Absolute #5 God the Holy Spirit

God the Holy Spirit

Absolute Curriculum

Year 1, Lesson 5

Introduction

The last three sessions we have been discussing the persons of the Trinity, and in this session we're going to continue that as we look into the person of the Holy Spirit. Talking about the Holy Spirit, in a Biblically rooted way, can at times feel difficult for us. Part of that may be due to divergent experiences and backgrounds, but often I think it can even spring from the fact that the Bible to some degree speaks less to who He is, and more to what He does. That being said, we do need to see clearly that the Holy Spirit
1) is God
2) is, like the Father and the Son, a person; not merely an impersonal force.



The Godhood of the Spirit



The first thing we need to see is that the Holy Spirit is, in fact, God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”¹ The reason I wanted to start with the Spirit's activity in creation is that we have discussed already the role of the Father and the Son in creation. And here we see in the opening verses of Genesis that the Spirit too was at work. Shaping, forming, bringing order out of chaos. For more explicit statements of the Holy Spirit as God we can turn to the New Testament.



“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”²



So in this story this man and woman sell a piece of property, and then lie about how much of the proceeds have been given to the church. In verse three Peter asks, "why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?'', and in verse four he says, ''you have not lied to man but to God.'' Why did you lie to the Holy Spirit? Lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God. (Which, incidentally, doesn't go well for them - they are struck dead)
We see further evidence of the Spirit's godhood in several Trinitarian statements in the New Testament, the most famous of which is the Great Commission.
''All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.''³
Baptize believers in the name of God, that is, in the the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.



The Person-hood of the Spirit



We won't spend too much time on this next point, but I do want to illustrate that when we talk about the Holy Spirit we are talking about one of the persons of the godhead, and not merely an impersonal force sent out from God. One such place that we see this clearly shown is in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."⁴
There are two things here that point us to seeing the Holy Spirit as a person. First is Paul's instruction not to grieve the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has emotions, and can feel grief. An impersonal force, such as the wind or gravity feels no such emotion. Secondly, we see the person-hood of the Spirit even in how Paul refers to His sealing of believers. He doesn't say, "the Holy Spirit, by which you have been sealed", but rather, "the Holy Spirit, by whom you have been sealed." So we see even in the grammar of the biblical writers this assumption that the Holy Spirit is a person.



The Action of the Spirit



I want to spend the remainder of our time together today talking about the action of the Spirit, first in the life of Jesus, then in the church today. We could discuss the Spirit's action in the Old Testament as well, but I decided that focusing on His New Testament, New Covenant work was more foundational for our discussion in this curriculum.



In Jesus' life



In the life of Jesus, I want to look primarily at three roles the Spirit played.
First, we see the Spirit at work in the conception of Jesus in Mary's womb. In Luke one we read of an angel coming to this young woman, Mary, and telling her that she is going to have a Son. In Luke 1:34-35, we find the question she asks, as well as the angel's reply.



“And Mary said to the angel, 'How will this be, since I am a virgin?' And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.'”



What this isn't teaching, contrary to what some religions say, is the God had sex with Mary. Nothing of the sort. Rather we see that God's creative power comes upon her, and the Holy Spirit forms a new life in Mary's womb without the aid of man, thus this child, Jesus, will be the Son of God Himself. The Holy Spirit did that. So the first thing we see the Spirit doing in Jesus' earthly life is creating Jesus' earthly life.
The second thing we see is that the Holy Spirit anoints and empowers Jesus for ministry. In Mark chapter one we read,

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”⁵



The heavens are torn open, the Spirit descends, and immediately becomes the driving force in Jesus' life and ministry.
Finally, we find that it is the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.



"But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."⁶



In the believer's life



Finally, I want to briefly discuss how the Spirit is present in our lives today; we will address these things more thoroughly in future sessions.
First, we see that it is the Spirit who causes us to be born again into new life. In John 3 Jesus is speaking with a Pharisee named Nicodemus,



“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."⁷



It is the Spirit who blows into the life of a spiritually dead man and makes him born again. But the work of the Spirit does not end there. After He causes us to be born again, he conforms us to the likeness of Christ and causes spiritual fruit to be brought forth.



"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."⁸



Not only does the Spirit cause us to be born again and to bear spiritual fruit, but He equips followers of Christ with the gifts we need to serve one another.



''Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone...All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.''⁹



Finally, we see that it is the Holy Spirit who binds together Christs church and gives us unity. "In him [Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."¹⁰ What Paul says here is that in Jesus, we, the church, are being built into the dwelling place of God. But who us doing this building and this binding? None other than the Holy Spirit Himself.



As I said earlier on, much of the Spirit's work will be covered in more detail as we continue in our studies, but I hope this has given you a taste for the massive scope of who He is and what He does. I want to close today with the words of Jude in Jude 18-21,



'They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.' Amen.

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ge 1:1–2). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All scripture taken from the ESV, unless otherwise indicated.

2Acts 5:1-4

3Matthew 28:18b-19. See also 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Peter 1:2, Mark 1:9-11

4Ephesians 4:30

5Mark 1:9-12

6Romans 8:10-11

7John 3:3-6

8Galatians 5:22-23

91 Corinthians 12:4-6, 11

10Ephesians 2:22

Absolute #4 God the Son- Part 2

God the Son-Part 2

Absolute Curriculum

Year 1, Lesson 4

Video

Intro

In our last lesson we looked at God the Son in His eternal state, as the second member of the Trinity, Creator of all things, and the One who holds all things together, as it says in Hebrews, “by the word of his power.”¹ Today we want to look at Him as He came down into human history, the man Christ Jesus.

Before we dive in I want to read the two passages that we will mostly lean on, two passages the I hope are becoming familiar to you:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth...No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.²

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. ³

He came down

The first thing I want us to notice from these passages is the Jesus, God the Son, the Word, came down to earth. And He not only came to earth, He do so by becoming a man. John 1:14 says that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” He didn't just come for a visit, and He didn't come down in His heavenly glory. He became flesh, and in doing so took on all that it means to be human.⁴ Perhaps you are familiar with the story of how this came to be; an angel appears first to a young girl named Mary, and then to her fiance Joseph, and tells them that though Mary is a virgin, she is going to become pregnant with a Son. This Son will not be just any Son though, this Son will be the Son of God Himself, the One sent to redeem His people from their sins. Fast forward nine months, and this young couple is in a small village called Bethlehem, and because there is no room in the inn, the are forced to deliver the baby in the company of barnyard animals. What a way for God to become man! His birth wasn't announced to kings, but to shepherds; the lowest of the low in their society. This was a most unlikely story. The Son of God not only became a man, He became the humblest of all men, the Son of poor, insignificant people living in a rural village.

Why He came

So why did God the Son come to earth and take on humanity? Why did He humble Himself⁵ and become flesh? Well we see one huge overarching reason, that is accomplished by two things. What is the reason? Hebrews 1:1-2 said that, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” And if you recall in John 1:18 it said, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

So we see that Jesus, the only God who is at the Father's side, the Son, came to make His Father known. It is through Him that we can see what God is like. Remember from our first lesson we noted that the heaven's declare God's glory⁶ such that all men are able to tell not only that God exists, but also they are able to see something of His divine nature and power.⁷ But to know God in the truest sense possible, to have a relationship with Him, to know Him as we were meant to know Him, requires a fuller revelation. We need to know more than just His power right? We need to know about love, and mercy, and grace, because we are sinners who have rebelled against God. And so to know His power is really only enough to know we are in big trouble. But to know more about Him we are going to need to see a clearer picture of His character than we get in creation, and too some extent, even clearer than we can get in the Old Testament. We need a representative from God to come tell us what He is like.

So Jesus comes. But Jesus is better than a mere representative, He is God Himself.⁸ As Jesus puts it in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”

How He reveals

We see the Son revealing the Father in two main ways.

The first is through the very essence of His being. In John 1:14 it says, “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Now we know from the Old Testament prophecies concerning Jesus⁹ that this glory wasn't some kind of physical brilliance that we might conjure up what God would look like as a person. It wasn't a big arms or a chisled jaw that made it clear that Jesus was God's Son. Rather, His sinless manner of life, His miracles, and His authoritative teaching are what made clear the glory of God in this man's life. These things made it clear that Jesus was not just a man. He Had a glory that came from God Himself. As we saw above in John 10, Jesus said He is one with the Father, Colossians 1:15 says that He is, “He is the image of the invisible God,” and our passage in Hebrews one says that, “ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”¹⁰ So Jesus revealed God simply by His presence as the Son of God.

