We have spent the last two weeks discussing what it means to be made in the image of God. We have looked first at the fact that being made in God's image gives each human life immeasurable value; we then looked at what it means to image. Our observation was very simple: images image. They reflect, they point. As humans we reflect the image and likeness of God in many ways, but one of the most important ways is via the vehicle of relationships. The first being our relationship to creation, which we are to steward, cultivate, and rule as God's vice regents, displaying His loving rule over all creation. The second is in our dealings with other human beings who have themselves been made in the image and likeness of God and whom we ought to relate to in love, fairness, righteousness, and respect. Finally, and most importantly, we have our relationship to God. We are to image God to God by understanding rightly who He is and responding appropriately, in admiration, praise, and worship. In this way we reflect the dynamic relationship that God has within Himself in the Persons of the Godhead.
We also made the point, though, that there is obviously something terribly wrong. Why would we think this? Because we don't actually live according to that which is outlined above.
What went wrong?
The answer to the question of "what went wrong?" can be summarized in one word: sin. Sin went wrong. Sin enters the scene and mars this thing pretty darn badly. We are going to spend the next two sessions looking at sin. In our next session we will discuss the effects of sin on our human nature, on our relationships. on the created order, and on the eternal state and destiny of our souls. But before we can discuss effects, we first must address definitions. What is sin? That's what we're going to look at today.
In our last video we discussed the
image of God in man as it relates to human worth. That unlike sheep
or stars, rocks and rodents, moose and mountains, all of which
declare God's glory; man actually bears the image of God. The point I
emphasized in that video is the value that this imparts to humanity.
Of course, all of creation has value, but that of human beings, God's
image bearers, is immeasurably more. I thought that was an important
thing to start with, although what we're going to talk about this
week is what you might call a more foundational discussion.
Genesis 1:26a says, “ Then
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”1
This week I want to talk about the meaning of that it means to be
made in the image and likeness of God. Some people take those things,
image and likeness, to be separate ideas, but I think the way they
are used here that's it's safe to assume that they're synonyms. Okay,
so they mean the same thing...but what do they mean? I think this
quote from John Piper is helpful:
“Now, you know as well as I that the church has argued about
whether this nature, this image, your being in the image of God is
your rationality or your morality or your relationality. We argue and
we argue.What is plain, I think, and what is most relevant for me is that
images are designed to image. So, if you put up an image of Napoleon
in Paris, what you mean to do is to draw attention to Napoleon.
Right? That’s what they’re for. So the question would be, "Why
did God create and erect seven billion images of himself on the
planet?" Why did he do that? And surely the simple answer would
be to get attention, to draw attention to himself. You don’t put an
image of somebody up and hope nobody notices it, hope nobody makes
any connection between the image and the reality. You are in the
image of God in order to image God, to display God, to show God,
that’s what you’re about. That’s your meaning. That’s your
identity. You have a nature designed to image.”2
Images image. They mirror. They point. So the question for us
becomes, what does that look like?
Three Areas of Pointing
1:
The first area of our imaging that I
want to look at, one that is made obvious right away in Genesis, is
man's imaging of God in his rule over
creation.
Then
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”...And God blessed
them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves
on the earth.”...And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the
east, and there he put the man whom he had formed...The LORD God took
the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And
the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of
every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you
shall surely die.” Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that
the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now
out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field
and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what
he would call them. And whatever the man called every living
creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and
to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.3
Man
was created to reflect God's loving rule over all of creation. God
gives man dominion over the fish, the birds, the land animals. He
gives him dominion over the land itself, to subdue and to cultivate
it. Man has the privilege and responsibility of sitting over God's
earth as God's vice regents, as it were. It is still God's earth, and
He sits as supreme. But man has a delegated authority here. A
responsibility to rule in a manner that reflects the character of God
toward His creation. Perhaps one of the clearest portraits of this is
in chapter two where God brings the animals before Adam to name. Here
are the multitudes of creatures which God has created, but rather
than naming them Himself, He brings them before the man for Adam to
name. They are God's creatures, but He gives Adam naming, ruling,
rights over them.
