19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

"The flesh," said he, "profits nothing." As son of Mary, he pretended to no power, wisdom or superiority. Mary's son was "the Vail of the Covering" to be rent. The Vail in which the Father-power was veiled, the Flesh-medium of Power-manifestation.

Phanerosis - One Deity in Multiplicity

..a New Man, in whom the image and likeness should re-appear, as in the beginning. This was "the man Christ Jesus," whom Paul styles as the last Adam." He is "the Image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15) the effulgent mirror of the glory, and exact likeness of His person" (Heb. 1:3).

Hence, in another place, Paul says, He was "in the form of God" (Phil. 2:6,7,8), and also "made in the likeness of men, and in the form of a man." Being thus the image and likeness of the invisible God, as well as of man, who was created in the image and likeness of the Elohim, He made Himself equal with God in claiming God for his father (John 5:18), though born of "sinful flesh."

Though thus highly related in paternity, image, and character, He was yet "made a little lower than the angels;" for He appeared not in the higher nature of Elohim, but in the inferior nature of the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:16). This was the first stage of His manifestation, as the present is of the saints who are His brethren.

Elpis Israel 1.2.

21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

It will be seen from this, that survivors of the dead were not consoled in the first age of Christianity for the loss of their friends, as they are now by those who "improve the death" of the influential among them. In "funeral sermons," the "immortal souls" of the deceased are transported "on angels' wings to heaven," and the living are consoled with the assurance, that they are singing the praises of God around the throne, feasting with Abraham, and the prophets, with the saints and martyrs, and with Jesus and His apostles in the kingdom of God; and they are themselves persuaded that the souls of their relations, now become angels, are watching over them, and praying for them; and that when they die their own souls will be re-united with them in the realms of bliss.

Need I say to the man enlightened in the word, that there is no such comfort, or consolation, as this in the law and the testimony of God? Such traditions are purely mythological; and come of the Nicolaitan dogma of saved ghosts; and goblins damn'd, "which has cancerously extirpated the truth as it is in Jesus." No, the apostles did not point men to the day of their death, and its immediate consequents for comfort; nor did they administer the consolations of the gospel to any who had not obeyed it.

They offered comfort only to the disciples; for they only are the heirs with Jesus of the kingdom of God. They taught these to look to the coming of Christ, and to the resurrection, as the time of a re-union with their brethren in the faith. At death, they should "rest from their labours, and their works should follow them;" and "to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28). Such were the practical and intelligible "words," with which the apostles comforted their brethren; but words which have become scaled and cabalistic, both to the unlearned and "the wise."

... God could have created all things upon a spiritual or incorruptible basis at once. The globe could have been filled with men and women, equal to the angels in nature, power, and intellect, on the sixth day; but the world would have been without a history, and its population characterless. This, however, would not have been according to the plan. The animal must precede the spiritual as the acorn goes before the oak. This will explain many difficulties which are created by systems; and which will for ever remain inexplicable upon the hypotheses they invent.

The Bible has to do with things, not imaginations; with bodies, not phantasmata; with "living souls" of every species; with corporeal beings of other worlds; and with incorruptible and undying men: but it is mute as death, and silent as the grave, having nothing at all to say about such "souls" as men pretend to "cure;" except to repudiate them as a part of that "philosophy and vain deceit" (Col. 2:8.) "which some professing have erred concerning the faith" (1 Tim. 6:21).

Elpis Israel 1.2.

22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

God looks only in Christ. No human being can be heard on his own merits. No man can come to the Father but by the Mediator.(—John 14:6.) The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son. Whom the Son prays for, will be given to him, and he has power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to as many as the Father gives him.

God's relations to the condemned children of Adam's race are readjusted in the last Adam, in whom the law has been upheld, magnified, and made honourable. All of Adam's race, who cast off the Old Adam in the water of baptism, concurrently with a repudiation of the old Adam principles and practices; and constitutionally put on the new man—Christ Jesus—become morally incorporated with the new mediatorial man in the presence of God, and will be physically assimilated to him and by him at the resurrection.

But are there no transgressions after the initiatory union in baptism? Does the weakness of the flesh not continue still in operation, leading to remissnesses, failures of duty, and positive offences?

