The eternal Spirit of Him who could do nothing of Himself except love

“Now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” (John 17:5).

Wonderful thought! Glorify Me with Thine own self. Wrap Thine arms around Me with the glory We had together “from of old, from everlasting.” (Mic. 5:2).

“I wisdom dwell with prudence….

The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.

I was set up [H5258 ‘anointed’] from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth [H2342 ‘calved’, ‘born’]:

While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth:

When He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains of the deep:

When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth:

Then I was by Him, as One brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him;

Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the sons of men.” (Prov. 8:12,22-31).

The beginning! When was that? The same age as the Father? No. “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” (Prov. 8:23). Men’s most distant concept of prehistory was their world’s creation. During the period of Bible writers the time of our creation was inconceivable to humanity, as well as to the Bible writers, who knew the long lifespans of many generations of the antediluvian world that took place after the creation. The creation of a sinless world and the paradise of Eden was “the beginning”, for all they knew. It took their minds back as far as was conceivable. Creation as the beginning even colored the thoughts of Peter when he prophesied of the last days of rampant, mocking atheism (see 2Peter 3:4). When we interpret the holy prophets of the Lord we must use this world-view, not the spiritualistic, Greek, so-called scientific truth.

“The Son of God declares concerning Himself: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.’ Proverbs 8:22-30.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.

    

We must use the Bible world-view of Earth’s creation as the dim, foggy “beginning” in order to conceptualize the distant past. Modern man has bitten into the demonic ruse to use billions and billions of years when attempting to comprehend the dim past. This is simply the deceiver’s means of steering us away from Bible’s terminology, scriptural thinking, and true measurement of the past. But, we must use the Bible writers’ thinking, who made use of the faith of Jesus, as the benchmark to measure the incomprehensible “beginning”. And thus we have a context which, by faith, grasps that the Son of God was begotten from the Father before the creation of our world. The beginning of the precious Child of the eternal One was long before His creating the earth. Eons before Jesus brought forth Adam from Eden’s soil, the Holy One was “brought forth” from Elohim.

The only Begotten was brought forth from His Father, and therefore He came after His Father. The darling Son of Divinity, the Kingdom’s dear Prince, was begotten far before the earth and the other worlds were created; yet the Father had been in eternity before Him.

Prior to the Son’s begetting had been the whole period of ages of “Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever” (Rev. 4:9), “the Ancient of days” (Dan. 7:9), the great, preeminently “self-existent One”. The Father alone is described as living forever and ever. Only He is “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” (1Tim. 6:15,16). And He has given His self-existence and His original, unborrowed, underived life to His Son.

Look at the Hubble Deep Field that shows galaxies located so far away that all is darkness between us and them. Those aren’t stars filling the photo, even the tiniest specks of white. With exception of the two bright lights with cross-hairs near the top left and the bottom right, they are thousands of galaxies, each of which contain hundreds of billions of stars. Like the sand on the seashore, beautiful gem-like galaxies litter that one tiny spot on the universe’s canvas. Across each galaxy stretches distances of billions of light-years. And untold millions of those stars have planets like ours, with flora and fauna, and intelligent beings inhabiting them. That is a lot of creating! It’s no wonder that, prior to the terrible crisis from Lucifer, God’s work of creation constituted so much of heaven’s praises. We can still hear it echoing down through the ages since,

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is, and is to come.... Though art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:8,11).

“The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate—a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father—one in nature, in character, in purpose—the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.

“The Son of God shared the Father’s throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One encircled both.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 36.

Sharing all the counsels of the Father gave the Beloved His greatest pleasure. In His Father’s presence was fullness of joy, and at His right hand He found pleasure for ever and ever.

       

What a picture the prophet paints of the pre-Great Controversy throne of God! Isn’t that the picture that Matthew depicted in Christ’s transfiguration? And the picture that John was seeing in the Revelation?

“Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.

And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him.

Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a Voice out of the cloud, which said, THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED; HEAR YE HIM.” (Matt. 17:1-5).

Before Peter dared to step his foot on holy ground and then in his mouth, Jesus was rejoicing in His Father’s excellent presence like He had before the world was created. As if frozen in space and time, all earthly surroundings had disappeared from the Son of God. All He was experiencing was His Father. Again, after three years of wrestling with hard-hearted leaders and people, yearning to lead them to rest in Him, Jesus was getting rest. This was a Sabbath experience that no human had ever known except perfect, sinless Adam and Eve in the garden. Jesus was praying to have then what He prayed for later before He would lay down His eternal life for His children, and then return home again, “O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self.” His face and garments were glorified by the power of His Father and by His fellowship. Thus, after His humiliation and suffering, He ascended from His disciples to be glorified forever. With heaven’s powerful cheers, angelic hosts brought Him to His Father. His greatest test was past and victoriously accomplished.

“As a priest, Christ is now set down with the Father in His throne. Revelation 3:21. Upon the throne with the eternal, self-existent One is He who ‘hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows’.” Great Controversy, p. 416.

In Christ’s eternal Sabbath rest His powerful communion with His Father helps us to rest in communion with Them. His Father had always been His Helper so that He could minister and give His life a ransom for us. Through the “eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14), through the eternal fellowship between Jesus and His Abba, seeking Their lost eternal council of peace, Jesus sunk down into death. But, as it was before the controversy, so it will ever be. They will never again be separated; and the council of peace will forever remain between Them both.

“He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald…. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” (Rev. 4:3,5).

The seven Spirits, or the infinite Spirit, was Jesus, resplendent and brilliant, shining in response to His Father’s presence during non-computable ages, similarly to the glory that would later beam from Him that night on the holy mountain of His transfiguration. The presence of His Father on the earthly mount was the cause of Christ’s glory. Apart from the Father the Son could not shine.

“While [Peter] thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a Voice out of the cloud, saying, THIS IS MY BELOVED SON: HEAR HIM.” (Luke 9:34,35). The cloud of glory, which rolled over Peter, James, and John, was the Spirit of God who had forever sat upon His throne and who liveth for ever and ever.

The Father shut down Peter and his great idea, and put terror into his soul because, in thoughtless ignorance and inconsideration of the needs of His divine Master and Parent, he had butted in and interrupted this once-in-a-lifetime reunion that the Saviour of the Kingdom was having with His Father before suffering His terrible soul agony in Gethsemane. The Father’s preparatory resuscitation of Jesus’ soul that night was to help His Son save the world from their eternal judgment, which included Peter’s case in eternal judgment. How ignorantly we get in the Godhead’s way for our salvation! Our self-sacrificing Saviour could have been ten times better physically rested, mentally prepared, and spiritually fortified to save us if He could have had the whole night with His Father and His Father’s human representation through Moses and Elijah. Oh, but Peter fell before Satan’s temptation to jeopardize Jesus’ salvation of the whole human race by cutting short the untrammeled, Niagara volume-like inspirations that He needed from His Father! Peter’s interruption staunched the Father’s liberating fellowship full and free that was rejuvenating the Saviour of the world and strengthening Him for His infinite sacrifice. The intimacy with His Father must end so that Christ could tend to the needs of His beloved children, His babies! Duty called, and self-sacrificing love must respond.

It was the constant self-sacrifice for His creation, which filled the Son of God, and His love for His Father’s companionship that pleased the Father and kept Him imbuing His Son with His own self. The powerful Lawmaker and terrible Law Enforcement never needed to initiate Their conversation or to create Their bond. His Son initiated it all.

So, although robbed of the Edenic communion with His God by His children’s needs, Jesus went on carrying them in His bosom and singing to His Father from the depths of His soul,

“I will bless the LORD, who hath given Me counsel: My reins also instruct Me in the night seasons.

I have set the LORD always before Me: because He is at My right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall rest in hope.” (Ps. 16:7-9).