2:
The
second area where we are to image God in in our relationships
with other people. In
Genesis 1: 27 we read this,
So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
From
the very first day, man was not alone. We, as human beings, are meant
to live within relationship. And the first relationship which God
establishes is this bond of man and woman, husband and wife. The
first human bond God creates is marriage.
But
for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one
of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the
LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her
to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his
mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.4
God
makes them man and woman, with the goal that they be together. One
flesh here, while of course it has sexual connotations, is driving at
something still deeper than that. A union that is not only physical,
but also mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Of
course, marriage is far from the only human relationship which God
has ordained on this earth! Jesus Himself never enjoyed an earthly
marriage, so while the vast majority of you watching this are not yet
married, you don't have to feel like you're missing out on human
relationships. God has created friendship5,
He establishes relationships between parents and their children6,
between old and younger people within the church7,
between governments and their citizens8,
and the list could go on. There are a multitude of human
relationships where we are to reflect to one another the kindness,
goodness, justice, mercy, holiness, and love of God. Because God
Himself is a relational being9,
many aspects of His image in us cannot be expressed outside the
context of human relationships.
3:
Finally,
I want to look at a third area in which which image God, that is, our
relationship to God Himself.
We call this worship.
Author
Harold Best has offered the following definition of worship,
“We
were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were
created to
be
continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to
worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose
need for something outside himself (worship) completes his sense of
himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for
worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a
capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of
the several capacities of being. I believe is it strategically
important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously
outpouring—we were created in that condition, at that instant,
imageo
Dei.”10
If
Best is right—and I think he is—we are made outpouring, all the
time. This reflects the God who is Himself always pouring into
Himself.11
Now, Best's description of worship is not distinctly Christian.
Rather, it is distinctly human. We are always outpouring into or
toward something
or someone.
Where
the Christian idea, the biblical idea of worship is located is when
this outpouring is directed toward God Himself. We, unlike all the
rest of creation, are capable of purposefully and consciously
reflecting the image and glory of God, and to do so toward
Him.
This might sound clumsy, that worship is imaging God to God. How
could we image God in how we relate to Him. But think back to some of
God's attributes. Remember that He knows all things. All things would
include Himself, and thus God knows Himself perfectly. And because
God is holy, just, righteous, and good, He not only knows Himself
perfectly, but responds
to Himself perfectly. This is what happens within the relationship of
the Trinity. Now, as a human being, for me to reflect that would not
be to value myself or other humans or other created things about all
else12,
rather it would be to see Him for who He is, to value Him rightly,
and to respond in praise, adoration, and worship.
In
Conclusion:
We
know that we don't live this way. And we'll begin to look at why this
is next week. But as we finish out today I want you to ponder and
reflect on what an immense privilege it is to be made in the image of
the Triune God, and to be able to reflect Him to other people, to all
of creation, and to consciously worship Him with all that we are. No
other part of creation has that ability. You do.
1The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). Wheaton:
Standard Bible Society. All Scripture taken from the ESV, unless
otherwise noted.
51
Samuel 20:17 says the following about the friendship of Jonathan and
David, “And
Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved
him as he loved his own soul.” Combine this with other Biblical
calls to deep friendship, and I think we can see how important these
relationships are. For example, Proverbs 18:24 says, “A
man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who
sticks closer than a brother.”
10Harold
M. Best, Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and
the Arts, as cited in Mark
Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Doctrine: What Christians
Should Believe (Wheaton,
Illinois: Crossway, 2010), pg 339.
I
didn't put this into the video, because I didn't think of it as I was
filming. But when we get down to point three and the jealousy of God,
some students may well object and ask if this doesn't make God sound
like an upset three year old, or maybe a jealous high school
girlfriend. The answer, of course, is no. But why is the answer no?
