The central theme of Scripture is God’s redemptive purposes through Jesus Christ. From Gen. 3:15 through the end of Revelation the theme is Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament the promise of Jesus Christ was made. In the New Testament the promise of Jesus Christ was kept. In this sense all of the scriptures are Christian in that they speak of the centrality of Christ.
The primary purpose of Christ was not to give us purpose, self-esteem, or success in life. His primary purpose was to save us from our sins and reconcile us to God. This He did by a taking upon himself flesh, by living a sinless life we could not live, by dying a vicarious death in our place, by rising from the dead for our justification, by ascending to the Father to plead our case in the court of heaven, and with the Father, by sending the Holy Spirit to bring us to salvation by grace, through faith, in Christ, alone!
John Calvin once said, “We must be careful not to look for Him anywhere else, for apart from Christ whatever offers itself to us in the name of God will turn out to be an idol.”
Showing posts with label Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christ. Show all posts
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Why God Became Man?
In his book, On The Incarnation, Athanasius wrote of The Divine Dilemma. How does God who promised death for the transgression of Adam keep His word, yet, save those created in His image and likeness? For God to not punish the transgression would make God a liar and therefore not God at all. But on the other hand, how could God, finding Adam and Eve in their nakedness and shame allow those created in His image, those who once reflected the very Word of God, disappear and the work of God be undone? “The creatures whom He had created reasonable, like the Word, were in fact perishing, and such noble works were on the road to ruin, what then was God, being Good, to do?” (Athanasius, On the Incarnation, p.12). What then was a good and holy God to do?
Before God’s very eyes degeneration and death was evident in Adam and Eve; they were in fact perishing and all of God’s creation with them. Only God could solve The Divine Dilemma. Only the Word of God himself, who in the beginning made all things out of nothing, could again bring regeneration and a new birth to all creatures of our God and King. “For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father. For this purpose, then, the in-cor-poreal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. . . . He entered the world a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us” (Ibid, p.13).
Over 700 years later Saint Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote another book important to our understanding of the Incarnation entitled “Why God Became Man?” While the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement would wait another 500 years, Anselm rightly understood that for humankind to be saved from the results of the Fall of Man God would have to be satisfied. Anselm argued, “Satisfaction cannot be made unless there be some One able to pay God for man's sin something greater than all that is beside God. . . . Now nothing is greater than all that is beside God except God Himself. None therefore can make this satisfaction except God. And none ought to make it except man. . . . If, then, it be necessary that the kingdom of heaven be completed by man's admission, and if man cannot be admitted unless the aforesaid satisfaction for sin be first made, and if God only can, and man only ought to make this satisfaction, then necessarily One must make it who is both God and man" (Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, Book II, ch. 6). If only God can make satisfaction and only man is responsible for satisfaction, then only One who is both God and man can satisfy the debt we owe.
In other words, we owe a debt we cannot pay. Only God can pay the debt He does not owe. Therefore, only a God-man, Jesus Christ, can both bear the guilt of human sin and pay the debt incurred by it.
Before God’s very eyes degeneration and death was evident in Adam and Eve; they were in fact perishing and all of God’s creation with them. Only God could solve The Divine Dilemma. Only the Word of God himself, who in the beginning made all things out of nothing, could again bring regeneration and a new birth to all creatures of our God and King. “For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father. For this purpose, then, the in-cor-poreal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. . . . He entered the world a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us” (Ibid, p.13).
Over 700 years later Saint Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote another book important to our understanding of the Incarnation entitled “Why God Became Man?” While the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement would wait another 500 years, Anselm rightly understood that for humankind to be saved from the results of the Fall of Man God would have to be satisfied. Anselm argued, “Satisfaction cannot be made unless there be some One able to pay God for man's sin something greater than all that is beside God. . . . Now nothing is greater than all that is beside God except God Himself. None therefore can make this satisfaction except God. And none ought to make it except man. . . . If, then, it be necessary that the kingdom of heaven be completed by man's admission, and if man cannot be admitted unless the aforesaid satisfaction for sin be first made, and if God only can, and man only ought to make this satisfaction, then necessarily One must make it who is both God and man" (Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, Book II, ch. 6). If only God can make satisfaction and only man is responsible for satisfaction, then only One who is both God and man can satisfy the debt we owe.
In other words, we owe a debt we cannot pay. Only God can pay the debt He does not owe. Therefore, only a God-man, Jesus Christ, can both bear the guilt of human sin and pay the debt incurred by it.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
God Gives What He Commands
To whom do you answer? To what are you a slave? What fruit is being produced in your life? We are constantly being told to do better, be better, and do more. There is a temptation to move from the things that God has done in Christ to the things we are to do because of Christ and assume it’s now our turn. Yet, in the same way that we needed another to fulfill the law and die in our place, on our behalf, so Christ remains the source on which we rely as the Holy Spirit initially and progressively conforms us to God. There are gospel imperatives to do and not do certain things. Nevertheless, we cannot forget that we are not able apart from the Spirit of Christ to do what God commands.
“This first thing to remember, of course, is that we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual ... but from the New Testament's point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only where our piety forgets about ourself and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety be nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.” Sinclair Ferguson
Whatever God requires it is Christ who meets the requirement. Whatever duty is owed it is Christ who dutifully obeys. Whatever price that needs to be paid it is Christ who has paid it. And we are “in Christ” by the work of the Holy Spirit who effectually calls us, gives us saving faith, leads us to godly repentance, justifies us by Christ’s imputed righteousness, and sanctifies us for good works, until heaven is our home and sin is no more.
“Prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love: here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” Robert Robinson
“This first thing to remember, of course, is that we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual ... but from the New Testament's point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only where our piety forgets about ourself and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety be nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.” Sinclair Ferguson
Whatever God requires it is Christ who meets the requirement. Whatever duty is owed it is Christ who dutifully obeys. Whatever price that needs to be paid it is Christ who has paid it. And we are “in Christ” by the work of the Holy Spirit who effectually calls us, gives us saving faith, leads us to godly repentance, justifies us by Christ’s imputed righteousness, and sanctifies us for good works, until heaven is our home and sin is no more.
“Prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love: here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” Robert Robinson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