But there is another way in which Jesus displayed the glory of God the Father, and revealed more of His character than perhaps anything else He could have done. He came, as it says in Luke 19:10, “to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus came down to reveal the person and the glory of God by becoming God's perfect, substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Romans 3:21-26 puts it this way,

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect human life, and was sentenced to a brutal death on a Roman cross. But unlike the story many folks will tell you today, this isn't just a tragic tale of a young inspirational teacher being cut down before his time, dying a martyr's death. Rather, this was the plan of God before the foundation of the world¹¹, to send His Son into human history, to bear the sins of men, that those who believe in Him might not perish, but have eternal life.¹² Jesus goes to the cross, and because He is a man, the only perfect man, He is an acceptable substitute for us. As a man, He can die in our place. But a mere man would not have been able to bear the weight of his own sin, let alone the sins of the world. This is why it is so pivotal to know that Jesus is God. Because as God, He was able to take take on all of our sin, and the wrath that God has toward those sins, and He bore them in His own body on that tree.¹³ He propitiated, or totally drank up and satisfied, the wrath of God toward you and me. Jesus makes it possible for me to be cleansed of my sin, and to be called a child of God, if I will place my faith in Him.¹⁴

And now?

So where is Jesus now? Hebrews 1:3 tells us that, “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” What this sitting down of the Son signifies is that He has finished all that is necessary for us to be saved. His work is enough. You don't need to work your way to Him, He has already done all the work, such that He is able to sit down at the right hand of God on high.

This is not the end of the story though, because we also read in Scripture that Jesus will return.

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, ²⁸ so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”¹⁵

For those whom He has saved, our response should be that of the apostle John at the end of the book of Revelation,

“He [Jesus] who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”¹⁶

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Hebrews 1:3). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All scripture taken from the ESV, unless otherwise noted.

2 John 1:1-4,14,18

3 Hebrews 1:1-4

4 The Westminster Confession puts it quite ably, “The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance. So that the two whole, perfect, distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.” Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 8, section 2, as printed in Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994) pg 1183.

5Philippians 2:8

6Psalm 19:1

7Romans 1:20

8John 1:1

9E.g., Isaiah 53:2

10Hebrews 1:3

11Ephesians 1:3-14

12John 3:16

131 Peter 2:24

14John 1:12

15 Hebrews 9:27-28

16 Revelation 22:20-21

Absolute #3 God the Son- Part 1

God the Son – Part 1

Absolute Curriculum

Year 1, Lesson 3

Intro:

Last session we discussed who God the Father is, and you might remember the following statement:

“God creates by speaking; but His speech is not like our speech. His speech is not the reverberating of atoms (for when God first spoke there were no atoms!). His speech is His creative action and revelation of Himself, especially through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.”¹

Today we are going to start our look into God the Son, the Word of God. Our study will split into two parts, first taking a shorter look at the Son as He eternally has been with God, and then next week taking a more extended look at His coming to earth, His work here, and where He is now. I want to emphasize here again, that these videos are only giving you the tip of the iceberg on these subjects, an introduction. There is so much more we could say, and hopefully as we cover more ground some of these things will start to fit together better in your mind.

The Word

I want to start our look at the Son by opening of John's gospel:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God.”²

The John's words here echo the opening words of the Bible, “In the beginning God” comes to us in this gospel as “In the beginning was the Word.” We will see as we go on in this text that the similarity is not a mistake or coincidence. The Word was in the beginning. He is eternal. Back before the beginning, there was Word, the eternal Son of the Father. Verse one says that the Word was there in the beginning with God. Of course, the fact that the Word is with God means that there is a distinction between their persons. This is important. Remember our three-fold definition of the Trinity?

1. God is three persons.
2. Each person is fully God.
3. There is one God.³

This gives us a framework for understanding how John, the writer of this gospel, can say that the Word was with God and that the Word was God. The Word of the Father is a distinct person from the Father, but there is unity. He is not a different God. He cannot be separated from God. So what else do we need to know about Him?

Creator of all things

If we continue on in chapter one of John, we read the following, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”⁴

All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that has been made. We discussed in the last session the fact that God the Father is the Creator of all things. How can the Son also be the Creator of all? Do you remember how God the Father created? He created by His Word. The speech of God the Father is inseparable from the action of the Son. God created all things through His Son, the eternal Word.