If I was this jealous it certainly would bespeak something pretty
terrible about my character. The difference between you and me and
the three year old and the high school girl on the one hand, and God
on the other, is simple: we don't deserve
the worship, praise, adoration, and commitment of others (obviously
there are contexts where certain elements of these are appropriate,
but we are talking at the most basic level). If we were to demand
these things, we would be demanding something unjust, unfair, unkind,
and not good. However, when God demands our praise, He is actually
giving us a command that leads to our joy. He is telling us to
worship the only one worthy of worship. He is telling us to point our
worship the only place was made to be pointed. He is, in effect,
telling us to live life to the full. Thus, for God to jealously
demand our worship, and to display His wrath when this demand is not
met, is a function of His holy love and goodness towards us, not of
some self-pity or immaturity.
The
Attributes of God Part 2
Absolute
Curriculum
Year
1, Lesson 7
Introduction
In
the last session we opened our discussion of God's attributes,
looking specifically at
1)
God's eternity, the fact that He always has been and always will be.1
This is revealed in the explicit statements of Scripture, as well as
His revelation of His name to Moses in Exodus 3, “I Am Who I Am.”
2)
God's sovereignty, we looked at the fact that God's governance of and
control over creation is all encompassing.
3)
God's holiness, we looked at God's transcendence, His otherness, and
His moral perfection.
Point
1: God is Love
If
you ask most folks what they thinkabut God, they will tell you that
God is love. Of course, they are right. At least, their words are
right. But their meaning is probably wrong, because we think of love
as always doing what we think is nice, or never doing anything
uncomfortable for us. In essence, we think of a cosmic candy
dispenser. Now, when we come to the Bible and talk about God, are we
talking about the 21st Century niceness? No. What is the biblical
basis for thinking that God is love?
1
John 4:7
“Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has
been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not
know God, because God is love.”2
To
know God is to know love, and His love will pour through us. What
does God's love look like in Scripture? While it encompasses many
things, it finds its fullest expression in perhaps the most famous
verse in the Bible:
16 “For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.3
It
is in this way that God loved the world, He sent His Son into the
world. Why? So that those who place their faith and trust in Him
might have life.
God
shows His love by giving His Son to us; our love, or lack thereof, is
shown by our love of the darkness.4
The
love of God for us in Christ is even more fully unpacked for us in
Philippians chapter two, verses 1 through 8, which read,
“So
if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any
participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete
my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full
accord and of one mind. 3 Do
nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count
others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let
each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the
interests of others. 5 Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who,
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, 7 but
emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness of men. 8 And
being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Christ
humbled Himself and became obedient to death. In doing so, He made it
possible for us to be brought to God.5
In bringing us to Himself, what God was accomplishing was the
bringing us into the love which He has for Himself in His Triune
being:
“Father,
I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where
I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me
before the foundation of the world...I made known to them your name,
and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you
have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” 6
God
loves Himself. God the Father loves the Son and the Spirit, the Son
loves the Spirit and the Father, the Spirit loves the Son and the
Father.
What
is God doing in salvation? He is inviting us into the love, a love
which we were created to participate in but could not because of our
sin.
Point
2- God is Merciful
Psalm
145:8-9,
“The
Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.”
Here
we are introduced to two really important theological words: grace
and mercy. God shows grace, undeserved favor, to all men; especially
to those who place their trust in Him. He pours gifts graciously on
all men. Matthew 5:44-45,
“ But
I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so
that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes
his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just
and on the unjust.”
No
one deserves the rain. We don't deserve the sun to rise day after day
and year after year. And yet He gives it to us all. To you, to me, to
Hitler, to murderers, to our awesome grandma, and to our annoying
little brother.
Point
3- God is jealous, and God is a God of Wrath
This
is the point which really makes the others all the more amazing.
