When Paul pointed out in Romans 3:25 how “God set forth (Jesus Christ) as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” he was referring to the sacrificial worship system the Lord implemented the day Adam sinned.  Specifically, Genesis 3:21 “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”

We know God gave them an explanation about what this meant because chapter 4 begins with the story of Cain and Abel's offerings in worship to God.  Abel obeyed the instructions God had given his parents on the order of worship, Cain did not.  It was this system of worship built around animal sacrifices that provided a way for God to remain righteous while carrying out His plan of recovery for the human race and the Kingdom.

Forbearance is not patience.  In this case it is God willfully holding back from taking action on sin even though it creates an internal conflict for Him.  That is where the real issue resides.  Because He feels the need for justice with the same intensity by which He wants to express His mercy and Love.  His need to do what is right is every bit as intense as His need to express compassion and seek mercy.  

This internal conflict within the Godhead was not resolved until Jesus Christ died on the cross and took away the sin of the world.  This is something the false doctrine of limited atonement fails to consider.  If Christ only died for the elect which is defined as those who God willed to believe in Jesus Christ, then the internal conflict He endured would have remained unresolved.  Propitiation would not have been achieved and the Scriptures not fulfilled.    
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2 Corinthians 5:18-19 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

For us justification and reconciliation to God is the really big deal about the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  There isn’t anything more important for us than assuring our final destiny will be with God in the New Heaven and Earth.  But for God there was a much bigger objective driving the advent of Jesus Christ.  To understand what that is we need to go back to Genesis, the book of Beginnings. 

Genesis opens at the same point of history at which that John began his Gospel. 
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Why?  The Bible gives us part of the answer in Genesis 1:26-28.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God created the human race in His image and likeness.  Not multi-personed individual life forms, but intelligent persons with some of His characteristics.  We’re not divine nor do we have super powers, but we do have creative imaginations and a will to exercise that creativity.  God then commissioned mankind to rule over this planet.  I also suspect His intention was that we would expand into the rest of the universe.  Why else would He have made it so big? 

Genesis 1”26-28 is actually the first mention of the Kingdom Jesus Christ spoke of in the Gospels.  All of that was put on hold when Adam sinned.  Adam and Eve had brought sin into the creation and with it, death. 

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

The human race would now have to be redeemed, bought back from the curse of death.  However, for God there is also an internal conflict that must be resolved.  He is perfectly righteous and just as well as compassionate, loving and merciful.  These moral attributes are all equally active within His person so any solution to the problem of sin must be consistent with and satisfy the requirement of each attribute.  That is why Jesus Christ offer Himself to die in our place. 

Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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I’ll break that down in my next post. 

I've been away for a couple of weeks attending the Grace Evangelical Society annual conference and officiating at my granddaughters wedding.
Time to get back to work.  The next Post:

The gospel of John starts with a profound statement about the beginning of space and time. 

John 1:1-3 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 nothing was made that was made.

At the commencement of this reality in which we live, the universe, the Word was already present.  Interestingly, John says the Word was both with God and was God.  The word God is a singular noun, so I believe this to be a preliminary introduction to the concept to a triune God.  A single deity who exists as 3 separate yet equal persons.  One of those Persons is the Word.  Later in the book John will introduce the Father and Holy Spirit, but for now he is interested in the Word who he identifies as Jesus Christ in 1:17-18.

Jesus Christ is the one who created everything that was made.  That would be the entire realm of reality.  The universe we see and the metaphysical world we cannot see.  That would include time.  Time did not exist before there was a 3-dimensional material universe.  If you have questions on that, take them up with Einstein and Stephen Hawkins. They explain it better than I can.  I only bring it up because according to the Bible, God and therefore the Word, existed before anything was made. 

John 4:24 quotes Jesus Christ saying, “God is Spirit.”  He didn’t say a Spirit but just He is Spirit. If Jesus had said “a Spirit” it would suggest a boundary, that God occupies space.  That would be contrary to the Bible’s consistent portrayal of God as being infinite in all His attributes.  Those include His knowledge, presence, power, transcendence and moral qualities.  There is no developmental progression in His person or attributes.  In other words, God is who He has always been.  He doesn’t change. 

Note this from the Apostle John:
1 John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
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John wanted to highlight the absolute purity of God’s character.  There are no boundaries to His moral attributes.  At no point does His goodness end and any shadow of evil appears.  His love and kindness are everlasting.  His grace, mercy and truth are unending.  But so is His Justice and Righteousness.  The perfect world God Created has been corrupted by evil and He will not let that stand.  And that is really what the Bible is all about.  How God has worked to repair what has been ruined and do it in a way that allows Him to remain just while justifying those who will turn back to Him.   

