In recent essays we considered how God deals with three aspects of the sinful human condition through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Jesus enacts God’s forgiveness in his dying on the cross, and in the resurrection of Jesus by the power of the Spirit, God heals the damage and death sin causes. The power by which God raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us to a new life free from the power of sin. But how does God’s work in Jesus Christ affect us here and now?
In addressing these questions we must keep two things in mind. (1) The New Testament sees Jesus Christ not only as the Savior but as the first truly saved human being. His action is not only divine but also human. His acts of obedience were not only righteous as divine but also as human. Jesus Christ was one of us as well as one of the Trinity. Hence we can say that one of us, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, lived a righteous life completely pleasing to God. With God all things are possible! What God did for Jesus he can do for us through Jesus! (2) The New Testament sees the salvation that God enacted in and through Jesus as the realization of God’s eternal plan for creation. Jesus’ human salvation, that is, his deliverance from the deadly consequences of sin (other people’s sin) and his glorification, happened to him alone. And it happened to Jesus before the end, before it happens to the rest of creation. Jesus is the first of a future, new humanity.
How, then, does what God did in Jesus affect us? How do I begin to experience the salvation that Jesus experienced? First, consider that the salvation described in the New Testament involves objective and subjective elements. Salvation involves the whole person, and our existence is comprised of conscious and unconscious dimensions. God could forgive (that is, not take revenge for sin’s insult) and prevent the worst consequences of sin from running their course even if you were unaware of it. But you cannot stop sinning and come to love God and your neighbor without consciously willing to do so. Salvation involves liberation of the will, so that we truly will God’s will above our own private interests. Or, let me put it another way: no one can be saved apart from their own knowledge and will, without their own active participation. You cannot unwillingly or unconsciously love God or become holy or experience glorification.
The New Testament message proclaims that we can enjoy the salvation that has appeared in Jesus Christ. It is not meant for him alone. God unites us to Christ and we join ourselves to Christ so that his qualities become ours and we enjoy the salvation he experienced. (Note: God’s grace always precedes and empowers our action, but our act is really ours.) God has demonstrated in Christ that he does not want to take revenge on us. Instead he wants to heal and liberate us. And the power for this healing and liberation is at work in the sphere of Christ and the Holy Spirit. And we need access to that power and presence.
The most basic act by which we join ourselves to Christ is faith. It’s not love or obedience or repentance or any other subjective act of our wills. Of course, faith implies all of these virtues, but the New Testament places the priority on faith. Faith is such a rich concept that I can only begin the plumb its depths. There is a mysterious side to the act of faith because, apart from the preaching of the gospel and work of the Spirit, faith in Christ as Savior and Lord would be impossible. But I want to concentrate in this essay on the visible, human side of faith.
For many reasons, faith is a fitting human response to God’s work in Jesus Christ. (1) Faith is an act of knowing. It embraces the apostolic testimony to Jesus Christ as the truth. By believing the apostolic witnesses, it gains access to the knowledge that God raised Jesus from the dead and to other aspects of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ. This knowledge enables us to think of God, pray to God, obey God, and direct our love to God as we see him in the face of Jesus Christ. The act of believing is already the beginning of our transformation. It changes what we think of God and allows us to direct all our energies toward the true God. God is always near, the risen Jesus Christ fills the universe, and the Spirit is closer to us than our own spirit whether we know it or not. But in faith we come to know his true identity and the true depth of his love for us.
(2) The act of faith is acknowledgment. Faith acknowledges its poverty, its total dependence on God for everything good. Faith is not an adventurous act of human discovery, a brilliant insight into the nature of things, or an exceptional act of righteousness. It is a humble admission that God is God and we are not and that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord; we cannot save or rule ourselves. (3) Faith is affirmation. The act of faith not only admits that God is God, it joyously affirms this and celebrates it. Faith affirms that the distinction between the Creator and the creature is good and right. The believer finds his/her joy in being a creature given existence by the Creator and a sinner saved by the Savior.
(4) Faith is an act of trust. It takes the promise of the gospel as certain. In faith, we embrace the word of Jesus Christ as completely reliable. We believe he will forgive us, heal us, and purify us. He will deliver us from death. (5) Faith is an act of certainty. Faith embraces Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and confidently as the truth about God and human destiny. Hence it inspires bold action. It gives rise to courageous acts of love, forgiveness, repentance, obedience, grace, and holiness.
