Over the course of about 4-5 months, the Bible study I lead read and studied the book of Acts. I am going to use my notes to create a series of posts that go through the entire book in small sections depending on where a coherent stopping point is in the text. I am going to attempt to keep these relatively short (less than 20 minutes; there are 8 posts that are 20 minutes or longer) so that if you are interested in studying Acts with each post, it won't be too overwhelming trying to read a lot of scripture and look at the post as well. This post will serve as an index where you can find all of the posts for the entire book. As I finish each post, I will update this one with the appropriate link. I plan on posting these 5 times a week, which means it will take 13 weeks. The total running time is 12 hours, 26 minutes, 1 second. Here is the outline of the book as I will cover it:
Part 1: Introduction and Acts 1:1-11 (Jesus' instructions and ascension, 19:21)
Part 2: Acts 1:12-26 (Apostles wait for the promise of the Father and select a new apostle, 10:22)
Part 3: Acts 2:1-13 (The HS falls on the day of Pentecost, 10:25)
Part 4: Acts 2:14-21 (Peter's speech: Pentecost prophesied, 19:55)
Part 5: Acts 2:22-47 (Peter's speech: Preaching Jesus, 24:49)
Part 6: Acts 3:1-10 (Lame beggar healed, 6:36)
Part 7: Acts 3:11-26 (Peter preaches in Jerusalem, 15:16)
Part 8: Acts 4:1-12 (Apostles vs. Council, Round 1, Part 1, 10:46)
Part 9: Acts 4:13-22 (Apostles vs. Council, Round 1, Part 2, 14:04)
Part 10: Acts 4:23-31 (Boldness in witnessing, 11:20)
Part 11: Acts 4:32-5:16 (Joseph, Ananias, Sapphira, Signs and Wonders, 21:57)
Part 12: Acts 5:17-42 (Apostles vs. Council, Round 2, 20:30)
Part 13: Acts 6:1-7:1 (Deacons selected, Stephen arrested, 18:03)
Part 14: Acts 7:2-8 (Stephen's speech: Abraham, 13:45)
Part 15: Acts 7:9-16 (Stephen's speech: Joseph, 5:23)
Part 16: Acts 7:17-43 (Stephen's speech: Moses, 9:48)
Part 17: Acts 7:44-47 (Stephen's speech: Idolatry and the Temple, 6:34)
Part 18: Acts 7:48-53 (Stephen's speech: Answering of the charges, 13:56)
Part 19: Acts 7:54-8:3 (Stephen stoned, 7:20)
Part 20: Acts 8:4-25 (Church persecution and Samaria evangelized, 13:05)
Part 21: Acts 8:26-40 (Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, 15:05)
Part 22: Acts 9:1-19a (Saul converted, 15:07)
Part 23: Acts 9:19b-31 (Saul preaches Jesus, 11:44)
Part 24: Acts 9:32-43 (Peter works healings, 8:05)
Part 25: Acts 10:1-8 (Cornelius sends for Peter, 6:04)
Part 26: Acts 10:9-16 (Peter has a vision, 7:03)
Part 27: Acts 10:17-23a (Peter goes to Cornelius, 3:37)
Part 28: Acts 10:23b-48 (Peter delivers the Gospel to the Gentiles; the HS falls on them, 10:53)
Part 29: Acts 11:1-18 (Peter tells Jerusalem about the Gentiles, 6:36)
Part 30: Acts 11:19-30 (Disciples and then Barnabas and Saul in Antioch, 11:01)
Part 31: Acts 12:1-13:3 (James dies; Peter arrested and freed; Herod dies; Barnabas and Saul sent, 11:05)
Part 32: Acts 13:4-12 (Barnabas and Saul in Cyprus, 6:06)
Part 33: Acts 13:13-52 (Barnabas and Saul in Antioch in Pisidia, 18:48)
Part 34: Acts 14:1-7 (Barnabas and Paul in Iconium, 4:13)
Part 35: Acts 14:8-23 (Barnabas and Paul in Lystra, 6:04)
Part 36: Acts 14:24-28 (Barnabas and Paul in Antioch in Syria, 2:47)
Part 37: Acts 15:1-21 (Jerusalem Council, 14:10)
Part 38: Acts 15:22-35 (Council's Letter to Gentiles, 28:51)
Part 39: Acts 15:36-41 (The separation of Barnabas and Paul, 3:32)
Part 40: Acts 16:1-15 (Paul in Macedonia, Lydia converts, 12:38)
Part 41: Acts 16:16-40 (Paul jailed in Philippi, 14:21)
Part 42: Acts 17:1-9 (Paul in Thessalonica, 7:29)
Part 43: Acts 17:10-15 (Paul in Berea, 3:41)
