Month: August 2009

Jesus is WHO?!

Hello everyone. Before diving into the waters tonight, I’d like to thank Dan for his comment yesterday. I see your point, but I can’t say I agree entirely. However, it is a secondary issue. I’d also like to thank all my friends who dropped by in the post that I made to be for my friends. It was great to get to see you all and I hope that we can do it again soon sometime.

Tonight, we’re going to be continuing from what we said last night about Romans 10:9 and the identity of Jesus in that verse. We’re going to start again at verse 9 and go all the way to verse 13. If you need to review last night again, that’s fine.

9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Our first Scripture quotation in this passage comes from Isaiah 28:16 and is seen as a way of avoiding the scourge of death. Isaiah tells of a stone being laid in Zion and whoever trusts in that stone will not be disturbed. That stone is the foundation. The reference is pointing to Psalm 118:22

The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;

This became a favorite verse of the New Testament writers. Jesus was that capstone that was laid. The one that had been rejected by all had become the hope of all Israel. However, our main point will be what happens in verse 13. Paul tells us there that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The reference is Joel 2:32.

And everyone who calls
on the name of the LORD will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as the LORD has said,
among the survivors
whom the LORD calls.

What is important for our purposes today is what ties in to verse 9. Who is the Lord in Joel 2:32? It is none other than YHWH. Paul has said that if you believe Jesus is Lord, you will be saved, and then comes to a verse with calling on YHWH and says that if you call upon the Lord, you will be saved.

Paul saw calling Jesus Lord and calling him YHWH then as one and the same. This is interesting when we look in the New World Translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and see that in Romans 10:9, they translated Kurios as Lord, but when they get to Romans 10:13, all of a sudden it gets translated as “Jehovah.” This would be quite a shift in the Christocentric argument of Paul however.

The conclusion is that Paul knew exactly what he was doing in quoting this text and what it meant. A Jesus who is less than deity is a Jesus who cannot save. For Paul, to call upon Jesus meant to call upon YHWH. Jesus was one who had the full nature of YHWH and because of that, he could and CAN provide salvation.

Jesus vs. Caesar

Hello everyone. We’ve had a week of various other topics so tonight, we’re going to get back to our main focus, the doctrine of the Trinity. Last we left, we were in the book of Romans. We’re going to be in chapter 10 tonight. Keep this blog in mind as tomorrow will continue what is being discussed here tonight. Our main verse is going to be Romans 10:9, but I want my readers to be sure of the context of the passage so we’re going to start at verse 5:

5Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.” 6But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?'” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7“or ‘Who will descend into the deep?'” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

In this passage, Paul is further describing the way of salvation and how one can be saved. He points out that God is not distant to the people. He is right there in their midst. Yet in describing this righteousness, he sees it all focused in Christ. You don’t have to climb the mountain to Heaven and bring Christ down in order to be righteous. You don’t have to go down to the realm of the dead and bring Christ up in order to be righteous. Christ has come and we can be righteous in him. He did not remain in Heaven and he did not remain in the empty tomb.

What is the way of salvation? It is to believe that Jesus is Lord and confess that. What does that mean? Well the idea is that Jesus is kurios, which is the way the name of YHWH was translated when the Septuagint was being written. Here is the contrast that the Christian community had.

No Jew would say “Jesus is Kurios.” That was the position that was reserved for YHWH. To say that would be considered blasphemy. On the other hand, neither would a Greek say that. Why? Because you had one kurios and that was Caesar. If you said Jesus is Kurios, you would be guilty of treason.

The Christians were making a strong claim and this is the claim that got them in trouble with the Romans and set them apart from the Jews. Worship God? Sure. Okay. The Romans could tolerate that. To claim another person was God and that that one was Lord alone? No. Not at all. That was infringing upon the rule of Caesar. The Romans thus saw the Christians as a threat, especially since the one they were preaching spoke often about his kingdom.

And yet, they made the claim. Why? Because they believed it was true. This claim was most likely made at baptism where they were identifying themselves with Christ and saying he was their Lord instead of Caesar. This didn’t mean they were insurrectionists wanting to overthrow Rome. They weren’t. The Romans didn’t know any better however and weren’t wanting to take any chances.

However, as was said, the Christians made the claim and they survived. They ideology never changed. They always knew what they were confessing. Jesus is Lord and God. It was a claim they were willing to die for. Are we willing to do such today?

To My Friends

Hello everyone! I’m back! I had a marvelous vacation where I was and so tonight, I would like to send a shout to all my friends through the blog and give some thoughts on friendship. It was marvelous getting to see some old friends again and some new friends for the very first time and ponder how much had changed.