(6) Faith is an act of uniting ourselves to Jesus Christ. In saying this I am returning to the theme of the first half of this essay. If we are to benefit from Christ’s salvation, we must be united to him and receive the divine power at work in him. Jesus Christ is not merely a historical figure about whom we have some information. He is alive. In the power of the Spirit, he is present and active everywhere. But Jesus speaks to us today through his words and deeds that are remembered and preached by his apostles. By believing, we know he is alive and available to us. We know who he is, what he is like, how much he loves us, and what he has promised us. When faith listens to the words of the gospel, it hears the voice of One alive and present.
By the time you read these words of mine, my act of saying them will be past. Nevertheless by reading them you will be joining your mind to my mind, your heart to my heart. Even when we read the words of someone long dead we have a feeling of understanding and knowing them. But Jesus is not dead; he is alive. His words remain his living voice. They are not echoes from the past but trumpet blasts in the present. And through his living voice we have fellowship with him, mind to mind and heart to heart. In this conversation we find ourselves united to him through faith. In view of these thoughts perhaps the words of John may take on a meaning we had not perceived before:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3).
ifaqtheology 
Your insights show well the response to the postmodern objection: “If God loves me, why doesn’t he just forgive me?” Why talk of odious things like judgement or hell? Why doesn’t God just forgive and forget without waiting for me to get my act together?
Misconstruals aside, that kind of *pardon* would not be enough. It would not cut to the core cause of our continued sinful condition: ourselves. We need the Father’s loving grace to pardon us the wrath that we rightly deserve. We need His restorative justice to regenerate us, to bring rehabilitation to the brokenness-factories that each of us is. We need a love that regenerates and restores, not just brushes wrongs aside.
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Well said!
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In my Philosophy of Religion class, one of the atheistic objections we read rejected faith because of Hebrews 11:1, which they interpreted to prove that faith is inherently unreasonable because Christianity asks us to not know and not be able to see what it is we put our faith in. This is such a beautiful elaboration of the depths and nuances of faith!
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And I’ve touched the surface of the NT concept and experience of faith! Many objections by those hostile to faith are so superficial that they are laughable. One can hardly take them seriously, though we should take the person who makes them seriously.
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Excellent word of truth which is living. Now I know faith can be knowable and experienced with effort and my walk with God.
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Glad to hear it!
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I like your last point about faith being a uniting of ourselves to Jesus Christ, recognizing his life and presence all around us. I am discussing a chapter from Mere Christianity in a small group right now, and your words reminded me of something CS Lewis says there (I’m sure you can tell I am a Lewis fan from the frequency with which I reference him):
“It is a living Man, still as much a man as you, and still as much God as He was when He created the world, really coming and interfering with your very self; killing the old natural self in you and replacing it with the kind of self He has. At first, only for moments. Then for longer periods. Finally, if all goes well, turning you permanently into a different sort of thing; into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own small way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity.”
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Lewis’s idea has relevance to our discussion of Christology tomorrow. When I get to the topic on my blog I will suggest some ideas along these lines to help us understand (a little) the relationship of the divinity and humanity of Christ.
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Your second point really touched a chord with me. The humility of faith continually is more profound than I ever think it to be. The willingness to acknowledge that dependence is the most important and most beautiful (and hardest possible) place to be is a weight of its own. “How can I know? What’s next? But what if…?” Trust. “But…” Trust.
And this trust breeds more trust, honesty before God breeds depth with Him – and then the cycle begins once more. Will we ever “get it”? Or are we bound for life to this cycle of faith, growth, realization that there’s more we must surrender, and repeat?
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I especially gained from/ enjoyed the following statements:
“There is a mysterious side to the act of faith because, apart from the preaching of the gospel and work of the Spirit, faith in Christ as Savior and Lord would be impossible.”
“The believer finds his/her joy in being a creature given existence by the Creator and a sinner saved by the Savior.”
“Faith embraces Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and confidently as the truth about God and human destiny. Hence it inspires bold action. It gives rise to courageous acts of love, forgiveness, repentance, obedience, grace, and holiness.”
“When faith listens to the words of the gospel, it hears the voice of One alive and present.”
Thank you!
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These are encouraging thoughts.
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I stopped and reflected in the essay on “(4) Faith is an act of trust. It takes the promise of the Gospel as certain. In faith, we embrace the word of Jesus Christ as completely reliable. We believe he will forgive us, heal us, and purify us. He will deliver us from death.”
I affirm every single word of the above statement. I wonder however, how reliable is reliable enough? Can we really believe in the promise of the Gospel, without trusting in the reliability of scripture? Can I really believe that Christ will forgive, heal, purify, and deliver me from death if I doubt the reliability of his decisions and his words as attested to by that scripture?