4 “You
shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth. 5 You
shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord
your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on
the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate
me, 6 but
showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my
commandments.”7
God
is a jealous God, one who visits the sins of the fathers down three
and four generations. That's how zealous He is for the glory of His
name, that's how seriously He takes our obedience, that's how jealous
He is for our love.8
The nature of the worship He demands, and the reasoning behind it,
are clearly seen in Hebrews 12:28-29,
“Therefore
let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and
thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,
29 for
our God is a consuming fire.”9
We
need to realize the very terrifying nature of God. Standing before
God apart from Jesus Christ and His salvation is the most terrifying
thought in the universe. So let us cling to the God of Scripture, who
is both wrathful and kind.
13 I
charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and
of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the
good confession, 14 to
keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which
he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only
Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who
alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no
one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion.
Amen. 10
2
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (1 John 4:7–8).
Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All Scripture taken from the ESV,
unless otherwise noted.
Over
the next two sessions I want to wrap up our discussion of God by
looking at some of His attributes, and segueing into our discussion
of man. To some extent this may feel like a fire-hose dumping
information on you at a pace that is impossible to keep up with. I'm
okay with that. Here's why. God, by the very definition of being God,
is beyond our full comprehension. If you will remember our discussion
of the Scripture, we said that we cannot know God fully, but we can
know Him truly. That's an important distinction. So no matter how
little or much you walk away from today with, because our subject
matter is the attributes of God, I think it will be of benefit.
So,
what is an attribute? An attribute is simply a word that we use to
describe some action or characteristic of God. Now, because God is an
infinite and unlimited being, He has an infinite number of
attributes. That is, there is no end to what we could say about God.
But I want to restrict our looking to what the Bible has to say.
Theologians
have often (though not always) grouped the attributes of God into two
categories: communicable (that is, He shares these attributes with
us) and incommunicable (that is, attributes that rightly describe Him
alone). However, we should realize that, as one writer put it, “these
categories are not hard and fast, and some of the choices as to which
attributes to place within which category are debatable. The
important thing to study is the attribute itself to learn not only
what it reveals about God but also what implications that it has for
one’s personal outlook and life.”1
So as we break this into two sessions we aren't going to specifically
follow the communicable/incommunicable distinction. I don't want us
to worry too much about big words like communicable and
incommunicable so much as we worry about learning who God is and what
He is like. I have had to be somewhat selective in which attributes I
have picked to looked at, but hopefully they will give you a taste
for the immense power, beauty, and wisdom of this God whom we serve.
In this session we are going to focus specifically on God's
attributes to kind finish our discussion directly about the Persons
and Being of God, and next week we will look at some of the
attributes that we are made or told to model as His image bearers, as
a way of introducing our next topic: Who is Man?
Independence
The
first attribute I want to look at is the eternal independence of God.
That He depends on no one to exist, because He and He alone has
always been.
“In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”2
“13 Then
Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to
them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask
me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God
said to Moses, “I am
who I am.”” 3
“Jesus
said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I
am.”” 4
In the
beginning God. I am who I am. Before Abraham was, I am. God predates
creation, His point of reference for Himself is Himself, and Jesus
makes clear that as God, He is the one who has always been. In
Revelation 4:8 we read the following,
“And
the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of
eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to
say, “Holy,
holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to
come!””
Why
does this matter? Because as the only eternal being, we see that God
is not only one who existed before creation, but He is not dependent
upon any part of His creation. Acts 17:24-25 says the following,
“The
God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and
earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor
is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he
himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
He
is the one who gives it, He does not depend upon you or me. This is
good news, for a God who needed us would be a small God indeed!
Sovereignty
The
next attribute that I want to discuss it the sovereignty of God. That
is the powerful, effective, controlling rule of God over all things.
There is absolutely nothing that is outside the control of God. He
does whatever He wants, whenever He wants, however He wants.