Friends are a unique gift as I’ve said. If you’re with your family, you are with people that love you usually because you were born in that position. I realize not all families are this way. There are some families that don’t have love between certain members.  Friends are people who always love you by choice. You are not forced to be someone’s friend. You can be encouraged to be a friend, but it is always a choice on the other person’s part to include you in the circle of friends.

Many of my friends have been with me through a lot and seen the changes that I’ve made in my life. I particularly think of when we got to the testimony time. The things I said I found hard to say even though they were things that were known. I will admit I was very cold in the room that I said them and I was extremely tired at the time, but I wonder if it was just also something so emotional that I found myself breaking up in what I said, and this is someone who has been said to be skilled as a public speaker.

There were memories that were made there that will last a lifetime. I think of the gift exchange also. All of the comments that were made with everyone in the white elephant game wanting everyone else to steal their gift. (I encourage readers to look up the white elephant game if they want the details and want to know about “stealing gifts.”)

I think about having us sit around the breakfast table sharing in the morning, and our group is one I feel comfortable around. I enjoyed our talk on the topic of the cults and getting to go to the arcade. I know one of you at least has a picture of me rocking out on the Guitar Hero game. (What all serious apologists do in arcades.) All of the inside jokes made for a unique ocassion.

I think it was Chesterton who once said that each of us is a great “might-not-have been.” For all of us, there was a possibility that we would not be. Now if we were not, none of us would ever notice that the other were not. We don’t say “Wow. It would be nice if Bob had ever existed.” We have no idea of Bob if he never existed.

We can say that for most everything. When we are with friends, let us consider that they might not have been as well. Each person in your life then that you know and celebrate is a blessing of God for you. There was a chance they would never have been and it’s important to take the time to consider that they are. It is a shame that we in the church don’t take the time to be amazed that things exist, including friends.

So to each of you I was with, I am thankful that you exist. One of the gifts I got at the conference was a wooden item that said “friends” and had barnyard animals on the top. Why did I get it? Because I believe it. Friends are important and I wanted a reminder everyday about the friends that I have in my life.

To my friends then, I salute you, and am thankful that you are not “might-have-beens.”

Happy Birthday!

I’m stepping away from the Trinity study tonight to do a tribute like I often do on birthdays. Also readers, I will be away on vacation tomorrow and won’t be back until Sunday evening. Will there be blogs there? I don’t know. If nothing comes up, don’t panic. I’m alright. I’m just away.

Tonight, I make a tribute to my best friend I’ve got in this world. That would be my roommate. We chose this path together to continue our studies and it’s been nearly two years and I’ve found you to be a friend through thick and thin.

I remember the time that our neighbors were giving me problems where they were parking way too close to my car just because they thought I was parking in “their spot.” I would have to get in on the passenger side just to get in, nothing easy with my back. What do I find that Saturday morning when I wake up? It’s early in the morning and although you like to sleep in, you’re outside in the parking lot taking pictures.

We’ve already been on numerous adventures such as the drive up north to meet some friends. Tomorrow, we’ll be going south to meet others. We’ve driven to the beach and we’ve been to conferences together as well as seen numerous debates.

I am constantly amazed that you put up with all my bizarre idiosyncracies yet in the end, I find you’re by my side and I really don’t believe I could do most of the things that I’m doing in this town without having a friend like you by my side. It is something that brings stability in a world that is usually experienced in chaos.

I often think of how this started because you contacted me in what was seemingly an out of the blue manner one day. I didn’t know you from Adam and now look where we’ve come to. All because of that one approach, I now find that I have a true friend. Wherever the path leads from now, I see the friendship over time growing deeper and stronger.

Aristotle spoke more of friendship than of any other virtue and what a value it was to have true friends. I believe he was right. I smiled recently when I read some of his Nicomachean ethics and how he said that friendship reaches its highest level in living together. It is then that you truly seek to bring your friend into your life as much as possible and give them the highest trust that can be given between humans aside from a marriage covenant.

Friends are different from family. We sense that we have an obligation often to love our family. Most people that we do love as family are people that we probably wouldn’t form a bond with if they weren’t family. Friendship is different. No one is forced to be a friend with another. Friendship is instead chosen.

Friendship often begins with a common bond that the two friends have in common. For us, it was interest. We both love apologetics and we both love the Final Fantasy series.  If you come in here and you see me playing the After Years, I know we can immediately have a conversation. While I don’t really understand much of what goes on in Final Fantasy XI, it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the conversations about it, and I do.

This also makes me ponder friendship in eternity. What does Heaven do with friendships? It certainly doesn’t destroy them. It instead perfects them. It makes them be what they were meant to be all along. While we do work to build each other towards sanctification, we still fall short here. I wonder what it will be like in Heaven when we dwell as perfected human beings. What will our friendship be then? It is fascinating.