In my time in graduate studies at Pepperdine, I have come into contact with a number of dynamics which were not present in the church setting of the many Churches of Christ which I have worshiped with. As my mind searches for examples from prominent members of the staff and faculty, I am reminded of:
“Matthew, you don’t really believe that Jonah was inside of a fish, undigested for 3 days do you? Some parts of the Bible aren’t to be taken literally.” This was said with a demeaning smile, and a tone heavy with pity. I agree that not all of the Bible is to be taken literally. I would however say that the word of Christ should be reliable in affirming Jonah’s journey. (Mat 12:40) How can you believe in the reliability of the promise of the Gospel if you contest the reliability of the words of Christ? Is it so undeniably obvious from the context that Jesus was speaking metaphorically about Jonah? If he was using a metaphor within a metaphor, in what strange way does it make sense to include Jonah as a comparison?
“Matthew, did Jesus say that or did Paul? We all know that Paul was very opinionated, and very anti-women. We know that because Paul was anti-women, that not everything Paul says is from God.” I disagree that Paul was anti-women in a loving, serving, and complimentarian interpretation of scripture. That assumption aside, the question and statement to me argues that perhaps everything Paul says is not from God. How do we choose other than to place ourselves above Jesus and above the inspired writing of Paul? In Acts 9:15 Jesus says regarding Paul, “he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.” How can I trust in the reliability of this Jesus, if I doubt his ability to choose adequately and inspire sufficiently his chosen instrument to us (Gentiles)?
“Matthew, have you considered possibly not praying to the Father, but rather just to “God” instead, in order to be sensitive to those who have had bad relationships with their fathers?” Actually I hadn’t considered that since Jesus specifically prays to the father throughout scripture. I hadn’t considered excluding the Father from prayer because Jesus prays to the Father when he directly teaches us how to pray! Are we so enlightened now that we amend the intent of Christ so as to surpass his compassion to a higher level of love than he would have understood given his cultural context?
Conclusion:
The point is this, I believe fully the statement from above, “In faith, we embrace the word of Jesus Christ as completely reliable.”
If we ascribe to a worldview or set of worldviews that demand we deny aspects of Jesus’ teaching, or deny his words as completely reliable, can we have the type of faith that Dr. Highfield describes?
If we don’t have this faith, can we really trust in Jesus, in a way that doesn’t violate the definition of what it really means to trust?
I believe that ultimately we mistrust some aspect of the scripture, we have a choice to make. We have to choose in faith whether to believe in the reliability of our own personal cultural and exegetical enlightenment as is stands opposed to scripture, or we have to trust in the words and actions of Christ as reliable.
I affirm that the words and actions of Christ are reliable, as recorded in scripture. I assert that they are reliable in the entirety.
In the words of Augustine, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
I believe the entirety of the Gospel is reliable.
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Faith being an act of certainty – I think this is something many nonbelievers do not understand about Christianity. Faith is not turning a blind eye to doubt, but it seems that it is often portrayed that way. Really enjoyed reading this.
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I found it interesting when you elaborated on how overcoming sin is directly related to will power and the salvation we receive through Christ’s actions involves the liberation of our will, when in previous posts that talked about sin, sin was expressed as something that is completely inevitable.
Encouraging read!!
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“In addressing these questions we must keep two things in mind. (1) The New Testament sees Jesus Christ not only as the Savior but as the first truly saved human being. His action is not only divine but also human. He acts of obedience were not only righteous as divine but also as human. Jesus Christ was one of us as well as one of the Trinity. Hence we can say that one of us, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, lived a righteous life completely pleasing to God. ”
What you said here reminds of this part in Mere Christianity:
“But unfortunately we now need God’s help in order to do something which God, in His own nature, never does at all—to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die. Nothing in God’s nature corresponds to this process at all. So that the one road for which we now need God’s leadership most of all is a road God, in His own nature, has never walked. God can share only what He has: this thing, in His own nature, He has not.But supposing God became a man—suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person—then that person could help us. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God.”
This also connects back to our conversation on if God suffers. God cannot suffer. “Nothing in God’s nature corresponds to this process at all”. God sends the Son so that there could be “one of us, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, [who] lived a righteous life completely pleasing to God”. This passage in Mere Christianity was incredibly eye-opening to me the first time I read it, and I was really thought-provoked to be refreshed by these ideas.
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We seem to be having a big problem with sin missing the mark of righteousness that is set before us.
