Sorry for the massive delay, school started and a lot of other stuff was going on, but now things have settled a little bit so I am trying to get back on track.
I am still going through the incarnation, and today I am going to talk shortly about the virgin birth.
This is a doctrine that many liberals would dismiss because it seems too miraculous but I believe we must contend for it. Here I will talk about some implications of the virgin birth and then why we must hold to this doctrine.
1. The virgin birth sets apart Jesus as unique.
No one had ever had a virgin birth apart from Jesus. He is the only fulfillment of prophecy (Is. 7:14). From His birth Jesus was set apart, different, marked off as unique. He is the Only Begotten. The virgin birth is Jesus' glory alone.
2. The virgin birth reveals the miraculous and mysterious.
It is the prelude to the life of Jesus, it announces that this baby is miraculous. From beginning to end, His birth and resurrection is miracles-filled and points to the power of God. It is also a introduction to the mysterious, His birth is a paradox, a pregnant virgin. Jesus was confounding, darkness does not know or understand Him (John 1). The virgin birth was the perfect introduction to the perfect Saviour.
3. The virgin birth reveals the will of God
Jesus was not conceived by human will nor human consent. God directed and ordained it. God announced to Mary that she will be with child, He did not ask for her permission. The virgin birth is a sign of the loving desire of the sovereign God to save His people.
4. The virgin birth highlights the hypostatic union
The mystery of the God-Man is clearly depicted in the virgin birth. Jesus is God because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is Man because He was in Mary's womb.
5. The virgin birth provided the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45)
Just as the first Adam came to be through God apart from man's will, so too was Jesus born apart from man's will. Adam was made without corruption, Jesus was never corrupted. Jesus is truly the only seed of the woman (Gen 3:15), man had no part in His birth. Just as Adam was tempted, so too was Jesus yet He was without sin (Heb 4:15). Adam brought death but Jesus brought life.
Why we must contend for the virgin birth?
If there is no virgin birth, then there is no fulfillment of prophecy. Then Jesus is not the Messiah.
If there is no virgin birth, then Mary is a liar and brought up Jesus as a liar.
If there is no virgin birth, the the Scriptures are mistaken.
If there is no virgin birth then we are fooled into believing a false gospel.
Let us reflect on the uniqueness of Christ, the mystery of His life, the beauty of God's pursuit for His people, and the life that is gained through the blood of Jesus.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Incarnation - Hypostatic Union
Now back to our discussion of the incarnation.
Hypostatic Union is a term that talks about the relationship between the God nature of Jesus and the man nature of Jesus. That is, the union between the God nature and the human nature in the person of Jesus. Jesus was 100% man, 100% God. This article gives a few example where Jesus is presented as God and as man.
Chalcedonian Creed
The doctrine of hypostatic union was established in the Chalcedonian Creed in 451 A.D. as a response to heresies surrounding the nature of Jesus. Here is the English translation of it.
The creed states that Jesus is "truly man and truly God", the two natures are to be acknowledged
"inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably". What does this mean? There is distinction between the man nature and the God nature, however, the distinction does not separate the two. Jesus is not two persons but one. The two natures are not to be confused with one another, they do not change nor are they divisible or separated. Jesus is one person with two natures.
Why does it matter?
Many cults would distort this truth by either emphasizing one nature of Jesus over the other, or simply removing one nature from Jesus. One example are the JWs who focuses on the humanity of Jesus and sees that Jesus is a created being and not God. Therefore, we must know and contend for the truth about the person of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, this doctrine is absolutely necessary. Jesus must be fully man for Him to be our representative (Rm 5), our sympathetic high priest (Heb 4), and our sacrifice (Heb 10). On the other hand, Jesus must be fully God to forgive our sins, to overcome death, and to give us life. Only God has the power and He is the only one mighty to save. Without the union of the God and man nature in Jesus our faith could not be realized.
A Glorious and Mysterious Union
The hypostatic union is a profound mystery. How can one person possess fully two natures? It is as mysterious and important as the Trinity; how can one God be three persons? Mind cannot fathom the fullness of it. Yet just as the Trinity is glorious, so too is the union of the two natures in the person of Christ. In this union, Jesus is infinitely above us and at the same time similar. He is familiar with our trials, joys, temptations, pains, weaknesses and emotions of man and have the power to not only comfort and counsel us but to deliver and save. The man Jesus lived the life we could not lived, die the death that we should have died and rose again to now mediate between God and man. The God Jesus worked out our salvation, overcame death, and gave to us redemption, forgiveness, justification, and eternal life.
Only the Godman can sympathize with us and save us. Only the Godman can be the sacrifice and the priest. All in all, the mystery of the incarnation and the glorious reality of the hypostatic union should lead us to behold Jesus Christ in awe and exalt Him in our worship. That only in this Godman can we be truly rescued from the wrath of God. Praise Him!
