Post #24 The Doctrine of God - P2 The Attribute of Divine Perfection, Reflections And Applications

Introduction:

    In our last post we began to look at the Divine attribute of God's perfection here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/11/post-23-doctrine-of-god-p1-gods.html. We had offered a provisional definition of God's Divine perfection, "God as the most perfect being is, in-and- of-Himself, incapable of improvement." Put another way, God is "completely complete". We noted in the last post how God's perfection can operate as a communicable attribute - something He shares with His creatures. In this post, we will explore the incommunicable side of this attribute. To remind the reader, an "incommunicable" attribute speaks of what is unique to God, unshared with His creatures.  

    The 11th century theology Thomas Aquinas devotes the fourth question of His massive work "Summa Theologiae" upon the subject of God's perfection. On three occassions Aquinas notes how God, in His perfection, "lacks nothing that is required to be God". What this means is there is no potential in God of becoming better or worse, stronger ror weaker, wiser or more ignorant. He is entirely Perfect. God does not need anything or anyone to supplement His wisdom, strength, or goodness (see Isaiah 43:10-11; Psalm 46:10-11; Romans 11:34-36; 1 Timothy 6:16). 

Nothing in all of creation is like God

    When we talk of God's perfection as an incommunicable attribute, one thing meant is this, nothing in all creation is like God. A.W. Tozer compares the life and intrinsic value of a little child lost amidst mountains as qualitatively different from all the vastness of such mountains. 

    Tozer tells the story of a group of hikers in the foothills to view a particular mountain. Along the way they are in awe of what they are seeing. For them, that whole mountain range is most supreme. Then suddenly, one of their company screams in panic, for their little three-year old daughter has wandered off. Suddenly the company of hikers become a search party, calling out her name. The little life of a 30lb child is of near-infinite value in comparison to what comparitively is now a large mound of rocks and dirt. When they find the little girl, everything is put into perspective. That mountain scene does not compare to the girl. Multiplied to an infinite degree, not all of creation itself is even close to the perfection of Almighty God. 

    Clearly nothing compares to God. Isaiah raises a rhetorical question in Isaiah 40:18 that points us in the direction of considering God in terms of His Divine Perfection:

"To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?"

I heard one speaker describe God in a lecture, 

"God is the only being who is explained by Himself within Himself. All other entities are characterized by requiring something outside of themselves to account for their existence. God, however, is alone in being His own reason for why He exists".

Why all other concepts of deity are mere idols compared to the One, Perfect God

    We've defined God's perfection, and have attempted to illustrate it. How then can we appreciate it? Why does the Bible labor to show that man-made ideas of deity are products of idolatry? 

    The questions raised earlier in Isaiah 40:18 (as well as the opening text Exodus 15:11) of "who is like God?" forces us to cross a boundary that reason alone cannot. For sure, faith alloyed with reason is needed. Yet, God's revelation from the Bible must be our guide to wing the precarious flight from our created realm to God in His infinite perfection. God's Word and so-called considerations of God's perfection of attributes (i.e. perfect being theology) will act as navigational controls in attempting to express God's perfection.

    Theologian Paul Helm describes what "perfect being theology" as starting with the assumption that God "is a being than which no greater can be conceived". By getting this fundamental thought of "what makes God, God" fixed in my mind, I can then proceed to work through what are often called "great-making properties" (that is, qualities that differentiates God from everything else). For instance, as I think upon God's omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, goodness, and wisdom, I draw from that central assumption that God alone doesn't merely contain such characteristics, but is completely complete (i.e perfect) in them. God has always had every attribute we've been discussing in this series, never acquiring them at some point. Some Scriptures that provide the basis for such "Perfect-being theology" are Genesis 22:16; Hebrews 6;13-14; 2 Samuel 7:22; Nehemiah 9:32; Jeremiah 32:18; Titus 2:13; Psalm 95:3; 96:4; 77:13; Exodus 18:11; Psalm 145:13.

     Whenever we speak of God's perfection, are we talking merely of a level above the highest archangel? As to perfection itself being a scale upon which we place people, galaxies and angels - is God somehow at the highest level of that scale? Or ought we consider God's perfection in a completely different sense? God is on a different scale of being - namely His own. 

    Theologian Keith Ward describes this quality of God as "Perfect Being" as: "having the consciousness to enjoy all things beautifully good." 

Isaiah 40:25 has God raising the question we observed in verse 18 of the same chapter:

“To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal?” says the Holy One."

    God's perfection (i.e. His quality of being "completely-complete" or "incapable of improvement") makes all other wanna-be deities not worthy of worship. The idols of antiquity were material deities made of precious metals and stone and the ideas of the human imagination. In the Greek and Roman Pantheons, the various deities were always subject to improvement. They each had deficits that required supplementing from their fellow deities.  

    The Apostle Paul critiques such a Graeco-Roman religious system in Acts 17:29 - 

"Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man."

    Is it no wonder that all other so-called deities are concluded as non-existent or human figments, somehow connected to the deceptions of the kingdom of darkness (see 1 Corinthians 10:18-22).
The God of the Bible alone is Perfect. 

God's perfection in relationship to His other attributes

    

 

   In terms of moral attributes, we call God's perfection "holiness". Holiness refers to the sum of all His moral attributes (goodness, wisdom, grace, justice, mercy, etc.,) in "perfect union" within His nature as God. Nothing can be added to nor taken away from God as holy. The prophet Micah comments on God's perfect being expressing such Divine moral qualities in Micah 7:18 - 

"Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, 
because He delights in unchanging love."

    Other attributes that describe God in His infinite existence are suffused with this quality of Divine perfection. God's Divine Aseity, which refers to His self-sufficiency and independence (from the Latin a se meaning 'from oneself'), expresses His perfection of self-sufficiency, as stated in Isaiah 44:6 - 

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me."