Part 44: Acts 17:16-34 (Paul in Athens, 24:34)
Part 45: Acts 18:1-17 (Paul in Corinth, 6:39)
Part 46: Acts 18:18-23 (Paul travels to Antioch in Syria, 3:21)
Part 47: Acts 18:24-28 (Apollos in Ephesus, 5:46)
Part 48: Acts 19:1-20 (Paul in Ephesus, 17:52)
Part 49: Acts 19:21-41 (Riot at Ephesus, 10:27)
Part 50: Acts 20:1-16 (Paul in Macedonia, Greece, and Troas, 12:30)
Part 51: Acts 20:17-38 (Paul in Miletus speaks to Ephesian elders, 20:10)
Part 52: Acts 21:1-26 (Paul in Jerusalem, 19:05)
Part 53: Acts 21:27-36 (Paul arrested by Jews, 6:13)
Part 54: Acts 21:37-22:21 (Paul's speech to Jerusalem, 13:28)
Part 55: Acts 22:22-23:11 (Paul as a Roman vs. Council, 11:08)
Part 56: Acts 23:12-22 (Jews plot to kill Paul, 3:49)
Part 57: Acts 23:23-35 (Paul taken to Caesarea, 7:35)
Part 58: Acts 24:1-21 (Paul speaks to Felix the governor, 9:58)
Part 59: Acts 24:22-25:12 (Paul appeals to Caesar, 7:54)
Part 60: Acts 25:13-27 (Paul's case told to Agrippa, 2:16)
Part 61: Acts 26:1-32 (Paul speaks to Agrippa and Bernice, 18:35)
Part 62: Acts 27:1-12 (Paul sails for Rome, 4:14)
Part 63: Acts 27:13-44 (Storm while sailing and shipwreck, 6:15)
Part 64: Acts 28:1-10 (Paul in Malta, 3:25)
Part 65: Acts 28:11-30 and Summary (Paul in Rome, 28:32)
Monday, December 26, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
Book Review: Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ
*This will be my last post of the year. Next week, December 26th, I am going to go ahead and post the index for my bible study on the book of Acts. This series will run Monday through Friday, from Monday, January 2nd to Friday, March 31st.The total running time for the series is about 12 hours. There are 65 posts, ranging in time from about 2 minutes to about 30 minutes, with most of them in the 10-15 minute range.*
I am going to do a quick review of the book: Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ written by Robert M. Bowman, Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski. This is a short book for a topic so big, but it is packed with information about the subject on which it speaks. The book has a popular level feel to it; in both its writing style and its presentation. It is very easy to read, except one chapter that goes into several arguments about the Greek language. Despite its easy to read style however, in terms of the amount and level of information, it is academic in its scope. I have been surprised, after looking at the chapter titles and overall length, how chock full of useful and insightful information this book contains.
While this book is only about part of the Trinity, 2/3rds of it really, God the Father and Jesus Christ, it presents a clear understanding of how the New Testament writers carefully wrote about Jesus Christ in light of their strong belief that God is one. They clearly represent Jesus as God, but not as the Father. When I converted, this was a topic I struggled with mightily. How can it be that God is both the Father and the Son? The second time I ever read the Bible all the way through, I highlighted every reference I could find, in both the Old and New Testaments, that seemed to represent the Trinity. There were a lot. Once you start looking for it, you see it everywhere. This book has surprised me in how deep and broad the evidence is for the deity of Christ. Needless to say, Jesus is God, and this book is a great resource for i) affirming your own belief in the Godhood of the Son and ii) for defending this doctrine from skeptics and other "Christian" relgions (i.e. LDS, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.) who deny this fact.
