Michael, who is like His Father

Michael, the pre-incarnate Christ was the person of Christ in the form of glory, His Self of glory made glorious by His Father’s Self. The Spirit of God is the glory of God, and the fullness of His glory was His Son, Michael.

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him:

And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.

For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.” (Col. 1:15-19).

The Father poured everything He had into His Son. As Jacob dressed Joseph in a unique and glorious robe, so did God give of His own glorious divinity begetting His glorious, only divine Son. God’s glory is His person. God’s person is His Spirit. The Spirit that we know is Jesus. It’s His Spirit, which is Himself. The Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself.

His person of glory, His Self made glorious by His Father’s Self, would be encapsulated in a one time splendid earthy house ramshackle, empty, and drab after 4,000 years of abuse, the Fullness of His Father’s glory now housed in the body of fallen Adam. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

Pre-incarnate Michael was glory, as His Father was glory. His Father was, is, and ever will be the embodiment of invisible grace and truth. Glory is not light, but grace and truth seen only by God’s angelic hosts, and by a Spirit-quickened conscience in the beings that He made in His image. So was His Son the embodiment of invisible grace and truth—glory. The fullness of His glory was the fullness of grace and truth.

Is Neptune only its Earth-size core? Or, is it the whole gaseous giant? We see a giant orb of blue, and call the whole thing Neptune. Yet, we call Earth only the core of what it used to be. At one time Earth had a dense atmosphere that extended from its surface out to the edge of the restraint put on the water vapor by the gravity of the core, making its pre-creation size that of Neptune. On the second day of creation week, that atmosphere was condensed into an ocean and a pre-Noahic shell above a firmament. And after Noah’s worldwide flood, the shell no longer existed. Now our planet is known only for its rock core.

Likewise, Michael had a condensed divine body of glory, given Him from His Father. His glory remained close to His body of divinity, as His Father filled all of His creation. “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” (Jer. 23:23,24).

Michael had a personality. Yet, He was a personality, glowing with truth and grace and glory, even as Adam had a soul, yet was a soul glowing with light and righteousness and tenderness. “O my soul….” (Ps. 103:1,2 cf, Ps. 42:1-6). Michael was a self as much as He had a self, because His self was His quickening glory, given Him from His Father’s own self. His glory was His essence that formed His body of clearness. His presence was inviting yet challenging, exquisite in mercy yet demanding reverence for the Law of God, “as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song of songs 6:10). “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in His clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.” (Ex. 24:10,11).

But, the power and glory of His person, His self, His Spirit came from His Father’s Self and Spirit and Person. “O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” (John 17:5). Adam embodied his soul, because Adam was a living, walking, breathing expression of his love for his Creator. “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1Cor. 15:45). Like Adam, Michael the Lord God, embodied His self of glory; He was glory as He was a Spirit, a self, Himself. The Spirit that we know is the Lord God Himself. His glory, His Spirit of truth and grace was His clear body.

But, God gave Him to humanity, forever to bear our corporeal body. Michael “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2:6,7). Now His Spirit has a solid exterior; but His holy essence remains unchanged from its original divinity and power. It outshines His human frame like the Sun’s corona cannot be contained behind an eclipsing Moon. As Michael had been from the days of eternity, He is still “the express image of His [Father’s] person, upholding all things by the word of His power.” (Heb. 1:3).

At His baptismal prayer, His Father anointed Him in a special way. He sealed His Son with His Spirit without measure. “Never before have the angels listened to such a prayer. They are eager to bear to their loved Commander a message of assurance and comfort. But no; the Father Himself will answer the petition of His Son. Direct from the throne issue the beams of His glory. The heavens are opened, and upon the Saviour’s head descends a dovelike form of purest light, ―fit emblem of Him, the meek and lowly One.” Desire of Ages, p. 112.

At His baptism the Spirit was the beams of the Father’s glory. And later again the Spirit was an avalanche of effulgence from His Father’s self that for a few hours restored the glory that Jesus had with His Father before the world was. “[Jesus] was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light…. While [Peter] yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” (Matt. 17:2,5).

During the Old Testament, the Spirit of Christ was Michael. He was Spirit, brightness like God, His Father, but, encapsulated in a body of glory to the extreme. The Spirit of Christ has always been the power felt by the prophets, moving them to see and teach His knowledge to mankind.