Chp.56 - God The Mediator Is Distinguished From God The Almighty Father

Justin goes at length to expound Genesis 18 to show Trypho the Christ, as the Mediator, who appeared to Abraham, even as a man; yet the Holy Spirit, through Moses, calls Him Yahweh, making this Christophany equal to the Maker of all things. But first, Justin defines the Father of all things as distinct in his operation and function as God Almighty from the Mediator. So Moses, who was the compiler of the Genesis record, is making a divine observation in the power and perception of the Holy Spirit, even as Justin has done to bear witness of the work of Yahweh to Trypho. We can observe in this chapter that Justin is beginning to show fatigue, as he continues this one on one dialogue with Trypho, who has a question about everything. But this is good, and necessary, in order to stir up the depraved mind of this Jew who has been deceived by the tradition of his fathers. “Moses, then, the blessed and faithful servant of God, declares that He who appeared to Abraham under the oak in Mamre is God, sent with the two angels in His company to judge Sodom by Another who remains ever in the supercelestial places, invisible to all men, holding personal intercourse with none, whom we believe to be Maker and Father of all things; for he speaks thus: Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 223). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Genesis 18:1–19:29 (NKJV) 1 Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. 4 Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. 8 So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. 9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” 10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!” 16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” 22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 26 So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” 27 Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: 28 Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?” So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.” 29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?” So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.” 30 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” 31 And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.” 32 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place. 1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.” 3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” 6 So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8 See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.” 9 And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. 10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door. 12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! 13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. 15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” 18 Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! 19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. 20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.” 21 And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. 23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt. This passage of Scripture is filled with much to draw from, to declare the attributes of God, and to define the nature of the Lord's mediation and dealings with men. But Justin is using this passage to stir up Trypho's mind to the second and most distinct person of the Holy Trinity. So I will aim to limit my thoughts to this purpose. In the first portion of this text Justin points out to Trypho that Abraham bows down (to worship) this scene, as these men approach, whom he observes as holier than himself; and after quoting the whole chapter of Genesis 18 and part of 19 asks if Trypho and his friends understand the text. And they said they had understood them, but that the passages adduced brought forward no proof that there is any other God or Lord, or that the Holy Spirit says so, besides the Maker of all things. Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 223). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

We see, here, where the veil remains over the eyes of these Jews who know not Christ (2Cor.3:14-16;4:3). This is why it is important to preach Christ as the priority of the message. The most basic element to understanding the Christian faith, besides justification, is a proper understanding of the Holy Trinity. Without this, the Scriptures will not make sense to an unbelieving and unholy mind. So now, after quoting the whole passage, Justin cuts it up, piece by piece, so that it will fit into the human mind of Trypho, in smaller portions until the proper understanding comes. And quoting once more the previous passage, I asked Trypho, “Do you think that God appeared to Abraham under the oak in Mamre, as the Scripture asserts?” He said, “Assuredly.” “Was He one of those three,” I said, “whom Abraham saw, and whom the Holy Spirit of prophecy describes as men?” He said, “No; but God appeared to him, before the vision of the three. Then those three whom the Scripture calls men, were angels; two of them sent to destroy Sodom, and one to announce the joyful tidings to Sarah, that she would bear a son; for which cause he was sent, and having accomplished his errand, went away.”4 Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 223). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. In breaking this down, Justin is setting up Trypho to see how the Holy Spirit breathed out this infallible account and recognizes that one of these "angelic" men is Yahweh of Yahweh. It is true that Trypho had an understanding of this text, but it was incomplete at best. Trypho doesn't recognize the scene of these three "angels," in the appearance of men, as a Theophany, because God had already appeared to Abraham beforehand in the invisible nature of a voice in the desert heat. So then Justin takes opportunity to point out the Omniscience of the third angelic man who possessed more than a mere message. But first, he draws Trypho to look ahead, to how God covered the sin of Abraham and his wife, for not waiting for the fulfillment of the promise. “How then,” said I, “does the one of the three, who was in the tent, and who said, ‘I shall return to thee hereafter, and Sarah shall have a son,’5 appear to have returned when Sarah had begotten a son, and to be there declared, by the prophetic word, God? But that you may clearly discern what I say, listen to the words expressly employed by Moses; they are these: Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 223). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

