Question: We read of our Lord being “weary,” “hungry,” and of His weeping. Would these be called infirmities?
Answer: The bodily suffering and weakness that Christ felt, were a part of the perfection of His sinless humanity. In a sense they may be called infirmities, but the modern use of the word rather implies disease, or some mental, or physical deficiency. Hence we would rather say, Our Saviour had all the feelings proper to a perfect, sinless humanity.
Question: What is the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19) with which the believer may be filled?
Answer: The fullness is all that God is. It is not “filled with,” otherwise we could hold it, that is, the finite could hold the infinite! But “filled unto” or “into,” just as an empty vessel without a bottom might float about in the ocean, and be filled into all its fullness, any amount of water passing through it, as long as it remained in the ocean, but incapable of holding a drop if taken out. Such is the believer.
Question: Should a believer be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, as many were in Acts 8:16; or in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost as given in the great commission in Matthew 28:19, and why?
Answer: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” is a formula for Christian baptism. “In the name of the Lord Jesus” is authority for the act. Many of the Lord’s servants feel clear to include both, as follows: “In the name of the Lord Jesus, I baptize you unto the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.”
Question: Please explain how the heathen of Romans 1:20 could have been expected to understand God’s eternal power and Godhead, when in Colossians 2:9 the fact stated concerning the Godhead is too profound to be understood even by His own.
Answer: Colossians 2:9 sets forth the grand foundation truth of the essential deity of our Lord Jesus Christ: His Deity, and not merely His divinity. It is worthy of note that this is the only instance in the entire New Testament in which this word occurs. It seems to an English reader that the same word occurs in Romans 1:20; but it is not so. In this latter, the apostle uses the word “theiotees”; whereas in Colossians 2:9, he uses the word “theotees.” Now, although the two words differ only by a single letter, yet we may be quite sure that the Holy Spirit had His own wise reason for the distinction. What then is the difference? We believe it to be this: In Romans 1 the Apostle is speaking of creation, and showing that the heathen ought to have learned that there was something superhuman, something divine therein. But in Colossians 2 the Apostle is speaking of the Person of the Son, and for Him he claims essential deity. “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” He was “God manifested in the flesh” — “God with us” — “very God and very man.” It is remarkable that the words referred to above, namely, “theotees” and “theiotees” occur only once; the, former in Colossians 2:9, “Deity;” the latter, in Romans 1:20, “Divinity.”