We see some very similar words in Paul's letter to the Colossians,

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”⁵

By Him all things were created. Through Him all things were created. For Him all things were created. He is the preeminent One⁶, the One whom all creation should worship and adore. Paul also notes something else here in Colossians that is worth thinking about.

Holding it together

Did you notice in verse 17 of Colossians 1 that it says, “in Him all thing hold together”? So what we have here is not just a creator who makes everything and then steps away and lets things run, without any involvement. That is what the deists taught a couple centuries ago, and that is how many of us function today. Maybe we believe that God made the world, but now He doesn't have much to do with it. Paul says that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, created the world and keeps it together. Creation doesn't exist on it's own account. If God decided He could make it vanish in an instant, and He would be doing no wrong. It's His, He owns it, He created it. But He wills that it continue existing, and thus Christ continues to keep holding it together.⁷

This is truly mind-blowing when you consider our topic for the next session. God the Son comes to earth as a man, Jesus of Nazareth. Conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a young girl named Mary. Which means that while Jesus was an unborn infant in His mother's womb, He was still upholding the universe, for in Him all things hold together. God the Son came down to earth, but He could not cease to be God, or the universe He entered would have ceased to exist. Pretty cool, isn't it?

Concluding

The main thing I want us to walk away from the lesson with today is that man Jesus Christ, who we will be discussing next week, is first of all God the Son. He isn't kind of God, He isn't a man who became god, and He isn't God-lite. He always has been, and always will be, the eternal Word of the Father; in the beginning with God and in the beginning God. Jesus is God. He is worthy of our worship.

1Will Dole, Absolute Curriculum, (Plummer, ID: South Lake Youth Ministries, 2014)

2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (John 1:1-2). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All Scripture taken from the ESV, unless otherwise noted.

3Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994) pg 231

4 John 1:3

5 Colossians 1:16-17

6Colossians 1:15 says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” This could be confusing, as we have been stating that Jesus (the Word) is eternal, how could He then be the firstborn? Grudem comments on this helpfully: “Colossians 1:15...is [best] understood to mean that Christ has the rights or privileges of the 'first-born'--that is, according to biblical usage and custom, the right of leadership or authority in the family or one's generation...So Colossians 1:15 means that Christ has the privileges of authority and rule, the privileges belonging to the 'first-born,' but with respect to the whole creation. The NIV translates it helpfully, 'the firstborn over all creation.'” Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994) pg 243. Emphasis Grudem's.

7See also Acts 17:22-34, especially verses 25 and 28.

Absolute Lesson #2: God the Father

Lesson 2

God the Father

Absolute Curriculum

Year 1, Lesson 2

Introduction (Trinity):

Last time we considered the importance of Scripture in knowing God. This time we are going to dive into the question of “Who is God?”, which we said last week was the most fundamentally important question we could ask as human beings. Before we get ahead of ourselves though, we need to become familiar with a word you won't find anywhere in your Bible; and that is the word “Trinity.” The doctrine of the Trinity can be summed up most simply with the following three statements:

1. God is three persons.
2. Each person is fully God.
3. There is one God.¹

This of course is not an exhaustive teaching on the Trinity, but it does give us the basic elements of the doctrine. Many hours, books, and broken Sunday School lessons have been devoted to attempting to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. While I will never suggest that we shouldn't try to understand a biblical doctrine, I think it is important to realize that the men who developed this doctrine in the early days of the church didn't come at it as a mystery to be solved, but rather developed it as a way of explaining the mystery of how God in Scripture is presented as three Persons in one Being.² To say it in a slightly different way, the doctrine of the Trinity isn't a mystery that we try to figure out, the doctrine of the Trinity is a framework that helps us understand what the Bible tells us about God. It keeps us in balance by not letting us forget the three-fold truth that God is three persons, each person is fully God, and there is one God.

God the Father: Creator

Who are the three persons of the Trinity? We gain perhaps the clearest statement of this in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”³ So, God is three persons, and the names of these persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each fully and equally God, yet living together throughout all eternity in perfect unity as one being. What I want to do today is look at God the Father. What is He like? Over the next couple of sessions we will then look at the person of the Son and the person of the Spirit, and we will conclude our study on God by discussing some of the attributes of God.