Hypostatic Union is a term that talks about the relationship between the God nature of Jesus and the man nature of Jesus. That is, the union between the God nature and the human nature in the person of Jesus. Jesus was 100% man, 100% God. This article gives a few example where Jesus is presented as God and as man.
Chalcedonian Creed
The doctrine of hypostatic union was established in the Chalcedonian Creed in 451 A.D. as a response to heresies surrounding the nature of Jesus. Here is the English translation of it.
The creed states that Jesus is "truly man and truly God", the two natures are to be acknowledged
"inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably". What does this mean? There is distinction between the man nature and the God nature, however, the distinction does not separate the two. Jesus is not two persons but one. The two natures are not to be confused with one another, they do not change nor are they divisible or separated. Jesus is one person with two natures.
Why does it matter?
Many cults would distort this truth by either emphasizing one nature of Jesus over the other, or simply removing one nature from Jesus. One example are the JWs who focuses on the humanity of Jesus and sees that Jesus is a created being and not God. Therefore, we must know and contend for the truth about the person of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, this doctrine is absolutely necessary. Jesus must be fully man for Him to be our representative (Rm 5), our sympathetic high priest (Heb 4), and our sacrifice (Heb 10). On the other hand, Jesus must be fully God to forgive our sins, to overcome death, and to give us life. Only God has the power and He is the only one mighty to save. Without the union of the God and man nature in Jesus our faith could not be realized.
A Glorious and Mysterious Union
The hypostatic union is a profound mystery. How can one person possess fully two natures? It is as mysterious and important as the Trinity; how can one God be three persons? Mind cannot fathom the fullness of it. Yet just as the Trinity is glorious, so too is the union of the two natures in the person of Christ. In this union, Jesus is infinitely above us and at the same time similar. He is familiar with our trials, joys, temptations, pains, weaknesses and emotions of man and have the power to not only comfort and counsel us but to deliver and save. The man Jesus lived the life we could not lived, die the death that we should have died and rose again to now mediate between God and man. The God Jesus worked out our salvation, overcame death, and gave to us redemption, forgiveness, justification, and eternal life.
Only the Godman can sympathize with us and save us. Only the Godman can be the sacrifice and the priest. All in all, the mystery of the incarnation and the glorious reality of the hypostatic union should lead us to behold Jesus Christ in awe and exalt Him in our worship. That only in this Godman can we be truly rescued from the wrath of God. Praise Him!
The Fall- Revisited
Taking a brief detour from the planned entry, I want to address something discussed in sunday school. Disclaimer: long entry.
During sunday school this week we talked about Gen 3. The main point that the teacher was making was that God wants the best for us and satan wants us to think that God is withholding something good from us. Which I completely agree. My post about the Fall can be found here.
There was a question raised in the class which I tried to answer but was very unclear in my attempt as vinci would point out =P. so to make ammends I am posting hopefully a more clear response to the question (just for you vinci).
The question was: In Gen 2:17 it says, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die", however Adam and Eve did not die "on that day" in fact Adam died in Gen 5:5 having lived 930 years. Did God make a mistake or lied? Isn't the serpent more truthful then in saying "you surely would not die" in Gen 3:4?
I am gonna give three answers here. One is what people usually give "spiritual death", one is what I found on the internet, and lastly one that I tried to give in class. Here the problem is in Gen 2:17. "on that day... you will surely die."
First attempt is to say that the "die" in this warning given by God is refering to spiritual death. which I believe is true but not complete. Looking at the Hebrew, it seems to suggest an emphatic physical death. Here is what Garry Brantley, a Bible scholar says:
The usage of the phrase “you shall surely die” (mot tamut) indicates that a violent, physical death is under consideration. This grammatical construction juxtaposes an infinitive absolute (mot), and the imperfect verb (tamut), which provides the emphatic nuance you will “surely, or indeed” die (Lambdin, 1971, p. 158). While it is true that the word “die” can refer to natural causes or to violent death (Smick, 1980, 1:496), the manner in which the verb is used in this phrase indicates the latter. In fact, this grammatical construction appears several times in the Hebrew Bible, and commonly denotes a physical, violent death (1995, 15:23).
This lead us to the second response, "on that day" is not really on that day. That is to say that the phrase "on that day" is speaking more about certainty of death rather than the immediacy of death. There seems to be examples of this in OT where the phrase "on that day" is speaking more of a certainty of outcome than speaking about the chronology of outcome (cf. 1 Kings 2:37) More from here. Also, there is some leniency in the Hebrew about the phrase "on that day", other occurance of this Hebrew word in the OT sometimes is interpreted as "when" or not a literal day. This is addressed on this website.
Now to my answer. Disclaimer: I am not sure I am right, but I want to show my line of reason. One of the teacher threw out the challenge for us to make sense of it without other books of the Bible and without knowledge of Hebrew. This is basically saying if you only had the book of Genesis can you reconcile the problem you see in Gen 2 and Gen 3. Furthermore, from what I believe about the clarity of Scripture, which I think means that Scripture was written so that everyone can understand, not just scholars or clergy, I believe that we can make sense of Gen 2 and Gen 3.
