Was Jesus Omniscient Before the Resurrection?

Can a Christian follow a false prophet into the kingdom of God? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. This is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

And you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, a good news story to share with you. A young man from Maryland has been admitted to Harvard Law School after a string of difficult circumstances nearly made him abandon college altogether. After graduating high school, financial issues, illness, and a major sports injury left 18-year-old Reihan Staton frustrated and exhausted as he worked to support his brother and father as a garbage man. His family and his coworkers at the Bates Trucking and Trash Removal Company said they wouldn't let him give up on himself.

Today, Reihan is not only a college graduate, but he is heading to Harvard Law School this year. What an inspiration and a reminder, hey, keep pressing forward. Amen. Well, let's get to our first question of the day.

This was posted on our Facebook page by Jonathan. He says, if Jesus had limited knowledge due to his human nature, does he now have full omniscience because he's seated at the right hand of the Father? Hey, Jonathan, this is the doctrine of Christology.

And for some people, your question might feel like, seem like splitting hairs. But did you know that in the early days of the church, I mean, back right in the time the New Testament was being written, and then also the first few centuries of church history, the debates that were being had had to do with who is Jesus? You see, I think one of the things Satan wants more than anything else is to confuse us about who Jesus is. John in 1 John talks about the spirit of the Antichrist who denies that Jesus came in the flesh, that is denies the incarnation. And when you look at church history, the first few centuries of the church, it seems like that was what was under attack more than anything, both the divinity of Christ and the true humanity of Christ.

And it wasn't just something that was debated because, you know, people wanted to sit around and they had extra time on their hands. It has to do with our eternal salvation, because if Jesus was not a true human, well, then he couldn't stand in the place of true humans of you and I. But if he wasn't God incarnate, well, then he couldn't truly save humanity. I mean, this question gets at the very heart of the gospel. And you ask, if Jesus had limited knowledge due to his human nature, does he now have full omniscience? Now, it's interesting because you do get those texts in the New Testament that seem to indicate that Christ in his humanity did have this sort of limitation in his knowledge. You think about when he talks about not knowing the day or the hour, but only the Father in heaven knowing. Or you think also about that statement that he makes in the gospels where he says, the Father is greater than I. It's one of those verses that the Jehovah's Witnesses love to point out. And what we need to realize about those texts is that Jesus is talking about in the plan of salvation as God the Son, equal with the Father in power and glory, came to earth, clothed himself in humanity.

He embraced the limitations, the weakness of humanity as he assumed it into himself. And that's why Jesus can make some of those statements. Now, ascended at the right hand of the Father as God, and really always, right, like as the divine person, he was always omniscient.

It's not like he was never not God. But I would say, as the sovereign Lord and King of all, he knows all, he sees all, he's all-powerful. And I think there's actually a beautiful verse in the book of Revelation that demonstrates this in a very colorful way. Revelation 5, verse 6, this is Jesus in heaven, and John has this vision, and he says, Between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, get this, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Now the horn in the ancient world was a symbol of power, strength. So when John sees Jesus, the lamb that has been slain but is standing, resurrection, with seven horns, he's saying seven is the number of perfection, he's saying he has all power. When he says he has seven eyes, he's saying he's omniscient, he sees all things, there isn't anything that he doesn't know. And so I think John actually answers your question, Jonathan, in a very neat way, in a vivid way, as he has this vision of Jesus in heaven right now, all-powerful and all-knowing.

Jonathan, thank you so much for your question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and Adriel Trent emailed us with this question. He said, Why is David allowed to eat the bread of presence in 1 Samuel chapter 21? Leviticus 24 sounds pretty straightforward that only the priests and their family could eat that bread. I understand that Jesus makes reference to this event in Luke 6 to show the Pharisees that they were incorrect about how to interpret the law, and that he, being God, knew and applied the proper interpretation of the law. Still, I don't understand why David was allowed to eat this bread in the first place.