    We could speak of other attributes. The point is that God alone is "completely complete" or "incapable of improvement" in regards to His perfection. 

    To summarize, Thomas Aquinas, in the section of his massive work "Summa Theologica" on the topic of Divine perfection, He comments on how God's perfection expresses how He possesses all excellencies of life and wisdom in-and-of Himself, never lacking nor in want. The sun may shine on various objects and possess the qualities of the objects upon which it sheds its light. Still, the sun exhausts its fuel and requires objects for us to appreciate its light. God on the other hand requires neither ourselves nor His creation, since His light is both inexhaustible and undiminished with or without us.  

Applying Divine Perfection To Our Everyday Lives

    So how can God's Divine perfection help me out in everyday life? Three areas come to mind.

1. Worship. 

    For one thing, God's Divine perfection means He is worthy of my worship. When I preach on Sunday morning, sing songs of praise or live daily for Him - I find He alone is worthy. Revelation 4:11 demonstrates how God's perfection is cause for worship around His throne in Heaven:

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

2. My thought-life. 

    The 11th century theologian Anselm of Canterbury described God in His perfection of being as:

"the greatest conceivable being, apart from which nothing can be greater conceived". 

    In other words, if I could think of a greater being, then that being would be God. How I think of God is related to my worship of Him. Remember, the God of the Bible is incapable of improvement. Hence, He alone is worthy of my thoughts, my time, my worship. The fact that God by definition is a being of which no other greater being can be imagined (since He possesses attributes like omniscience, omnipotence and all-goodness), then He alone is Perfect, since He is completely-complete or perfect. 

3. Knowing Jesus better.

    A final application of Divine perfection relates to how one thinks of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Divine Person of the Son came to incarnate Himself in true humanity (see John 1:14; Philippians 2:4-11; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 2:11-14). Touching His divinity, Christ never changes (Hebrews 1:8) and is the same yesterday, today and forever (Revelation 1:8). By way of His incarnation, we discover that Christ took unto His Person a truly human nature so that I as a human being could somehow participate, have access to and enjoy the otherwise inaccessible Divine Perfection of which He shares with the Father and Spirit as One God (see Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 2:5; 2 Peter 1:3-4). 

    Christ alone, as truly God and truly man, bridges by His Person the otherwise inaccessible, infinite divide between God in His infinite perfection and everything else.  Christ alone makes knowing God in salvation not merely a possibility, but a reality for those who by grace through faith trust in Him as Savior, Lord and Treasure (see John 14:6; Acts 4:12). 

Post #23 The Doctrine of God - P1 God's Attribute of Perfection And How It Sheds Light On Running, The Christian Walk, And Creation.

 

Introduction:

    In today's post, and the next, we will continue exploring the doctrine of God by noting His attribute of "Divine perfection". So what is Divine perfection? God as the most perfect being is, in-and- of-Himself, incapable of improvement. Put another way, God is completely complete. For now I'll leave that definition as it stands, since we will return to it and expand upon it in the next post. 

    We've noted in a previous post here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-8-doctrine-of-god-introduction-to.html that there are some attributes of God that we call "communicable" and "incommunicable". In some cases, there are attributes of God which can occupy both categories, meaning that in one respect something like God's "holiness" is shared or communicated to His people. Simultaneously, God's holiness is "incommunicable" or uniquely His own in its intensity and essence. 

    As I will show below, God's attribute of perfection appears to operate similarly. For instance, in one respect, the Bible urges believers to "be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), suggesting a relative form of perfection in the believer that is ever improving, becoming more and more what Christ had intended the Christian to be. Hebrews 12:15 reinforces this notion by urging Christians to pursue the Lord in sanctification, suggesting that perfection (not sinless perfection, but rather progress of improvement) in sanctification. We find then that "perfection" in this sense is a "communicable attribute". 

    Yet of course we find God's perfection to be an absolute, "incommunicable attribute". "Perfection" as an incommunicable attribute of God is alluded to by Jesus in Mark 10:18, wherein He states, "God alone is Good."  

    In this post, we will approach God's Perfection by first noting its "communicability", beginning in the realm of athletics, through the Christian life, and then noting what we see in the realm of creation. If there were not a communicable side to God's attribute of perfection, we would not know why it is so important in so many areas of knowledge and life. Indeed, as those bearing His image, something about the relative perfection we long for in this life gives us glimpses of the evidence we have the absolute, incommunicable perfection of God Himself. The incommuincable side of God's perfection is what we will focus upon in the next post, noting why it is worthy of our contemplation and pursuit in the Christian life. 

    As Moses wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Exodus 15:11 "Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?"

Striving for perfection in one's pursuit of the Perfect One, Jesus Christ

    Perfection. Although unattainable in this life, yet is what one is to strive for in their Christian walk. Such a reality is of course what God is - Perfect. But let's develop what we mean by this truth by illustrating it. As a runner, I find myself ever striving for improvement. Racing reminds all participants that there are people faster and better than themselves. I've found this true whether running 5k's, 10k's, half-marathons, marathons, or ultra-marathons. Aging certainly reinforces this notion that there are indeed people faster and stronger than myself! The paradox of running is that in discovering how much better I could do, I find the drive to improve. 

    On a spiritual level, I find myself as a Christian ever needing improvement. The biblical term for Christian growth is "sanctification" (see 1 Thessalonians 4:3). As it pertains in the world of athletics, so it does in the Christian life. I always find other Christians that are further along in their faith or deeper in prayer-lives than myself. On a moral, spiritual, and physical level, I as a creature am being what is called "perfected". The use of "perfected" here refers to attainment of an intended design or ultimate goal. When designers test aircraft, they use windtunnels to "perfect" their designs before setting them aloft. Certainly, "perfection" in the moral sense can refer to absence of sin - a reality that is only attainable for the Christian upon death or in the rapture when Christ comes to retrieve His saints, dead and alive (see Hebrews 12:22-24; 1 John 3:1-3). 