Here is my line of thought. This is a "difficult" text. We don't use difficult text to establish theology but use clear text to establish what we know about God and to use that to make clear the difficult texts. The difficulty in Genesis 2:17 was already pointed out. Did Adam DIE on THAT DAY which he took the fruit? The underlying accusation is that God made an empty threat, or was wrong in His warning. We know that God does not lie nor can He lie. We also know that what He proclaim will come to pass. So I will approach this text knowing that No. God did not make a mistake in Gen 2:17.
How then can I back up my assertions? Context. First, let's deal with death. Is this narrative about death or is the focus on taking the fruit and rebellion? Just by doing a quick word search you can see that tree and fruit was mentioned much more than death and references of death. The issue here is rebellion. Moreover, death, that is physical death, is not the issue. If we are hung up on physical death then we miss the point. If death was really THE problem, then the answer would have been found in the tree of life Gen 3:22 and the warning of God in Gen 2:17 would be void.
The problem, then, is not what is said in Gen 2:17 but our understanding of death. One of the people in the class asked if Adam and Eve knew what death was? How can the warning have any weight if Adam didn't even know what death was? They have not seen death or anything close to death how then can they know? I will venture an answer here. We should not view death here as a thing on its own but as an absence of a thing, namely life or being. Death is the absence of life. Surely, Adam knew what that means, Eve was not there, and then Eve was there. Eve was not being, and then Eve was a being. As Gen 3:19 puts it "For you are dust, And to dust you shall return" Adam knew what it means to die, it is the absence of life, the end of being, returning to dust. Now, if we take that idea of opposites, we can see death in a different light. If life to Adam was life in the Garden: dominion over every creature, perfect communion with God and access to every good thing, then death in a lesser extent is the absence of these things, the end of life in the Garden. These things you can see play out at the end of Gen 3.
How about the phrase "on that day"? I believe it is both speaking of the immediacy and the certainty of death. Immediacy in the lesser sense of death and certainty in the full sense of death, the end of physical life. Why do I say that? We should examine the happenings on the day of the Fall. God curses those who are held accountable and the expell them from the Garden. We must understand Gen 2:17 in light of Gen 3. It can be deduced that, "You will surely die" encompasses the corruption of man and of nature and the separation between man and God and it indeed happen on that day. The effect of the rebellion is immediate. Adam was removed from life as he knew it. The death mentioned also encompasses physical death (cf. Gen 3:19, 5:5). In dealing with physical death the phrase "on that day" emphasizes the certainty of death in full.
With that said, physical death is not the focus of the passage. The themes of rebellion, corruption and separation are the focal point. This separation some might call spiritual death. Here are some closing thoughts: God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Someone in the class said that Gen 2:17 really talks about death physically. Granted that is true, I agree. But that is not the main issue! God's warning is not just that you will cease to exist, but that Adam will exist separated from Him, the source of Life. Adam in the Garden was in the presence of Life; then surely separation from God is separation from Life, that is absence of Life and that is death.
We humans are concerned about physical death and rightly so, who wants to die really? We are given a will to live, you can see it in a dying patient, gasping for air in the last moments of his life. But God is not so much concern about it. Like I said God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Adam MUST die or else God's word would have be void. The solution is not in the tree of life. Then solution is in Gen 3:15, the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ. Note that Jesus defeated death, yet we still die physically, even though we are Christians. Once again God is not concern about our physical death but more so about our standing before Him. Are we in the presence of Life or are we in the absence? When we read Gen 2 and 3, I hope we don't just come out saying because of sin therefore we die, which is true, but rather be convinced of our separation from God, and our need for Jesus. Lastly, with this understanding of life and death, we should not fear death, because in death, we truly know life, that is we are brought into the presence of God, the true essence of Life.
During sunday school this week we talked about Gen 3. The main point that the teacher was making was that God wants the best for us and satan wants us to think that God is withholding something good from us. Which I completely agree. My post about the Fall can be found here.
There was a question raised in the class which I tried to answer but was very unclear in my attempt as vinci would point out =P. so to make ammends I am posting hopefully a more clear response to the question (just for you vinci).
The question was: In Gen 2:17 it says, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die", however Adam and Eve did not die "on that day" in fact Adam died in Gen 5:5 having lived 930 years. Did God make a mistake or lied? Isn't the serpent more truthful then in saying "you surely would not die" in Gen 3:4?
I am gonna give three answers here. One is what people usually give "spiritual death", one is what I found on the internet, and lastly one that I tried to give in class. Here the problem is in Gen 2:17. "on that day... you will surely die."