In these words, Justin wants Trypho to see that salvation only comes to us by the Word of Truth, as it is sown by God. Salvation cannot grow out of lies and deception. Because of Sarah’s lack of faith (in the Word of Truth) her slave maid gave birth to an illegitimate son of Abraham. And now, because God still loved Abraham and his wife, he covered and put away their sin because of the "Word of Election." For in Isaac the seed of salvation will come; referring to the Christ, whom the Jews did expect would come. But Justin is sidetracked here, having a head full of knowledge, waiting to explode, and therefore leads Trypho further into questions with no answers. ". . . Have you perceived, then, that He who said under the oak that He would return, since He knew it would be necessary to advise Abraham to do what Sarah wished him, came back as it is written; and is God, as the words declare, when they so speak: ‘God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the son, and because of the bond-woman?’ ” I inquired. And Trypho said, “Certainly; but you have not proved from this that there is another God besides Him who appeared to Abraham, and who also appeared to the other patriarchs and prophets. You have proved, however, that we were wrong in believing that the three who were in the tent with Abraham were all angels.” Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 223). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Trypho sees no proof here, because now he wants to observe the third angel (as merely a man). Trypho's theology was more right before he heard the word of Justin. But because he refuses to hear the Word of the Lord, he remains blinded by presumption. In saying the "three who were in the tent" shows he did not hear the Word of the Lord. (None) of the angels were in the tent with Sarah, but remained outside the tent door. Therefore, Trypho assumes, now, that this angel, whom he observes now (as only a man), did the "deed" (with Sarah) to have the promised son; assuming again that he was wrong about his understanding of the angels. But Justin wants Trypho to notice that none of these angels were in the tent with Sarah, when she laughed "within" herself (silently), concerning the angel's promise of a child. But Trypho stumbled over what Justin said, in saying, there was one angel (with her) in the tent. But Justin meant the Omnipresence of the angel of God, because the Scripture makes clear that the angel was outside the tent (with) Abraham. Therefore this shows that this was no ordinary angel sent to deliver a message, but possessed within his own nature the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God. Even for a "created" angel this is impossible apart from being in the direct presence of God. Angels cannot read thoughts; only Yahweh can, who is the Creator of the soul. It is in this understanding that Trypho should see that this was Yahweh of Yahweh. And even the Holy Spirit breathed Scripture declares that this angel is called Yahweh. By this, Trypho should now see that there is another person, not another (G)od of this one true God of Abraham. We do see that Abraham is also called lord (adoni) by his wife, which is rooted in the greater term YHWH, but this is the lesser term to denote submission and delegated authority. In the Holy Spirit Abraham was a "god" or "lord" (adoni), but it was always in subjection to the Almighty. But here, we are answering the question to whether there is another God besides YHWH and the answer is "no" and yes. There is only one YHWH but the Christ comes to us as an Adoni (in the appearance of a man). This is what Trypho and the Jews stumble over. How is a man equal to God? Man can only be equal to God through the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled this everlasting covenant between YHWH and Abraham. What Abraham sees after the vision of the covenant is the Christophany and power of this man, the Christ, as the Mediator, who is not another YHWH but another (g)od like Abraham. Through this man, will come justice and peace that provides the true promise of everlasting (life). Therefore this passage reveals a rich knowledge of the full character of God if broken down carefully. Thus the passage ends with the flame rising from the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah, expressing mercy and grace to Abraham and Lot, but justice to the twin cities.

". . . I replied again, “If I could not have proved to you from the Scriptures that one of those three is God, and is called Angel,7 because, as I already said, He brings messages to those to whom God the Maker of all things wishes [messages to be brought], then in regard to Him who appeared to Abraham on earth in human form in like manner as the two angels who came with Him, and who was God even before the creation of the world, it were reasonable for you to entertain the same belief as is entertained by the whole of your nation.” “Assuredly,” he said, “for up to this moment this has been our belief.” Then I replied, “Reverting to the Scriptures, I shall endeavour to persuade you, that He who is said to have appeared to Abraham, and to Jacob, and to Moses, and who is called God, is distinct from Him who made all things,—numerically, I mean, not [distinct] in will. For I affirm that He has never at any time done8 anything which He who made the world—above whom there is no other God—has not wished Him both to do and to engage Himself with.” Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, pp. 223–224). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. Yahweh has one will, but in the humanity of Christ the will of the flesh had to be overcome by the will of Yahweh. And this man, in absolute perfection, overcame the will of the flesh (sin), the will of the world (death), and the will of the devil (damnation). It was the love of this world that Christ swallowed in the garden (1Jn.2:15-17), sweating great drops of blood, struggling in the anguish of his soul, to endure death ( the penalty for sin) with mankind, so that mankind should live in the Spirit of his likeness. But in (his) death life was secured for all who believe that every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is pure and true. For God cannot lie. This cross straightens what the lie of the serpent made crooked; as John the Baptist cried out for the repentance of Israel in the wilderness.