There is a lot of this in the Bible. Person X does things through Person or Thing Y. For instance, God humbled Pharaoh indirectly via the 10 Plaques. Your mother does things through you.
In another thread, 2 poster's took a deep dive in who does things: God or the angels or prophets. Talking through the burning bush and laying waste to Sodom and Gomorrah were 2 specific examples. In short, agents of God do things at God's command. We say God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah even though an angel actually did the deed. It's just that the deed was done at God's direction.
I see the statement by Jesus about the temple in the same figurative way. By contrast Acts 17:31 & Acts 13:32-33 are explicit in that God actually raised Jesus from the dead (as opposed to Jesus himself). Like Sodom and Gomorrah, we have reason to believe it was not actually God but angels who actually raised the lifeless corpse to a glorified body - at God's command. I say this because the Apostles found angels at the empty tomb saying he is risen. Either way, the explicit text Acts 17:31 & Acts 13:32-33 is that God did the acting and Jesus was acted upon. Subjects and objects of sentences are not one in the same and neither are God and Jesus.
Ah, no, you can’t explain away the verses that don’t fit your understanding. They must fit together seamlessly, not war with one another. It is our understanding that must change, otherwise we will forever be asking, well which of these is true...Did John have it wrong or did this other writer have it wrong?? Will you also say John spoke figuratively when he said, No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son,
who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
For
I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
There are so many verses. I have only given 2 of them here. You can’t explain them away.
You are insisting on the verses fitting your understanding. That isn’t how our mind is renewed.
