Essentially One

I came across something in my study time that is so cool to me, and I want to share. Hopefully someone who reads this will get a little excited about this like I did.

Philippians 2:6-7 - (About Jesus) Who, although being essentially one with God, and in the form of God, possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God, did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, but stripped Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity so as to...become like men, and He was born a human being.

Essentially one with God. Out of curiosity, I looked up the dictionary definition of 'essentially.' Websters has this to say about the word:

• having the intrinsic fundamental nature of something
• inherent
• absolute, complete and perfect
• containing or having the properties of; a concentrated extract of (ex. - a food or plant oil extract)
• " essential, in strict usage, is that which constitutes the absolute essence or the fundamental nature of a thing, and therefore must be present for the thing to exist, function, etc."

Wow. Wow. Wow. I mean, I would try to highlight the best parts, but each bullet point is awesome!

I've shared before that someone once asked me a simple question - 'are God and Jesus the same person?' That one question threw me for such a loop, because I realized that I didn't have a solid understanding of its answer. I was tossed into one of the deepest and darkest periods of doubt and struggle in all of my Christian walk. I've also shared before that slowly God has revealed the truth of the matter to me in a way that I can understand. I've put His answers through extreme scrutiny in my own heart and mind, and have very much settled on the validity and truth of what was revealed to me through His Word. But now, even after having come to terms with the struggle and doubt that I once had, still I love to find verses in Scripture that fill in the blanks, expand on the foundations, and confirm what I've come to understand. This verse in Philippians is definitely one of those verses, and even the dictionary definition of one of the key words in this verse serves to confirm and deepen my dependence on the truth of God's Word.

All wrapped up in this one verse we learn that Jesus and God were together in heaven. They have the same fundamental nature and character. One is inherently present with the other. Together they are absolutely and completely perfect. Jesus can be described as a concentrated extract of the Father - having the same properties. One must be present for the other to exist, function, etc. Jesus possesses the FULLNESS of the attributes which make God God - so there is no hierarchy in strength of power, authority, purity, goodness, love, or whatever else you can come up with. Yet, even in all of this, we can see in this verse that there is a distinction between God the Father and God the Son, because it tells us that Jesus separated Himself from the Father and became like men.

Separate but inseparable. Separate parts of a single unit.

John 1:1 - In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.