Meditation on God and Gender

We believe in one God (Deut. 6:4). We believe this one God exists eternally as one Spirit, one Lord, one God (Eph. 4:4-6). We do not believe in three Gods. We believe the Father is God. We believe the Son, the Word, is God. We believe the Spirit, the Comforter, is God. The Father is God, but he is not the Son or the Spirit. The Son is God, but he is not the Father or the Spirit. The Spirit is God, but he is not the Father and he is not the Son. We believe three persons equal in glory eternally dwell in mutual majesty as one God. We believe in one God. And his name is Father. And his name is Son. And his name is Spirit.

We believe the eternal Son of God took on the likeness of sinful flesh and became the Son of Man. In signifying mystery, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit was not born of the Virgin Mary- though he conceived the Son of God within the womb of Mary by the will of the Father (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:30-33). We believe Jesus, in complete and life-long submission to the will of the Father, was crucified for our sin under Pontius Pilate. The Father was not crucified. Through the Holy Spirit the Son of God offered himself to the Father for our purification (Heb. 9:14). We believe that only the Son was resurrected for our justification as only the Son was crucified. But we believe the same Spirt through whom the Father raised the Son will give life to our mortal bodies as well (Rom. 8:11).

Because God is one, all his work is one. Because the Father is not the Son or the Spirit he works in this way. Because the Son is not the Father or the Spirit he works in that way. Because the Spirit is not the Father or the Son he works in his way. This, that, and his, are one; but this, that, and his, are theirs.

The Father does not have less glory because he was not born of a Virgin. The Holy Spirit does not have less glory because he was not crucified under Pontius Pilate. The Son does not have less glory because he was made man to suffer for man’s sin.

The Father wills, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies: God’s work is one. The Father, Son, and Spirit dwell in eternal love. A love free of envy. A love free of discord. A love free of embarrassment. A love embracing, supporting, and accomplishing individual actions within the one divine work.

When God made man, he said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). We may not know exactly what being made in the image and likeness of God entirely means, but we can certainly develop sound concepts from studying Scripture and creation.

So God created man in his own image,

    in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them.

The triune God created “man” in his image; creating “them” in his image and likeness: male and female. Himness is not maleness. Himness is maleness and femaleness. Himness is themness. Themness is likeness to and afterness of the image of God. God is not God without the Father or the Son or the Spirit. Man is not man without male and female. The image of God is not the likeness of God without male and female.

Is the female less because in pain she brings forth children? Is the male less because in pain he brings forth bread? Cursed together. Is the female more because the Redeemer is from her without a male? Is the male more because the Redeemer is male and not female? Blessed together. In Christ both are sons of God through the Spirit of adoption.

In the image and likeness of God the male rejoices in his masculinity and rejoices in the female’s femininity. In the image and likeness of God the female rejoices in her femininity and in the male’s masculinity.

God does not just command contentment and joy in differing roles, He exemplifies it. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit perform individual actions unique to each person which have no bearing on their unity in deity. Striving to live outside of God-appointed boundaries is the way of the adversary. From the beginning he was a liar energized by the creed, “I will.” Not content in his own rebellion, he has spread it unto man: male and female. The lie that male and female will find contentment outside of the roles God has assigned has found good ground and is now bearing abundant fruit.

Who will you believe? The God who made you; working in perfect differentiated unity? Or that old hiss that God is holding out on you; that there is a better way. You own way.

Christian Word Games

Pastors face a temptation of preaching to the specks. Every pastor knows certain things that will rattle the cages and rally the troops. They are cards kept up the sleeve to be pulled out when an “amen!” or “‘atta boy” are needed. I tried to avoid those when I was pastoring. When the text I was preaching did mention the speck I tried to draw attention to the beam. Getting to the point: when the Bible spoke against homosexuality, I also tried to remind them what else was included in such a prohibition. And what was to be embraced in its stead.

Conservative Christians have done much to muzzle and belittle the authority of God’s word. On The Gospel Coalition Thomas Kidd has written that Christians “be charitable to those in the church (and outside the church) with whom we disagree on [the] most contentious topic [of the 6 days of creation].” The article follows what has become the standard conservative evangelical argument for not taking the days of Genesis 1 literally. Geology, silence of Scripture, no uniform church tradition, etc. all give reason to allow that the days of Genesis 1 are not 24 hour days.

No doubt, the same website will sooner or later post or link to an article about homosexuality and/or marriage and/or gender issues and quote Genesis 1:27 and 2:24:

 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The argument will made having already surrendered any linguistic, logical, or exegetical high ground. If “there was evening and there was morning, the first day…there was evening and there was morning, the second day…there was evening and there was morning, the third day…there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day…there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day…there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day…” does not mean 6 24-hour days, how can you dogmatically argue that “male” and “female” refer to a human born with certain X and Y chromosomes?