I’m pondering now how you were surprised for your birthday, but you knew something was coming still. It was just where and when. It’s this knowledge that we know our friends won’t forget the important events of our lives. We know that about them. It’s a unique event as friends seek to celebrate one another.

That’s what a birthday is ultimately. It’s a chance for others to celebrate that that person really exists and for a person to marvel the gift of their own existence on their own birthday. Each person who celebrates the birthday of another is saying “I am happy that you are a part of this world.” However, we do not just mean this world but rather our world. That somehow our paths got crossed.

Tomorrow, we begin an adventure together, but as I ponder it, it is true that everyday is an adventure. Friendship is a never-ending story that continues on into eternity. Each day is just writing another chapter of that story.

I think now of something a friend told me who loves the Lord of the Rings. It is of how Frodo and Sam see the end of their journey and wonder what tales will be told about them. Frodo plays the part of one of their children and says “You left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the Brave – I want to hear more about Sam. Frodo wouldn’t have gotten far without Sam.” Sam sees him as mocking and says that he was being serious about the stories. Frodo says he was serious about his own comment as well.

This is friendship. Friends can do well on their own, but when they come together, both are for the better. There is no one first and then the other. Friends fight side by side. Happy birthday my friend, and thank you for being by my side.

God Over All?

Hello everyone. Today we continue our look at the doctrine of the Trinity moving to one of the texts that is covered in the great work of Murray J. Harris, Jesus as God. We’re in the book of Romans and tonight, we’re in the ninth chapter. Our main focus will be verse 5, but it gets built up to by verses 1-4 so we will have Romans 9:1-5.

1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Paul is speaking about his love for his brethren, the Israelites, and how they are the ones to whom the promises of God came. He wraps it up by saying that from them came even Christ and then surprisingly says “Who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.”

That seems odd to many people. Why would Paul suddenly have a reference directly using God in reference to Jesus here? For some, it is more likely that he is here referring to the Father instead of to the Son. Is that the case?

First off, the term “theos” in the NT does not always refer to the Father. It can refer to the Son and it can refer to pagan gods. The term can also refer to satan. It is by no means limited. When it is used of the Father however, it seems to more often take the role of a proper name, which is why Jesus is never called Theos when the term “Father” shows up.

More often than not, Jesus is referred to as Kurios, or Lord. This could be seen as a wise move on the part of the early church in distinguishing between the Father and the Son. I have been in dialogues with someone saying the New Testament never uses God in reference to a triune being. Let’s suppose that’s true. It would not counter my position at all. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was since Theos more often refers to the Father and Kurios to the Son.

Note also that as Harris points out, the main usage of Paul does not have to be the exclusive usage. Because Paul generally uses Theos to refer to the Father in the Trinity, it does not mean that he is obligated to do so every time.

Note also that this whole passage is about Christ. It is out of place to speak about, and from them is Christ, but don’t focus on him because God is over all blessed. For Paul who sees Christ as the greatest blessing to the world and that Israel was seen as despised and rejected at the time, it would make sense that he’d want to counter them being the lowliest of all by saying the blessing that came from them goes all the way to the top.

What does this passage tell us then? It tells us that Jesus is fully human in that he descended from the patriarchs. It also tells us that he is the Messiah. Furthermore, it gives him the nature of full deity by saying he is God over all. Finally, it says that he will be eternally praised. Thus, we have here one of the strongest statements of the deity of Christ in the New Testament.

That’s it for today! See you next time!

Inseperable

Hello everyone. I hope things are going well for all of you.  We’ve been going through the Bible understanding the doctrine of the Trinity. Right now, we’re in the epistle to the Romans. We’ve been spending a lot of time in the 8th chapter and that’s where we’re going to be again tonight. We’re starting at verse 31 tonight and going all the way through the end, to verse 39:

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Once again, let me remind readers that I am not getting into secondary issues here. This is a passage often used in the debate on eternal security and while I have a stance on that, I do not intend to write on the topic. However, this is a passage on justification no doubt and it is interesting that it is a constant interplay between the Father and the Son.

God is said to have given up his own Son. This was something unique. It wasn’t like God could make another Son and give him up. He couldn’t. John 1:18 has already shown us that this is the only one. There is none like him and there can never be one who is exactly like him. We shall be like him one day in our moral and human character, but certainly not in the sense of being eternal deity!

God is the one who justifies in Pauline thought and in this process is the Son who is making intercession. The two are constantly working together. God is the one who justifies and he justifies us in Christ Jesus the Lord.

It’s also interesting how he speaks about being separated from the love of Christ. It’s not the love of YHWH. It’s the love of Christ. How did Christ earn such a position in Paul’s Jewish mind? It can only be that he had shown who he was by his resurrection. He was not a blasphemer. He’d said the truth. It could be when Paul got hit on the road he realized immediately that all Jesus had said about himself was true and had to work out the ramifications of that.