    

    The sense of "perfection" we're emphasizing here has more to do with moral and spiritual conformity to "The Pattern" - the Lord Jesus Christ. This (hopefully) will aid us in our eventual contemplation upon God's "Divine Perfection" in the next post. 

    To understand growth in sanctification in this life, one must see the process as a progression, intermingled with fits and starts. I liken Christian growth in sanctification to an onward and upward slope with little jaggedy edges of ups-and-downs. Interspersed in our seasons of growth are those crisis moments where we decide to trust in God or in ourselves. 

    All Christians ought not to compare themselves to others, but to Christ Himself as their standard, their pattern (see Hebrews 12:1-2). As in the sport of running, recognizing that I strive for perfection, while knowing I won't attain it until I leave this world, paradoxically motivates me to strive all the more. As the late author A.W. Tozer once remarked:

"The paradox of faith is that all at once, when we think we have apprehended God, we are ever in pursuit of Him". 

Beginning to contemplate God's perfection by realizing that nothing compares to Him

    Anything else - whether animals, human beings, galaxies or angels - have room for improvement. We've already worked out this principle in the realm of athletics, as well as how it operates in Christian sanctification. The realm of creation itself stretches our minds to further prepare for contemplating and appreciating God as The Perfect Being. There are other comparable objects and beings that are better, bigger and brighter. Our Milky Way Galaxy, for instance, is physically immense. 



Astronomers tell us that on average, the Milky Way Galaxy is composed of over 100 billion stars and is 100 thousand light years across. Yet, the Andromeda Galaxy, lying some two-million light years distant, is twice as large and may contain over twice as many stars. The James Webb Telescope has discovered galaxies that are not only the most distant observed, but which are also in the same state of maturation and size as our own. While such discoveries are calling into question current theories of galactic evolution, origins, and even the proported age of the universe itself, the Biblical record of God having created all the stars, all at the same time, is yet again scientifically confirmed. Indeed, our universe is vast, yet there is a portion of the created realm greater than it.

    Angels are revealed in over 400 places in the Bible. Whether good or bad, they all exist in varying ranks. While stars and galaxies populate our physical universe in the millions, billions, and trillions, the numbers assigned to the angels advance into the hundreds of trillions (Revelation 5:11). Space does not permit referencing these ranks and powers of angels. Just as in the physical universe, all the angels, archangels, and other such beings are comparable to one another. Although we find good angels and their evil opposites more powerful and more swifter in their rankings, yet there are upper limits. The infinite gulf of being that persists between the lowliest amoeba and God is the same as between the mightiest archangel and God. In other words, His absolute perfection and all other creaturely relative perfection is incomparable.  

    All objects and beings are incomplete by themselves - capable of improvement. Strangely enough, whenever there is room for improvement, and when there is an ultimate standard against which all other standards fall short, we call such a condition "imperfect". Job 15:15 reminds us:

"Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones, And the heavens are not pure in His sight." 

Our realtively short exercise of approaching God's perfection in its communicable form in creation should cause us to long for dwelling upon His incommunicable, absolute perfection.

Closing of today's post.

    The goal of today's post was to explore how God in someways has communicated or shared His attribute of perfection with His creation, since without it we would not know what such a standard is. The communicability of God's Divine perfection functions in sports, the Christian life, the physical universe, and the angelic realm. Truly, we come to appreciate the beauty of creation, the need for moral and spiritual improvement, and the natural drive to compete as a result of the Perfect Creator's Divine handiwork. God's attribute of perfection refracted through all His creatures points us back to Himself. 

    We also began to see too how God's attribute of perfection is "incommunicable", meaning that there is something about it that is unique to Himself. Clearly nothing compares to God. Isaiah raises a rhetorical question in Isaiah 40:18 that will sets us up for the next post 

"To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?"

Post #22 - The Doctrine of God - P2 The Attribute of the Love of God - The Varied Ways God Reveals His Love Outside The Trinity

Introduction:

    We noted in our last post in this series here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/10/post-21-doctrine-of-god-p1-attribute-of.html that God's love is that perfection which involves the Self-giving of Himself in and through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God's love, like all the other attributes, is His nature, His being, in action. His love has no beginning and no end. We took time last post to develop the thought that God's love properly begins within the life of the Trinity. 

    Further, we noted how this attribute provides access to introducing us to the Doctrine of the Trinity. Even though I do not intend to say much more on the Trinity until future posts in this series, we nonetheless mustn't ever divorce our theology about God's nature and attributes (what God is) from who He is as the Trinity.

    In today's post I want us to cover the remaining expressions of God's love which He reveals in His creation. In addition to the love shared between the Trinity, there are at least four additional expressions of His love. 

    Theologian D.A. Carson wrote a book entitled "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God". As I said in the last post, God's love is an attribute we think we know much about. Yet, whenever we study the Bible, we find God's love is far richer than we realize. Carson lists five ways the Bible talks about God's love in his book. 

1. The peculiar love of the Father for the Son, and the Son for the Father (page 16). We noted this in the last post. 

2. God's providential care over all which He has made (page 16). 

3. God's salvific stance toward's His fallen world (page 17). 

4. God's particular, effective, saving love toward His elect (page 18). 

5. God's love is directed toward His people in a provisional or conditional way (page 19). 

    For the sake of this post, I'll retool the four remaining headings of Carson as follows,

1. God's beneficient love, or His loving activity toward creation in general.

2. God's benevolent love, or His loving general will toward human beings.

3. God's electing love, that is, the love He expresses more particularly towards sinners He redeems in saving faith.    

4. God's conditioned love, or that love God shows towards His people in their obedience to Him. 

    As we work our way through these expressions, I'll provide Scripture and short exposition for each.  