First attempt is to say that the "die" in this warning given by God is refering to spiritual death. which I believe is true but not complete. Looking at the Hebrew, it seems to suggest an emphatic physical death. Here is what Garry Brantley, a Bible scholar says:
The usage of the phrase “you shall surely die” (mot tamut) indicates that a violent, physical death is under consideration. This grammatical construction juxtaposes an infinitive absolute (mot), and the imperfect verb (tamut), which provides the emphatic nuance you will “surely, or indeed” die (Lambdin, 1971, p. 158). While it is true that the word “die” can refer to natural causes or to violent death (Smick, 1980, 1:496), the manner in which the verb is used in this phrase indicates the latter. In fact, this grammatical construction appears several times in the Hebrew Bible, and commonly denotes a physical, violent death (1995, 15:23).
This lead us to the second response, "on that day" is not really on that day. That is to say that the phrase "on that day" is speaking more about certainty of death rather than the immediacy of death. There seems to be examples of this in OT where the phrase "on that day" is speaking more of a certainty of outcome than speaking about the chronology of outcome (cf. 1 Kings 2:37) More from here. Also, there is some leniency in the Hebrew about the phrase "on that day", other occurance of this Hebrew word in the OT sometimes is interpreted as "when" or not a literal day. This is addressed on this website.
Now to my answer. Disclaimer: I am not sure I am right, but I want to show my line of reason. One of the teacher threw out the challenge for us to make sense of it without other books of the Bible and without knowledge of Hebrew. This is basically saying if you only had the book of Genesis can you reconcile the problem you see in Gen 2 and Gen 3. Furthermore, from what I believe about the clarity of Scripture, which I think means that Scripture was written so that everyone can understand, not just scholars or clergy, I believe that we can make sense of Gen 2 and Gen 3.
Here is my line of thought. This is a "difficult" text. We don't use difficult text to establish theology but use clear text to establish what we know about God and to use that to make clear the difficult texts. The difficulty in Genesis 2:17 was already pointed out. Did Adam DIE on THAT DAY which he took the fruit? The underlying accusation is that God made an empty threat, or was wrong in His warning. We know that God does not lie nor can He lie. We also know that what He proclaim will come to pass. So I will approach this text knowing that No. God did not make a mistake in Gen 2:17.
How then can I back up my assertions? Context. First, let's deal with death. Is this narrative about death or is the focus on taking the fruit and rebellion? Just by doing a quick word search you can see that tree and fruit was mentioned much more than death and references of death. The issue here is rebellion. Moreover, death, that is physical death, is not the issue. If we are hung up on physical death then we miss the point. If death was really THE problem, then the answer would have been found in the tree of life Gen 3:22 and the warning of God in Gen 2:17 would be void.
The problem, then, is not what is said in Gen 2:17 but our understanding of death. One of the people in the class asked if Adam and Eve knew what death was? How can the warning have any weight if Adam didn't even know what death was? They have not seen death or anything close to death how then can they know? I will venture an answer here. We should not view death here as a thing on its own but as an absence of a thing, namely life or being. Death is the absence of life. Surely, Adam knew what that means, Eve was not there, and then Eve was there. Eve was not being, and then Eve was a being. As Gen 3:19 puts it "For you are dust, And to dust you shall return" Adam knew what it means to die, it is the absence of life, the end of being, returning to dust. Now, if we take that idea of opposites, we can see death in a different light. If life to Adam was life in the Garden: dominion over every creature, perfect communion with God and access to every good thing, then death in a lesser extent is the absence of these things, the end of life in the Garden. These things you can see play out at the end of Gen 3.
How about the phrase "on that day"? I believe it is both speaking of the immediacy and the certainty of death. Immediacy in the lesser sense of death and certainty in the full sense of death, the end of physical life. Why do I say that? We should examine the happenings on the day of the Fall. God curses those who are held accountable and the expell them from the Garden. We must understand Gen 2:17 in light of Gen 3. It can be deduced that, "You will surely die" encompasses the corruption of man and of nature and the separation between man and God and it indeed happen on that day. The effect of the rebellion is immediate. Adam was removed from life as he knew it. The death mentioned also encompasses physical death (cf. Gen 3:19, 5:5). In dealing with physical death the phrase "on that day" emphasizes the certainty of death in full.
With that said, physical death is not the focus of the passage. The themes of rebellion, corruption and separation are the focal point. This separation some might call spiritual death. Here are some closing thoughts: God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Someone in the class said that Gen 2:17 really talks about death physically. Granted that is true, I agree. But that is not the main issue! God's warning is not just that you will cease to exist, but that Adam will exist separated from Him, the source of Life. Adam in the Garden was in the presence of Life; then surely separation from God is separation from Life, that is absence of Life and that is death.