The authors make it real easy to absorb the basic information as well by offering an acrostic to remember for why Jesus is God: HANDS. They then fill in the reasons in each chapter. Here is the acrostic
Jesus shares the...
Honors due to God: worship, prayer to, singing to, faith in, reverence
Attributes due to God: eternal, uncreated, immutable, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, incomprehensible
Names of God: YHWH, Lord, Shepherd, Rock, Bridegroom, Savior, first and last
Deeds that God does: creation and sustainment of the universe, saving people from sin, spiritual blessings, speaking with absolute truth and authority, raising the dead, judges all humanity
Seat of God's throne: Jesus shares God's very position of divine rule over all creation
In closing, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to better understand the fact that Jesus is God or those of you who may encounter "Christians" who do not affirm the Trinity and need a resource to defend what really is, the doctrine of the Christian faith. Here is a link: Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ.
I am going to do a quick review of the book: Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ written by Robert M. Bowman, Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski. This is a short book for a topic so big, but it is packed with information about the subject on which it speaks. The book has a popular level feel to it; in both its writing style and its presentation. It is very easy to read, except one chapter that goes into several arguments about the Greek language. Despite its easy to read style however, in terms of the amount and level of information, it is academic in its scope. I have been surprised, after looking at the chapter titles and overall length, how chock full of useful and insightful information this book contains.
While this book is only about part of the Trinity, 2/3rds of it really, God the Father and Jesus Christ, it presents a clear understanding of how the New Testament writers carefully wrote about Jesus Christ in light of their strong belief that God is one. They clearly represent Jesus as God, but not as the Father. When I converted, this was a topic I struggled with mightily. How can it be that God is both the Father and the Son? The second time I ever read the Bible all the way through, I highlighted every reference I could find, in both the Old and New Testaments, that seemed to represent the Trinity. There were a lot. Once you start looking for it, you see it everywhere. This book has surprised me in how deep and broad the evidence is for the deity of Christ. Needless to say, Jesus is God, and this book is a great resource for i) affirming your own belief in the Godhood of the Son and ii) for defending this doctrine from skeptics and other "Christian" relgions (i.e. LDS, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.) who deny this fact.
The authors make it real easy to absorb the basic information as well by offering an acrostic to remember for why Jesus is God: HANDS. They then fill in the reasons in each chapter. Here is the acrostic
Jesus shares the...
Honors due to God: worship, prayer to, singing to, faith in, reverence
Attributes due to God: eternal, uncreated, immutable, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, incomprehensible
Names of God: YHWH, Lord, Shepherd, Rock, Bridegroom, Savior, first and last
Deeds that God does: creation and sustainment of the universe, saving people from sin, spiritual blessings, speaking with absolute truth and authority, raising the dead, judges all humanity
Seat of God's throne: Jesus shares God's very position of divine rule over all creation
In closing, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to better understand the fact that Jesus is God or those of you who may encounter "Christians" who do not affirm the Trinity and need a resource to defend what really is, the doctrine of the Christian faith. Here is a link: Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Monday, December 12, 2016
Jesus' Love and Our Sin
*Starting on Monday, January 2nd, I will be posting a Bible study of the
book of Acts. It will be posted in increments 5 days per week (Mon
through Fri) for 13 weeks (65 posts). I wanted to announce this early,
so that if you so desire, you can plan accordingly to read and study
along with my lessons. On the 2nd, an index post will go up (as well as
the first lesson) that will allow you to navigate more easily as the
series grows in size.*
Think about it for a minute; what are the first words of Jesus' ministry? Don't look down! Think! What are they? Many of you probably are thinking of Jesus' temptations right now. He quotes from Deuteronomy all three times that he rebukes the devil. That is not the beginning of his ministry though. Figure it out yet? It also is not his words to John the Baptist about "fulfill[ing] all righteousness" when he is baptized. Got it now? Jesus' first words of ministry are the following:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17)
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)
It is striking to me that Jesus' first words in his mission to reconcile the lost to the Father were "repent". Repent literally means to change one's mind. Why did Jesus tell everyone to change their mind? Change their mind about what? Paul answers that in his letter to the Colossians. As he extols the majesty of Jesus Christ and his peacemaking mission by way of the cross, he follows that with this: "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds," (Col 1:21). That is why Jesus called everyone to change their mind. They (and we!) were in open rebellion to God; alienated from Him, hostile in our thinking about Him, and sinning against Him in our every action. This is the direct result of our sin, which separates us from God with a chasm that we cannot ever hope to bridge under our own power.