1. God's beneficient love, or His loving intention toward creation in general.

    This first expression of God's love deals with what theologians call "God's beneficent love", that is, His loving activity towards all He has made. 

    The term "beneficient" derives from the Latin terms "bene" meaning "good" and "facare" meaning "to make, manufacture, to create from nothing". This first term appropriately describes the relationship God intended all along to have with His creation. God's beneficent love is seen in the goodness He expressed toward the creation. Some seven times we see God declaring "it is good" in each completed phase of the creation in Genesis 1. 

    J.P. Boice in his "Abstract of Theology" comments on how this general love of God toward His creation is a spill-over from the love He expresses as Trinity,

"Were God but one person, in this way only could such love be exercised. But in the Trinity of the Godhead, there is found, in the love of the separate persons towards each other, another mode in which this love of complacency may in this highest sense be exercised. Such love is also felt by God for his purposes. As he perceives them to be just, wise and gracious, he approves and regards them with complacent love. But this love extends itself also to the creations, which result from this purpose."

2. God's benevolent love, or His loving will toward rational creatures, particularly human beings in general.

    This second term speaks of God's good ("bene") will ("volens") toward rational creatures, mainly all human beings. Scriptures such as Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 9:1-5 speak of man being made in "God's image". God's personal investment and declaration over Adam and Eve in His creation of them tells us that God had general, good, loving intentions toward them. 

    In Job 38 and Psalm 104, we find God sharing with the angels He made the joy of creating our world, an experience that prompted the angels to sing forth in joy from the moment they were made. Such benevolent love, also called by an older term, "love of complacency", refers to God's "bent" in the direction of wanting the very best for all He made. J.P. Boice explains,

"This love of complacency, however, as it is exercised in its highest degree towards himself, so also is it exhibited, in the nearest approach to that, towards those beings who are most like himself, having been made in his nature and likeness. An innocent angel, or an innocent man is therefore by nature a joy to God, as is the child to the father who sees in it a peculiar likeness to himself."

    Even after the fall of our first parents, resulting in the intrusion of sin into our world an all humanity (Romans 5:12-21), God's benevolent will never changed. Paul writes in Romans 8:20-21, 

"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

    God's benevolent love includes His love toward all people of all nations. We read in Ezekiel 18:33 that God does not rejoice over the death of the wicked. Jesus had "a love" for the young man who inquired about what he must do to be saved (Mark 10:21). This general sort of love did not lead to the man expressing saving faith. Nevertheless, one cannot say Jesus did not have a general sort of love toward people. 

3. God's electing love, that is, the love He expresses more particular towards sinners He redeems in saving faith.

    This third expression of God's love deals with the type of love God has towards those sinners whom He chose to love from before the beginning of time for the sake of the Son (John 10:29; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2). Such love arose from within God Himself, without beginning. Such love was without prompting from whatever He knew these particular sinners would choose or not choose ahead of time (see Ephesians 1:4-5). God, being God, chose upon whom He desired to show mercy (Romans 9:14-15).  

    Such truth as God's electing love in salvation has occupied every Baptist confession of faith since the Reformation and every major church father in centuries leading up to the Reformation. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, in its fifth article, is but the latest example, 

"Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility."    

    God's electing love is found in roughly one-hundred places in the Bible. If we didn't have Sovereign election, we wouldn't have redemptive history. For instance, God's electing purpose of grace was responsible for choosing Israel from all other nations to be His people (Deuteronomy 7:7-9; Amos 3:1-7). His electing purpose included the Son going to be incarnated as the man Jesus Christ, who alone is the way, the truth, and the life (Isaiah 42:7 and John 14:6). His electing purpose of grace explains the "why" of human salvation. 

    We know the "what part", that is, "what must I do to be saved?" Answer, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31). Then there is what I call "the who part". In whom must I believe in order to be saved? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31, Romans 10:9). 

    We all understand the "what" and the "whom" of saving faith. But now, why does anyone believe? This "why" part is explained by the mystery of God's elective purpose of grace. The old hymn "I know in whom I have believed", based off 2 Timothy 1:12 and found in both Baptist and United Methodist Hymnals, expresses it this way in its second stanza,

"I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word, wrought peace within my heart."

    The old hymn has it right. I cannot comprehend how God's elective purpose of grace in election and the necessity for belief and repentance fit together. I know not "how" they fit, only "that they fit". This mystery is paralleled in not comprehending how the Divine will and human will of the incarnate Son of God operate within His person. They do not mix. They do not contradict. They do not morph into each other. They each, in the language of the old Chalcedonian Creed of 451 A.D., "retain their own particular properties". 

    Just as we cannot deny the two wills resident in the two natures of our Savior, each with its will in no conflict in the same person - the Savior, so it is in the Bible's portrayal of God's electing love in choosing sinners and their necessity to respond to His call in the choosing of Him. 

    The mystery of God's Sovereign will and the human will in the Person of our Savior explains why Biblical plan of salvation has this similar mystery. God's electing love ought to be cause for praise and humility, causing us to go to all people with God's command to all men to believe, repent, and be saved. 

4. God's conditioned love, or that love God shows towards His people in their obedience to Him. 

    So we've looked at God's eternal love within the Trinity, His benevolent love, beneficent love, and electing love. This final expression of God's love has to do with how God shows His love to the Christian in their obedience. When I give in stewardship, I am told God will supply my needs (Philippians 4:19). When I yield to God's will in obedience, I am told He will guide me in every step (Proverbs 3:5-6; 16:9). The believer's obedience is not the cause of God's love. Rather, God's love is what prompts the believer to obey Him (1 John 4:18). 