We humans are concerned about physical death and rightly so, who wants to die really? We are given a will to live, you can see it in a dying patient, gasping for air in the last moments of his life. But God is not so much concern about it. Like I said God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Adam MUST die or else God's word would have be void. The solution is not in the tree of life. Then solution is in Gen 3:15, the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ. Note that Jesus defeated death, yet we still die physically, even though we are Christians. Once again God is not concern about our physical death but more so about our standing before Him. Are we in the presence of Life or are we in the absence? When we read Gen 2 and 3, I hope we don't just come out saying because of sin therefore we die, which is true, but rather be convinced of our separation from God, and our need for Jesus. Lastly, with this understanding of life and death, we should not fear death, because in death, we truly know life, that is we are brought into the presence of God, the true essence of Life.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Incarnation - The Word became flesh
So after much discussion on the Holiness of God and the sinfulness of man we finally made our way into the meat of the Gospel. We left off with a problem. Man is sinful and God is Holy. Man deserves hell. That's where the Gospel comes in. The Gospel is the good news about the redemptive plan of God that is realized in Jesus Christ. We saw this a little bit in Gen 3:15, when God said that the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head.
For the next couple of entries we will talk about the incarnation.
The incarnation is simply God became flesh, more specifically the second person of the Godhead, the Son.
This is most clear in the first chapter of John which the passage we are looking at in this entry.
The Word...
John 1 begins from the very beginning of time and for vv 1-5 it is clear that the Word is God, John is saying that the Word is the same God that created the universe in Genesis (v3. all things came into being through Him). The Word was not only God but also had a relationship with God (v1-2), He was with God. Lastly, the Word was not just a thing but a person, the Word is referred to as He not it.
...Became Flesh
The climax of the passage is found in v14 when John declared that the Word became flesh! God, who was from the very beginning, became flesh and dwelt among men. Furthermore, v17 clears up who this Word is. He is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word that is from the beginning. Jesus is God in flesh.
So what does it mean that the Word became flesh? Did the Son ceased to be God when He took on flesh? Or did He temporarily lose His God status to become man? The answer is No! God the Son did not cease to be God when He became flesh. He was fully God and fully human in the person of Jesus. The nature of God was united with the nature of man in the person of Jesus Christ. We will talk more about it in the next entry, as I don't want to go outside of this text in John 1 here.
Why did the Word become flesh?
So is this bad news that God became flesh or good news? It could be bad news in the sense that God came to administer pure justice and kill off all the unrighteous people. That would be very bad news. But the whole point of these entries are to talk about the Gospel, the good news, and in fact the incarnation is very good news for those who receive Him! In the Word was life and light, but the world did not receive Him. But the good news is that for those who do receive Him we can become God's children. That's great news!
Furthermore, the fullness of grace and truth (v14) is now among men because of the incarnation. And in His fullness we have all received grace upon grace, or as NIV would put it, one blessing after another (v16).
The incarnation also meant the realization of grace and truth in respect to the law of Moses (v17). V17 had always given me trouble. Here the Law seems to be contrasted with grace and truth, as if they are opposites. But the Law is true! How can it be oppose to grace and truth? What it is saying is that the Law was established through Moses and realized in Jesus. The Law is not on the opposite spectrum of grace and truth but it IS grace and truth and is realized in Jesus, the fulfillment of the Law. This is good news for us, because now we know what the Law is really about. Every time we read the OT and the 5 books of Moses we can now understand it in light of Jesus, He is the full embodiment of grace and truth.
Lastly, in the same line of thought, the incarnation allow us to know God. Jesus was the full, complete, perfect revelation of who God is, because He is God! The person of Jesus explains the Father, He makes the Father known (cf. Jn 14:7-9).
Because of the incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, we can now know the Father, know the Law, know grace and truth, experience true life and light, receive grace upon grace, and become children of God! The incarnation is truly good news and it's only the beginning of the whole Gospel.
Next we will talk shortly about the topic of hypostatic union. Big word, big concept! Stay tuned!
For the next couple of entries we will talk about the incarnation.
The incarnation is simply God became flesh, more specifically the second person of the Godhead, the Son.
This is most clear in the first chapter of John which the passage we are looking at in this entry.
The Word...
John 1 begins from the very beginning of time and for vv 1-5 it is clear that the Word is God, John is saying that the Word is the same God that created the universe in Genesis (v3. all things came into being through Him). The Word was not only God but also had a relationship with God (v1-2), He was with God. Lastly, the Word was not just a thing but a person, the Word is referred to as He not it.
...Became Flesh
The climax of the passage is found in v14 when John declared that the Word became flesh! God, who was from the very beginning, became flesh and dwelt among men. Furthermore, v17 clears up who this Word is. He is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word that is from the beginning. Jesus is God in flesh.
So what does it mean that the Word became flesh? Did the Son ceased to be God when He took on flesh? Or did He temporarily lose His God status to become man? The answer is No! God the Son did not cease to be God when He became flesh. He was fully God and fully human in the person of Jesus. The nature of God was united with the nature of man in the person of Jesus Christ. We will talk more about it in the next entry, as I don't want to go outside of this text in John 1 here.
Why did the Word become flesh?