When we get to the end, we find that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. There is no concept of the love of God apart from the work of Christ. Now this doesn’t mean that OT saints didn’t know the love of God or those who never heard necessarily, but it means if there had been no Christ, there would have been no justification whereby we could be made righteous and enter into the love of God. Apart from Christ, we are enemies of God. In him, we are not.

So where are you today?

Conformed to the Image

Hello everyone. I hope all my readers are ready to continue our study in the doctrine of the Trinity. We’re going to be continuing our walk through the book of Romans and we’re in chapter 8, which I have often had people tell me is one of their favorite passages in the Bible. We’re going to be looking at two verses tonight. Open your Bibles or an appropriate Bible website to Romans 8:28-29:

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

This is one of the greatest encouragements in Scripture and something we need to keep in mind when the problem of evil rears its head. Too often in our walk we often act like something has taken God by surprise. No matter where I am in my walk, I often try and remember “God has seen this moment and it has passed through his hand first.” Now I’m not going to tell you I’ve mastered this lesson. Far from it. It is a rather calming belief when I begin to really think about it.

Let us consider what we know about human beings first. We are created in the image of God according to Genesis 1:26-27. This is what ultimately sets apart humanity from every other species on Earth. There is no other creature that bears the image of God.

Man’s problem ultimately is that he is in the image of God but he does not act like he is in the image of God. Cats will be cats and dogs will be dogs, but humans are the species that we see that seem to continually go against their nature. We often speak of people acting “inhuman.” We do not speak of dogs acting “indog.”

There was only one person who did not fail at this, and that was Christ. Christ is the one who shows us what humanity is meant to be like. We all attempt to live human lives. Christ is the only one who truly lived a human life. In Christ, we have the true unity of humanity and divinity, though let us be sure that this does not mean the natures overlap. His humanity is still humanity and his deity is still deity and he is still one person in all of this.

What is the good news of this passage? The fulfillment of the image of God is to be conformed to the likeness of the Son. If you are to be like God, then you must be like the Son. Why? Because the Son is the exact representation of the Father’s nature as we will see in Hebrews. If you have a belief about the nature of deity that does not match with what you see in the Son, it is incorrect. If you have a belief about humanity that does not match what you see in the Son, it is also incorrect. Note we are talking about essential natures. This isn’t saying that people of different sexes or races aren’t human.

The biblical promise is also that you might be conformed but that you will be. You will be like the Son one day. When God looks at you on the final day, he will see his Son and thus not see anything that contradicts his nature. Now this does not mean you will be deity. You will not be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, etc. You will be what God wants to see however, a being that is like himself.

Why? You will be like the Son, a being who has the exact nature of deity. Isn’t that good news?

Co-Heirs

Hello everyone on this Saturday evening. At least, as I write this, it is a Saturday evening. I hope all is going well for you. We’re going to of course tonight be continuing our look through the New Testament as we seek to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. We’re going through the Pauline epistles now and we’re in the book of Romans and in the 8th chapter. Tonight, we’ll be looking at verses 12-17.

12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I blogged on this passage a long time in my look at the concept of hearing the voice of God. That will not be my purpose of reviewing this passage tonight, but for all who are interested in that, the post can be found here:

http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/feeling-led/

Let’s note that at the start, the Spirit is the one who enables us to live holy and righteous lives. Paul has no concept of holiness coming to us without our submitting to the Spirit. We know from other Scriptures that this is because the Spirit is God working in us.

Why is this the case however? It is because the lives we live indicate that we are indeed sons of God. This is where we definitely have to be clear in our terminology. Are we sons of God the same way that Jesus is the Son of God?

Not at all. The passage tells us that we are co-heirs of Christ and we will share in his glory. However, the main difference comes to how Christ came to be an heir and how Christ came to glory. John 17 has already told us that Christ had that glory before the world was and he had it with God.

This is what was so important in John 20:17. Christ is the archetype of what it means to be a Son of God. He is that by his very nature. He has eternally been Son. We are sons only by adoption. Paul stresses this point in verse 22. We await our adoption. Not that we are not adopted already, but we wait the full fulfillment of this in glory.

Note also again how Trinitarian this passage is. We have God, Christ, and the Spirit all together working. This passage makes no sense without the doctrine of the Trinity.  It is this beauty that we see at work in this passage and working to bring the children of God, which is what we are, into full fruition and adoption of sons so we may share in the glory of Christ for all eternity.

That final remark is something that we should keep in mind in this study. It is important to know the Trinity, but make sure you know the difference the Trinity makes in your day-t0-day life. The Trinity’s not just a nice theory on paper that helps you study systematic theology. The Trinity invites you into the wonder of who God is and enables you to live a life that brings glory to him.