And when we miss that Mark we get one thing and we get one thing only, we cease to exist that’s what death means. Just the penalty of sin. Separated from the presence of God, or life. Genesis 3:24 25 and 26.
What we get to look at now is this kind of messed up God’s home, God created it, he wanted to rest walk around enjoy fellowship with humanity, just enjoy the loving nice place, and he did that. (Gen. 2:2-3), Until the serpent came in and did evil. And to be sure don’t forget that God said he’s going to crush his head, by the seed of the woman, my big brother.
In acts chapter 7 Stephen brings a remembrance of THAT temple echo that we find in Genesis 2, which equates to God’s resting place. From Isaiah 66 49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
and earth is the footstool for my feet.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is my resting place?
50 Did my hand not make all these things?’
I guess we could call this a scheme a of redemption.
And God’s gonna make everything brand-new again.
The problem is how’s he going to do it.
At least for us, and that’s what Paul tells us he unfolds the scheme of redemption, the new creation the temple all cleaned, no evil, only good in love and peace all the father’s good things that God wants that God intended will be there. Just like the beginning only populated with a whole bunch of family members. Isaiah 65
16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth
will do so in the name of the faithful God;
whoever makes an oath in the earth
will do so in the name of the faithful God.
For past problems will be forgotten;
I will no longer think about them.
17 For look, I am ready to create
new heavens and a new earth!
The former ones will not be remembered;
no one will think about them anymore.
There’s that word again faithful.
Paul when he is writing to the Romans about the third chapter 4th verse says that God’s faithful to all of his words and he’s going to accomplish all of them and that he did that or else how’s he going to judge the world.
And when he judges the world he’s got to do it in a just way. Because that’s just who God is good. In fact, he’s the essence of good. Also when we want to find that good we call it love. And love is defined by the way that God handles evil in his creation. And how he handles faithful good. Even though we might miss the mark of righteousness that is set before us.
That’s why there’s not going to be any evil where he is and if anyone messes with his temple the way Satan did you get crushed just like him.
By my big brother. My father’s son.
I like explaining this in this way because it makes it more of a contemporary lighthearted relevance. To be sure I take all of this very seriously kind of just like my life depended on it you know. And there just seems to be a lot of things that are too simple for my complex mind or too complex for my simple mind in this world and in Scripture, and I have a very hard time figuring out which is which but that’s my issue.
We all have our issues that’s why it takes a whole bunch of people, somewhere around Ephesians 4.
It’s just not me saying hey God I can figure it out, I can figure it out.
But I do know this just like Solomon built the temple for God and they were not to use a saw or hammer inside the temple everything had to dovetail right together perfectly. so when I’m putting my temple together for God with all of his teachings of love and good holiness. Well I don’t want to take out a theological saw and cut some stuff off here to make that fit, or take on a theological hammer and nail a little piece on that. Because God’s story is supposed to dovetail together, and it’s a story of love for his creation and he’s fixed it. And the only law that is left is his love.
Ron this is all I’m going to do right now and I’ll finish up with one little Scripture. I will start probably later on tonight if you don’t mind me making a couple comments. Before I get into subjective and objective faith
Love you bro
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”
Continued blessings to all, rich
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“(6) Faith is an act of uniting ourselves to Jesus Christ… If we are to benefit from Christ’s salvation, we must be united to him and receive the divine power at work in him. In the power of the Spirit, he is present and active everywhere… By believing, we know he is alive and available to us. We know who he is, what he is like, how much he loves us, and what he has promised us. When faith listens to the words of the gospel, it hears the voice of One alive and present.”
This aspect of faith reminds me of when I first came to know Christ. I compared it to spending my whole life in a darkened room and then suddenly having the light switched on. Some of my prior impressions of the room were confirmed, but overwhelmingly I found the errors in my intuition as truth was uncovered by light. Faith brings us into contact with the God who is already present, already speaking, and already at work in giving us life.
Col 1:12-3 “and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”
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Matt: I’d love to hear your story sometime.
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just a few interesting words i read the other day
blessings all
rich
Was Jesus “designated” to be Son of God, implying a change of status?