That's an excellent question. I mean, that bread was for the high priest and his priestly cohort, so in taking the bread, David is acting like a high priest. Now, usually in Scripture, when kings do priestly things, they're punished. I think, for example, of Saul. Saul tried to offer sacrifices, and he wasn't supposed to, and God condemned him because of it. In fact, it's around that time that God says he's going to tear the kingdom away from Saul because of Saul's disobedience. And yet here, David is acting in a priestly way. He's eating the bread of the presence, and David, I think, is acting as a type of the Messiah here. He's both a king, but he's acting as a priest as well, and we know that Jesus is the king-priest. In other words, Jesus brings both of those offices that we see in the Old Testament, and actually even the office of the prophet as well, all together in Jesus, we have the perfect prophet, priest, and king. Now, this was indicated in Psalm 110 that the Messiah would be this kingly and priestly figure. Psalm 110, this is a psalm of David, begins, The Lord says to My Lord, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion, Your mighty scepter, rule in the midst of Your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of Your power in holy garments.

From the womb of the morning, the dew of Your youth will be Yours. This is all very kingly. You're going to rule, and then verse 4 says, The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

What an amazing picture we have here. We have this revelation that the Messiah, Jesus, isn't just going to be the king who rules over all. He's going to be the priest who offers himself for his people, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, we're told. Now Jesus, in the Gospels, when He's in the grain field, He's also acting as a high priest, and you refer to that passage as well, right, in Luke chapter 6. He's both the king and the priest. And what's so interesting about Jesus is Jesus, as God incarnate, is the true temple of God.

So wherever Jesus is, God is, because He is God. And in that field right there, those heads of grain are like the bread of the presence, if you will, because they're being handled by the true high priest of the people of God, and Jesus distributes them to His disciples. He's treating them like His priestly cohort. If you on the Pharisees are upset about it, they're wondering why He's picking grain on the Sabbath and eating there. Well, they have the Lord of the Sabbath in front of them, Jesus, the true temple of God, eating the grains with His disciples, His priestly cohort. So I think there's some really cool things that are happening here. I think we're being tipped off to the fact that Jesus is the great king-priest. And as far as I can tell, the reason that David isn't condemned for what he does there in the book of 1 Samuel is because he's acting as a type of Jesus, the true priest-king.

Thanks for your question, Trent. Fascinating parallel, Adriel, and there are these things in the Bible where God kind of gives us these hints, these four tens of things to come that aren't clear prophecies, but they are like, oh wow. It's very exciting to put those two things together.

I mean, it really is, Bill. The more I read the Bible, the more I'm blown away, because you have those really specific messianic prophecies. You think of Isaiah 53, you think of Psalm 22, passages of Scripture that we oftentimes go to to say, look, that's very clearly talking about Jesus. But we don't realize that all of Scripture, the entire Old Testament, one way or another through types and shadows, is pointing us to Christ. So that these offices that we have under the Old Covenant, the office of the prophet, the priest, and the king, all of them in one sense are showing us something unique about the ministry of Jesus. So it's beautiful, because it makes it so that when I'm preaching through the Old Testament and I'm talking about King David or I'm talking about the prophets, I can go from there to legitimately talking about Jesus, because in one sense, everything that they're doing is helping to shed light on either our need of Jesus, right? Like atonement for sin, those kinds of things, or Jesus is the true and perfect king who rules over his people. I mean, it really is so beautiful, and it's one of the things I think that highlights the fact that the Scriptures are inspired by God. You have this amazing story, 66 books written over hundreds of years, with this unifying theme of the salvation that God is bringing through his Son.

It's awesome. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and Adriel, we got a call come in at 833-THE-CORE from Jen. I had a very dear friend who recently passed, and she was very intelligent, but she followed almost religiously some of these prosperity pastors and so forth that you see on TV. And my question is, if you follow someone who is portraying Christ in an image that is not Christ, how does that affect you when you expect to enter into the kingdom? Can you follow a false prophet into the kingdom? I guess that is the question.

Okay then, bye. Well, that is a very good question. There are all sorts of warnings in Scripture about following false prophets. The first text, as you were talking, that came to my mind is what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians, where he talks about people coming and preaching a false Christ or a false gospel. And his concern is that the Corinthians would accept that, would embrace that, would receive another spirit.