Closing thoughts

    As we noted in the last post, theologian Wayne Grudem defined God's love as, "God's love means He eternally gives of Himself to others". As we have spent time meditating on this attribute, the above definition applies, whether speaking eternally of God's love within the persons of the Trinity and His intention to show electing love, or to His generalized love expressed in time in creation and to all people. God's love is rooted in the kind of God He is - the God who loves. May these reflections cause us to praise this wonderful God!

New Book Announcement! My Wife Has Published Her First Book: "Next Of Kin"

Introduction:

    Today's post is a special announcement regarding my wife D. Emily Smith. She has published her first book, "Next of Kin", and today it has released for sale to the public. The volume is a Christian fiction novel, with a page-turning plot and clear Gospel message. Readers may go to Amazon to view the book and purchase it here https://www.amazon.com/Next-Kin-D-Emily-Smith-ebook/dp/B0CLVH6HVK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14T1SHZS9EYNA&keywords=next+of+kin+d+emily+smith&qid=1699017879&sprefix=D.+Emily+%2Caps%2C341&sr=8-1. 

Happy Reformation Day 2023 - The Importance Of The Protestant Reformation And Two Contemporary Challenges

 

Introduction:

       I begin today's post by quoting from Paul's letter to the Church at Rome in Romans 4:1-3,

"What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

       Today, October 31, will mark a significant date on the calendar. Many people may think of "Halloween" when I mention October 31st. However, there is a far greater set of reasons to celebrate. An event of historic proportions occurred over 500 years ago that would shape the course of Christianity even to this day - the Protestant Reformation. 

The big deal that led to the Protestant Reformation

      What was the Reformation? In 16th century Europe, cries for reform in the Medieval Catholic Church ensued. Within the church, 14th century Christian thinkers such as John Huss and John Wycliffe preached sermons that urged people to "return to the Gospel" by "returning to the Book" - the Bible. Moral, spiritual and theological corruption invaded the church in Europe through centuries of accumulated human tradition and Biblical illiteracy. Roman Catholic scholars such as Desiderius Erasmus (who would become a major theological opponent of Martin Luther, the historically recognized initiator of the Protestant Reformation) was even urging the need for reform.  

       Early 16th century Germany was ripe for the actions of Martin Luther when he nailed a public document to the door of the church in Wittenburg Germany. Luther challenged Roman Catholic leaders to a public debate over the abuse of Pope Leo X selling documents which promised less time in purgatory in order to pay for the construction of the then new St. Peter's Basilica (Church) in Rome. This peddling of lessening people's time in purgatory was known in those days as "selling of indulgences". The Roman Catholic Church taught that an over abundance of merit before God was "indulged" or available at the appropriate price. Many people sought to purchase these documents with the thought of their dead loved ones having an easier time in the after-life. Astute thinkers like Martin Luther knew that this idea was not taught in scripture (that is, indulgences and Purgatory itself). 

How the Reformation got to the root of major spiritual problems and the point of this post

      The Reformation would soon get to the root of the problems abounding in 16th century European spiritual life. Those problems include ultimate authority (the Bible or the church?) Another issue what this "how is a person justified" or "made right before God"? Is faith alone in Christ sufficient to receive such justification or is participation in the church's sacramental system required to attain righteousness? 

      The two issues of ultimate authority for Christianity and how a person is made right with God ever remain top areas of contention in our world. As we think about October 31, all Bible believing groups, including Southern Baptists, are deeply indebted to what God did through the Protestant Reformation that began on October 31st, 1517. Today's post is aimed at issuing forth two direct challenges to Southern Baptists and all other Bible believing groups about Reformation Day, October 31st: 

1. A rejoicing challenge.

2. A take back challenge. 

1. The Challenge to Rejoice 

      So why rejoice over Reformation day, October 31st? Three reasons....

a. The recovery of "sola scriptura" 

    or "scripture alone"

      First of all, as mentioned already, the root or "formal cause" of Luther's "call for reform" had to do with ultimate authority in the Christian life and church. Martin Luther had become a professor of theology in 1512, tasked with the responsibility of expounding books of the Bible to theology students. As he wrestled with lack of peace in his own soul, the matter of ultimate authority would throb in the backdrop of his mind. Yes, Luther would come to terms with the "material cause" of the Reformation - the doctrine of justification or "how a person is made right with God". He did so by his preparation of lectures on Paul's letter to the Romans. Yet, in the years following his "Tower experience" conversion in 1515, Luther would champion the view of Jesus and the Apostles - "Scripture alone". In short, "sola scriptura" affirms that the Bible, not human tradition, constitutes the grounds of authority that shapes life, explains the after-life and addresses the conscience.

    To sharpen what Luther was needing to address in the Reformation, the big question was this: is it the Pope and his statements concerning who went to heaven and who did not constitute the ultimate authority for the church, or is it sacred scripture that God alone revealed to communicate matters pertaining to this life and the one to come?

    As Martin Luther wrestled over such questions, his conclusion was - Scripture alone! Doubtless, other forms of authority such as church leadership, conclusions from reason and other forms of knowledge had their place in Luther's thinking. Yet, all of those said authorities were subsumed under scripture. Luther and other Reformers, such as Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, John Knox and others affirmed the "magisterial" role of scripture in its relationship to reason, tradition and church leadership.

b. The recovery of justification by 

    faith alone or "sola fide" (faith 

    alone). 

