yet been. He wants to bring you somewhere, where you have not yet gone. I want you to hear me today beloved, eye has not seen and ear has not heard the things that God has prepared for you.