I just recently am wrapping up preaching through the book of Galatians. And there again, you have a church that's being influenced by false teachers that are corrupting the gospel. And so I think, Jan, if a Christian or a professing Christian embraces the theology that false prophets are proclaiming, that strikes at the vitals of what the gospel teaches. So if they're trying to be saved on the basis of their own works, or if they think they can buy their way into heaven, well, they're in for a very rude awakening.

And yet at the same time, I think that there are a lot of believers who have a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, who believe the gospel, who know there's no way that I can save myself, and yet for whatever reason have got caught up in some of this false teaching. I remember a couple of years back, I had this friend who was a Mormon, and he actually died not so long ago as well, sadly. He was an older gentleman. But we would talk about the gospel, and we would go back and forth, and I would share the gospel with him so clearly, Jan. And he would say, well, I believe that. And I would say to him, well, you know, if you embrace what the Mormon Church teaches, they don't teach it like this.

I mean, you really are going to have to twist things around, because what I'm telling you right now is not Mormon doctrine. And he would get frustrated, and he would say, you know, don't tell me what I believe. And we would go back and forth, back and forth, and eventually, throughout the course of our discussions, he was just older. As I said, he died.

He passed away. And I wonder sometimes, you know, did he know the Lord? He heard the gospel. He said he believed it. And if he did, then he is saved.

He's forgiven. Here's the thing, Jan. We're not saved by our perfect understanding of salvation. We're saved by casting ourselves on Jesus, by trusting in Him and laying hold of Him by faith, and a person can be a part of a system or even a church that is confused about the gospel and still have enough understanding of the gospel to be saved.

I don't really like using that word, because I think it's got a lot of baggage in our context today. But that's just the reality, is someone can truly embrace Jesus and yet fall into some of these traps and be confused. About your friend, I guess the question that I would have is, did she trust Jesus? Even though she was caught up in some of these prosperity gospel stuff, did she realize, I can't save myself. I need Jesus, and I trust in Him.

I have faith in Him. I think the ones who are going to be judged very severely aren't necessarily the people that are led astray by these false teachers as much as it is the false teachers themselves. They're the ones who are going to be held more accountable. You think about what Peter said in places like 2 Peter, where he talks about false teachers who take advantage of people, who through greed and sensuality—and I think in one sense when you read that and you just think, oh boy, this is the prosperity gospel. It's pastors, quote-unquote pastors, who are taking advantage of people and robbing them, basically, and engaging in this lifestyle of sensuality and greed, lust. Well, God is going to hold them accountable. And the sad thing is there are sheep, sincere followers of Jesus that get caught up in these lies, and I think God is going to be merciful to them. But if somebody goes all the way and they embrace that doctrine, and they think Christianity is not about faith in Jesus, it's about making myself great. Salvation doesn't come solely through the atoning work of Jesus Christ and repentance from sin.

It comes through, I don't know, having my best life now or something like that. Well, that's not the gospel, and if a person embraces that, Jan, then they will not be saved. I hope for your friend's sake that she didn't think that, that she clung to Jesus, and if she did, even if she was caught up with some of this other stuff, I would think that you could be confident that she's with the Lord. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Christmas is just around the corner, and we have something really special to help you celebrate the true reason for the season this year. Bill, you know that the holidays are filled with a lot of fun and festivities, but it's often the case that the hustle and bustle of this season drowns out what is most important—Jesus, the Son of God.

God has come to be with us, and that is why I'm excited to share this new resource that we have over at corechristianity.com called Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah. It's a Christmas devotional. This daily devotional will show you what Christmas is all about. Each day, actually in December, it highlights prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament, and then it shows you where these prophecies are fulfilled in the New Testament.

So take some time each day by yourself or with your family to read the Scriptures and meditate on their meaning. Our hope is that as you come to Jesus through the pages of the Bible, you and your loved ones will experience His life-giving presence this Christmas season. This devotional is free when you sign up for our weekly newsletter, so head over to corechristianity.com forward slash Christmas to download Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources here at Core Christianity at 833-843-2673. That's 833, the Core. And just a reminder that Core Christianity is listener-supported, and we count on people just like you to keep this program on the air.