So is this bad news that God became flesh or good news? It could be bad news in the sense that God came to administer pure justice and kill off all the unrighteous people. That would be very bad news. But the whole point of these entries are to talk about the Gospel, the good news, and in fact the incarnation is very good news for those who receive Him! In the Word was life and light, but the world did not receive Him. But the good news is that for those who do receive Him we can become God's children. That's great news!
Furthermore, the fullness of grace and truth (v14) is now among men because of the incarnation. And in His fullness we have all received grace upon grace, or as NIV would put it, one blessing after another (v16).
The incarnation also meant the realization of grace and truth in respect to the law of Moses (v17). V17 had always given me trouble. Here the Law seems to be contrasted with grace and truth, as if they are opposites. But the Law is true! How can it be oppose to grace and truth? What it is saying is that the Law was established through Moses and realized in Jesus. The Law is not on the opposite spectrum of grace and truth but it IS grace and truth and is realized in Jesus, the fulfillment of the Law. This is good news for us, because now we know what the Law is really about. Every time we read the OT and the 5 books of Moses we can now understand it in light of Jesus, He is the full embodiment of grace and truth.
Lastly, in the same line of thought, the incarnation allow us to know God. Jesus was the full, complete, perfect revelation of who God is, because He is God! The person of Jesus explains the Father, He makes the Father known (cf. Jn 14:7-9).
Because of the incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, we can now know the Father, know the Law, know grace and truth, experience true life and light, receive grace upon grace, and become children of God! The incarnation is truly good news and it's only the beginning of the whole Gospel.
Next we will talk shortly about the topic of hypostatic union. Big word, big concept! Stay tuned!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sin - The Wrath of God
I have been slowly going to the issue of sin and we we wrap it up with a topic that is probably the least talked about in church, the wrath of God and hell.
Just to sum up what we have talked about so far. Sin is the breaking of God's law in any capacity, and it is faithlessness. Because of Adam and his sin everything is corrupted by sin. As a result, everyone after Adam was sinful even from conception. More than that, everyone is totally sinful, in that all that we do and think and desire are corrupted by sin and sinful without God's help. What's worse is that without God's grace we can't even turn to God nor do we want to in our flesh.
What is hell? It's probably a place with fire, as the Bible describes it but it's much more than that. Hell is the complete, total, just sentencing for our sins.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-9
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
Here we see that God is just in sending people to hell which is a place of everlasting destruction and removal from the presence of God. To some, removal from the presence of God seems good, so we got to be careful in the way we understand it. For sinners, there is nothing more pleasing than to know that God is absent, the removal of God is their "heaven". Hell is not simply the absence of God, but it is the fullness of God in respect to His wrath and the absence of God in respect to His grace. What we do know is that hell is a place of eternal torture. Jesus said that it is better for us to lose part of our body than be in hell (Mt 5:29-30). It is probably the most painful and torturous thing you can imagine times a gazillion times. The worst part is we fully deserve every moment of it in eternity. The Bible says that we are all objects of wrath (Eph 2:3).
This is hard to swallow in light of everything that had been discussed about sin. In light of God's holiness and justice, everyone who sins is deserving of hell. All who breaks God's law sins and all who are faithless sins, therefore all non-Christians are deserving of hell, no matter how "good" they seem. Furthermore, EVERYONE deserves hell because of the Fall. What is worst is that because of Original Sin, babies or even those who are in the womb deserves hell. Because of total depravity, we deserves the totality of hell because we are totally sinful. Lastly, because of total inability, we can't save ourselves from hell, furthermore, we don't even want to save ourselves because in our flesh we love sin. How great is our need for Jesus, our savior, who imparts His own righteousness to us and enables us to be right with God.
The fact of the matter is that it is not out of God's character to have a hell or send us to hell, rather it is totally in His character. It does not take away from His love or His grace, instead it magnifies His righteousness and His holiness.
In conclusion, the reality of the wrath of God should lead us to repentance. Furthermore, it should give us a urgency for the advancement of the Gospel. The wrath of of God should lead us to a holy fear of God and finally, the reality of hell should lead us to a immense appreciation of Jesus and the cross. As Christians we must recognize in full and meditate upon the holiness of God, our own sinfulness, and consequently, our deserved wrath, which has been taken away through Jesus. Without it, we minimize the cross and we make little the work of Christ.
Just to sum up what we have talked about so far. Sin is the breaking of God's law in any capacity, and it is faithlessness. Because of Adam and his sin everything is corrupted by sin. As a result, everyone after Adam was sinful even from conception. More than that, everyone is totally sinful, in that all that we do and think and desire are corrupted by sin and sinful without God's help. What's worse is that without God's grace we can't even turn to God nor do we want to in our flesh.