      So the recovery of Scripture and its unique authority (sola scriptura) is the first cause of celebration. The second reason to rejoice over October 31st and Reformation Day is due to the recovery of the Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone (sola fide). In contrast to the man-made traditions of the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages, Luther and those after him re-asserted the Biblical truth that faith by itself is both the necessary and sufficient means of receiving the gift of salvation. Old Testament passages such as Genesis 15:6 and New Testament passages such as Ephesians 2:8-9 affirm "sola fide"  or salvation by means of "faith alone". Thus, justification by faith alone became the central doctrine, "the stuff" or "material cause" driving the vehicle of the Protestant Reformation. The doctrine of scripture alone (sola scriptura) was Luther's fuel in the engine that drove His call for reform - Justification by faith alone (sola fide). Luther himself noted that Justification by Faith is the one article upon which the church rises or falls.

c. Recovering the truth about the Biblical concept of the church

      We've observed "sola scriptura" (Scripture's unique authority) and "sola fide" (the only means of receiving the Gospel is by faith alone apart from works). The third reason to celebrate Reformation Day, October 31st, is because the Biblical concept of the church was recovered. 

    A phrase that historians and theologians use to summarize the need to continue reformation of the church is "semper reformanda" (always needing to reform"). What this little Latin phrase is driving at is that no church can ever claim they have become perfectly Biblical in their practices, doctrine, and life. In as much as the Protestant Reformation was a historical movement, the work of keeping the church Biblical, and ensuring such, is an ongoing task. 

    As Martin Luther denounced the Roman Catholic Church's system of indulgences, a second question emerged: how is a man or woman made right with God? A church that does not derive its authority from the scriptures nor teaches the Biblical concept of the Gospel - justification by faith alone, cannot be deemed a true church. 

        Roman Catholicism of 16th century Europe, as well as today, communicates faith to be necessary for salvation - however it teaches that faith by itself is not sufficient.  According to Rome, one must participate in the Roman Catholic church system of baptism, confession, penance and Mass to be deemed right by God and to stay right.  The Gospel in the Reformation's recovery of the church shined forth not as a candle but as a brilliant sun. If God had not raised up men like Martin Luther to spark the Reformation movement, then the recovery of Biblical authority, justification by faith in the Gospel and the necessary truth of the local church may had turned out quite different.
      

        So we need to answer the challenge to celebrate Reformation day due to what God did in calling us back to the Bible, the Gospel and the Church. 

2. The Take-Back Challenge: Let's take back October 31st and celebrate God's Word, the Gospel and Jesus' mission for His church

       We've look at the challenge to rejoice over what God did in the reformation of the 16th century. So what about today? This brings us to our second challenge - "the take-back challenge". It is time to take back October 31, and use this day to proclaim the truth of scripture and the reformation, sparked on October 31, 1517. Truly the message of the Reformation is a message about "after darkness, light" (post tenebras lux).  Gospel Light, not darkness, should characterize our lives as Christians.  

      October 31st has been for years a time for paganism to observe one of the so-called "spirit nights" on their yearly calendar.  Rather than promoting a day of darkness and wickedness, witches, ghosts and goblins, Christians need to take a God-centered event like the Reformation and remind themselves of how God led His church back to the Bible, the Gospel of justification by faith alone and recovery of the Biblical concept of the church.  
 

        The Reformation was about calling forth people from spiritual darkness into the light of Jesus Christ.  Someone once said, "it is more effective to light a candle than merely curse the darkness".  Let's light the Gospel light and shine the glory of the Gospel.  As Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 - 

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." 

Post #21 - The Doctrine of God - P1 The Attribute of the Love of God - Seeing His Love Within The Trinity

 

Introduction:

        As we continue in our expanding study of the doctrine of God, we come today to what many may think is the most familiar of God's attributes - God's love. I say "may think is most familiar" due to assumptions surrounding the concept of love and applying those assumptions to God's being and expression as "The God who is love" (1 John 4:8). 

    Whenever we begin to study the various words for love in the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament, the overwhelming conclusion to draw is that love is firstly a self-sacrificial action, followed by emotional motivation driving such actions. We today have reduced love only to a sentimental emotion, often neglecting the idea of self-sacrifice of the lover for the object of love. 

    Theologian Wayne Grudem defines God's love in the following way,

"God's love means He eternally gives of Himself to others". 

    As we reflect on this attribute, it is appropriate to begin with God's love as it is to His nature internal to Himself as the Trinity. In today's post we will trace the outlines of God's love within the Trinity, followed by how He expresses His love in other ways in creation and redemption in the next post. 

God's love within the Trinity

    In this post we will begin our exploration of God's love by understanding how His love operates within and between the members of the Trinity. Such intra-Trinitarian fellowship showcases this Divine attribute. What follows below is an attempted exposition of God's love as shared between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

The Father eternally begetting the Son is His relationship of love to the Son.

    The Father eternally initiates such love toward the Son in what theologians refer to as "eternal begottenness". Such an act by the Father means that for all eternity, without beginning, the Father has ever shared with the Son the undivided, eternal Divine nature. This "self-giving" by the Father to the Son is alluded by Jesus (John 17:1-3). 

    The Son, as the New Testament reveals, is the only-begotten Son of the Father (John 3:16). The Son in turn reciprocates this eternal love back to the Father. Indeed, the Father could not be the Father without the Son, nor could the Son be the Son without the Father. The love reciprocated between them functions as one beginningless and endless loop of the Divine nature. 

The love of the Father to the Holy Spirit through the Son, and the Holy Spirit's love for the Son and the Father.

    We then see the Holy Spirit in His role as the observer and participator in the love of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit ever proceeds from the Father through the Son (John 14:26). 

    Theologians often refer to this active relationship (as if viewing it from the Father's vantage point) as that of the Father with the Holy Spirit through the Son as eternal "spiration". "Spiration" uses the metaphorical language of the Father "outbreathing" the Holy Spirit through the Son. This "spiration" by the Father, of the Spirit, through the Son, gives us a sound exposition on what the Bible talks about when it describes God as "The Living God". 

    In viewing this relationship from the vantage point of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's relationship to the Father through the Son is described as that of being a "procession".  