If we have already surrendered the meaning of words to each other; on what grounds can we fight for their meaning against unbelievers?

The Spirit of Power

“Without the Holy Spirit there is no life, no motion, no being, The Spirit is the power supply for all these things. . . The Holy Spirit is the power of life itself.” (R.C. Sproul, The Mystery of the Holy Spirit, 74, 75)

Sproul notes the apostles frequently couple the Spirit with power (Greek- dunamis) in the New Testament. A quick search turned up these results:

• Luke 1:35 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.
• Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.
• Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
• Acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
• Romans 1:4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
• Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
• Romans 15:19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;
• 1 Corinthians 2:4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
• Galatians 3:5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles [powers] among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
• Ephesians 3:16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
• 1 Thessalonians 1:5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
• Hebrews 2:4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles [powers] and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

The Holy Spirit is a person of power. If you are lacking vigor and vitality in your spiritual life, you are not walking in the power of the Spirit’s fullness. Your failings demonstrate where you still walk in the flesh.

Otto Weber on the Freedom of God’s Love

God’s love qualifies his freedom as divine, as freedom turned toward the creature, as freedom which incomprehensibly does not consist of the possibility that God could be “different” (he cannot be the devil, he cannot be wicked), but rather of the fact that purely of his own essence, unconditioned by anything else, with no regard to the quality of the object toward which he turns, God is and acts the way he is and acts.

Foundations of Dogmatics 1.408

How Do We Talk About God: Classifying His Attributes

We can only say anything about God because we must say something. One of the most common ways of speaking about God is to discuss his attributes- those truths of God’s existence that He has reveled to us. Generally, God’s attributes are placed into one of two groupings. Some of those groupings (and the men who use them) are:

Incommunicable	Communicable	Grudem, Berkhof, Bavinck, Shedd
God is great	God is good	Erickson
Perfections of the Divine Freedom	Perfections of the Divine Loving	Barth, Weber
Deus absconditus (hidden God)	Deus revelatus (Revealed God)	Luther
Constitutional	Personality	Chafer
a se (in Himself)	pro nobis (toward us)	Photios
ousios (essence)	energeia(energy, operations)	Palamas
theologia	economia
Absolute/Immanent	Relative/Transitive	Strong
natural	moral
absolute	relative
original	derived
intransitive	transitive
Light	Love	1 John
One	For Us	Romans

Of course, all such discussion and classifications are carried out in the knowledge of our inadequacy to the task and the very impossibility of it.

“An actual division of the attributes of God is not conceivable. Therefore every ordering has the actual intent of making indivisible (yet distinguishable) factors evident.”  (Otto Weber, Foundations of Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 428)

“…God and his attributes are one. The attributes cannot be considered as so many parts that enter into the composition of God, for God is not, like men, composed of different parts. Neither can they be regarded as something added to the Being of God, though the name, derived from ad and tribuere, might seem to point in that direction, for no addition was ever made to the being o God, who is eternally perfect.” (Lois Berkhof, Systematic Theology New Combined Edition, pp. 44-45)

“…the attributes are so interrelated and interdependent that the exact placing of some of them is difficult if not wholly impossible. It is evident that no feature of Systematic Theology has occasioned more confusion and disagreement among theologians than has the attempt to order the category of the divine attributes.” (Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 1, p. 189)

 

 

 

The Greatest Problem Mankind Will Face in 2014

What is the greatest problem facing mankind in 2014?

Militant Islam?

A nuclear Iran?

Global warming?

Poverty?

AIDS?

Cancer?

All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront together and at once, would be nothing compared to the problem of God: The He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him.

A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy 

Otto Weber and John Calvin on Roman Hubris (and me on Evangelical Insolence)

According to the Roman Catholic view, Jesus is the Lord in the Church and through the Church, but not over the Church in the sense that he alone defines the word of the Church through the apostolic witness and makes this word secondary to that witness.

Otto Weber, Foundation of Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 40

It is easy to simplify things and state that all the differences between Rome and Christianity come down to authority. Nevertheless, all differences must at the very least start there. Until this issue is resolved, there can be no meaningful rapprochement with Rome.  Rome says that what the Church says about the Apostolic witness is more important than the witness itself. Jesus may help and guide the Church in her dogmatic decrees, but her decrees always take precedence over whatever Jesus or the apostles have decreed.

This should not be taken as an assertion that Protestants have it all together. We may have a better creed, but for many it is little more than that: “I believe,” but not “I do.” Sola Scriptura and Regula Fidei are nice slogans to sling around, but they have little bearing on how we relate to God, society, or one another. The arrogance of Roman autonomy is little better than Evangelical insolence.