“It is important to stress here, as I have done elsewhere, that though the resurrection thus unveils what was there before, it does not confer or create a new status or identity for Jesus. The key word horisthentos, with its root meaning to do with ‘marking a boundary’, and hence ‘defining’ or ‘determining’, has to do with the public clarification, validation or vindication of a previously made claim, not with a claim or status newly introduced. That is quite clear for three reasons. First, in the passages we studied earlier it is the death of God’s son that reveals God’s love in Romans 5 and 8, and for that to make any sense Jesus must obviously have been ‘God’s son’ when he was crucified. Second, in Romans 1:3–4 itself, the messianic status of ‘son of David’ already, according to Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7, implied that this person was ‘son of God’, so that the logical order of verses 3 and 4 has the force of a Davidic messianic claim to divine sonship being then validated in the resurrection. Third, and also in this passage, the whole double clause is introduced by the phrase ‘the gospel of God … concerning his son’: in other words, the ‘son’ is the subject of the whole sequence. If there is anything new about Jesus’ post-resurrection sonship in this verse, it is simply that his sonship, possessed all along, is now ‘in power’…”
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sorry bout that…Above
this is concerning ROM.1:3-4
From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. 2 This gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh, 4 who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name. 6 You also are among them, called to belong to Jesus Christ.
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JUST TRY READING THIS…THE WAY IT IS LAID OUT, REALISING WHAT THE WORD “DEATH”
MEANS
AND WHAT WAS OVERPOWERED!
THIS IS THE HOW…
SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
19 For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!
liberty?
to find true liberty …as we gentiles are grafted into the good Root of promise…to BECOME BROTHERS
paul seems to get this…
gal.
14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles,
…the promise of the Spirit by faith.
gal4:4
, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights.
GAL.3:8
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify
the Gentiles by faith,
proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
13 Christ redeemed
us from the
curse of the law
by becoming a curse
for us (because it is written,
“Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)
14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles,
…the promise of the Spirit by faith.
{
4 Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. 2 But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 So also we, when we were minors, were enslaved under the basic forces of the world.
4 But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God
…referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” referring to one, who is Christ.
17 What I am saying is this:
The law that came four hundred thirty years later
does not cancel a covenant
previously ratified by God, so as to invalidate the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise…
For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
22 But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise could be given—
because of the faithfulness of Jesus to those who believe
and s0
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (although it is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed— 22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of 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 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. 26 This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.
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rom1
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”
Continued blessings to all, rich
1st.cor 15
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. 22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be eliminated is death. 27 For he has put everything in subjection under his feet. But when it says “everything” has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him. 28 And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
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what the law couldn’t do weak as it was
rom 8
1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit
in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh.
By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
by one righteous act of LOVE
rom 5:18
4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
rom5
18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression,
so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.
gal
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.
eph
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 15 when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, 16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 18 so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
rom5
12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed. 15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. 17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!
18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
see ya sunday ron
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i will just let peter say what thIS “PEOPLE OF GOD ACCOMPLISHED”
god Presented his Son THE Messiah to his people ( the Scribes, Pharisees) through the agency of the Sanhedrin,and these wonderful religious traditionalist had come up with a plan a no fail plan under the Torah LAW (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”the catch 22 of law) to destroy this man in the eyes of the people, because jesus had died cursed of the LAW and these evil men through the agency of their father “Satan the Deceiver” accomplished this in their RULING IN the middle of the night.and took JESUS to PILATE…
although OUR FATHER happened to ASK a simple question a long time ago also…
4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs in disgust;
the Lord taunts them
and
Psalm 2
1 Why do the nations rebel?
Why are the countries devising plots that will fail?
2 The kings of the earth form a united front;
the rulers collaborate
against the Lord and his anointed king.
3 They say, “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us!
Let’s free ourselves from their ropes!”
4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs in disgust;
the Lord taunts them.
5 Then he angrily speaks to them
and terrifies them in his rage, saying,
6 “I myself have installed my king
on Zion, my holy hill.
14 But Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed them: “You men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, know this and listen carefully to what I say. 15 In spite of what you think, these men are not drunk, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 But this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And in the last days it will be,’ God says,
‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people,
and your sons and your daughters will prophesy,
and your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
19 And I will perform wonders in the sky above
and miraculous signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
20 The sun will be changed to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
21 And then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know— 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. 24 But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held in its power. 25 For David says about him,
‘I saw the Lord always in front of me,
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced;
my body also will live in hope,
27 because you will not leave my soul in Hades,
nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of joy with your presence.’
29 “Brothers, I can speak confidently to you about our forefather David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31 David by foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his body experience decay. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says,
‘The Lord said to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.”
Psalm 2
1 Why do the nations rebel?
Why are the countries devising plots that will fail?
2 The kings of the earth form a united front;
the rulers collaborate
against the Lord and his anointed king.