Ambassador of the Coming Age, Jan 1869

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Life and Incorruptibility through the name of Jesus does not yet exist as a fact, and therefore cannot have always so existed. There is no testimony extant that a single Jew or Gentile confessor of the name of Jesus ever rose from the dead to life and incorruptibility by virtue of that confession.

Jesus, in leading death captive in his own person, practically revealed how the life and incorruptibility he preached were to be attained; and his doctrine taught the principles that would entitle to it.

All this was peculiar to the gospel of the kingdom he proclaimed; a mystery impenetrable to the philosophic scrutiny of all who had preceded him.

What a pest is the Egyptian conceit of the hereditary immortality of universal man!

How it mars the wisdom of God in a mystery, and perverts the vision of unhappy mortals, who would otherwise come to behold it in all its beauty and heaven-descended divinity!

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, May 1855

26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

Immortality, in a derived sense, belongs only, as yet, to Jesus Christ; he is the first-fruit to life and incorruptibility from among the sons of men.—( 1 Cor. 15: 23.)

The angels derived their immortality also - but were not "from among the sons of men".

Immortality being conditional on a tried faith. Yahweh does not create automatons.

The Christadelphian, Mar 1873

Now if it was necessary that Jesus should come personally under the curse of the law in his own person, in order that he might bear it away in his resurrection, and so open a way for the redemption of such under the law as should accept of his name, what about this other curse? ... bounding the seed of Abraham

...Was not Jesus to bear away all curse? Surely no one can say no. If it was necessary he should have the curse of Moses on him to bear it away, was it not necessary he should have that other curse—the hereditary curse of Adam on him also? Yes, beloved brothers and sisters, he did have it on him, and he did bear it away; for what is the testimony? That he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham;

"forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh, it became him, likewise, to take part of the same, that through death he might destroy that having the power of death, that is, the diabolos."—(Heb. 2:14–15.)

Upon what scriptural authority does this new theory say that he took the seed of Abraham without taking the curse inhering in it? What ground is there for the contradictory proposition that Jesus wore the nature of David, which was mortal, but was not himself mortal?

... Only one passage is quoted

"As the Father hath life in Himself, even so hath he given the Son to have life in himself."

... Any one may see by observing the context that Christ is speaking of resurrection-power. The verse before is John 5:25:

"The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."

The verse after is:

"And hath given him authority also to execute judgment."

The matter in question, therefore, is the power given to Jesus by the Father over the lives of men, as he afterwards said in prayer:

"Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given him."—(John 17:3.)

But the time had not come to exercise that power. He had not become the "quickening (life-giving) spirit" (1 Cor. 15:46) till after his glorification. He was said to have received life and "glory" (John 17:22) only in the sense in which we are said to have received eternal life; that is, a prospective title only.

The days of the flesh of the Messiah were days of weakness (Heb. 5:8), and through weakness he was crucified."—(2 Cor. 13:4.)

"He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."—(Rom. 1:2.)

If it be contended in spite of the evidence that Christ's words literally mean that life was, at that time, in him in the same sense as in the Father, the objector's attention has to be called to the fact that such a construction of his words would not prove "free life" so-called, but the deathlessness of Christ; for the Father is Spirit, and immortal and glorious and indestructible.

Are the defenders of this heresy prepared to maintain that Jesus was so, "in the days of his flesh?" This "free-life" is a myth—a mere invention. Its advocates do not prove the starting point. The truth is the other way; the cross, ... is in the channel of the Adamic and Mosaic curses,... Jesus was born in the channel of both.

And now let me ask why? And we begin again to enter upon a region of thought not congenial to minds little less than carnal. God is righteous. God will not do wrong. He will not do evil that good may come. This heresy represents God as doing wrong; for it says of the Christ, the Lamb of God, "here is a free life."