Who is God the Father? The Nicene Creed⁴ opens with this statement, “I believe in one God and Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.”⁵

Doesn't say a whole lot, does it? Essentially they define the Father as the Maker, or Creator, of all that there is. They say virtually nothing else about Him. Part of this is because of when the creeds of the church were written. Very few people in the church back then had any questions about who God the Father was, the questions that were swirling around at that time centered around Jesus. We will discuss some of those next time. But establishing that God is the Maker of all is a good place to jump from today.

Is this the clear teaching of the Bible? Yes, the church has believed and confessed this for over 1600 years, but is this what the Bible actually says? In a word; yes. The Bible is unequivocal on this point. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”⁶ The first verse of the Bible says that God did what? He created the heavens and the earth, which is a more poetic way of saying that He made everything. How did He make everything? By His Word. Verses 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, and 26 of Genesis one all open with the phrase, “And God said.” When we think of God's word our thoughts generally go (rightly) straight to the Bible. But we need to realize that the term has more attached to it in the Bible than just the Bible itself. As J.I. Packer puts it, “God's word in the Old Testament is his creative utterance, his power in action fulfilling his purpose.”⁷ This is absolutely true, in fact we see that at the beginning of John's gospel he refers to Jesus as “the Word.”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”⁸

So God creates by speaking; but His speech is not like our speech. His speech is not the reverberating of atoms (for when God first spoke there were no atoms!). His speech is His creative action and revelation of Himself, especially through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Sender of the Son

Which leads us to the next thing we need to know about God. God the Father sent His Son into the world. Jesus said, “the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.”⁹

God the Father sent the Son into the world, to fulfill two primary purposes.

The Revelation of the Father

^“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”¹⁰

God sent the Son into the world to make the Father known. The Father has never been seen, and so the only way for us to truly come to know Him was for His Son to come and reveal Him. But even with such revelation, we cannot come to know God, because we have sinned. We sit under His just wrath. We need more than information, we need to be saved from our sin if we are to know God. Which leads us to the other main reason the Father sends Jesus.

To Save the World

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ 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.”¹¹

God did not only send His Son, but gave Him, that whoever places their faith in Christ might have eternal life. God's goal in this was to save the world through Christ. To save you, and to save me from our sinfulness and to remove the condemnation that we deserved. Which leads us to the last thing I want to cover in relation to God the Father.

Planner of Salvation

^“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”¹²

Paul here ascribes praise to God the Father for all He has given us in Jesus Christ. While we will probably look a little more closely at these verses in the future, what I want s to notice today is this: God the Father chose us, Paul speaking here of those who are saved, before the foundation of the world. That is, before the sun came up in the sky, before there was a sky for a sun to come up in , before there was an earth for the sun to shine upon, God the Father was planning the salvation of, and predestining for adoption, all those who would believe. God the Father has planned salvation from eternity past. This is a wonderful truth. God the Father has revealed Himself in His Son, purchased Salvation in His Son, and this is according to the plan He has set out long before the foundations of this world were laid. Perhaps the most fitting way to end today's lesson is wth Paul's prayer at the end of Romans chapter 11:

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

³⁴  “For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?”

³⁵  “Or who has given a gift to him

that he might be repaid?”

³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”¹³

1Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994) pg 231

2This insight is from an interview with Fred Sanders on the Mere Fidelity podcast https://soundcloud.com/mere-fidelity/the-trinity-and-the-bible-with-fred-sanders Accessed 08/20/2014

3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Matthew 28:19). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All Scripture quoted, unless otherwise noted, will be from the ESV.

4The creed formulated at the council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and revised at Constantinople in A.D. 381. This creed is confessed to by Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant believers alike.

5Nicene Creed, as reproduced in Grudem, Systematic Theology, pg 1169

6 Genesis 1:1

7J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973) pg 56

8 John 1:1-3

9 John 5:36b-37a. Emphasis added. Cf. John 4:34, 6:38

10 John 1:18

11 John 3:16-17

12 Ephesians 1:3-6

13 Romans 11:33-36

Absolute Curriculum #1: Intro and Why We Need the Bible

Intro Video For Leaders

Intro Video For Students

Lesson 1

Introduction to Absolute

Absolute Curriculum

Year 1, Lesson 1

Welcome to the Absolute curriculum. The goal of this curriculum is to introduce you to the Absolutes of the Christian faith, the things you need to know. Things that I wish I had known at your age, or wish I had understood better. What you can typically expect to see is a 10-20 minutes video of me walking you through a particular text of Scripture or a topic that arises as we study the Bible. This, along with the discussion time with your leaders afterward, will hopefully serve to give you at least a basic understanding of each of the things that we will be discussing. If you want to know more about anything, ask your leaders! They would be more than willing to help you out in deepening your knowledge of God and His word. 