Here's an email that came in from Roy. He says, If we are born in sin, how could Jesus not be a sinner like the rest of us? A text that I would go to to help answer that question is Apostle Paul, Romans chapter 5, where he talks about how sin entered the world and how we inherit sin from Adam. He says in chapter 5, verse 12 of the book of Romans, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death spread through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. Now, who's Paul talking about there in Romans 5, 14? Adam was a type of the one who was to come. He's talking about Jesus. He continues, But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died, we're the many, born in Adam, if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of the one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

For if because of one man's trespass death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. You have here the first Adam, who we're all born into. We inherit original sin from him.

He was the representative of all humanity there in the garden, and when he sinned, we fell with him, Paul says in Romans 5, verse 12. And we inherit, this is the doctrine of original sin, we inherit from Adam not just the corruption of sin, but the guilt even that comes with sin. All of it, his sin, guilt, corruption, we need to be not under the old Adam, but under the new Adam. See, Jesus was not born in Adam in the same way that we're born in Adam. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, we're told in Luke's Gospel.

Jesus came as the second Adam to fulfill the works of the first Adam so that where Adam failed and was disobedient, Jesus might be perfectly obedient, obeying the Father, casting out the serpent, if you will. You think about that scene in the Gospels where Jesus is tempted by the devil, and what does Jesus do? He points to the Word of God.

He casts out the serpent. Jesus is obedient everywhere where Adam failed, and everywhere where Israel failed, and everywhere where you and I fail. That's why He's the perfect Savior. He came to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law perfectly so that in Him, you and I could be justified. And so through Adam, we inherit sin, but through Jesus, we inherit eternal life.

We're born in sin, but Jesus was not born in sin, nor was He a sinner, because He didn't come under Adam, but He came as the second Adam to fulfill the works of the first. Thanks for that excellent question, Roy. Thank you, Roy. We appreciate you taking the time to email us. We'd love to get your email question as well at questionsatcorechristianity.com. You can also call us at 833-The-Core. That's 833-843-2673, and record your question anytime.

Here's a call that came in from Arthur. Yes, hello, good afternoon. I'm just listening in the program right now, and I was just wondering, you know, I hear the word love being used so many, many times, and it's extremely every time I hear somebody interpret it differently. All right, hope to hear from you, and hope, you know, you can put this on the air. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Yeah, and I mean, it's crazy, Arthur, right, because we tend to use that word love quite flippantly in our culture. I love my dog. I love pizza. I love, you know, taking walks. I love my wife.

I love my kids. And I think with each of those, right, we would say, well, there's a little bit of a difference, or maybe a lot of a difference between each of those. And in the ancient world, actually in the Greek language, you had different words for love. You had one word that maybe emphasized a little bit more, the sort of brotherly aspect of love, familial love.

You had another word that tended toward the more intimate sexual relationship. And you have in the New Testament another word that's used, agape, which is used a ton of times in the New Testament, oftentimes referring to that unconditional love that God gives to his people. In the Old Testament, you have this beautiful word, the word hesed. It refers to God's steadfast love, his covenant love for his people. And so oftentimes, you know, you have all these different words in Scripture that are used to describe love, and we just translate them the same way over and over again a lot of times.

And we don't have in the English language as many words to convey what we mean when we're talking about love. Now, I think in Scripture, most of the time when we're talking about love, the love that God calls us to have, especially in the New Testament, is that word agape. And it really refers first and foremost to that unconditional love that God has for his people. The best way to define it, Arthur, is by looking to the cross. It's what John said in John chapter 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world. How do we know that?

What did he do? How did God demonstrate his love? He demonstrated his love that he sent his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Love as this self-giving, this action.

It's not just, hey, I love you, and you know it because I said it. It's God saying, I'm going to show you my love for you. And God showed us his love for us in his son in sending Jesus to live, to suffer, to die, and then to rise again for us. Look to Jesus. Look to the cross. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.