  

Some of you reading this might be thinking I’m making too much to much of what is nothing more than insignificant issues of grammar or use of certain words.  To which I would reply that Jesus Christ made such distinctions.  He thought things like use of specific words, verb tenses and such were very important.    So, did people like Moses.  He reminded the nation of Israel their wandering for 38 years longer than God intended was because they didn’t believe what God had said. 
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Deuteronomy 8:3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

You might recognize the underlined part as Jesus Christ used it to counter Satan’s challenge to turn stones into bread, Matthew 4:4.  There is another significant statement by Jesus Christ that shows even the verb tenses are inspired. 

Matthew 22:31-32 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 

Jesus Christ defended the truth of resurrection on the basis of God using the present tense when identifying Himself to Moses.  He said “I am” not I was.  God is precise in His use of language and therefore we must be precise in how we read and interpret what He had recorded in the Bible. God commands all believers to read and study His word.  That means He knows all of us can understand it, He used every day language in writing it.

If you fear it is too hard for you then turn to what James wrote in his epistle.   James 1:5-6 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

God will give you the wisdom you need.  But you need to get into you Bible and read it.  As I tell the folks at Trego Community reading just 4 chapters a day will get you through the entire Bible in under 10 months.  If you’re a first-time reader then then I’d suggest you start with the Gospel of John then go to Genesis.  But no matter where you begin, the important thing is to get into the habit of reading your Bible daily.                          

Peter warns us of the inevitability that false teachers will infiltrate the Church.  2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

These false teachers will come in under the radar saying things that sound good and reasonable but which actually distort the meaning of God’s word.  It is the same tactic Satan used with Eve in the Garden.  They may say salvation is by believing in Jesus Christ, but then use terms like really belief or truly believe.  I’ve even heard things like you must believe in your heart vs. just believing in your head.  Some call that the 18” rule of faith. 
Anyway, those who say such things are implying there is more than one way to believe.   And that doesn’t make sense.  Something is either true or it is not.  You either believe something or you don’t, there is no such thing as almost believing.  I do not know of a single place in the Bible where the word believe is modified by an adverb.  Jesus Christ simply said believe. 

The Lord did sometimes remark about the disciples having little faith.  But faith is a noun. It is not a verb like the word believe.  Being a noun, it referring to what is believed not the action of believing.  And the volume of what we believe can change from person to person or over time.  Here is an example of what I mean.  Read Matthew 8:18 & 23-27 for the context in which Jesus said “O you of little faith.” 
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The Lord said to the disciples let’s go to the other side of the Lake.  The same Lord they had witnessed healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law, the Centurion's servant and the leper.  The same lord who had delivered the sermon on the mount.  As they crossed the lake it got rough, big waves and wind were tossing the boat round.  The disciples got scared woke Jesus up and urged Him to save them.  They believed Jesus Christ could save them.  So, what was wrong with their faith?  The issue was they had not believed everything Jesus had said.  The focus of their faith was too small.  They had forgotten it was Jesus who said let’s cross to the other side.  And if Jesus said we’re going to the other side, then they were going to reach the other side even if He, Jesus, was a sleep.   

Their faith was deficit in content; it was too small.  It does not mean their belief was weak.   

I want to explain an important aspect about the structure and content of the Bible.  You would expect that God, being the creator of language, would be precise in His use of it.  We also need to take in to account that He is the all-knowing, powerful and wise sovereign owner of the creation.  Therefore, it is only natural we should expect He is able to accurately reveal truth to us through human agents even down to in the choice of words and grammar.  That is exactly how the Jesus Christ had explained it to the Apostles.  So, Peter in warning his readers about the danger of false teaching wrote the following.    

2 Peter 1:20-21 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (NKJV)

What did Peter mean by private interpretation?  If you read this in other English translations, they generally render the phrase in the sense of either the reader or the prophets personal understanding.  So, we are not free to interpretate the Bible by what it means to us.  While that is true, I don’t believe that is what Peter meant.  The Greek word being translated as ‘private’ is idias.  That is a legitimate rendering, but the author’s intended meaning is drawn from the context. 

idias is used 5 other times in 2 Peter so we can check to see if there is a pattern to how Peter used this word.  What we find is that he consistently used idias to tie the noun it describes to the subject of the sentence.  2 examples are 2 Peter 2:22 “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and 3:3 “scoffers will come…walking according to their own lusts.”  The other 3 uses are 2 Peter 2:16, 3:16 & 17; so, check them out for yourself.