I hope this is a help to you all. Let's jump in.

Introduction to God

So how are we going to approach this study? Well, we are going to break it into several “chunks” where we will build on the same concept for 4-5 lessons. This is in part due to our format (there is no way to really say what needs to be said about God in 15 minutes) and in part to the fact that going through these things a little slower and bit by bit should, at least theoretically, help us grasp what we're learning a bit better. So the first “chunk” of knowledge we are going to approach is the knowledge of God. Knowing who God is, and responding appropriately, is the most important thing in our lives. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”[1] You might even question if there is a God. I'll be honest with you, we aren't even going to grapple with that question, and here's why:

“18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” [2]

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”[3]

The question is not, “is there a God?” He has made that clear[4]. The question is, “who is He?”

Why we need the Bible

This leads us into our study today. How do we answer this question of who God is? You may have noticed that three times already I have referenced the Bible. That should give you a clue as to where we're going. The reason we must approach the Bible to know God is that it [the Bible] is God's revelation of Himself. Other religions and systems attempt to seek knowledge of God via other means. Means which, invariably, fall woefully short of true knowledge of God. Why is this? It is because, “God makes himself known on his own terms, when, where, and how he chooses. God can be an object of our knowledge only if he has revealed himself to us. Consequently, theology can exist as a legitimate enterprise only when it begins with God's self-revelation.”[5]

What makes us think the bible is God's self-revelation? Well, there are many places we could turn, but let's look simply at one of them.

“20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”[6]

The men who wrote the bible did so as the were carried along by God, and thus they spoke the very words which He wanted them to speak. This wasn't some sort of mechanical dictation, as you can see from the many styles and personalities of the writers which come through, but this is no mere human book. This book is the word of God Himself. In looking at the bible we will cover four main points, which you can remember with the acronym “SCAN.”

S- the bible is Sufficient

C- the bible is Clear

A- the bible is Authoritative

N- the bible is Necessary[7]

Now, while SCAN is a handy way to remember these four points, I believe we will be better served if we walk through them in reverse order.

The Necessity of the Bible:

We've already hit on this first point some. We need the bible to understand God, because the bible is God's self-revelation to us.

You may be familiar with the C.S. Lewis quote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”[8] I believe the reason so many folks quote this statement is that it resonates with us at a very deep level. We have longings for something deeper than this world has. The basic reason for this, Genesis chapter one tells us, is that we are made in the image of God. We were designed to mirror and reflect Him, and to enjoy an intimate fellowship with our Creator. However, Genesis three introduces to us how sin entered the world through Adam's disobedience, thus severing that closeness with God. We are now born apart from God, under the condemnation of our sin.[9] What is our fundamental need? God is our fundamental need. We need forgiven of our sin against Him, and we need to be reconciled into a right relationship with Him. Which means, again, that we desperately need His word, because it is the only way we can come to know Him!

The Authority of the Bible:

We need the bible. But then we come to another question of pressing importance: can I trust what the bible has to say? The answer, in short, is yes. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”[10] If all Scripture is breathed out by God, or as the passage we read from 2 Peter put it, given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then Scripture is as true as God is true. How true is God? Well, the Apostle Paul says, “Let God be true though every one were a liar.”[11] And Jesus himself applies these words not only to the person of God, but to God's word when he says, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”[12]

God is truth. His word, being inspired and breathed-out by Him, is our final standard of earthly truth, and thus the highest of earthly authorities.[13] Wayne Grudem summarizes this point helpfully,

“All the words in the Bible are God's words. Therefore, to disbelieve or disobey them is to disbelieve or disobey God Himself.”[14]

The Clarity of the Bible:

We need the Bible to know God, and His word speaks authoritatively (not only on who He is, but on all other matters to which is speaks). However, what good will this do us if we cannot understand what the Bible says? It is here that we desperately need to know that Scripture is clear. While approaching the Word of God can in one sense be very intimidating (who can understand God?), it is important for us to remember why He has given us the Scriptures: to reveal Himself to us. 2 Timothy 3:15 says that the Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”[15] They can only do this if they are clear and able to be understood. Which they are. Indeed, the Psalmist praises the Lord for the ability of His word to make even a simple man wise. “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”[16] God's word is clear, clear enough for you and I to understand.