“Our
God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” 5
“Who
has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?...Behold, the nations are like a
drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust...All the
nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less
than nothing and emptiness.”6
God
does whatever He pleases, the nations are all a drop in the bucket to
him. But God's control isn't just over nations, but over persons as
well, and even down to the birds of the air!
“Are
not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to
the ground apart from your Father.”8
All
things, all thing, are under God's control. Theologian JI Packer puts
it this way,
“The
assertion of God’s absolute sovereignty in creation, providence,
and grace is basic to biblical belief and biblical praise. The vision
of God on the throne—that is, ruling—recurs (1 Kings 22:19; Isa.
6:1; Ezek. 1:26; Dan. 7:9; Rev. 4:2; cf. Pss. 11:4; 45:6; 47:8–9;
Heb. 12:2; Rev. 3:21); and we are constantly told in explicit terms
that the Lord
(Yahweh) reigns as king, exercising dominion over great and tiny
things alike (Exod. 15:18; Pss. 47; 93; 96:10; 97; 99:1–5; 146:10;
Prov. 16:33; 21:1; Isa. 24:23; 52:7; Dan. 4:34–35; 5:21–28; 6:26;
Matt. 10:29–31). God’s dominion is total: he wills as he chooses
and carries out all that he wills, and none can stay his hand or
thwart his plans.”9
Holiness
The
final attribute I want to discuss today is the holiness of God.
Before we dive into this one though I want to plug a book to you,
“The Holiness of God” by RC Sproul. It has been one of the most
influential books in my own life, and he covers this aspect of God's
character much better than I can here. End plug.
We
see the holiness of God brought forward to us time and time again in
Scripture. All three members of the Trinity are described as holy.
God the Father is referred to as “a holy God”10,
Jesus, God the Son, is referred to by Peter as the “holy one of
God”11,
and of course God the Spirit is known as the “Holy Spirit.”12
But
what does this word “holy” mean? The word carries with it the
idea of separation, or different-ness. When God's people are referred
to as holy in Scripture, the idea is often that they are ones who
have been set apart or chosen by God for a distinct purpose, and are
thus different from the world.13
We see a similar usage throughout the Old Testament, extending even
to inanimate objects, such at the vessels in the temple. To be holy
was, and is, to be set apart by God for His use. In applying this to
God Himself, we begin to see the idea of transcendence, that God is
over everthying and not constrained by anything outside of Himself,
and of the distinction from all of His creation. So you might say
that God is holy because He is not human, or angelic, or a dog, or a
tree, or anything else. He is God. And yet if that's all we said
about holiness we would be missing something very important.
There
is also a very clear message about the holiness of God in Scripture:
God's holiness means not only that He is other, that He is unlike us,
but also that He is pure, righteous, perfect, unstained, and
untainted by sin. For example, we read in Leviticus,
You
shall not make yourselves detestable with any swarming thing that
swarms, and you shall not defile yourselves with them, and become
unclean through them. 44 For
I am the Lord
your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am
holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that
crawls on the ground. 45 For
I am the Lord
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall
therefore be holy, for I am holy.” 14
God
holiness meant being untainted by any impure or unclean thing. And as
a result of His holy character, He demands that His people live in a
way that is holy as well. Of course it looks different today than it
did then when God was telling them not to eat insects, but God is
making a clear point. I am pure: you be pure.15
Conclusion:
So
I want to wrap up today with I want to close with Paul's words to
young pastor Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:17,
“To
the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and
glory forever and ever. Amen.”
1
Ryrie, C. C. (1972). A survey of Bible doctrine. Chicago:
Moody Press.
2The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Genesis
1:1). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All Scripture taken from the
ESV, unless otherwise noted.
13For
example, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Do you
not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells
in you? 17 If
anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s
temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
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.
1The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ge
1:1–2). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All scripture taken from
the ESV, unless otherwise indicated.
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
1The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Hebrews
1:3). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. All scripture taken from the
ESV, unless otherwise noted.
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.