The subject of v. 20 is Scripture so contextually the interpretation of prophecy is owned by the whole of Scripture.  No particular prophecy in the Bible is to be interpreted in isolation from the rest of Scripture.  Because the Bible covers a lot of different topics, we have to interpret what we read in light of the context in which it is found.  By context I mean the “who, what, when and where” that is being discussed.  A common error made today is the assumption that saved (Grk. Sozo) always refers to deliverance from eternal damnation.  Actually, only about 1/3 of the 111 times it occurs in the N.T. is it used that way.  It is also used to mean being healed from a disease, spared from physical death or deliverance from a bad situation or harm.   
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Peter was addressing the danger of false teachers.  They do take things out of context and end up confusing people.  They rob Christians of the peace and rest that comes by faith in God’s promises.  This is why we have 2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Correctly organizing the varies topics of Scripture by their subject matter. That is how we can grow our experience of God’s grace and peace (2 Peter 1:2-4).  

I closed my last post with the question: who are you going to belief, Jesus Christ or the other guy?  Let me take it up a step and make it about God and our final destiny. There are more alternative options out there than I can count.  Aside from the different Christian denominations view of heaven and hell there are all the non-Christian religions and even political movements offering a secular utopian paradise. 

Secular utopianism promises a paradise that is not everlasting but will someday deliver a satisfying life that ends in annihilation.  So far, every attempt to reach this secular paradise has failed, but hey, maybe next time.  But really when it comes to your final destiny who are you going to believe?  I’ve already made up my mind, I’m going with Jesus Christ who not only returned from the dead but also holds to the high view of the Bible.  He claimed to be the eternal God who created everything and proved it by His resurrection from death. 

Jesus Christ stated His view of the Bible in Matthew 5:18 & 19: For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Jots and tittles are the little accent marks that appear next to the letters that make up words.  Basically, Jesus just said the original transcripts of the Bible are written exactly as God wanted them.  And there will be consequences for anyone who misrepresents His original intention. 

There are skeptics who have raised questions about the truth of Christ’s claims about the Bible.  Nothing wrong with being cautious of such claims when so much is riding on getting it right.  We are ultimately dealing with meaning of life and eternal destiny issues.  I’m more concerned about the number of people who are just indifferent to the matter and therefore ignore it.  At least the skeptic is interested enough to test the Scriptures to see if they’re true.  Who knows, it might result in them believing in Jesus Christ for everlasting life!
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God would love to welcome them into heaven and spent eternity exploring the world to come.  

In the previous post I pointed out that our universe was created with defined laws of physics, chemistry and biology.   We have built our civilization and the technology that supports it on faith in the reliability of those laws.  So, it makes sense that God would do the same in the area of Spirit matters.  And both the Bible and Jesus Christ make that claim.   

While I’m primarily concerned with the various Christian theologies, I will point out what makes the Judeo-Christian system unique to all other religions is the Bible presents God as inherently moral.  All other religious systems, both mono & poly theistic, present deity as Amoral.  When comparing the different Christian denominations, you’ll find a number of irreconcilable contradictions on many major doctrines.  God who is all knowing, wise and moral would not be the author of that kind of disorder.  God would have established the same kind of order in the Spiritual realm as He has in the physical world.    

I’m going to offer a short overview of the various Christian propositions on redemption.  How is one saved from the penalty of sin.  How do I get into heaven?  Some denominations teach it is by belief in Jesus Christ alone, no good works required but sanctification is works based.  I’ll refer to that as the justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone system.  All the others teach some variation of faith in Jesus Christ grants a probationary acceptance with final salvation determined on judgement day when one’s works are reviewed.  The works are defined as things like repentance of sin, baptism, observance of certain sacraments like confession and the Lords Supper.  There are some groups that say you must belong their specific denomination in order to be allowed into heaven when you die. 

Basically, all but the first one, justification by faith alone in Christ alone, say you have a chance at making it into heaven but offer no guarantee.  The justification by faith belief agrees with what Jesus Christ said in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” & John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” 

In John 3:16 Jesus Christ asserts that God loves the everyone in the world.  That He gave His Son to redeem us. And Jesus will give everlasting life to everyone who believes in Him.  In John 5:24 Jesus further states everlasting life is given as soon as one believes in Him.  That person will never face a future judgement.  That means there is no final judgement of works to determine their destiny. That was decided when they believed and passed from death to life.  It is a life that lasts forever. 
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That all seems very straight forward, easy to understand and orderly.  So, when confronted by someone who says otherwise who are you going to believe, Jesus Christ or the other guy?  

Once again, I find myself way behind in my blogging.  No excuse, just a number of distractions mixed in with a dash of spring fever.  Anyway, back to the topic of a high vs low view of the Bible. 