 …in mysteries of the faith common sense is not our adviser, but with quiet teachableness and the spirit of gentleness (which James commends) we receive the doctrine given from heaven.

John Calvin, Institutes, 4.17.25

On Knowing and Worshiping God; Great Expectations; and False Humility

But someone will say, “If the Divine substance is incomprehensible, why then do you discourse of these things?”

So then, because I cannot drink up all the river, am I not even to take in moderation what is expedient for me? Because with eyes so constituted as mine I cannot take in all the sun, am I not even to look upon him enough to satisfy my wants? Or again, because I have entered into a great garden, and cannot eat all the supply of fruits, would you have me go away altogether hungry?

I praise and glorify Him that made us; for it is a divine command which says, Let every breath praise the Lord. I am attempting now to glorify the Lord, but not to describe Him, knowing nevertheless that I shall fall short of glorifying Him worthily, yet deeming it a work of piety even to attempt it at all.

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 6, 5

To paraphrase a bit of Bohoeffer, there is a costly grace in worshiping God. It is grace that calls us to worship God. But it is costly to worship God.

God is worthy of perfect worship. But the sensitive worshiper knows even man’s best is not worthy of God in his glory. I don’t know how many flocks Abel worshiped the Lord with. Did he have ever occasion to ponder, “Last year’s flock was a little better than this year’s.” In one sense man can never really offer “the” best, but only “his” best.[1] God, in His grace, covers even the purest of our offerings and makes it fit for Him.

I am not sure pure worship is found by the one seeking perfect worship. The one loving worship more than God is not worshiping God. Widow’s mites always have more value than spare doubloons.

But it remains true that “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” The Lord accepts widow’s mites, not tycoons’. When someone has a suspicion that God might deserve or expect a bit more in corporate worship, it is not the time to revert to Adam’s, “The woman…” or Aaron’s, “You know the people…”

As far as I know, the first and second greatest commands have not switched rankings in the polls.

God calls us to worship him with our best. Pastors should do the work of elevating the congregation’s idea of what our best should and can be: always better, even if it is never good enough.

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[1] Thinking musically, if we were really concerned to offer God “the” best, shouldn’t we have come up with a text for the third movement of Dvorak’s Dumky Trio already?

Tertullian: What is the fear of God? How do I know the fear of the Lord?

They say that God is not to be feared; therefore all things are in their view free and unchecked. Where, however is God not feared, except where He is not? Where God is not, there truth also is not. Where there is no truth, then, naturally enough, there is also such a discipline as theirs. But where God is, there exists “the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psalm 111:10; Prov. 1:7) Where the fear of God is, there is seriousness, an honorable and yet thoughtful diligence, as well as an anxious carefulness and a well-considered admission (to the sacred ministry) and a safely-guarded communion, and promotion after good service, and a scrupulous submission (to authority), and a devout attendance, and a modest gait, and a united church, and God in all things.

(Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, 43)

 

I’ve struggled for quite some time with the explanation I often hear evangelical-types give about the phrase “the fear of the Lord.” “Of course,” we are told, “we do not really fear God, we just have a reverence, or respect for God.” Charmed, I am sure. I always got the feeling that whatever “fear of God” meant, I wasn’t being given a straight answer.

We are proficient at “interpreting” Scripture when it suits us. Rather, when Scripture is against us. Don’t feel like supporting your needy parents? Just say your goods are devoted to the Lord! Who can argue with that? It is not a new problem.

What Tertullian says about the fear of God certainly rings authentic to me. How do I know if a place, a people, is filled with the fear of God?

Is there seriousness?

Is there honorable, thoughtful diligence?

Is there safely guarded communion?

Is there submission?

Devout attention?

Modesty?

Unity?

How would these questions be answered at churches across the land? I fear to even contemplate. What if the answer to these questions is “no”? Then God is not there. Truth is not there.

No fear, no God.

Thank you for good medicine father Tertullian. O for more doctors so careful in their cures.

Graeme Goldsworthy on God’s Attributes

God has been revealing himself within the whole process of biblical history. His character is not presented as a series of abstract ideas, such as holiness, omnipotence, righteousness and so on. Rather, God reveals himself in the midst of his deeds that he himself interprets by his Word. From his activity as creator, judge, covenant-maker and redeemer, we learn the meaning of words like, holy, almighty and righteousness as they apply to God.

(Graeme Goldworthy, According to Plan, 189)

It may seem to be cutting things a little to fine, but the distinction is an important one. God is not defined by his attributes. God defines his attributes.

Perhaps one of the reasons “God is love” is so often misused is because many people wish to define “God” by their (mis)understanding of “love.” God’s word, and God’s actions described and demonstrated in his word, define the true meaning of love.