The next question we must ask is: "Why?" Why did Jesus come down to earth to die for us if we were all in open rebellion against him (remember, Jesus is God) in both thought and deed? Now this you know: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Love. Jesus came because he loves us. That in and of itself is incredibly profound. But, we should keep reading. Because if we do, a fantastic insight can be found within the passage that goes with one of the most famous verses of all time. Here is John 3:16-18:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
I want you to notice that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. That means, in general, when Jesus is going around telling people about the Kingdom of God, he is not condemning them. He is telling them that he has come to save them if they will believe in him. Now think back to his first words. He told everyone to repent. In effect, he was telling everyone that they were sinful, separated from God, and what to do about it: Repent! Change your mind before it's too late! Jesus, in telling people that they were sinners and needed to repent, was not condemning anyone. Let's look at this in a logical syllogism:
1. If Jesus did not come to condemn the world, then his words and actions did not condemn anyone.
2. Jesus did not come to condemn the world. (John 3:17)
3. Therefore, Jesus' words and actions did not condemn anyone.
Jesus told people about their sinful ways without condemning them. The insight here concerns our efforts to evangelize the lost. Many people are nervous about sharing the gospel because they are aware that they have to give the "bad news" before the "good news". People must understand that they are lost before they can understand that they need to be saved. This means telling them about their sinful ways and calling on them to repent and believe in Christ. Our culture has made it taboo to tell people that what they think is wrong and that you have the truth. This makes evangelism even more daunting because we are conditioned in many ways to think that if we tell someone they are wrong, then that is rude and intolerant. Our Lord Jesus Christ, always the counterculturalist, has another message: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In other words, you are wrong, everything is not okay with you, you need to be saved from yourself. This is part of the message you should be delivering to people when you share the gospel. Using Christ as our example and realizing, as I argued above, that Jesus' calling everyone to repentance was not condemnation, it can be seen that our evangelizing efforts that include merely telling people they are sinners and to repent isn't condemnation either. In fact, Jesus came because he loves us. Logic again:
1. If Jesus came because he loved the world, then his words and actions were loving towards the world.
2. Jesus came because he loved the world. (John 3:16)
3. Therefore, Jesus' words and actions were loving towards the world.
And another:
1. Jesus' words and actions did not condemn anyone.
2. Jesus' words and actions were loving towards the world.
3. Therefore, Jesus' words and actions did not condemn anyone and were loving towards the world.
Society is wrong. Telling people to repent because they are sinners is both loving and not condemnatory. This should give us comfort. Even if our society cannot see the truth of Jesus' words, we can trust that God, who knows all the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, is pleased when He sees us delivering the truth to a lost world.
Think about it for a minute; what are the first words of Jesus' ministry? Don't look down! Think! What are they? Many of you probably are thinking of Jesus' temptations right now. He quotes from Deuteronomy all three times that he rebukes the devil. That is not the beginning of his ministry though. Figure it out yet? It also is not his words to John the Baptist about "fulfill[ing] all righteousness" when he is baptized. Got it now? Jesus' first words of ministry are the following:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17)
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)
It is striking to me that Jesus' first words in his mission to reconcile the lost to the Father were "repent". Repent literally means to change one's mind. Why did Jesus tell everyone to change their mind? Change their mind about what? Paul answers that in his letter to the Colossians. As he extols the majesty of Jesus Christ and his peacemaking mission by way of the cross, he follows that with this: "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds," (Col 1:21). That is why Jesus called everyone to change their mind. They (and we!) were in open rebellion to God; alienated from Him, hostile in our thinking about Him, and sinning against Him in our every action. This is the direct result of our sin, which separates us from God with a chasm that we cannot ever hope to bridge under our own power.