If so, why should a free life die? But Christ, instead of being what is called a free life, was, in the condemned nature of the children of Adam. Hence, when he died, nothing wrong happened, so far as God's doings were concerned. The obedience of the Son of God led to his resurrection, and the triumph was complete.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1873

29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

‭"‬The wicked shall be turned into‭ ‬Sheol‭; ‬all the Gentiles that‭ ‬forget God."‭

The wicked are those‭ '‬who know not God,‭ ‬and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.‭' ‬Of these there are three classes:‭

first,‭ ‬sinners that never heard of the one true God,‭ ‬the Lord Jesus Christ,‭ ‬and the gospel‭; ‬and others who are physically incapable of faith and obedience‭;

‭ ‬second,‭ ‬those who have come to an understanding of the gospel,‭ ‬but have rejected it‭; ‬and‭

third,‭ ‬those who have obeyed it,‭ ‬but do not hold fast the beginning of their confidence steadfast to the end,‭ ‬nor walk according to its precepts,‭ ‬but after the flesh.‭

The‭ ‬first class dies and perishes as the beasts‭; ‬the‭ ‬second also dies,‭ ‬but comes forth from the grave again to encounter the burning indignation of Christ,‭ ‬the Judge of the living and the dead,‭ ‬at his appearing and kingdom‭; ‬and the‭ ‬third also comes forth to be judged,‭ ‬and to undergo,‭ ‬in condemnation,‭ '‬a sorer punishment‭' ‬in the fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.‭ (‬Proof.‭—‬Psalm‭ ‬9:17:‭ ‬11:6:‭ ‬2‭ ‬Thess,‭ ‬1:8‭–‬9‭; ‬Psalm‭ ‬49:12,‭ ‬20‭; ‬Isaiah‭ ‬26:14‭; ‬Eccles.‭ ‬3:17‭–‬20‭; ‬Acts‭ ‬14:16‭; ‬17:30‭; ‬John‭ ‬5:29‭; ‬Matt.‭ ‬25:41,‭ ‬46‭; ‬Luke‭ ‬13:28‭; ‬2‭ ‬Tim.‭ ‬4:1‭; ‬Heb.‭ ‬2:2,‭ ‬8‭; ‬10:27‭–‬29‭; ‬Rom.‭ ‬8:13‭; ‬Gal.‭ ‬6:7‭–‬8‭)‬.‭"

The‭ ‬Revealed Mystery,‭ ‬Proposition‭ ‬46.

30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

If the question be asked, how came it that Christ's will always acted with the Father's as no other man's ever did, it is here that the object of God's manifestation becomes apparent. There never could have been such an obedient man if God had not produced him and made him what he was; but God does not stultify Himself in any part of His work.

Therefore, though God, in Christ, produced one who was righteous under all trial, He did not tie or force His will, but gave him that complete independence of volition, and that ample opportunity of disobedience which gave acceptability to his obedience, and value and force to it as an example to us.

The principle involved in God's procedure towards man absolutely required this. The object aimed at throughout is the voluntary consecration of independent will to His glory. It is for the development of this result that all these ages of evil are allowed. The prevalence of evil is the necessary foundation of righteousness.

If it were not for this element of the work of God, the world's history is without an explanation. Take it away, and we are in darkness. The long reign of evil is the measure of the value God attaches to the voluntary obedience of independent will.

The evil has come through the impartation of this power of independent will. Man has misused it, and hence the reign of evil; but the gloriousness of the obedience of a multitude who will come out of this great tribulation, is so great as to be more than a compensation for the night that broods over the world.

Bro Roberts - PHANEROSIS - Summary

32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.

Now Jesus was one and the Father was another. "I can of mine own self," said he, "do nothing.": "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me": and it is written in the Law of Moses that the testimony of two men is credible. "I am one that bear witness of myself; and the Father who sent me, (the other witness) He beareth witness of me" (John 5:30; 7:16; 8:17,18).

Here, then, are two personages. The Father by Himself, being Ail, or POWER, but when associated with the Son of Man, who, when so associated, was powerful "anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power" -- He was Ail Eloahh, the Power mediately manifested; the power being one, and the medium of manifestation another Eloahh.

Phanerosis - Hebrew Titles of the Deity

39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

"All things must be fulfilled," said the Lord Jesus, "that are written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me." When these words were spoken, the writings known among us as the New Testament had no existence. When, therefore, Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of me," he exhorts us to search Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms; which is indispensable, for he adds elsewhere," "If ye believe not Moses' writings, how can ye believe my words?"

