So garee rather than address you post/repeat myself I will post what I said to valiant today on this isssue of John 10:30.
Actually valiant when you said this: "When Jesus said 'I and My Father are one' He meant one in aim and intention. See context."
Hi Bluto thanks for the reply. My two cents.
The context is I and my the father
are one .Not that they will be one if they could have to wait get their thoughts together. Christ always does the will of the father the free will of God who is of one mindand always does wahtsoever his soul pleases.
They are one in intention(belief faith) as well as the work of the one faith, belief of God . His word does not return void, because it cannot. One God, one faith. Faith to include thier works working as one, seeing a belief without works is dead.
. it is true they are one in aim and intention but the immediate context is that the Son and the Father are equal in nature/essence
God does not have a nature .He is supernatural (without nature, a beginning)He has no flesh as a being, that would make Him a Spirit without form a creation and not the faithful Creator.who by a work of His faith forms that which was not there.
This is why at John 10:33 says, "The Jews answered Himn, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for BLASPHEMY; and because You, being a man MAKE YOURSELF GOD."
In His Spirit essence he was God. There is simply nothing attributed to the flesh ,which He of his own temporal flesh said it cannot profit .In his outward temporal appearance he refused all worship. He is not a man as us and neither is there a daysman, a person of flesh as an infallible umpire of earth approved of by both man and God. That would describe the Pope or any man that claims to the infallible interpreter, as our teacher on earth .Even the Son of man made no such claim .
We are warned of those who do say we do need a man to teach us. Christ the Holy Spirit of God who dwelt temporally in the corrupted flesh typified as sinful body, in regard to the Son of man. When Christ in respect to the Holy Spirit not seen was approached as “good teacher” he gave glory to Him who remains invisible and replied; only God (not seen) is good.
God does not want us to think of Him as having any form. It is the mutual work of the one faith, of one God that worked in respect to the word father, an attribute of God, and another attribute called a Son in perfect submission to one Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God.
Together they brought the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding. This is not a separate peace from a father, and another kind of peace from the Son in respect to two attributes a father and a Son. God cannot make another God .It would have a beginning.
Phi 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Remember he gives us his understanding (“faith”) , it is not of our own heart as an imagination thereof. We are not the source of His faith anymore than if we were the source of one another’s faith. He calls that kind of faith “no faith” being dead in its trespasses and sins without God without a living Hope. ..
Jesus Christ has just said (vs29) that the sheep are equally safe in His hand and in His Father's hand. The power of the Son is equal to that of the Father, and while this the contextual point of reference, much more is implied especially from John 10:30 which literally reads, "I and the Father WE are one." One which is "hen" in Greek is a neuter number to indicate equality of essence, attributes, design, will, and work. So "one" asserst their unity of essence or nature as identical.
Yes
are one, not as if they were one, but are.
Looking at the father and son as two attributes of one God works the best when trying to understand the mystery that does surpass all human understanding, as the understanding of God .
Now garee, what your doing is equating Gods intrinsic attributes that have always been inherent with God to the three persons that are identified as the one God. Attributes are not persons.
Yes, they are things a person does. Jesus, Jehovah is savor. He is the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Do we attribute that work to a lamb? God is not a man or a lamb.
You also said the following: "God who is Spirit, acting as a Father and Son, as a labor of their love in perfect mutual submission to one Spirit. As the Father submitted to the Son pouring out the wrath intended for us, the Son who took on the lower form of mutual submission made his request know to the Father and the Father sent His word to strengthen the Son. Together bringing the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding."
Attributed to one Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy anointing Spirit of one God
1John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are "one".
The three are one in the same way the father and Son of God are one. He is not one with the Son of man, a creation. The Son of man died his blood was poured into the dust just as any sacrifice. We no longer know Christ after the flesh, he has come, the veil is rent the one demonstration is over. The Son of God an attribute of God cannot die.