The next question we must ask is: "Why?" Why did Jesus come down to earth to die for us if we were all in open rebellion against him (remember, Jesus is God) in both thought and deed? Now this you know: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Love. Jesus came because he loves us. That in and of itself is incredibly profound. But, we should keep reading. Because if we do, a fantastic insight can be found within the passage that goes with one of the most famous verses of all time. Here is John 3:16-18:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
I want you to notice that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. That means, in general, when Jesus is going around telling people about the Kingdom of God, he is not condemning them. He is telling them that he has come to save them if they will believe in him. Now think back to his first words. He told everyone to repent. In effect, he was telling everyone that they were sinful, separated from God, and what to do about it: Repent! Change your mind before it's too late! Jesus, in telling people that they were sinners and needed to repent, was not condemning anyone. Let's look at this in a logical syllogism:
1. If Jesus did not come to condemn the world, then his words and actions did not condemn anyone.
2. Jesus did not come to condemn the world. (John 3:17)
3. Therefore, Jesus' words and actions did not condemn anyone.
Jesus told people about their sinful ways without condemning them. The insight here concerns our efforts to evangelize the lost. Many people are nervous about sharing the gospel because they are aware that they have to give the "bad news" before the "good news". People must understand that they are lost before they can understand that they need to be saved. This means telling them about their sinful ways and calling on them to repent and believe in Christ. Our culture has made it taboo to tell people that what they think is wrong and that you have the truth. This makes evangelism even more daunting because we are conditioned in many ways to think that if we tell someone they are wrong, then that is rude and intolerant. Our Lord Jesus Christ, always the counterculturalist, has another message: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In other words, you are wrong, everything is not okay with you, you need to be saved from yourself. This is part of the message you should be delivering to people when you share the gospel. Using Christ as our example and realizing, as I argued above, that Jesus' calling everyone to repentance was not condemnation, it can be seen that our evangelizing efforts that include merely telling people they are sinners and to repent isn't condemnation either. In fact, Jesus came because he loves us. Logic again:
1. If Jesus came because he loved the world, then his words and actions were loving towards the world.
2. Jesus came because he loved the world. (John 3:16)
3. Therefore, Jesus' words and actions were loving towards the world.
And another:
1. Jesus' words and actions did not condemn anyone.
2. Jesus' words and actions were loving towards the world.
3. Therefore, Jesus' words and actions did not condemn anyone and were loving towards the world.
Society is wrong. Telling people to repent because they are sinners is both loving and not condemnatory. This should give us comfort. Even if our society cannot see the truth of Jesus' words, we can trust that God, who knows all the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, is pleased when He sees us delivering the truth to a lost world.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Monday, December 5, 2016
God's Image in Man: Creation, Fall, Salvation
*Starting on Monday, January 2nd, I will be posting a Bible study of the book of Acts. It will be posted in increments 5 days per week (Mon through Fri) for 13 weeks (65 posts). I wanted to announce this early, so that if you so desire, you can plan accordingly to read and study along with my lessons. On the 2nd, an index post will go up (as well as the first lesson) that will allow you to navigate more easily as the series grows in size.*
In the previous two weeks we have discussed what God's image in man is not and what it is. We saw in the post about what God's image in man is that the attributes or characteristics that God has communicated to us that make up our being made in His image have all been corrupted by the putrefying effects of sin. Today, we are going to expand on that theme by looking at the image in the Garden of Eden in creation, what happened to the image when Adam fell, and finally, how God is restoring that image in His elect Church.
Creation is where we will start. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1). As God created, things were good. Light was good (1:4); land and seas were good (1:10); vegetation was good (1:12); sun, moon, and stars were good (1:18); living creatures were good (1:25); everything He made was very good (1:31). When we look a bit closer at the creation of man we see that i) God made man in His image expressly to "have dominion" over all the animals (1:26), ii) both male and female were created in the image of God (1:27), and that iii) God blessed them in their dominion as His last act of creation on the sixth day (1:28-31).