What is hell? It's probably a place with fire, as the Bible describes it but it's much more than that. Hell is the complete, total, just sentencing for our sins.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-9
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
Here we see that God is just in sending people to hell which is a place of everlasting destruction and removal from the presence of God. To some, removal from the presence of God seems good, so we got to be careful in the way we understand it. For sinners, there is nothing more pleasing than to know that God is absent, the removal of God is their "heaven". Hell is not simply the absence of God, but it is the fullness of God in respect to His wrath and the absence of God in respect to His grace. What we do know is that hell is a place of eternal torture. Jesus said that it is better for us to lose part of our body than be in hell (Mt 5:29-30). It is probably the most painful and torturous thing you can imagine times a gazillion times. The worst part is we fully deserve every moment of it in eternity. The Bible says that we are all objects of wrath (Eph 2:3).
This is hard to swallow in light of everything that had been discussed about sin. In light of God's holiness and justice, everyone who sins is deserving of hell. All who breaks God's law sins and all who are faithless sins, therefore all non-Christians are deserving of hell, no matter how "good" they seem. Furthermore, EVERYONE deserves hell because of the Fall. What is worst is that because of Original Sin, babies or even those who are in the womb deserves hell. Because of total depravity, we deserves the totality of hell because we are totally sinful. Lastly, because of total inability, we can't save ourselves from hell, furthermore, we don't even want to save ourselves because in our flesh we love sin. How great is our need for Jesus, our savior, who imparts His own righteousness to us and enables us to be right with God.
The fact of the matter is that it is not out of God's character to have a hell or send us to hell, rather it is totally in His character. It does not take away from His love or His grace, instead it magnifies His righteousness and His holiness.
In conclusion, the reality of the wrath of God should lead us to repentance. Furthermore, it should give us a urgency for the advancement of the Gospel. The wrath of of God should lead us to a holy fear of God and finally, the reality of hell should lead us to a immense appreciation of Jesus and the cross. As Christians we must recognize in full and meditate upon the holiness of God, our own sinfulness, and consequently, our deserved wrath, which has been taken away through Jesus. Without it, we minimize the cross and we make little the work of Christ.
Total Depravity
Now that we have established that everyone is sinful at birth, the next question is how sinful are people? Are people totally sinful, partially sinful or just slightly sinful?
Paul gives us a little insight Rm 7:18 "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." Nothing good lives within the flesh. Every person has flesh, or as NIV puts it, a sin nature. We are born in this flesh, and in this flesh there is nothing good. The answer the the previous question is: All people are born in flesh (cf. John 3:6) and the flesh is totally sinful, nothing good is in it, therefore all people are totally sinful, not partially, not slightly, completely and totally sinful. Some people call this Total Depravity. Type in total depravity in google and you'll get lots of articles that will explain this better than I can but I will write down what I understand of it.
The way I see it is that there are basically two main points. Point one: everyone is corrupted by sin and are totally sinful. Point two: no one has to ability within themselves to please God, to submit to God, to delight in God, or in any way do anything that merits righteousness in God's eye.
What does it mean to be totally depraved? Once again I think this term is kind of weird because you can get the wrong impression by just looking at the term mainly because of the word total. Here total doesn't mean that the person is as bad as he/she can be but means that everything that person does is sinful; every aspect of the person is totally corrupted by sin, the effects of sin is extensive. Everything that we do apart from the grace of God is affected by sin and is sin.
Point two from above says that no one is able to turn to God by their own will, some people call this Total Inability.
Rm 8:7
"because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,"
Here it says that the fleshly mind is hostile to God and it is unable to submit to the law of God. Because of the corruption of sin no one is able to submit to God apart from the help of God.
I will just draw a couple of conclusions to close off.
1. Total depravity should lead us to realize the dire state that we are in
2. It should lead us to appreciate the grace of God, that not only saved us from our sins and gave us a righteousness but also caused us to turn to Him and enabled us to submit to Him
3. It should lead us to forgive others. We are all in the same boat without God. We are all totally sinful.
4. Furthermore, it should free us from religiosity and pride, knowing that apart from God all that we do is sin even the "righteous" acts. We should know that it is God who actually does the good work.
5. It should lead us to full reliance on God, because there is nothing good in us, it is by, through, and to Him that we can do good.
Phil 2:12-13
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Jn 3:21
But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
Paul gives us a little insight Rm 7:18 "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." Nothing good lives within the flesh. Every person has flesh, or as NIV puts it, a sin nature. We are born in this flesh, and in this flesh there is nothing good. The answer the the previous question is: All people are born in flesh (cf. John 3:6) and the flesh is totally sinful, nothing good is in it, therefore all people are totally sinful, not partially, not slightly, completely and totally sinful. Some people call this Total Depravity. Type in total depravity in google and you'll get lots of articles that will explain this better than I can but I will write down what I understand of it.
The way I see it is that there are basically two main points. Point one: everyone is corrupted by sin and are totally sinful. Point two: no one has to ability within themselves to please God, to submit to God, to delight in God, or in any way do anything that merits righteousness in God's eye.
What does it mean to be totally depraved? Once again I think this term is kind of weird because you can get the wrong impression by just looking at the term mainly because of the word total. Here total doesn't mean that the person is as bad as he/she can be but means that everything that person does is sinful; every aspect of the person is totally corrupted by sin, the effects of sin is extensive. Everything that we do apart from the grace of God is affected by sin and is sin.