3 They say, “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us!
Let’s free ourselves from their ropes!”
4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs in disgust;
the Lord taunts them.
5 Then he angrily speaks to them
and terrifies them in his rage, saying,
6 “I myself have installed my king
on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 The king says, “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me:
‘You are my son! This very day I have become your father!
8 Ask me,
and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
the ends of the earth as your personal property.
9 You will break them with an iron scepter;
you will smash them like a potter’s jar!’”
10 So now, you kings, do what is wise;
you rulers of the earth, submit to correction!
11 Serve the Lord in fear!
Repent in terror!
12 Give sincere homage!
Otherwise he will be angry,
and you will die because of your behavior,
when his anger quickly ignites.
How blessed are all who take shelter in him!
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2 ND COR.5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this earthly house we groan, because we desire to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed, after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked. 4 For we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. 6 Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we live by faith, not by sight.
Romans 1
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness,
1. Saten
because he is all of the above… From the beginning
32 Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 19 because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them…
… 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
1st cor.
15:1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
Gen 2
8 The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.)
Well now this pretty much sets the beginning, and Adam and Eve get to be put in the garden, and God and God tells him to enjoy everything to take care of it just one thing don’t eat from the tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden.
While they get to eat of the tree of life so God must’ve meant everything to go on and on and on.
God’s intention.
I’ll just leave that alone for right now. It just seems to me quite obvious.
And he said if you eat of the tree of knowledge on that day you’re gonna die.
And that’s just what he said.
Then you have the serpent he’s pretty hip slick and cool.
So he decides to kind of use his influence to deceive Eve even while Adam was standing there.
So he deceived the and you know the rest of the story.
And they get thrown out of the garden.
Remove from the presence of God’s rest.
God’s paradise.
Now let’s look at some of the things that transpired because they wanted to image their father.
At least that’s the way the serpent put it.
How do you spell innocent here?
God told them in a way that they could understand not to do the very thing that they did.
The serpent just set up a scenario that was going to take a few thousand years for God to deal with righteously lovingly and kindly.
For trying to destroy the temple that God created which was the creation and so this plays out.
22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
Now the interesting part of this is that because we ate of the tree of knowledge humanity. And we know the difference between good and evil humanity.
Were the ones that are culpable, of course our innate desire is to image our Creator and to get back where we belong.
Since God is no respecter of persons anyone that’s born in the world and misses the mark of righteousness set before them, does evil, gets there just dessert.
You send you die.
Whoa what you mean die rich.
You’re separated from God.
We physically die because we don’t have access to the tree of life anymore.
So that’s a stopping point right now.
And will see how God continues this without compromising any of his intrinsic characteristics which are all good and loving and kind and one more Scripture.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
The ECO of the of the DECEIVER’S REBELLION INSIDE GOD’S VERY GOOD TEMPLE(CREATION).
A Prophecy Against the King of Tyre
28 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘Your heart is proud and you said, “I am a god;
I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas”—
yet you are a man and not a god,
though you think you are godlike.
3 Look, you are wiser than Daniel;
no secret is hidden from you.
4 By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself;
you have amassed gold and silver in your treasuries.
5 By your great skill in trade you have increased your wealth,
and your heart is proud because of your wealth.
6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:
Because you think you are godlike,
7 I am about to bring foreigners against you, the most terrifying of nations.
They will draw their swords against the grandeur made by your wisdom,
and they will defile your splendor.
8 They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die violently in the heart of the seas.
9 Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you—
though you are a man and not a god—
when you are in the power of those who wound you?
10 You will die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners;
for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.’”
11 The word of the Lord came to me: 12 “Son of man, sing a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘You were the sealer of perfection,
full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God.
Every precious stone was your covering,
the ruby, topaz, and emerald,
the chrysolite, onyx, and jasper,
the sapphire, turquoise, and beryl;
your settings and mounts were made of gold.
On the day you were created they were prepared.
14 I placed you there with an anointed guardian cherub;
you were on the holy mountain of God;
you walked about amidst fiery stones.
15 You were blameless in your behavior from the day you were created,
until sin was discovered in you.
16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned;
so I defiled you and banished you from the mountain of God—
the guardian cherub expelled you from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom on account of your splendor.
I threw you down to the ground;
I placed you before kings, that they might see you.
18 By the multitude of your iniquities, through the sinfulness of your trade,
you desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I drew fire out from within you;
it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes on the earth
before the eyes of all who saw you.
19 All who know you among the peoples are shocked at you;
you have become terrified and will be no more.’”
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