Prax, I will come back to your previous reply to my exploration questions.
Do I pray to Jesus?
Of course I pray with my spiritual-mindeness directed toward my Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.
Using the name which was given to the begotten Son, seems to introduce unnecessary vagueness that does not serve a conversation; a debate YES, a conversation, NO.
So are you asking...Do I pray to the Son? I suppose I do.
I do not 'visualize any plurality of any kind because a visible plurality does not exist. My father in heaven has provided a means for my earthly understanding to consider an express image of that which is invisible, a point of approach to help me in my pursuit of the Spirit from within the infirmities of my present mortality. All spiritual blessings are in heavenly places in CHRIST, in the anointing of God's spirit.
You are well aware that I am a staunch advocate of a POV that the scriptures mean what they say when they witness an Eternal Father and a begotten Son. Also, that I advocate a position that the scriptures are not out to fool us by knowing that we would think that the word 'SON' means an offspring --when it actually is a hypostatic union of two natures revealing God himself. I can not out-jargon you, though my old nature would love to give it a try
.
No man comes unto the father except by the Son, NO MAN.
The Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
Whatever can be had and experienced within the realm of the Spirit, in the Kingdom of God, can only be had by entry through the door provided, the way made.
The true witness of
John 8:24 is: we either acknowledge that the Christ is the Son of God or we die in our sins.
....compare this with SOBER ADMONITION of
1 John 4:15;
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Prax,
John 8:24 is about confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, the same understanding given Peter by the begotten Son's father, the same witness that voice of the father spoke from the clouds at the begotten Son's baptism and transfiguration.
Our life is by our faith in the Son of God:[
Gal 2:20]
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Our entire transformation process is the result of the Spirit of God indwelling us just as our example of our heavenly father indwelling his only begotten Son, it is our knowledge of the Son of God that lights this path.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Prax, do you want to overcome the world? If so, here's how...
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Why Prax, why is God so tricky in the mind of bible scholars? So indirect, so down right elusive? My answer; He is NOT!
1John 5:10 is what should be preached every time some teacher wants to scare people with
John 8:24 (with italics included).
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
If I believe in a Father and a son I have a far better perspective to receive the admonition of
1John 5:10 then if I believe that God became a man, added to himself a human nature in some hypostatic union.
The father and the son being MODES rather than a FATHER and a SON, puts me in far greater peril of the sober warning of
1John 5:10 then believing that the father fathered/begat and the Son was begotten just like you were born of the action of involving your father.