In Genesis chapter 2 we see more specifics about the creation of man that give us some inferences about the image. Namely, that Adam was created with freedom, goodness, and rationality. His freedom is evident in 2:16-17. There God warns Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he can eat any other tree he would like. When coupled with the fact that Adam ate from that tree in chapter 3, it becomes apparent that Adam had the freedom to choose to eat from the tree or not. In other words, Adam could have not sinned. Adam being created with goodness is seen in God's entrusting him with creation. Adam is told to work and keep it (2:15). In 1:29 Adam is told that the plants are to eat. If we consider these pieces of information together, it shows that Adam had the care of all the animals on the earth. This was part of his dominion as evidenced in his naming the animals in 2:19-20. This shows Adams' goodness, albeit not the moral perfection that God possesses, for the simple reason that God, being love itself, would not put someone/something who was not good in charge of His creation that He had declared very good (1:31). Finally, we see Adam's rationality, which is the quality or state of being reasonable, based on facts or reason, in the fall. We actually see that the rationality was used to i) hide from God because they were naked and ashamed (3:8-10) and ii) to make excuses for eating from the forbidden tree; Adam blames Eve (3:12) and Eve blames the serpent (3:13). Now, of course, this is Adam and Eve using their rationality for the wrong purposes, but in these excuses we see that they were able to reason with the facts of their situation enough that they knew they must have done something wrong and their actions needed excuses to avoid culpability. This leads right into what happened to God's image in man as a result of the fall.
As I discussed in the second post of this series, there were consequences for the fall that directly affect the image of God in man. Humanity lost its freedom and became a slave to sin (Romans 6:16) displaying mainly the aspects of walking in the flesh that Paul says are opposed to the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21). Humanity's goodness that Adam and Eve had in the garden was lost (Romans 3:9-18) and they were separated from God, unable to get back to His presence (Colossians 1:21). Humanity's rationality was corrupted by sin and bound to misunderstand creation, for example, and turn away from God (Romans 1:18-22). This rationality, due to its decay, also cannot be a reliable way in and of itself to discover God. The natural man cannot understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14-16) and needs the Holy Spirit to even call Jesus Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3). Ultimately, due to our rationality being broken, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to show people the way to God (John 16:8-15). But, even in the Garden of Eden, God already had a plan for the salvation of humanity and creation.
Genesis 3:14-15 says: "The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." In the end, God will defeat Satan and evil and death will be vanquished. But that would be to get ahead of ourselves all the way to redemption or glorification. What happens in the mean time? We can plainly see that even with Jesus' sacrificial death things are not right. Do we have to wait for the end for the image of God to be fixed? In a way, yes, the image will not be fixed completely until Christ returns and everything is remade. Right now though, through salvation in Christ, the image is being restored to those who by faith believe in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Typically, salvation is considered to contain three parts: justification, sanctification, and redemption or glorification. Justification is right legal standing before God. Justification is given by God to the sinner who has faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8). This justification makes us righteous in the sight of God (Romans 4:5). Along with justification we are remade. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 says: "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." We see here that we are recreated when we are saved. This is the beginning of the restoration of the image of God in us. In our recreated state, we are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:17-18) and our minds are no longer darkened to the truth of God's word (Ephesians 4:18). This means, being slaves to righteousness, that we are now "called to freedom" (Galatians 5:13) in Christ. Notice also in the 2 Corinthians passage from above that we are not regarded according to the flesh anymore. We have already talked about the fruit of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), but Paul is contrasting those selfish behaviors with the unselfish behaviors found in the recreated saint as they walk in the Spirit. He says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23a). Notice how much those things go to describing the perfect goodness of God. The more we walk in the Spirit, and by contrast, not by the flesh, the more we are like God. This moves us into the second aspect of salvation, sanctification.
Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives (Grudem, Systematic Theology, pg. 746). Sanctification is a lifelong process wherein we are being remade into God's image (2 Corinthians 3:18). Freedom is restored to us as we are constantly renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2) and yielding ourselves to God (Romans 6:13). Freedom reigns in Christ for us and that allows us to live lives of faith wherein our intellect, emotions, will, and spirit are slowly being transformed to more resemble the original image of God that was imparted to Adam and Eve. Our intellect is renewed through the knowledge of God (Colossians 3:10; Philippians 1:9). Our emotions are unchained from their sinful desires and that allows us to display the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23a; 1 Peter 2:11) and put away negative emotions (Ephesians 4:31). Our will, or decision-making faculty, changes from wanting to rebel against God into wanting "to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Our spirit is also cleansed is the sanctifying process (2 Corinthians 7:1). The image of God impacts every aspect of who we are and sanctification is the means by which God restores that image.
Finally, redemption or glorification, is the giving of the resurrection body by Christ to the elect. It will happen at the "last trumpet" when Christ returns (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). At this time, with glorified, perfect resurrection bodies, the image of God will be perfectly restored in us as the sanctification process is brought to completion by God. I will leave you with a passage from Paul, where he contrasts the corrupted image "of the man of dust" (Adam) that we have borne with the perfect image "of the man of heaven" (Jesus):
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:42-49)
In the previous two weeks we have discussed what God's image in man is not and what it is. We saw in the post about what God's image in man is that the attributes or characteristics that God has communicated to us that make up our being made in His image have all been corrupted by the putrefying effects of sin. Today, we are going to expand on that theme by looking at the image in the Garden of Eden in creation, what happened to the image when Adam fell, and finally, how God is restoring that image in His elect Church.
Creation is where we will start. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1). As God created, things were good. Light was good (1:4); land and seas were good (1:10); vegetation was good (1:12); sun, moon, and stars were good (1:18); living creatures were good (1:25); everything He made was very good (1:31). When we look a bit closer at the creation of man we see that i) God made man in His image expressly to "have dominion" over all the animals (1:26), ii) both male and female were created in the image of God (1:27), and that iii) God blessed them in their dominion as His last act of creation on the sixth day (1:28-31).
In Genesis chapter 2 we see more specifics about the creation of man that give us some inferences about the image. Namely, that Adam was created with freedom, goodness, and rationality. His freedom is evident in 2:16-17. There God warns Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he can eat any other tree he would like. When coupled with the fact that Adam ate from that tree in chapter 3, it becomes apparent that Adam had the freedom to choose to eat from the tree or not. In other words, Adam could have not sinned. Adam being created with goodness is seen in God's entrusting him with creation. Adam is told to work and keep it (2:15). In 1:29 Adam is told that the plants are to eat. If we consider these pieces of information together, it shows that Adam had the care of all the animals on the earth. This was part of his dominion as evidenced in his naming the animals in 2:19-20. This shows Adams' goodness, albeit not the moral perfection that God possesses, for the simple reason that God, being love itself, would not put someone/something who was not good in charge of His creation that He had declared very good (1:31). Finally, we see Adam's rationality, which is the quality or state of being reasonable, based on facts or reason, in the fall. We actually see that the rationality was used to i) hide from God because they were naked and ashamed (3:8-10) and ii) to make excuses for eating from the forbidden tree; Adam blames Eve (3:12) and Eve blames the serpent (3:13). Now, of course, this is Adam and Eve using their rationality for the wrong purposes, but in these excuses we see that they were able to reason with the facts of their situation enough that they knew they must have done something wrong and their actions needed excuses to avoid culpability. This leads right into what happened to God's image in man as a result of the fall.
As I discussed in the second post of this series, there were consequences for the fall that directly affect the image of God in man. Humanity lost its freedom and became a slave to sin (Romans 6:16) displaying mainly the aspects of walking in the flesh that Paul says are opposed to the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21). Humanity's goodness that Adam and Eve had in the garden was lost (Romans 3:9-18) and they were separated from God, unable to get back to His presence (Colossians 1:21). Humanity's rationality was corrupted by sin and bound to misunderstand creation, for example, and turn away from God (Romans 1:18-22). This rationality, due to its decay, also cannot be a reliable way in and of itself to discover God. The natural man cannot understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14-16) and needs the Holy Spirit to even call Jesus Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3). Ultimately, due to our rationality being broken, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to show people the way to God (John 16:8-15). But, even in the Garden of Eden, God already had a plan for the salvation of humanity and creation.