It was impossible; for the words of Jesus were his preaching; and he preached the "Gospel of the "Kingdom," and himself as its King—"the Gospel of God, which," says Paul, "he had promised by his Prophets in the Holy Scriptures." He preached what they predicted; disbelieve this, and his preaching is denied.

The Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, are the testimony for Christ; white the written testimony of the inspired Apostles is the testimony for Jesus, that he is the Christ "of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets did write." This being proved, he came to be styled Jesus Christ, as though that were his family name. But neither Yahweh, Joseph, nor Mary, were named Christ. Jesus did not, therefore, inherit the name by descent; nor did he acquire the title till he began to be about thirty years old.

The word designates a person who had been, or was to be, anointed with oil, or spirit represented by oil. Aaron, Saul, David, Solomon, &c., were anointed with holy oil by Yahweh's command, and were therefore "The Lord's Anointed Ones," or Christs. Moses and the Prophets foretold the appearing of a Son of David who should be Son of God, and anointed with spirit without measure.

...Jesus emerged from the Jordan, and the Spirit, descending in the form of a dove, rested upon him, and thus poured out upon him, filled him, and so anointed him. This was the fulfilment of the prophecy in Daniel about sealing the prophet, and anointing the Most Holy. It was the christening of Jesus by which "he was made Christ," as he has since been "made Lord."

When John the baptizer was performing his mission, Priests and Levites were sent to him from Jerusalem to inquire if he were the Christ or not. He replied that he was not; but that he was his forerunner. Soon after this, Jesus was publicly anointed; and forth-with claimed to be the person of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote. This was nothing less than laying claim to the kingdom of Israel and throne of David for ever; so that thenceforth it became a great national question with all Jews, seeing that John repudiated all pretension to the dignity, "Is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ—the Prophet like unto Moses,—or, do we look for another?" There were great debates among the people upon this question.

Some favored the claims of Jesus, while others from various reasons of state policy rejected them altogether. After his crucifixion the question was revived and enlarged. It was not now simply, "Was Jesus the Anointed King of Israel?" But, "Is he the anointed King of Israel raised from the dead to sit upon David's throne for ever?" Yea, said the apostles, this is our proclamation concerning him: "Nay!" said their opponents, "we deny it." Upon this point then God and the apostles joined issue with the rulers of the nation.

Wherever they went they maintained that Jesus is the Christ, and God hath raised him from the dead; and so triumphantly did hey establish its truth to the conviction of multitudes, that "Jesus" and "Christ" became inseparable ideas; and came at length to lose the form of a proposition, and to be merged into a name for the Lord of Israel and the world.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, July 1854

45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.

One that accuseth you (John 5:45).—The word here rendered "accuseth" is not diaballo, or diabolos (as in 2 Tim. 3:3; Tit. 2:3), but kategoreo; there is, therefore, no evidence in this, that the law which accused the Jews of sin was the devil that had the power of death.

Bro. F. R. Shuttleworth

The Christadelphian, Sept 1889

47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

The character of a man's faith is altered by the quantity and quality of his knowledge...

Our election turns not upon our choice, but upon his. We may choose him upon our own principles, while he rejects us upon his. He chooses us through a belief of the truth, the unadulterated truth; men choose him by believing what suits them, and rejecting the rest...

...It is a mistake to say that "Christianity is an affair more of the heart than of the head." Paul was sent to the Gentiles "to open their blind eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God."

This was an affair of the head, without which the heart could not be touched. God has ordered his servants to be sealed in the forehead, which is the seat of intellect. They who are not sealed there do not belong to him. A pious heart, without due intelligence, is an unrenewed heart, and always ready to apologise for disobedience and ignorance, which Paul says, "alienates from the life of God." The heart of ignorance, however pious in feeling, is never right with God; because it is not "turned from darkness to light," and consequently not to him in whom is no darkness at all. When the forehead is sealed, the heart responds, and the man's faith works by love to the fulfilling of the truth.

...No, when the Herald's subscription list is reduced to such a few that its existence can only be perpetuated by heralding forth a system in accordance with "the thinking of the flesh," its editor will lay down his pen, and write no more. Better far break granite on the roadside for a crust of bread, than to garble God's truth to please one's friends, or propitiate the foe.

Herald of the kingdom and Age to Come, April 1853.