    As I said already, the relational activity of the Father and Spirit is called "spiration" due to how what is portrayed is the very life of God Himself expressed by the Holy Spirit as the Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14). 

    As the Spirit relates to the Father through the Son, and the Father to Him, The Holy Spirit ever makes plain the Son, whom the Father has begotten. The Holy Spirit then reflects back to the Father and Son His joyous, eternal love (John 14:16-17, 23, 26; 15:26). The beginningless and endless loop of the Divine nature I mentioned a moment ago is shared equally by the Spirit.  

God as the Trinue God is the loving God by nature.

    When John writes "God is love" in 1 John 4:8 and 4:16, He is affirming what God is by nature and in His being as the God who acts out of what He is by nature - namely the loving God. A.W. Tozer remarks in his chapter on the love of God in his classic work, "Knowledge of the Holy",

"From God’s other known attributes we may learn much about His love. We can know, for instance, that because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense."

Tozer continues,

"His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed. Yet if we would know God and for other’s sake tell what we know, we must try to speak of His love."

How the attribute of God's love flows from who God is as the Trinity.

   God's love, we could say, flows from "what He is" by nature and "who He is" as the Three persons of the Trinity. We can never separate God's nature and Trinitarian fellowship, since each of the Persons truly are God, expressing and fully sharing in the Divine nature.

    When we talk of "God's love", we are taken to the very heart of God's Trinitarian life. The great 17th and into the 18th century Baptist theologian John Gill explains, 

"The three divine Persons in the Godhead mutually love each other; the Father loves the Son and the Spirit, the Son loves the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Father and the Son." 

    We find that as the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, there is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit eternally  participates in the giving and receiving of such love from the other two. 

    John Gill writes again, commenting on the Holy Spirit's sharing in this intra-Trinitarian love. Gill notes first of the Father's loving of the Spirit,

"The Father loves the Spirit; being the very breath of him, from whence he has his name, and proceeding from him, and possessing the same nature and essence with him (Job 33:4; Psalm 33:6; John 15:26; 1 John 5:7)."

    Gill then draws attention to the eternal reciprocation of love between the Son and the Spirit,

"The Son also loves the Spirit, since he proceeds from him, as from the Father, and is called the Spirit of the Son, (Galatians 4:6) and Christ often speaks of him with pleasure and delight, (Isaiah 48:16, 61:1; John 14:16, 17, 26, 15:26, 16:7, 13)." 

God's love is the gateway into observing the activity of the Three Persons of the Trinity. 

    We had noted in one of our earlier posts how Divine aseity (God's self-existence, self-sufficiency) is the gateway into exploring the other attributes here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-9-doctrine-of-god-gods-attribute.html. It might be said that God's love gives us a similar gateway into seeing the Persons of the Trinity in self-giving activity toward one another in their common sharing of the Divine nature. In the next post we will look at the others ways the Bible expresses God's love. 

Post # 20 The Doctrine of God - The Attribute of Divine Wrath And Its Applications

Introduction 

    In our study of God's nature and attributes, we are attempting to canvas what the Bible reveals. Some attributes might be more "likeable" than others. Nevertheless, God is not a God that we can pick and choose what we like. Each perfection expresses the fulness of His Divine nature and character - with His wrath being no different.

     Perhaps one of the most misunderstood and least mentioned doctrines in both the Christian world and world at large is the subject of God's wrath. It is little taught and preached on it in today's pulpits. Just about everyone speaks about the love of God, however to broach the subject of God's wrath spawns wrath of a different sort - the wrath of those offended by such a notion. 

    In Paul's most thorough treatment of the Gospel, the Book of Romans, the subject of God's wrath is among the first mentioned subjects.  He writes in Romans 1:18-19,

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them."

    After introducing his letter and stating the chief intent of the epistle in Romans 1:16-17 (the power of the Gospel), the reader expects Paul to then launch into an immediate unfolding of why the Gospel is so powerful.  

    Yet before arriving at the cardinal doctrines that undergird the Gospel (justification in ch 4, reconciliation in ch 5, sanctification in chs 6-7, election and assurance of salvation in chs 8-9, and the destiny of the Jewish nation and the remaining nations in God's plan in chs 10-11), we arrive at this first mile-marker of God's wrath. Why does Paul do this? The answer is found in how the Holy Spirit through Paul echoes the Biblical pattern of presenting the Gospel by first considering the wrath of God.

Defining God's wrath

    So what is God's wrath? A.W Tozer perhaps offers one of the best definitions of wrath by first of all stating what it is for,

"wrath is God's relentless affirmation of His dominion". 

    Tozer then describes wrath by what it is against, 

"God's wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys". 

    Definitions such as these are useful in correcting what is often a very negative or hostile view of wrath - namely that God is throwing some type of cosmic temper-tantrum. Many authors today conceive that God is on some type of out of control rampage against an innocent, unsuspecting people. Such a perception of God's wrath is misdirected. The words that God used in the Bible to describe His wrath against sin confirm what Godly men like Tozer have communicated about this vital subject. There are no innocent people, and God's wrath is not an out of control temper tantrum.