Genesis 3:14-15 says: "The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." In the end, God will defeat Satan and evil and death will be vanquished. But that would be to get ahead of ourselves all the way to redemption or glorification. What happens in the mean time? We can plainly see that even with Jesus' sacrificial death things are not right. Do we have to wait for the end for the image of God to be fixed? In a way, yes, the image will not be fixed completely until Christ returns and everything is remade. Right now though, through salvation in Christ, the image is being restored to those who by faith believe in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Typically, salvation is considered to contain three parts: justification, sanctification, and redemption or glorification. Justification is right legal standing before God. Justification is given by God to the sinner who has faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8). This justification makes us righteous in the sight of God (Romans 4:5). Along with justification we are remade. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 says: "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." We see here that we are recreated when we are saved. This is the beginning of the restoration of the image of God in us. In our recreated state, we are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:17-18) and our minds are no longer darkened to the truth of God's word (Ephesians 4:18). This means, being slaves to righteousness, that we are now "called to freedom" (Galatians 5:13) in Christ. Notice also in the 2 Corinthians passage from above that we are not regarded according to the flesh anymore. We have already talked about the fruit of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), but Paul is contrasting those selfish behaviors with the unselfish behaviors found in the recreated saint as they walk in the Spirit. He says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23a). Notice how much those things go to describing the perfect goodness of God. The more we walk in the Spirit, and by contrast, not by the flesh, the more we are like God. This moves us into the second aspect of salvation, sanctification.
Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives (Grudem, Systematic Theology, pg. 746). Sanctification is a lifelong process wherein we are being remade into God's image (2 Corinthians 3:18). Freedom is restored to us as we are constantly renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2) and yielding ourselves to God (Romans 6:13). Freedom reigns in Christ for us and that allows us to live lives of faith wherein our intellect, emotions, will, and spirit are slowly being transformed to more resemble the original image of God that was imparted to Adam and Eve. Our intellect is renewed through the knowledge of God (Colossians 3:10; Philippians 1:9). Our emotions are unchained from their sinful desires and that allows us to display the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23a; 1 Peter 2:11) and put away negative emotions (Ephesians 4:31). Our will, or decision-making faculty, changes from wanting to rebel against God into wanting "to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Our spirit is also cleansed is the sanctifying process (2 Corinthians 7:1). The image of God impacts every aspect of who we are and sanctification is the means by which God restores that image.
Finally, redemption or glorification, is the giving of the resurrection body by Christ to the elect. It will happen at the "last trumpet" when Christ returns (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). At this time, with glorified, perfect resurrection bodies, the image of God will be perfectly restored in us as the sanctification process is brought to completion by God. I will leave you with a passage from Paul, where he contrasts the corrupted image "of the man of dust" (Adam) that we have borne with the perfect image "of the man of heaven" (Jesus):
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:42-49)
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Thursday is Link Around the Internet Day
This week, again, I only have one link for you. The reason is that it is filled with a couple of dozen links to articles all concerned with one general topic: the authenticity of the Christmas story or more specifically, the infancy narrative of Jesus. I know many of us see/read/hear stories that come out this time of year every year that purport to tell us the "real" story or the "facts" about our Lord's birth. Dont' be fooled, people will do anything to remain in their rebellion against God and remember, Paul says we fight "...not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph 6:12) The devil certainly doesn't want people to know the truth. Christ's birth was the beginning of the end for Satan. I would also encourage parents and grandparents not to be caught without an answer for your children and grandchildren. I am always amazed at what Faith picks up and either says or asks questions about. One more thing: if you read nothing else from these links, read about the early Christian dating of Christmas. Many Christians believe that Christmas is merely the mixing of pagan festivals with Christian lingo and that this was part of a forced action of Constantine, the emperor of Rome, in order to get all the "Sun/Son" worshippers on the same page in the early 300's. This conspiracy theory is simply false. Read that article if you read nothing else. Without further ado, here's the link.
1. On Christmas Apologetics
1. On Christmas Apologetics
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