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"Amen". May all who read and believe, echo that "Amen" and rejoice to know that
one day Israel shall look on Him Whom they pierced, the One, Who, even in the days of
Isaiah, was named "The mighty God", and shall at last say of Him:
"Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us" (Isa. 25: 9).
When the Son is made subject to the Father, the end is reached for which He, Who
originally existed in the form of God, emptied Himself (Phil. 2: 6, 7). He emptied
Himself of His glory by becoming man. He further humbled Himself by taking the form
of a servant and stooped to the death of the cross. Because of this He has been exalted,
and given the name which is above every name, and the goal of I Cor. 15: 28, as well as
the goal of Phil. 2: 11, is that the supreme exaltation of the Son should be to the glory of
God the Father. When this is achieved, the Son Who is both Creator and Redeemer
ascends the throne of Deity, He re-assumes the glory that was His before the world
began, and once more, as it was in the beginning, one God occupies the throne of the
universe, all His Mediatorial titles Elohim, Jehovah, El Shaddai, Father, Son, Spirit,
Comforter, being completely realized and fulfilled that God, such a God, the God of
Creation, Providence, Purpose, Redemption, the God against Whom Satan dared to raise
his hand, at last will be all in all. A great disservice has been rendered to the cause of
truth by the quasi-philosophical employment of the word `persons' when speaking of the
Godhead. This word `person' is the translation of the Greek word hypostasis, a word
used three times in the epistle to the Hebrews. In chapter 11: no one could possibly
translate the opening verse "Now faith is the person of things hoped for", the word
substance being derived from the Latin meaning `to stand under' precisely as does the
Greek hypostasis. Our acquaintance with the material world is mainly that of
appearance; we do not get down to the underlying substance itself. So, in Heb. 1: 3, we
should read that Christ is "the Express Image of His substance", that is, He was "God
manifest". The Latin version translated the Greek hypostasis `persona', which has been
misunderstood to the confusion of our conception of the Deity. The word person is
derived from the Latin per=through and sono=to round, and means "A mask, especially
one worn by play actors (Lloyd's Encyclopedic Dictionary).
"No man can long put on a person and act a part but his evil manners will peep
through the corners of his white robe" (Jeremy Taylor).
If we would but keep in mind the idea of someone acting the part of some particular
character and speaking the words of the part "through a mask" we should have the
Scriptural symbol, as far as it can be revealed, of the One Invisible God, assuming at
one time the office of Creator, at another, that of Redeemer and Comforter, without
befogging the mind and virtually believing either in three Gods, or denying the Trinity of
the Scriptures. In the `person' of the Son, the humble God had played the part of
Mediator, and when the glorious work of Mediator is accomplished, the `person' i.e., the
mask, will be laid aside. At the consummation "The Son" will not be all in all, "The
Father" will not be all in all, but GOD will be all in all.
All in all. Let us seek to understand this ultimate term of the ages. Two anticipatory
passages should be considered as we approach this great end. One describes the peculiar