    I recall years ago the observation made by R.C. Sproul about the contemporary American evangelical church's scorn of God's wrath, namely "that the God of popular religion is not a holy God".  Anytime we mute any of God's perfections, we deny the God of Scripture. Twentieth century theologian A.W. Pink reminds us of the benefit of meditating upon God's wrath in our daily battle with sin,

"(T)hat our hearts may be duly impressed by God's detestation of sin. We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God's abhorrence of sin, and His frightful vengeance upon it—the more likely are we to realize its heinousness."1

Key words that are associated with "wrath" in the Bible
    

    Whenever one looks through a concordance of virtually any English translation, the word "wrath" shows up in almost 200 passages of scripture. When considered with other related subjects such as God's Jealousy, Holiness, Justice, Retribution and yes - even God's Love, the Bible makes it crystal clear that God is a God of wrath.  Theologian A.W. Pink notes in his study of God's wrath,

"A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God—than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy—He hates all sin; and because He hates all sin—His anger burns against the sinner (Psalm 7:11)."2

    It is important to realize that as God revealed His Word in the original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, He conveyed His perfection of Divine wrath. Contrary to what some may think, our English translations today accurately communicate to us God's wrath, not as a result of a spin-on-words from wild-eyed Fundamentalism of the last century, but instead of what God originally revealed to His prophets and apostles.

The most important Old Testament words translated "wrath".

    Nearly six different Hebrew roots and three major Greek roots are used to translate the word "wrath" in the Bible's original languages. For brevity's sake we will only cover two of the main words for wrath in each of the Testaments, with some observations at the end.  In both the Hebrew and Aramaic of the Old Testament we find two of the most common words for wrath that each aid the reader in understanding the concept of wrath. 

    The first main word (qa-tef) refers to the provoking of a person to anger. In human beings such wrath occurs when a person is compelled to respond in an angry manner against a perceived wrong or possible damage to one's reputation (Esther 1:18).

    For God, this word is used to describe how the sins of His people are the object of His displeasure. In Numbers 16:46, this word is used to describe the provoking of God to wrath by Israel following their rebellion against Moses and Aaron at the entryway to the Tent of Meeting.  Whenever we see this word (qat-ef), it always is in reference to a provoked wrath or an anger that arises only after an outright act of disobedience or blatant disregard for God's Holy character.

    The second Hebrew word (cha-ma) is used the most times (122) to describe wrath in the Hebrew Bible.3  Whenever the word (cha-ma) appears, the type of wrath being expressed refers to an anger that arises at the end of a process of long standing sin. This word is used to describe the type of wrath God displayed when a nation or people reaches the final stages of sin and rebellion and is used most often in prophetic texts to describe God's wrath against sinful man at the end of history in final judgment (compare Deuteronomy 29:28; Micah 5:15).

Top New Testament words translated "wrath"

    In regards to the New Testament words translated for wrath, two of the most common used Greek words describe the similar type of meanings that we find in the Old Testament. The most frequently used Greek word (or-gei) refers to an anger that is a fixed, controlled and passionate feeling against sin. Found some 36 times in the New Testament, (orgei) decribes for example the wrath God is revealing against all of sinful man right now in the general revelation of creation (Romans 1:18-20).  

    On eleven other occasions the Apostle Paul uses this word (or-gei) and the Apostle John in Revelation uses this same word five times to describe God's persistent, fixed and regulated anger against sin.  Somewhat like the Hebrew word (qa-tef), the Greek word (or-gei) is God's wrath provoked by mankind's repeated suppression of His truth and persistent disregard for His Holiness in favor of their sin.  

    The second Greek word translated wrath in the New Testament is the word (thu-mos) which is very similar to the Hebrew word (cha-ma) in regards to referring to an anger that is heated and passionate for what is right, Holy, pure and hateful of what is sinful.  When God displays (thumos), it refers to an anger that has risen gradually overtime and settles into a fixed pattern against sin. Both of these words are expressed most frequently in the books of Romans and Revelation. 

    In Romans we find the word (thumos) mentioned in the Book of Romans 2:8 in conjuction with the other word (orgei) to describe the destiny of unbelievers. In Book of Revelation we find this word (thumos) used 10 times in Revelation 14-19, indicating wrath at the end of the matured form of mankind's and Satan's rebellion.

What we learn from the above word studies on the word "wrath" in the Bible

1. The wrath of God in the Bible is revealed when sin is done by people who refuse to repent within a given time frame.  God's wrath never arises out of a vacuum but derives from concern over His absolute Holy character and the wrong done against it.

2. The people to whom God directs His wrath are not innocent, but knowingly, willingly and with a high-hand persist in ignoring His repeated warnings to forsake their sin. 

3. Wrath is a necessary component in communicating the Gospel and warning sinners of His wrath that will be executed in the judgment He will bring upon this world at Christ's second coming.

4. God's wrath is not an out-of-control anger or a sinful anger like it often can be in human beings. Wrath in God describes what He hates - namely sin and unrighteousness.  

5. If God were not the God of wrath, He could not be the God of love. Why? Because if God loved everything, He could not be the God of love, since the love of God cannot love righteousness and unrighteousness, what is holy and profane or love what is opposite of His character and yet be zealous for His name at the same time.  Theologian Wayne Grudem affirms this point: 

"Yet it is helpful for us to ask what God would be like if He were a God that did not hate sin. He would be a God who either delighted in sin or at least was not troubled by it. Such a God would not be worthy of our worship, for sin is hateful and is worthy of being hated. 

Later Grudem adds, 

"...and we rightly imitate this attribute of God when we feel hatred against great evil, injustice and sin."4

Closing thoughts about the wrath of God

    The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia describes the wrath of God in the Bible: 

"The divine wrath is to be regarded as the natural expression of the divine nature, which is absolute holiness, manifesting itself against the willful, high-handed, deliberate, inexcusable sin and iniquity of mankind. God's wrath is always regarded in the Scripture as the just, proper, and natural expression of His holiness and righteousness which must always, under all circumstances, and at all costs be maintained. It is therefore a righteous indignation and compatible with the holy and righteous nature of God."5

Endnotes:
1. https://www.monergism.com/wrath-god

2. https://www.monergism.com/wrath-god

3. http://biblehub.com/hebrew/2534.htm

4. Wayne Grudem. Systematic Theology. Zondervan. 1994. page 206 

5. http://biblehub.com/topical/w/wrath.htm