Point two from above says that no one is able to turn to God by their own will, some people call this Total Inability.
Rm 8:7
"because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,"
Here it says that the fleshly mind is hostile to God and it is unable to submit to the law of God. Because of the corruption of sin no one is able to submit to God apart from the help of God.
I will just draw a couple of conclusions to close off.
1. Total depravity should lead us to realize the dire state that we are in
2. It should lead us to appreciate the grace of God, that not only saved us from our sins and gave us a righteousness but also caused us to turn to Him and enabled us to submit to Him
3. It should lead us to forgive others. We are all in the same boat without God. We are all totally sinful.
4. Furthermore, it should free us from religiosity and pride, knowing that apart from God all that we do is sin even the "righteous" acts. We should know that it is God who actually does the good work.
5. It should lead us to full reliance on God, because there is nothing good in us, it is by, through, and to Him that we can do good.
Phil 2:12-13
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Jn 3:21
But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Original Sin
Let's continue to look at the issue of sin. Last time we looked at the Fall and we'll continue to look into the effects of Adam's sin.
Rm 5:19
"For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous"
It is clear that because of Adam's sin all were made sinners. All of mankind are in the state of sin because of the Fall, this is what some people will call Original Sin. I think it's a weird term because it's not really talking about the first sin but talking about sinfulness that is credited to everyone because of the first sin, weird term but next time you hear it you'll know what people are talking about.
So the next question is how bad is this original sin. Who are affected by it and when are they affected by it? To answer the question who are affected by it, I will point to the popular verse Rm 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". EVERYONE is affected by sin. Everyone is sinful. Other verses that support this: Psalm 143:2, Galatians 3:22, Romans 11:32, Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:9-12,
1 Jhn 1:8,10.
Next question, when are we sinful? Are we sinful from birth or are we only affected by sin in the sense that our sin nature incline us to sin? The Bible I think is pretty clear that we are sinful from birth.
This verse I think is the most drastic and clear. Ps. 51:5 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." The psalmist here says that he was sinful at conception, I think that's very clear that from birth or even before birth we are already sinful. There is no such thing as a blank state or "tabula rasa". I did a verse search and found these other ones: Prov 22:15, Gen 8:21, Ps. 58:3.
So here is the deal because of the Fall everyone is sinful from conception. From Genesis 3:15 we see that because of sin we need a savior. Here we see that everyone is sinful from birth. Everyone need a savior from birth. This is hard to take for some people but the truth is that we are in a pretty bad state ever since birth. There is no such thing as childhood innocence.
For Christians the concept of Original Sin should lead us to praise God for the gift of Jesus Christ the one man that brought righteousness to many. Just as Paul says in Rm 5:12-20. Here is an excerpt Rm 5:15 "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!"
Furthermore, the doctrine Original Sin should give us an urgency to bring to Gospel to everyone, even those who are "young". Jesus welcomed to little children, let us also bring even the little ones to Him.
Rm 5:19
"For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous"
It is clear that because of Adam's sin all were made sinners. All of mankind are in the state of sin because of the Fall, this is what some people will call Original Sin. I think it's a weird term because it's not really talking about the first sin but talking about sinfulness that is credited to everyone because of the first sin, weird term but next time you hear it you'll know what people are talking about.
So the next question is how bad is this original sin. Who are affected by it and when are they affected by it? To answer the question who are affected by it, I will point to the popular verse Rm 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". EVERYONE is affected by sin. Everyone is sinful. Other verses that support this: Psalm 143:2, Galatians 3:22, Romans 11:32, Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:9-12,
1 Jhn 1:8,10.
Next question, when are we sinful? Are we sinful from birth or are we only affected by sin in the sense that our sin nature incline us to sin? The Bible I think is pretty clear that we are sinful from birth.
This verse I think is the most drastic and clear. Ps. 51:5 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." The psalmist here says that he was sinful at conception, I think that's very clear that from birth or even before birth we are already sinful. There is no such thing as a blank state or "tabula rasa". I did a verse search and found these other ones: Prov 22:15, Gen 8:21, Ps. 58:3.
So here is the deal because of the Fall everyone is sinful from conception. From Genesis 3:15 we see that because of sin we need a savior. Here we see that everyone is sinful from birth. Everyone need a savior from birth. This is hard to take for some people but the truth is that we are in a pretty bad state ever since birth. There is no such thing as childhood innocence.
For Christians the concept of Original Sin should lead us to praise God for the gift of Jesus Christ the one man that brought righteousness to many. Just as Paul says in Rm 5:12-20. Here is an excerpt Rm 5:15 "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!"
Furthermore, the doctrine Original Sin should give us an urgency to bring to Gospel to everyone, even those who are "young". Jesus welcomed to little children, let us also bring even the little ones to Him.
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