The Sufficiency of the Bible:

Finally, we come to our concluding point. But the fact that it is last by no means makes it least. I want to conclude today with that fact that the Bible is sufficient. That is to say, it is enough. We already quoted 2 Timothy 3:15 & 16, so let's look what follows them,

“You have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”[17]

Scriptures is able to make us wise for salvation, it is breathed out by God, and...it is profitable. Profitable for what? For teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. How profitable is it in these things? Just a little? No. It is so profitable that through them, the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. The Bible is all we need for salvation, and it is all we need to live the live God has called us to in obedience to Him. This has a couple of applications.

First, it guards us against any church or tradition that teaches us we need anything beyond the Bible. For example, Mormons have the Book of Mormon, Islam has the Koran, Roman Catholics have the pope and church tradition. All of these religions would claim the Bible, or at least parts of it, as part of their sacred literature, but they hold these other teachings beside or above Scripture in terms of authority. They say the Bible on it's own is not enough to tell us what God would have.[18] The results are always disastrous, and lead, at best, to a distortion of the Bible's message, and usually to a flat out contradiction or denial of biblical truth. 

That error may be easy to see. But the fact is we all have a (perhaps subtle) desire for God to use extra Biblical revelation to speak to us. We want a personal word from the Lord. The author of Hebrews says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”[19] We would like to think that God will speak to us at many times and many ways. Through visions, dreams, or in a “still small voice.” But what the writer says here is that God has spoken to us in these last days through His Son, Jesus Christ. And how do we know Jesus? Through the Bible. May be this sounds depressing, or impersonal. But in truth, it is exactly the opposite. I don't need to go seek some quite place to here from God. God speaks to me in His word. Any time I pick up the Bible and read it, I am reading God's personal revelation of Himself to me in His Son, Jesus. How amazing is that! God has spoken finally, authoritatively, and sufficiently in Jesus. We need nothing more. The Bible is enough.

---

[1]     The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Proverbs 1:7a). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All Scripture quoted, unless otherwise noted, will be from the ESV.

[2]      Romans 1:18–23

[3]      Psalm 14:1a

[4]    See: Wayne Grudem, Christian Beliefs (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), chapter two “What is God like?” Also, Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), chapter nine “The Existence of God.”

[5]       Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011) pg 36-37. Emphasis in original.

[6]      2 Peter 1:20–21. See also, 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 1:1-2,

[7]     Taken from “Fullness and Finality: The Sufficiency of God's Word” a lecture given by Kevin DeYoung. http://www.wts.edu/stayinformed/view.html?id=1796 accessed August 17, 2014

[8]     C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillian, 1952) pg 120

[9]   “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5. “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23

[10]  2 Timothy 3:16

[11]  Romans 3:4

[12]   John 17:17. See also, Titus 1:2, 2 Samuel 7:28, and Proverbs 30:5.

[13]  Some may contest that it is circular reasoning to appeal to the Bible to prove the Bible's authority. Grudem makes a helpful point in regards to this: “It should be admitted that this is a kind of circular argument. However, that does not make its use invalid, for all arguments for an absolute authority must ultimately appeal to that authority for proof: otherwise the authority would not be an absolute or highest authority. This problem is not unique to the Christian who is arguing for the authority of the Bible. Everyone either implicitly or explicitly uses some kind of circular argument when defending his or her ultimate authority for belief.” Systematic Theology, pg 78-79.

[14]  Grudem, Christian Beliefs, pg 13.

[15]   2 Timothy 3:15

[16]   Psalm 19:7

[17]  2 Timothy 2:15b-17

[18]  Some might ask, what then of creeds, confessions, and other statements of Biblical truth? Should we read Christian books, or listen to sermons? What about a curriculum like this that is attempting to explain the Bible? If the Bible is really enough, are any of these things legitimate?

           The answer is a definite “yes.” Christians have, throughout church history, affirmed that all of these things, creeds, confessions, sermons, books, are to be appreciated, embraced, and used in accordance with their alignment with and accordance to Scripture. Their usefulness lies not in any intrinsic value of their own, but as summaries and explanations of the Biblical text itself.

[  Heb 1:1-2a