20 years ago, when I was at another church, I would often meet with some of the men attending the University of North Texas for Bible study and sometimes just to discuss whatever was on their minds, current events, cultural shifts or whatever.  One night they came in with this question.  Why are there so many different denominations with differing theological views?  They presented it this way.  If all our pastors are prayerfully seeking the Holy Spirits guidance in their studies and work hard at objectively teaching what the Bible clearly says, why so many disagreements? 

After some discussion I put forth several options from which they could vote on for the most likely reason.  Option 1 - The Holy Spirit has a sense of humor and is leading them to different conclusions just to see the debates.  Zero Votes.  2. Maybe the pastors aren’t being truthful about their prayerful approach to study.  50/50 on the votes.  Most thought there might be some like that but were sure their pastor wasn’t like that.  3.  Maybe some of these pastors are more influenced by their education and mentors than they realize.  That got the most votes.     

They understood the impact of 2 Peter 1:21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.  If the Holy Spirit guided the human authors in writing the Bible, He wouldn’t lead someone to believe it meant something today different than what He had inspired the authors to write.  We know languages evolve over time.  The meaning of words can change with the culture.  But God doesn’t change and neither does the intent of His revealed word. 

Therefore, the words of the Bible should not be interpreted to mean something today they didn’t mean when first written down.  Unfortunately, not everyone follows that rule.  In a previous post I mentioned a survey of pastors in which only 25% of the respondents agreed with 2 Peter 1:21. So, the rest apparently followed either what they had been taught in seminary or the ‘what it means to me’ rules of interpretation.  And that is how we end up with so many different denominations and contradictory belief structures. 
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God created a universe that follows defined laws of physics, chemistry and biology.  Which means we can trust that the things we make using those rules will work as planned.  We trust reality will continue in its present state.  So, why would we not conclude that God would also have defined spiritual laws?  

This post is taken from my Easter message at Trego Community Church which is also this week’s podcast. 

Since it is Easter, I want to post some observations about Jesus Christ’s final words from the cross.  John is the only gospel writer who mentions these particular statements.  It’s also true John did not include a lot of the material Matthew, Mark and Luke covered in their gospels.  I’ll also point out he was the only Gospel writer who actually witnessed the crucifixion as well as the only disciple to do so.  And John is the only N.T. author whose specific purpose was evangelistic.  Which is, I believe, the reason he wrote the following.  

John 19:28-30 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Notice I highlighted and underlined 3 words in these verses.  I did so because all three translate the same Greek root word teleo which means to finish or to complete.   It’s likely the NKJV translators used the different English words because of the grammatical differences in each usage of the word Teleo.   Let me explain.   

In the first clause of v. 28 is actually John’s commentary on Jesus Christ’s entire ministry.  And Accomplished translates the Greek word tetelestai, the perfect indictive form of teleo.  The perfect indictive means a completed action that carries an ongoing permeant impact.  John is telling us Jesus had completed everything He had been sent here to do and there is nothing else to do for all time.  There is nothing else needed to complete the redemption of mankind or any individual human.  In other words: 
John 1:29 He has taken away the sin of the world. 

John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 

2 Corinthians 5:19 that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

There was one more prophecy concerning the crucifixion to complete so John wrote “that the Scripture might be fulfilled, (Jesus) said, “I thirst!””  The cross reference is Psalm 69:11 “For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”  The word fulfilled translates the Greek word teleiōthe which is the Aorist form of teleo.  Again, a completed action that would connect His crucifixion to Messianic prophecy.  The Roman soldiers gave him vinegar to drink not knowing they were fulfilling prophecy but the Priests and Pharisees would.

With that final act completed Jesus Christ said tetelestai one last time and gave up His life.  When Jesus Christ said “tetelestai” He really meant it was finished, complete. The cause of death that had plagued mankind since Adam’s sin in Genesis 3 had been removed.  Jesus Christ was telling us the work of redemption was completed once and for all time.  I believe the repetition of Teleo was for emphasis, stressing the reality of our faith alone Justification. 
 
But John and the others who had witnessed the crucifixion went home thinking it was all over.    They were wrong.  There was one more Messianic prophecy about redemption that had to be fulfilled.   

Psalm 16:10-11 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Healing the sin wound which kills is not enough.  What we still needed was life.  We also had to know that what Jesus had said on the cross was true.  And that is the great significance of Christ’s resurrection.  It is irrefutable proof that Jesus Christ has the authority and power to give us life, everlasting life. 

1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
1 Corinthians 15:21 & 22 For since by man also came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ validates everything He ever said including John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If you believe John 3:16 you can be sure you have everlasting life.